You know what would be a great new year’s resolution? Lower your bar. You heard me: lower it. I know it sounds counterintuitive. We are always aiming to raise the bar, right? I got the inspiration to set this as a goal for this year from Revlie. I combined the wisdom she shares in her podcast with learnings from my mother. Let us start with Revlie first.
I take morning walks. It helps me to clear my mind, think more creatively and generate ideas. I sometimes look for inspiration in podcasts while walking. One day I came across a podcast titled “Revlie en De Loslaat Club” (Revlie and the club of letting go). She starts her podcast explaining that it is a good thing to lower the bar. Lower and lower… until you can put some wheels under the bar and skateboard away on it. Haha! Maybe in a cool way like the dude in my illustration.
Which is, by the way, an example of lowering the bar in the way I think Revlie explains it. I had a pretty high bar when it comes to creating illustrations. If I had kept it where it was before listening to her podcast, I would never created it. Let alone used it in an article and publish it. Pretty neat huh?
Off to the second source of inspiration. My mother was an awesome woman who successfuly ran her own business. Sadly, she died way to young at the age of 56. She would often say: “My secret is that I am lazy.” What that meant was that she would let me – within safe boundaries – find things out on my own. She would trust me to come to her if I needed her. For me, that worked really well and it gave me confidence. This is a drawing I made of us from a picture when I was a little girl.
So why is it a good idea to lower the bar and get lazy? Well, it can take away barriers that come with perfectionism. It can help to create that viable product that you are going to show to the world. And it can help you to focus on what you need to own and let others own their piece. Stop hovering, stop taking over, being a comfort blanket, taking away responsibility. Stop being an overall pain that thinks they’re better and making others insecure. It can help to take the pressure off and get those creative juices flowing. For me it meant I was able to start my website and publish this article.
It is also a way to be a better leader: by letting go more you create space for others to shine. Which I think is fundamental to building an improvement culture. I will share more about that in the coming weeks. In the meantime, watch this video to get a first impression: even cool marine guys let go
I would like to ask you: take a walk (or whatever you do to take time and think) and consider the concept of lowering the bar. Let me know what happened when you did. I would love to hear from you.
Please drop your story in the comments section, or email me on: tinekevanderkwaak@theoutwardlook.com.
Thank you for reading!