Don’t Give Up

What’s the point❓ Who am I kidding❓ I am rubbish at this❗️

I had a disappointing day on Saturday. Not directly work related (or is it?) but with my white-water paddling skills. I was on faster water than I’ve been on for some time but on a course that I’ve done before. 

The first challenging bit, I hit a rock, survived that, then took a wrong line and didn’t paddle hard enough. I swam quite a way – smacked my elbow – realised I’d forgotten my elbow pads (poor admin skills) and lost confidence.

Second run on the same section – for some inexplicable reason, heading to a retentive fall, I stopped paddling got held in and flipped out again. Lots of swearing and shouting at my boat and myself, whilst my paddle partner offered encouragement in-between telling me what a great day he was having (he is a #veteran as well – with #military humour – he’s not funny).  

Then I got it together and paddled twice more and confidence grew. Which then disappeared on the next section. A flip over near the bank, so an easy get out but annoying as it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Then a longer swim over many rocks and falls. I am not sure what flipped me out.  At least I emerged unscathed.

I decided to call it a day on that section and have a go at a big drop further down, which I’ve done successfully loads of times (see photo). Hurrah – Success! Then on the 2nd run, 2 paddlers chasing a flipped-up kayak, forced me onto the line I didn’t want to take……aah damn I’ve swam again. I did the drop once more, cracked it but decided to retire for tea and no medals.

So why mention this on LinkedIn? Sometimes, methinks, imposter syndrome and lack of confidence, feelings of ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I can’t do this’, ‘just bin it’, affects us all.  From time to time, I have felt this way, in a work context. So reflecting on my disappointing Saturday, I went back to what has made me more resilient in my working life.

1️⃣  Remind yourself of why you started.

2️⃣  Reflect on your original goal. Has that changed? Have you unconsciously expanded what you want to achieve.

3️⃣  Related to 2 – reflect on how far you’ve come.

4️⃣  You’re not the only one to have self-doubt – get over yourself!

5️⃣  Success is tough and failure is important to learn from.

6️⃣  Don’t give up and regret what might have been.

7️⃣  Hard work is never wasted – effort pays off.

So tomorrow, I head off on a white water canoe course in Scotland, determined to give my best and reflect on small steps improvement each time I swim! Swimming is not failure, it’s part of the learning process.

➡️ “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time” ⬅️

– Thomas Edison

What do you do when you feel like giving up?