Trading in Enthusiasm or Anxiety

Which do you trade in?

Let’s find out:

If you work alongside people who get you precisely what you want because they fear the reprimands of getting it wrong, you’re trading in anxiety.

If you work alongside people who make things that are greater than you imagined, you may be trading in enthusiasm.

It takes guts to do better, to raise the bar, to elevate your work. It might not work. It could backfire. It’s a step into the unknown. But it’s a goal achievable only while trading in enthusiasm.

The alternative – trading in anxiety – makes it too risky to try to do better. The benefits of doing better won’t overwhelm the costs associated with (even being perceived as) being wrong. The work doesn’t get better. Better becomes somebody else’s problem.

We get to choose what we trade. And we get to change course anytime we like.