I’ll never forget the end of staff training at Camp Nor’wester in the San Juan Islands. After two weeks of learning how to work with children (the first time for some people) director Paul Hendrickson summed it up nicely. “Some of you are probably thinking ‘I can’t remember all the information I’ve been given and I in no way feel qualified to work with people’s children, the most precious thing in their lives’ My advice to you is, fake it till you make it.” Everyone of course laughed at this point. He went on, “But really, if you are in a situation and you feel like you don’t know what to do, pretend that you do and follow through. After a little bit, you’ll find that you’re actually doing it. You are going to make mistakes, you are going to learn. Fake it till you make it.”
When dealing with children or anything with high stakes, there is always this feeling that there is no room for failure. While it’s good to do well in such important matters, there’s no getting around the fact that practice makes better. The important thing seems to be to not freeze up from intimidation at the possibility of failing at an important task. Often, freezing produces worse results than incorrect action, and with incorrect action there comes practice and perspective.
This is a skill to practice in itself, the ability to move forward with action despite unconfidence, intimidation, and/or indecision. For myself I also sometimes think “A bad choice is better than no choice”
Fake it till you make it.
On a side note, I actually started this post pretending that I had the inspiration to write one…
What are some experiences you’ve had with this?