Yesterday (Thursday, July 7, 2022) I had scheduled a FB live conversation with Angela Maiers on Mattering, Mindshifting, and the power within every person to positively affect our own lives and the lives of others.
There are certain people we all look up to. For me, Angela is one of those people, and I was eagerly anticipating the opportunity to discuss how MIndshifting and Mattering blend into each other to transform anxiety and fear into joyful energy. We can all use a little more joyful energy in our lives. Right?
Preparing for success
I’d set up the FB Live event with Angela as the Cohost. I’d posted in social media. I’d sent out an email and a reminder mailing.
I started the event on time, and then …
I couldn’t get Angela on stage.
There were about 25 people watching, many more who were interested and would want to watch the archives. And nothing was working.
Yes, I look confused, dazzled, and anxious, right?
What are the normal human reactions? How would you react if you’d set this up and it was completely bombing?
- Self Blame? I should have tested everything out, we should have had a test run during the week. I’m such an idiot.
- Anger? What was Angela doing wrong? What was I doing wrong? Why didn’t FB make their instructions clearer? What was wrong with me that I couldn’t see how to bring her on stage?
- Panic? Fear? What would people think? Didn’t this confirm my incompetence? Wouldn’t everyone see what a sham I am? No one would ever want to listen to me again.
We all have had these reactions, right? This is the default mode for our limbic minds. I felt all of these, and more.
Mindshifting: Switching Mindset,
And that’s also the beauty of Mindshifting and Mattering.
If you are aware of how your mind works, you can modify your first emotional reactions, and the more you practice, the better at this you can become.
I calmed myself with the following, taken directly from Angela’s Mattering framework:
We are all perfectly imperfect beings. We are all deserving of love, peace, and joy. We all make a difference in others’ lives. Whatever we are going through, we can turn into gifts, lessons, and opportunities.
Shifting the mind to these frames calms our survival brains and activates our resourceful sage powers.
Not every obstacle can be avoided. Not every eventuality can be prepared for. This was one 15-minute interval with a different result than anticipated, but we can, and somehow always do, come back; and when we do we feel triumphantly exultant.
Which mindset is more enjoyable and helpful?
How helpful would it be if we, or our students, could learn to exit from a fear and blame mindset into one of possibilities, exploration, and innovation?
The goal of the Mindshifting Course is for all of us to learn to switch into resourceful collaborative playful mode. You can get an overview in this 15 minute interview. You can dive deep, and also learn how to teach these techniques to others, in the full course starting July 12.
What was the gift?
We learned that what FB calls a “cohost” is merely someone who can invite others, not someone who will also appear on stage. To do a FB Live event with multiple speakers, you need a web-platform such as Zoom or Streamyard.
And we both had the additional opportunity to exercise our abilities to Mindshift, draw on the calming effects of Mattering, and strengthen our love and respect for each other. Those were the gifts.
Angela and I both have punishing schedules over the next few weeks. We will have to postpone our FB live conversation to the end of July or possibly August. But when we do host it, we won't be making the same mistakes. We'll have to invent new ones.