Being Comfortable with Discomfort
Since January I’ve been writing the Navigating Challenging Dialogue® book. This book is a culmination of my life’s work. To say that the contents are dear to my heart and a product of my soul, is putting it mildly. So when I realized that the draft version was ready to the point that it needed to go out for feedback from a select group of readers, I felt a bit of resistance.
You are probably thinking, “Wait a minute Beth, you wrote a book on feedback and you’ve taught hundreds of people how to become more comfortable with feedback,and now you are resisting feedback? What gives?”
Well, I’m human. Just like anyone else. Putting myself out there for feedback is uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the more comfortable it becomes. For example, when I wrote “Mastering Feedback - Everything you’ve never been told how to give feedback”, I was on the fence about sending it out for feedback before the final draft went to publication.
Afterall, I’d worked hard, getting up every morning at 5 a.m. to write before my work day began. Doing rewrites and getting the message as clear and concise as I could. I was happy with the draft and now I was going to invite 10 people, some I barely knew, to give me their opinion of what I was happy with.
But my team won that debate, and off it went. And you know what? They were 100% right.
The feedback we received made that book a better, more useful product for the readers. And my ego withstood every bit of it. I was not crushed in the ways I feared.
And now here I am again feeling a little uncomfortable. But this time, I didn’t wait for my team to push me, I initiated getting the feedback. And I know this amazing, valuable, and timely book will be even more beneficial to readers because I’ve invited others to show me what I may not be able to see myself.
Where in your life might you be able to improve, grow, or develop by inviting others to share what they notice that you just can’t see?
Yes, receiving feedback can be a bit uncomfortable, but it is also an amazing gift.
Beth