“Take your work seriously but not yourself” is one of the most IMPORTANT pieces of life and business advice to internalize. So, let’s talk about what it means to take your work seriously but not yourself in today’s article! We’re going to follow up on my previous blog post and explore this concept through the lens of dance costuming as an example — how I take my work seriously but not myself as a burlesque dancer…
IMPORTANT: You can apply the concept of *taking your work seriously, not yourself* to pretty much anything in life or business! I share many business examples on this blog since I often work with solopreneurs — so I thought we’d change things up and it might be helpful for you to learn about this through a LIFE example, instead.
This concept is really good to keep in mind when you are doing any self improvement or personal development work.
This article originally appeared as the August 3 2024 edition of the Solopreneur Diary Entries newsletter.
In my blog post about embracing your weird niche hobbies, I mentioned how I recently performed as a Popcorn Showgirl (burlesque dance while dressed in a gigantic popcorn outfit), and how it involved a TON of rhinestoning and costuming…
Here’s the thing: I have the costuming skills of a 6-year-old.
The troupe that I dance burlesque with often does costuming days in preparation for our shows, and my attempts at doing ANY costuming make us all laugh so hard! A teacher or classmate will give me the simplest of tasks and my work still looks absolutely ridiculous.
…It got to the point where, earlier this summer, I was given a simple “homework” task — sew a couple clips onto a skirt belt — and somehow I messed that up, too.
My teacher couldn’t stop laughing (in good humour!) when she saw it, and we all agreed: “Sagan is not to do costuming unsupervised!”
Why am I telling you this story? Because when this happens to us, there are two attitudes we can take:
- Be frustrated or embarrassed about it.
- See the humour in it, and ask for (and accept) help in it.
Think of this as it relates to ANYTHING in your life or business:
- What are your weaknesses?
- What do you struggle with, compared to other people who excel at it and have put in the effort to hone their skills?
- What are you not really interested in putting in the effort to up-level, and how honest are you being with yourself about it?
I’m not embarrassed about my complete lack of costuming skills. And while I like the IDEA of improving those skills, I also know that *pushing myself too much* to try to jump to anyone else’s level of expertise WOULD lead to frustration. That type of artistry doesn’t interest me as much as the *idea* of it does (more on this topic in my recent article about the difference between "want to want" vs actually want).
Instead? When we’re all joking around and laughing about my lack of costuming skills, I’m the one laughing the most! When anyone offers to help me, I immediately accept their help and their thoughtful advice. I tell them when I’m struggling, ask for their suggestions, and do the types of tasks that are more doable for me (e.g. I can glue rhinestones and hand-sew very simple things. That’s about it!)
What it comes down to is THIS:
Take your work seriously — not yourself ♥
What does it mean to take your work seriously but not yourself?
Taking your work seriously but not yourself means that you are:
- Focusing on producing high-quality work, paying close attention to detail, putting in the effort, and dedicating yourself to your craft — and that you care deeply about excellence.
- Allowing yourself the space and grace to make mistakes without beating yourself up, expanding your comfort zone without worrying about how you’ll be perceived, being adventurous even if it means trying new things and being a beginner, and enjoying yourself fully along the way.
As you can see, this is a combination of excellence alongside fulfillment — which is a core tenant of everything I teach and coach my clients on.
You can have high expectations of yourself and level-up your skills and aim for excellence, in conjunction with having fun and being fulfilled!
Benefits of taking your work seriously, not yourself
Taking your work seriously but not yourself is one of the BEST things you can do to build a better relationship with yourself (which is ESSENTIAL in your self improvement and personal development journey)...
You are trusting yourself, being honest with yourself about where there’s room for improvement, critiquing your work in a useful (not criticizing) way, and paving the way to lead yourself through the muck of perfectionism, procrastination, and imposter syndrome.
It’s a powerful way for you to genuinely learn from your mistakes, because you are OPEN to messing up along the way and getting curious about any mistakes you make.
Because it stretches your comfort zone, it also enables you to level-up your skills and expertise by leaps and bounds: You aren’t holding yourself back anymore, and you aren’t constructing barriers to prevent yourself from moving forward.
When you take your work seriously but not yourself, you are often also leapfrogging any potential for self sabotage. Pretty cool, right?
Get these benefits for yourself when you book your personal fulfillment coaching sessions:
Example for how I take my work seriously but not myself
Let’s explore what this looks like in practice, through our example of dance costuming…
I take my dancing VERY seriously, in the sense that I want to do a great job. I want to KNOW the choreography. I want to improve my dance skills. I want to be a better choreographer and performer. I want to entertain the audience.
And so I put the effort in. I practice. I’m also not afraid to look silly or make mistakes, because I know that I can learn from all of it and make USE of it to be that better dancer. (This can be VERY stretchy for the comfort zone when I'm showing new solo choreography to my teacher and small group of fellow dancers for the first time to get peer reviews and feedback from them, but it's INCREDIBLY useful!)
Too often, we hold ourselves back as a direct result of taking ourselves too seriously. Some of the most important things to do here is to learn how to be a) honest with yourself, and b) compassionate and kind toward yourself.
Be honest with acknowledging your strengths and your weaknesses.
Be honest about what you want to improve and what you aren’t as interested in learning or doing.
Be compassionate and kind to yourself as you move through the learning process (it’s an endless journey, so there will ALWAYS be more to learn!).
Be compassionate and kind to yourself when — not if — you mess up or aren’t “as good” as other people.
When you take your work seriously — not yourself — you’ll be able to improve by leaps and bounds, without getting in your own way.
I could have chosen to *not* do burlesque dance, simply because costuming isn’t one of my strengths. I could have decided it was too frustrating and difficult. I could have decided it was too embarrassing to let anyone see my feeble attempts.
But where would that get me? It wouldn’t help me improve. It wouldn't make me happy. And it wouldn’t provide comic relief to my dance troupe 😉
→ The same is true when it comes to just about anything in business or in life: Taking yourself too seriously almost always leads to you putting up barriers, stopping yourself from getting out there, and preventing yourself from achieving and enjoying what you WANT.
Psst… Productivity Powerhouse teaches you skills of how to increase your self compassion and self kindness and self honesty, how to learn more about your personal strengths and weaknesses AND what to do about them, how to improve your relationship with yourself, and more!
These are the essential skills to develop for how to begin taking your work seriously, but not yourself.
Doing this will help you to improve yourself and develop your skills over time: It’s a powerful addition to any personal development or self improvement work you’re doing.
Get a sneak peek of exactly how to do this with the first lesson in the Identify Your Desires mini course — yours for just $49:
Here are 3 questions to ask yourself as you explore the concept of taking yourself vs your work seriously…
- "What aspects of my life/business am I taking MYSELF more seriously than the WORK itself?"
- "If I wasn’t taking myself so seriously in that area, what obstacles would immediately be removed?" (e.g. In what ways are you currently holding yourself back, judging yourself, preventing yourself from being okay with visibility, etc)
- "What am I so afraid of happening if I stopped taking myself so seriously — and why does that scare me?"
You might be surprised at what comes up for you when you explore those questions!
Did you enjoy this article?
It originally appeared as the August 3, 2024 edition of the Solopreneur Diary Entries weekly newsletter.
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