A fellow CareerHMO.com member (Thanks, Lori!) sent me an adorable link last week during Hurricane Irene. It shows 5-year-old, Jane Haubrich reporting on the storm. Watch these super short video clips of her in action and listen to her account of the storm:
iReporter - Jane Haubrich
As I watched these, I couldn’t help but think,
“Look at that blind confidence. It’s absolutely infectious!” You find yourself smiling and rooting for Jane as she shares how the storm is affecting her. You don’t care if she makes mistakes or if the reporting is a little "light" in comparison to The Weather Channel. Why? Because you are watching the purity of passion.
News Flash: Passion Trumps Perfection Every Time
We can all learn something from Jane. She hasn’t succumbed to the “Perfection Obsession” that takes over us adults. Her desire to report on the storm made her fearless. Question: Why, as we grow up, do we become obsessed with being right? Why do we slowly develop a fear of failing that is so strong, we literally stunt our ability to experience, learn and grow? Thank goodness Jane isn’t there yet, or she probably wouldn’t have dared to make those videos. She’d be too worried about what people thought to allow herself to try something and learn from it. And now, she’s that much closer to become a superstar weather reporter for it.
Experiments Never Fail
The difference between us and Jane is she "experimented" with being a reporter. She never saw it as a succeed or fail situation. Imagine what you could do if you stopped worrying about failing and allowed yourself to experiment in your career. Maybe you would:
- Send that LinkedIn invite to the person you’ve always wanted to meet, but assumed they wouldn’t respond to you.
- Pick up a phone and call the HR department of a company you want to work for to find out how to set up an informational interview.
- Set that meeting with a C-level executive at your company you admire and ask her/him to be your mentor.
- Sign-up for a night class to learn a new skill you’ve always wanted to acquire but were embarrassed to tell people you were interested in pursuing.
Whatever it is, the good news is as long as you look at it as an experiment, you literally cannot fail!
Jane Has Cool Parents - You’ve Got Me
We have to assume Jane has parents who encourage her and coached her on this. Well good news - you’ve got me!
Is there something in your career you’ve secretly always wanted to do but are afraid to tell anyone? If you're a
CareerHMO.com member, you’ve got a confidential supporter of your dream. Send me your passion and lets talk through how we can make it a reality. We may not be able to make you the next superstar, but often times, there are other things we can do professionally that would give us the same happiness. The one thing I can tell you is if you don’t at least try, you’ll never know what could be.
Yes, it’s time to find your inner 5-year-old and pursue the dream. Along the way, it could change, but you’ll have fun trying. And isn’t that what it’s really all about? We only get one life. Let’s take a page from Jane’s playbook and have some fun!
J.T. O’Donnell is the founder of CAREEREALISM.com and CEO of CareerHMO.com, a web-based career development company.Image from ostill/Shutterstock
A fellow CareerHMO.com member (Thanks, Lori!) sent me an adorable link last week during Hurricane Irene. It shows 5-year-old, Jane Haubrich reporting on the storm. Watch these super short video clips of her in action and listen to her account of the storm:
iReporter - Jane Haubrich
As I watched these, I couldn’t help but think, “Look at that blind confidence. It’s absolutely infectious!” You find yourself smiling and rooting for Jane as she shares how the storm is affecting her. You don’t care if she makes mistakes or if the reporting is a little "light" in comparison to The Weather Channel. Why? Because you are watching the purity of passion.
News Flash: Passion Trumps Perfection Every Time
We can all learn something from Jane. She hasn’t succumbed to the “Perfection Obsession” that takes over us adults. Her desire to report on the storm made her fearless. Question: Why, as we grow up, do we become obsessed with being right? Why do we slowly develop a fear of failing that is so strong, we literally stunt our ability to experience, learn and grow? Thank goodness Jane isn’t there yet, or she probably wouldn’t have dared to make those videos. She’d be too worried about what people thought to allow herself to try something and learn from it. And now, she’s that much closer to become a superstar weather reporter for it.
Experiments Never Fail
The difference between us and Jane is she "experimented" with being a reporter. She never saw it as a succeed or fail situation. Imagine what you could do if you stopped worrying about failing and allowed yourself to experiment in your career. Maybe you would:
