On April 5, 1997 Edwin Brenegar III wrote...
"My initial faith-filled trust as a 17 year old would not be sufficient
today. I learned to trust, by learning to live by faith. That is a
loaded statement in our American relgious culture, and I mean it to be the
antithesis of the superficial, self-aggrandized form of faith which is
often seen in the media. "
After this you described writing a proposal for a highly important job for
which you feared your capabilities to actually handle the job.
I have had similar experiences, but the latest one has the most relevance
to this LO discussion. I recently completed a consulting job which landed
on my lap in a sense through word of mouth. At first I didn't think I
should take it due to my already hectic and busy schdule. Besides, I
didn't know whether I had the skills to do the top-notch work I require of
myself.
Call it faith, but I decided this could be one of the better learning
experiences I have had in a while. I interviewed and received the
assignment. The time for the project was compressed and at times the pace
was quite hectic. But in the end, I did indeed learn a lot and have placed
myself in a position to continue building on these experiences for more
challenging and even more exciting assignments.
In retrospect, the thing that struck me about this experience was could I
really call this faith in my abilities or a blind trust in my capacity to
learn enough to handle the necessary tasks? At times I felt very stressed.
I would call that the "blind trust" feeling since stress usually came out
of feelings of self-doubt, regret, etc... and other erlated anti-learning
emotions and feelings. At other times, I felt quite elated in my
experiences as I came to new understandings of myself and the subject
matter. I would call that the "faith" phase.
Any thoughts...?
-- Duru Ahanotu iqduru@leland.stanford.eduLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>