Lessons Learned
45 minutes. That’s how long I waited at the table by myself. The first hour of my first book festival was pretty painful. I sat there smiling, wondering if I would spend the next four hours talking to myself. As I sat there I thought about how my presence here was teaching me something. In the business world we call this "lesson learned." It can range from a very formal series of activities to a not-very-formal chat about what went wrong and what went right. It's something necessary for improvement that I could probably write a lot about, but what I want to focus on this week is what you need to do to be able to even have a "lessons learned."
You need to show up…
Showing up means you did the research..
You entered yourself into the pool…
You made yourself eligible to be selected…
You did the leg work to make the lessons learned even possible.
In short, you tried.
After participating in my first ever book festival I have some things I learned; I'm going to buy a few stands so my books stand up straight; I'm going to add some tissues to my hand sanitizer and mints because it's a nice courtesy; I'm going to make a sign that says "Self-Help yourself to some mints" because it's hilarious. All these things I learned because I gave myself the chance to learn them.
Sitting there for 45 minutes was not great. I wanted to leave. I sat there doubting myself and questioning whether or not I deserved to be among all these other great authors. My imposter syndrome was howling pretty loud but I sat through it because I know that the greatest moments in life are preceded by the most uncomfortable.
Great achievement comes from great lessons learned which comes from showing up and sitting in the uncomfortable.
Many people I talked to this weekend were on their way to achieving something; they were on the verge of something great but were stuck in that uncomfortable waiting place. The waiting place is a terrible place to be but if we can bear it long enough we may find exactly what we're hoping for. If that's you, hang in there friend. The 45 minutes is painful, but what's around the corner is everything you hoped for.
