Failure. No one wants to admit it. We are bad with money, or food, or whatever. We screw up, we mess up. This is our own personal pain, because everyone else must totally have their crap together right?
They don't. No one does. Darn it, I wish it were true.
In CBT, you don't fix your issues, but work on accepting that you will always have issues.
Mind. Blown.
I went to therapy to get fixed. I want to be confident in myself, have way less FOMO, trust more, be less dependent on what others think, etc.
Guess what, ain't gonna happen. My job is to understand that we all have stuff we are working on, and to accept that I have flaws and always will. It is like Whack-A-Mole. Hit one issue or problem down, another comes up. I thought I was supposed to learn how to keep all of them down.
Yet when we admit our failures, or weaknesses, our losses, we become more human. Our honesty earns respect. We all have them, so when we share them, we are connecting ourselves more deeply to others. (When you are done reading this blog, read this and you will understand the power of sharing your shame.)
Your nonprofit is the same. Admitting what's wrong, saying where you failed, is the bravest thing you can do. And in being brave, you are going to get the attention you want and the loyalty of your supporters that you crave.
What if you produced an annual report about all the ways you screwed up? Engineers Without Borders did this, and it is so cool. It is different and bold. And I love them for it. Because what happens when we fail? We learn. And we do it better the next time. By telling stories of our failures, we are showing donors we are always learning to do it better. That is a story worth sharing.
No comments:
Post a Comment