Caroline Cavanagh talks about her struggle with planning and fear of failure. A friend told her poor planning leads to poor performance. She's learning to see feedback as support for growth, not criticism.
Chapters
Hi there, my name's Caroline Cavanagh and there's 2 things that I want to talk to you today about. There's normally 3, but hey, it's Friday afternoon, I think 2's about my limits and probably yours too. So the first one is about planning. Now, I'm not really a big advocate of planning, but I'm working with a coach at the moment and he has been on my back. I've been resisting as much as he pushes, And one of the things that I committed to do in the last planning cycle was to do a live video. Hi Tracy, lovely to see you. Was to do a live video once a week. So here we are, end of play on a Friday afternoon, and I am screaming in there because one of the things I think we all hate doing is failing. I've made that commitment to him to do the video and I don't want to fail. But it's Friday afternoon because I didn't plan it in my schedule. And ironically, I was sitting with a friend of mine today and I was having a whinge about all this planning thing, didn't want to do it, and she just turned around to me and said, Caroline, piss-poor planning leads to piss-poor performance. Okay, that kind of hit home. So I came back and Knowing that I'd left it to the last minute to do this video, I planned what I was going to talk about. I've never ever done that before. What I normally do is just hit live and go, ah, what am I going to talk about now? So I have actually planned this out. So please let me know if by planning out what I was going to say actually makes this video better for you, because it is all about doing something that helps you, because we all kind of need a bit of help at the moment, don't we? And I'd love to kind of go against what Churchill says as well, that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So that leads me really nicely on to number 2, fear of failure. We all have it, don't we? And the fear of failure is often very, very closely aligned— Fran, you must— your ears are burning! So I've just been talking about having a beautiful coffee with you again today. I know! Hey! But yeah, back to that fear of failure. It's normally related to a fear of being judged by other people. Now, something that I've done several times recently is make myself feel really vulnerable in front of people, one of them being this coach. Now, this coach is a 38-year-old, really good-looking bloke, and And I found myself talking to him about things I never normally talk to people about. And it's something that has been said about me by several people. It's like, Caroline, we never really feel that we see 100% of you. There's always a little bit that's kept behind. And the lovely Fran today, bless her, and I really value what she said, is that, Caroline, when you're talking to camera, just be you. Don't try and act, just be you. Smile more. Is that okay? Is that quick? Sorry. Hey, hearts! Whoa! And, you know, I just thought, yeah, this is me. And so being vulnerable allows you to grow because it's not about taking feedback as failure, it's about knowing that there's love behind it and those people want you to grow. And the reality is, I want to grow. I choose it to see, choose to see it as an opportunity. So here I am. This is me. Makeup from what I slapped on at eight o'clock this morning. I have planned what I wanted to say. There are notes here, I promise you. And I'd love to be able to do these videos better. So I'm going to ask you. I'm going to make myself vulnerable right now. Please tell me. Put in the comments box below this video after you've watched it. Did it work for you? Have you learnt anything? Is there any value? What can I do better so that by planning I don't fail? Over and out for now. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
