The world needs more cheerleaders!! :) The Oilers are on to something!

I was listening to the radio today and they were talking about how although we try to encourage people to do more work/be more creative/work harder by offering rewards, it has been proven (through 40 years of research apparently :)) not to work. Humans are interesting creatures; we aren't solely motivated by 'rewards', but get excited about seeing progress and are encouraged by the opportunity to be creative. :) They talked about finding ways to make even tasks that seem repetitive an opportunity to think outside of the box.

This got me thinking about how wonderful it would be if everyone felt empowered. Can you imagine how incredible the world would be? How many problems could be solved by this explosion in human brilliance? What would it take to give everyone feelings of confidence...to feel inspired to wake up and share their gifts with the world? Instead of waking up worried that they aren't good enough, that they will make mistakes, that their wrists will be slapped. In a future post I will share with you another Margaret Wheatley quote about power, control and progress. :)

I know all too well what it's like to question your abilities, your skills, yourself. Feelings of inadequacy and uselessness are never fun emotions, and I'd be lying if I said I never experienced them. I'm very lucky though, to be surrounded by cheerleaders who give me little 'pick me ups' when I need them the most. I worry about the people who aren't as lucky. When life hurts, we all need to be surrounded by a blanket of support...to help us feel like we're capable once again.

I realize as I read this over that I'm combining a few unique topics. You're probably thinking - there's a difference between feeling inadequate and being inspired in your work. And there is. I agree, but I argue that in order to be inspired with what you are doing, you need to have a certain baseline of feelings of potential. You need to have the confidence that either you have the skills or with training, reading, practice you will gain the skills needed to be successful. Without those feelings of potential, you lose hope and without hope, why would you try?

That's what I think we need -- little angels to go around every night whispering in peoples ears that they have potential.