We underestimate what we’re capable of until we’re doing it. I see this all the time at the Tech School when I’m working with young people. On Monday our Girls in STEM program was all about flying Drones which not many of our students had done before. I watched a group of girls ‘paper scissor rock’ to see who was going to go first because they didn’t want to be the first to attempt this new task in front of everyone.
Young people are so adaptive and intuitive with new tech that it was literally 20 seconds before they had full control of the drone - well mostly. They certainly had enough aptitude to complete in a drone race. This is why programs like Girls in STEM are so important because it puts students in situations they wouldn’t normally be in. Hopefully the more new activities they engage in, the more confidence they’ll have in themselves to take on unknown challenges. We want them to believe they're capable of doing anything.
One of our biggest tasks at the Tech School, and for society as a whole, is instilling enough confidence in our young people to take those leaps of faith in the first place. This is a constant struggle for us as we try to find the ‘goldilocks’ zone (not too easy, not too hard) and we’re working with the brightest and most capable students in an opt-in STEM program. I can only imagine the problem is magnified in the mainstream education system.
On Sunday night I took myself to the movies to see ‘Prime Minister’, the Jacinda Ardern documentary. I read her book as soon as it was available and was looking forward to the documentary that contained lots of candied footage taken by her husband Clarke over the 5 years she was Prime Minister. One of the most memorable moments of the film for me was when she reflected on how anxious she was about becoming Prime Minister.
For those of you who don’t follow NZ politics, Jacinda became party leader of the opposition, 8 weeks before the 2017 election. She was 37 years old and her anxiety bloomed not from the fact that she wouldn’t become the third female Prime Minister of NZ, but that she would. Luckily she is a self proclaimed ‘eternal optimist’ and thought if it wasn’t her then who. Jacinda stepped up to the challenge even though the thought of being the PM was absolutely terrifying.
I would argue that Jacinda has become one of the most celebrated leaders in the world. While her 5 years in office were extraordinarily hard (I highly recommend the doco for more details), she showed the world that you can face all sorts of challenges with grace and compassion. Something the world desperately needs. If she’d let her fear stop her from accepting the role of party leader, we’d never have seen the impact of kindness in leadership at this level and the world would be worse off for it.
We underestimate what we’re capable of until we’re doing it. Unfortunately we’ve become so preoccupied by making sure that everyone feels comfortable that we’ve forgotten that growth can only occur when we’re challenged. Being uncomfortable means we’re doing something that scares us. Something we might never have done before. Something we might suck at. Something that makes us feel vulnerable.
I feel like this all the time. I often have huge, wafty plans like writing a book or becoming a professional speaker. My casual and somewhat flippant tone disguises the genuine fear I have about such projects. I’m fearful of the amount of work ahead of me. I’m worried that I’ll suck at it. I’m scared that people won’t take me seriously. But most of all I’m worried that I might actually pull it off.
What if I do it? What does that version of my life look like? It’s equal parts exciting and terrifying to imagine. However it's easier to live with this feeling of discomfort than it is to not have tried at all. I doubt Jacinda looks back on her time in office and regrets putting her hand up in the first place. You have to be brave to choose discomfort but we have to keep challenging ourselves otherwise we’ll never truly realise what we’re capable of.
