My first group course, The Lead Musician, just completed! My clients had some extraordinarily awesome takeaways from the experience, and I wanted to share some of their learned lessons with you all.

Here’s what one client included in their reflection: “I learned how to parse accountability/workability from morality.”

Hidden in that phrase is one of the most empowering contexts you can adapt for yourself. Think of something you intended to finish by now, small or big, but haven’t. Be honest with yourself. Are you annoyed? Disappointed in yourself? Panicked? Frustrated if something got in your way from doing it?

Why do we get so pissed when we’ve dropped the ball on a promise? Why might we even go into hiding rather than confront or admit to others that we broke the promise, even when it’s obvious? Because we have a hard time distinguishing workability from morality.

What is workability? Think of the spokes in a bicycle wheel. Those spokes keep the operation of the wheel intact. If spokes were to fall out, the wheel would ultimately collapse and not work. Now imagine the wheel is your life, and the spokes are your promises and commitments. As more and more of your promises fall out of integrity, your life will stop working.

Where we often get stuck is thinking that it says something about us personally when we drop promises. Look, unless your life is pretty small, you’re not going to always keep your word. But does it mean you’re a failure? A fraud? Lazy? Irresponsible? No, because those words imply a moral assessment, which is distinct from workability. Furthermore, it’s not a very useful assessment to make if you’re trying to succeed and be happy in life.

So what’s the opportunity here? Stop applying judgement to yourself when you lack integrity in your promises. Like I said, you WILL drop the ball, especially if you take on big goals. That’s not a reason to avoid going for your dreams.

More client lessons to come…