Day 2–100 Days To Becoming An Online Course Instructor
The day I chose to shift what I was seeing as possible
Day 2. I didn’t feel like a committed online course instructor when I woke up this morning. In fact, I felt quite normal.
Then it hit me. I hadn’t really thought about the actions that I wanted to take today. How could I write my Day 2 article when I had no actions planned?
The task that felt important was to start planning interviews with people in my target audience. It was also the task that I least wanted to do. I wanted to procrastinate on it.
Can’t I just email people rather than interviewing them? And where am I going find 20–30 people to interview anyway?
Time to pause and ask myself which way of being I was operating from with regard to these interviews.
Knowledge
We each operate from a way of being.
The knowledge that helped me today is:
- We each operate from a way of being in any given moment.
- Our way of being is made up of our thoughts and words, our emotions, and how we hold all of these in our body.
- The actions that we take are informed by our way of being. From each way of being, some actions are possible and some are not.
- To shift the actions that are possible, it is useful to shift our way of being. This means shifting what we are thinking and saying and/or the emotions we are operating from, and/or how we are embodying these.
How did this knowledge help me? Well, before I applied this knowledge, my tasks for today didn’t feel possible. Afterwards, they did.
What I Have Learnt
I learnt a lot about how I was viewing this challenge when I checked in with my way of being. The questions that I asked myself for the check-in were:
- What am I saying to myself about lining up these interviews?
- What emotions are present when I think about lining up these interviews?
- How are my stories and emotions about the interviews making themselves present in my body?
Ah-ha! I was telling myself that there was no point in interviewing people, that it wouldn't make any difference anyway.
The emotions that I noticed were resignation, fear and uncertainty. They were helping me to avoid a potential failure.
My body felt withdrawn.
Ah yes — welcome self-sabotage, my old friend. Sorry, I don’t have time to invite you in today. I have things to achieve.
Knowing what I was thinking and feeling made it easier for me to deliberately choose what to do next. I took a deep breath, lifted my shoulders up and back, and widened my torso. I remembered yesterday’s declaration that curiosity, enthusiasm and wonder would be helpful and I tried shifting to those emotions. Then I asked myself a question:
What is the smallest possible step that I can take right now?
That’s how I found myself writing a list of people in my target audience. Within 10 minutes, I had a list of 22 people in my target audience.
My biggest learning from today was that if something seems impossible, it might be useful to check in on my way of being, to see what would help me to create possibility.
Progress
On Day Two, I have achieved the following:
- Created a list of people in my target audience who I can approach for an interview.
- Interviewed one person to discover what they would expect from a course about navigating emotions.
- Talked to another person (and emailed them a follow-up request) about the possibility of interviewing them.
2/2/100 (Days on track / Days gone / 100) So far, I am on track.
Take Me To The Previous Day or The Next Day