If you want to succeed....fail.
September was the 13th Annual Forbes Global CEO Conference, gathering some of the most powerful business leaders in the world.
Now, it can be tempting to judge this group of billionaires by the numbers: how much they are worth, how many houses they own, the number of companies they run.... and with a pinch of disdain. It's common to feel snarky about billionaires.
But something that's often overlooked: their exceptional human qualities. And it's those qualities that fuel the numbers.
Quite contrary to what we commonly think about rich people - as greedy or self-serving - what you can often hear upon listening to them is something quite different: a deep commitment and a strength that requires courage, heart and persistence. A "CAN DO" attitude that embraces failures as simply part of the process. A get-up-again mantra about life.
It's just what we practice in hot yoga....
Hot yoga always compels me to reconsider my own blend of paradoxes.
We find in hot yoga that we are indeed damaged bodies capable of great healing; tumultous emotions able to find great inner peace; heartbroken humans able to feel unconditional love.
In her article for Forbes, Margaret Perlis underscored the paradoxes she felt while listening to the Forbes billionaires. Here are the three notable paradoxes that I feel can most deeply affect your success in hot yoga and teach you lessons of empowerment that you will carry into your success at life outside our hot yoga studio.
1. Vulnerability Is A Powerful Display Of Courage
Teddy Roosevelt said, " If (you) fail, at least fail while daring greatly.”
Vulnerability is not about victory or defeat, it’s about understanding, accepting and managing both.
Vulnerability is not weakness: the emotional, physical and uncertainty we face every day is not optional and it facing it won't weaken you.
In fact, a willingness to engage with your vulnerability determines the depth of your strength, your courage and the clarity of your purpose:how much will you risk in order to have the life you truly want?
How much you protect yourself from being vulnerable, from failing or getting hurt, is a measure of your fear and disconnection from yourself.
So when I tell you, "Go ahead - fall forward and break my mirrors!" during Standing Bow Pulling pose, I mean it. Go all out. Be all in! Risk it. Be vulnerable. Play big.
That Willingness-to-Risk muscle may be one of the most important ones you'll strenghthen during your hot yoga practice.
2. To Be A Great Leader, Be Willing To Serve
Servant leadership, written about by Lao-Tzu wrote in the 5th century BC, is summarized by his quote:
“To lead people, walk behind them.”
In 1970, Robert Greenleaf wrote the essay The Servant as Leader:
It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve....The conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply deferent from one who is leader first perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive…
The more people you serve, the more successful you will become. As a leader and as a human being.
When your desire to lead comes from your desire to serve first, you become Great.
It's just natural that when you believe in yourself, in your vision and in your goals, you want to share it with as many people as possible. It's not about forcing your views; in fact, it's never necessary to push. You share openly and those who resonate and find value in your service will be attracted to you and find great value in your teachings.
And you will have truly made a contribution that benefits as many lives as possible, with whatever you have to offer. From a heart of service.
3. The BEST Way To Learn Is To Teach
I am sure you know the smarmy quote, “Those who can’t do, teach.”
In fact, research is showing that it's quite the contrary: those who teach, do better.
Educators and scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Stanford University have created innovative mentoring programs and computer programs that prove that students enlisted to teach others become smarter, faster.
They've dubbed it “The Protégé Effect:” student teachers score higher on tests than pupils who are learning only for their own sake.
Teaching fosters a kind of pride, responsibility, accountability and confidence; suddenly you are delivering not just content, but heart, soul and commitment. And your students can feel it.
Teaching also challenges and expands your ideas and beliefs, exposes holes in your logic and thinking, and creates opportunities for richer engagement and further understanding of the material...and of yourself.
Every one of your teachers at Riverflow Yoga has undergone a training that not only teaches them the hot yoga materials - the poses, the timing, the heat and humidity control, managing illnesses and injuries, managing all situations in the hot yoga room for your safety and for your benefit (as if that weren't enough)...
Riverflow Hot Yoga Warrior Teacher Training is based on the premise that in order to be a great teacher, you must have the courage to learn the truth about yourself.
That takes great strength and great vulnerability.
It means you must also be clear on this point: you teach hot yoga in order to serve your students.
You hold the bar high in every hot yoga class you teach - no matter what it takes.
A Great hot yoga teacher must be willing to give all.
Your teachers have not only plumbed the depths of hot yoga in Riverflow Teacher Training; they have learned the depths of their their hearts, by facing their own fears...and letting them go.
So they can teach you how to use hot yoga to do the same for yourself.
So take a lesson. Embrace the paradoxes you feel in hot yoga, and when you feel them in your daily life - too much to do and not enough time, for instance - enjoy them. Managing your own paradoxes with calm acceptance and aplomb...that IS your life.
And if at first you don't succeed, lucky you; you are on your way to Greatness.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (2)
Beautiful post, Rhonda!
The vulnerability paradox is a huge one! That quote about 'daring greatly' is the namesake of a beautiful new book by Brene Brown, that plunges at the core of the power of vulnerability. I was thinking of adding it to the favorite books page, too.
The Protege Paradox is also so relevant to my life right now (for obvious reasons!) It makes TEACHING hot yoga even more of a future JOY for me.
I believe one reason this paradox works is because to teach you have to step out of your own mind and bridge the gap between you and the student. There's a 'bird's eye view' perspective that's gained, and also in many circumstances you intuitively develop more creativity in approaches and problem solving to communicate effectively with the 'other'.
Cheers!
Interesting idea, Melina: that being out of your own mind can make you more creative and better at solutions. Perhaps it's about being tuned into your Higher Mind, which has access to limitless solutions, rather than living in the confines of your Lower Self or logical mind, which lives within limits and always considers all the reasons why something won't work out.