Welcome to another edition of Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories with Bonnie Jean.
I couldn’t wait to be old enough to go to high school for one reason: sports.
My older sisters all played high school sports, and I was jealous of the fact that they got to practice or play a game every single day after school. So when it was finally my turn to be in high school and play high school sports, I was going to take advantage of it by playing at least one sport all year long.
In the fall of my freshman year, I started with a sport I had never played before: volleyball.
I had to try out for the team before school even started. Even though I had no idea how to play the game, I made the junior varsity team that year. I was so excited. I loved being part of a team and working hard every day in practice.
But the problem I had was that I worked a little too hard at not making any mistakes.
I thought that if the coach saw me make lots of bad passes or hit lots of balls out of bounds, I wouldn’t be able to play in any of the matches and would have to sit the bench all season.
So I practiced with caution. I wouldn’t hit the ball as hard as I could because I was afraid of hitting it too hard and messing up. Or I would hesitate when the ball came near me because I was afraid that if I called the ball, I might miss it or make a bad pass.
By not hitting as hard as I could, I never learned to control my power. And by not going all out and being aggressive as a passer or setter, I never learned what I could and could not get to or how to make good passes in tough situations.
In other words, I didn’t let myself make enough mistakes in practices to ever be great in games. I never became a great athlete because I never let myself be a really bad athlete first.
That’s why any time I try something new today, I make as many mistakes as I can as fast as I can. By letting myself mess up, I don’t have to worry about being perfect. I’m allowed to make mistakes so I can learn how to fix them and not make those same mistakes again.
It’ll work for you, too.
When you try something new, make as many mistakes as you can as fast as you can. You’ll be amazed at how fast you learn new skills and how much faster you gain confidence in your ability to succeed.
To Your Dreams,
Bonnie Jean
P.S. Please don’t wait as long as I did to find your unshakable confidence! No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts, which includes the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. To claim your FREE gifts, visit TheDreamDoers.com now.
