Do it later - 'The Safety Nudge' quashing our energy and courage
How many times do you have great ideas or opportunities that never come to fruition?
We are all creative beings, spotting opportunities, solutions, and actions that move us further toward happiness, success and fulfillment.
Acting on every idea immediately would be exhausting and likely end up in wasted time, energy and effort but what about those ideas or actions that are low risk and low effort to pursue?
As humans, we have an inbuilt system that keeps us safe from danger and it’s served us pretty well, however, there are times when this system gets in the way of our creativity, courage and connection. I call this the Safety Nudge as it nudges us away from courage toward safety.
Here are some examples of Safety Nudges;
You’re on a webinar and you have something to say in response to the question posed. You’re about to raise your hand until your Safety Nudge kicks in and says something like “there are important people on this call, what you have to say is too simple for this audience” or “ you need more time to think about this”. “The best thing would be to put it in the chat at the end or email your question/thoughts to the organiser after the session.”
You meet someone at an event who would be a great contact for business or career opportunities. You are keen to connect with them on Linked In and arrange a coffee. Safety Nudge kicks in and you decide to do it later, after all, you don’t want to seem too keen.
You have an amazing idea for a business development opportunity, creative endeavor, team incentive, article, fundraiser or any idea that would be of benefit to you or those you serve. Safety Nudge kicks in with all the reasons you can’t do it right now. You decide to sleep on it.
The Safety Nudge has a way of quashing our initial energy and drive to take action on our ideas. It highlights risk, it keeps us safe. Telling us that we will look stupid, there is no way anyone would go for it, we couldn’t possibly make that happen.
Sometimes this is really helpful and taking the time to think things through properly is absolutely necessary for deciding whether to take action and in what shape. But sometimes, it kills an idea or action completely. It becomes a missed opportunity that we seldom return to.
Keep an eye out for your Safety Nudge, greet it warmly and thank it for its concern. This awareness and acknowledgment is providing you with a choice. Do you override the Safety Nudge or pay attention. Can you summon the Courage Nudge? What would you do in the case of the examples above?
Elizabeth Gilbert writes beautifully about the creative in all of us in her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Elizabeth encourages us to confront the fear that stops us from following our dreams and I think this applies just as much to the everyday fear that stops us from moving forward in our lives.
Here are a few of my favourite quotes from the book:
“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“Done is better than good.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“She said: “We all spend our twenties and thirties trying so hard to be perfect, because we’re so worried about what people will think of us. Then we get into our forties and fifties, and we finally start to be free, because we decide that we don’t give a damn what anyone thinks of us. But you won’t be completely free until you reach your sixties and seventies, when you finally realize this liberating truth—nobody was ever thinking about you, anyhow.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
