Good Life Project - Capabilities Speak Louder Than Qualifications

Episode Date: December 16, 2015

Have you ever done something because you thought it would look good on your resume? Studied at a particular school or with a particular person?What if, instead of trying to pile on credentials from esteemed people and institutions in the name of building a resume, you based your choices on what would let you increase your capabilities, your ability to make a difference, with the greatest speed and depth?Sure, sometimes you can do both, but often times, we get lost in the quest to amass qualifications and forget the end game is not to have a "seemingly" glossy resume, but to cultivate the ability to leave others changed. To make a dent in the universe.That's what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So a number of years back, I actually owned a yoga center in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. And it was a pretty awesome time. For the early days, we actually ended up building our own in-house teacher training and certification program. One of the reasons we did that was because we would put out signs. You know, we'd kind of like say, okay, we're looking to hire teachers. We're growing quickly. We want to serve our community. And we would get tons of resumes.

You know, all these people would come in and they'd have their resume. And the resumes, especially in the yoga world, it's always kind of funny. They're sort of like grateful recitations of grandiosity. And what I mean by that is that they would sort of list all of the well-known high-profile teachers that you've studied with. And then there was always, you know, I'm grateful to have studied with and thankful.

But still what they were was always, you know, I'm grateful to have studied with and thankful. But still, what they were was fundamentally, I've studied with all of these really big people, famous teachers. And because of that, I've studied with the best. Therefore, I am good. I'm worthy. I'm ready to come in and teach for your community. And in the beginning, I was like, oh, great. We're getting all these great people who studied with all these great people. And then an interesting thing started

happening, and it became a pattern, which is that somebody would come in saying, you know, I've studied under and interned with, and you know, these three phenomenal people for years. And then our standard process was always, okay, it's great. It looks like you've been really well-trained because these are great people. And part of our process was always come and either teach a demo class or just teach me or one of our senior managers for 15, 20 minutes so we can understand your energy in the room, your vibe, your knowledge of body and anatomy and traditional yogic ideas also. And what I started to notice was that so often there was a complete disconnect between what somebody's skills and abilities were in a room teaching to other people contrasted with the list of well-known and extraordinary teachers they had

studied with. And it became really apparent to me that the thing that mattered most to me was not how long you'd been teaching, it was not where you'd been teaching, it was not who you studied with, the thing that mattered to me was, can you make a powerful difference in the day of the lives of the people who are showing up in our community, looking for something in a meaningful way, safely, and let them start from point A and leave them in point B. And what I found was that there was almost no connection between who you studied with, how long you'd been teaching, where you'd been teaching, and your ability to actually be an extraordinary teacher. And I think we get hung up on this a lot.

You know, we get hung up on building our resume. We get hung up on saying, well, I need to have this internship. I need to have this job. I need to have this school because that's the thing that's going to open doors for you. But that's not the thing that's actually going to keep the doors open. It's not the thing that's going to keep you there. It's not the thing that's going to keep you rising within whatever path you're exploring rising into. It's not the thing that's going to allow you to matter to make a difference on a sustained basis in the lives of others. The only thing, the only thing that opens those doors is your commitment to continued learning and growth, your commitment to being a little bit better tomorrow than you are today. So it's totally fine to be a newbie in any field.

It's totally fine to take your time. But the seed I want to plant today is when you're thinking about how you craft the way you contribute to the world, we've been taught we've got to build a resume of names that are going to impress. And I'm going to ask you a different question. What if instead I built a resume of experiences that served as the greatest accelerants and catalysts to my own growth in the quest to be able to turn around and serve better, deeper, and bigger. So think about it a little bit. Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you found something valuable, entertaining, engaging, or just plain fun, I'd be so appreciative if you take a couple extra seconds and share it.

Maybe you want to email it to a friend. Maybe you want to share it around social media. Or even be awesome if you'd head over to iTunes and just give us a rating. Every little bit helps get the word out, and it helps more people get in touch with the message. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.