risk management

AMA with Nate Soares. Wednesday 2/4 at 10am CT

Author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies answers questions about why superhuman AI would kill us all.

AMA with Nate Soares. Wednesday 2/4 at 10am CT

Author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies answers questions about why superhuman AI would kill us all.

AMA with Nate Soares. Wednesday 2/4 at 10am CT

Author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies answers questions about why superhuman AI would kill us all.

Only looking at roadblocks is self-defeating. I feel like friends including some here have been gesturing at this to me for years but I got it on a deeper level today in therapy.

I was talking about how unhappy I am about my work lately.

Therapist suggested what would be my ideal work like instead? And so I envisioned it but then immediately started thinking about the roadblocks to getting there.

But only focusing on the roadblocks is focusing only on the negative and where we put our attention only grows. Rather, I could also include more of what’s drawing me and how great it’d be. Ideally some combo of both.

A distinction between want (etymology linked to lacking) vs desire (await what the stars will bring)

What if everything was low stakes? I’ve been learning to rope flow for several weeks. It’s a challenge to learn new movements and coordinate my body but it’s fun. I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself to do it. What’s amazing is that I can spend time practicing, take a break from it for a few days, and then come back to it with more mastery than before the break.

The way I’ve approached learning rope flow has changed my experience of learning to dance the Argentine Tango. In the past, I would put a lot of pressure on myself to get it right. In my mind, the stakes were higher because I was dancing with others and I believed that getting it right would prevent being judged as a bad dancer. The problem was that no matter how hard I worked at it, it was never right enough and I wasn’t having any fun.

Then I realized that learning Tango can be like how I’m learning rope flow. Be easy on myself. No pressure to get it right. I’m just learning skills. Since this shift, I’ve been having more fun learning and dancing. And, I’m getting better faster.

So this got me thinking about how I’ve been approaching my coaching business. I’ve been putting a ton of pressure on myself to get it right because the stakes appear even higher. I need to earn money, pay bills, etc. But honestly, it has felt like a chore, I’m not having much fun, and it doesn’t feel like there’s much traction.

Does this actually have higher stakes? Perhaps I’ve merely assigned it as so.

I start to wonder what’s possible if I approach growing my coaching business with the same low-stakes attitude as I have with learning rope flow or Tango.