September 22, 2013 | Posted in: Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully

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All leaders go through testing phases. Facing tests builds your confidence, strengthens your self- image and shores up your anxiety about what you can face and how you can get through it. When you’re comfortable as a leader and living in your comfort zone, you may be comfy, but are you testing the waters outsize that zone? Are you stretching and growing your knowledge, skills, abilities, compassion and passion for situations, people and things to expand your horizons?

What are you doing to regularly test the waters outside your comfort zone? I believe leaders and non-leaders (but we really are all leaders in one way or another, whether the name plaque on our desk or door says so or not….we’re leading our lives, leading our families and leading friends or sports teams, eh?) need to continually bring themselves to a point of having Beginner Brain. Putting yourself in situations where you’re not the expert, where you don’t know all the answers, where you are challenging your mind and body to do things that may be unfamiliar to you is a way to grow your dendrites and make more neuro-connectors to expand your self-esteem, and bring you back to a place where you don’t know it all and need to rely on your problem-solving skills. I believe in putting yourself into positions which aren’t so easy to figure out.

Beginner Brain can be exciting and exhilarating – putting you back to times when you were much younger and just exploring the world and figuring things out. It’s when you can claim those AHA experiences of having just succeeded over a task or reclaim the joy of discovery when something worked even when you weren’t sure it would. What kinds of things can you experience, new hobbies and adventures to try, new trails to blaze that will put you a little closer to the edge of discovery and test your abilities?

As one who lives for new discoveries, adventure and AHA moments; I recently embarked on a boating odyssey with my best friend to be a part of the 200th anniversary reenactment of the war of 1812 Battle of Lake Erie with 1000 other boats and 19 tall ships. Being amidst the mayhem of 1000 boats with northerly winds whipping up the water of Lake Erie into swells up to 7 feet was something I hadn’t ever experienced. Seeing the tall ships maneuvering and listening to their captains on the radio adapt to all the small craft as they made their way to the reenactment site was stirring. Feeling a little out of control as we were tossed in the waves and wakes of the bedlam was a little disconcerting. Hearing the clash and clang and thuds of every item in the salon being thrown about in the fray was unexpected. Not being the one at the wheel and having trust in my captain and taking orders to keep us safe was yet another level of lessons learned.

Being a life-long boater; I’ve had many experiences in all kinds of water around the world. Having sailed the Greek Islands in a 24? sailboat, helped crew a 100-year-old 65? schooner in the North Sea, captained a 50? yacht through the canals of Provence, was a winch wench for years in sailing races on the Potomac and off the California coast, and on a retired America’s Cup boat in the Caribbean as well as growing up with ski boats on the inland lakes of the Midwest; I knew my way around vessels from bow to stern. I had never been amidst the chaos of so many other crazy boaters and on a 20-ton tugboat. It seems to be the other human elements that trip us up now and again. Being in an unfamiliar vessel added to the learning curve. We ended up anchoring 7 times that night due to wind, water and sea-bed conditions and dragging anchor to ram into another boat at 1am.

My Beginner Brain was moving steadily towards advanced beginner by the time the weekend was over. We also tested the waters in a newly-purchased dinghy and it was like Lucy and Ethel do anchoring and dinghy patrol. In the end we ended up losing only a flip flop, a toenail and lots of sleep….and maybe a little ego. Beginner Brain puts you right back at the start of figuring things out and pulling together out of necessity and really engaging parts of your brain that may have been dormant for a while when you’re an accomplished professional.

It was an exhausting, exhilarating and exciting weekend. Experiencing what Steven Covey in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People calls Sharpening the Saw is highly recommended to stay sharp and keep your edge in business and in life. What are you doing to sharpen your saw, get back to Beginner’s Brain and test the waters outside your comfort zone?