A friend of mine is finishing off her Yoga Teacher Training Diploma, and the other day she had the decision whether to say YES or NO to a spotlight moment.
While she has done yoga for years, she has never professionally taught it. Needless to say it’s pretty daunting to teach people something where they may get injured – and she has never had to stand in front of people to teach anything before.
Oh, and did I mention, she is over 60 years old, and learning with a bunch of young things. Amazing!
So the other day she went to a yoga class and the teacher didn’t turn up. Someone who knew she was finishing off her Diploma said: “Kathryn, you should teach the class.”
These are the spotlight moments I talk about all of the time. You can say yes or you can say no.
So imagine her situation. She has very little experience in teaching yoga, and only practiced teaching with a small group of friends. Here were 18 people staring at her, waiting for her answer.
She had done no prep, so if she said yes, she would have to think on her feet. If she screwed up it would impact her confidence and how the people in the class thought about her.
What do you think her answer was, yes or no?
When she recounted the story to me, she said my TEDx talk about “Being open to Yes” flashed in front of her eyes. Even though I wasn’t there, I was willing her on. She thought – I’m going to say YES!
Filled with trepidation, a bit of anxiety, and huge amount of bravery, she walked to the front of the class and taught her first yoga class. And when it finished, she received a round of applause with people asking her to run more classes.
If she hadn’t said yes, she would still not know her capability as a yoga teacher or have the opportunity to share her beautiful energy with the class.
In my experience saying that first yes is like letting the genie out of the bottle. It can lead to many yeses that are full of magic and wonder.
Yes can open up opportunities you never even dreamed of. So I’ll leave you with a question. What are you going to say yes to today?
Tweetable: How the word YES can change your world @CatrionaPollard – http://bit.ly/1mTTIRP