Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Many Thanks!

I'm so grateful for an email I received today! Actually, I'm always grateful to receive emails with the subject line "Re: Woodsong Reading" -- I really enjoy reading your feedback. Many folks send helpful tips and thoughts -- I guess because of my rambling before each reading when I discuss issues or problems I'm facing, people send encouragement and helpful perspectives.

Today I received an email discussing today's Esbat (full moon). It offered things to consider during this event -- in particular, it mentioned developing courage and learning. Well, this afternoon I had to do a presentation on a new product. This was going to be the first time I had ever done (or even seen) this presentation and I was pretty nervous. After I read this email, I realized I was missing a little bit of courage and wasn't really treating this event as a learning experience. My presentation didn't have to be perfect today -- I just had to present the information in a meaningful manner, but I also had to "learn" while I was doing it. My goal didn't have to be to "present a perfect presentation", my goal became "I want to learn enough to present a better presentation next time". This took a lot of the pressure off -- because it made me realize that there's always an evolutionary process as you become more experienced with a project.