"Second chances are not given to make things right. But are given to prove we could be better even after we fall." -Anonymous
When given a second chance to perform, do we take advantage of it?
Second chances do not come around very often. Many times when we are pushing ourselves and putting it on the line, we get one shot to get it right. We train, practice, and recover to put ourselves in a position to be successful. Whether this is a sales pitch, a job interview, a competition, or a tough conversation, we all want to knock it out of the park in that moment.
But... when we don't perform the way we know we can, how do we handle the fallout?
We can get caught up and distracted by how the first opportunity went. We can beat ourselves up that we didn't perform as we had expected. We can ruminate on thoughts of doubt, insecurity, and not being good enough. It can make it incredibly tough to put ourselves back into the fire. We may develop the belief that if we didn't perform well in that moment, we should not expect something different in the next moment.
Whether the first performance goes the way we want or not, what do we do with the next opportunity?
First, we can take a moment to analyze and assess the first opportunity. We can consider areas such as our strategy and game plan, our energy going into and during the moment, our attention and ability to focus on what is important, and the areas we excelled in. Take a curious approach and a learner's mindset in this first step. If we can objectively evaluate rather than judge and beat ourselves up, we'll be in a better position to learn from the moment.
Second, we can establish how we want to be in the next opportunity. This is where we set our mind and intentionally plan the energy, emotions, thoughts, confidence, and where we want our attention to be. We don't have to concern ourselves with outcomes. The outcome will take care of itself if we can control what we can control. Specifically identify how you want to be in the moment, and then, create a plan for how to influence the controllable factors.
Finally, trust our training and let it rip. So often, we perform in a way that makes us feel small, constricted, and overly focused on messing up or losing. When we perform from this perspective, it does not allow us to access all of the training and preparation we put in. When we perform from a place of confidence and trust in what we have done all we can leading up to the moment, then we can let it rip and allow the outcome to take care of itself.
The next time we have a second chance, take full advantage of the opportunity by implementing these three strategies!
