It’s time to break free from the constraints that are holding you back. Transform yourself into the true, unstoppable version of YOU! In the next couple of minutes we will explore how to overcome your limits by giving yourself an A. This concept I regularly use in Executive Coaching, it helps you to break free existing barriers. The idea is to focus on the big picture, to embrace your unique strengths, and to reach more for yourself.

Are you ready to unleash the power within you with a simple, but yet powerful trick? Let’s get started!

What is possible?

Our early years are often filled with marks that indicate what we’re supposedly capable of and what we know. In the workplace, the same continues with performance evaluations.

Clearly, this feedback helps us identify areas to excel and areas in which we further need to develop our skills or knowledge. Ultimately these evaluations are there to compare us to each other and to help identify the better, stronger and more capable of us. After all, this metric is used to determine what Universities we will go to. It determines promotions, salary increases, and other employment-related decisions. 

Unfortunately, grades and performance ratings are not always indicative of one’s true capabilities. They can be influenced by a variety of factors beyond one’s control, such as the teaching environment, the family environment or other personal circumstances. Thus, grades or performance evaluations rarely consider our potential. Therefore we rarely receive the coaching to grow into the person we are truly capable of becoming: The unstoppable version of you!

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes. However, learning from our mistakes is far more valuable than receiving a grade for it. A simple grade is not a representation of our knowledge, it is mostly an item of comparison. It doesn’t support us to reach more.

These labels we carry often identify our standing in life: “She is the SVP ‘‘ or “She is the A student”. Yet, do these grades reveal what we are truly made of?

A hardworking mother of two who worked years and years in order to become an SVP, rarely spending time on herself but on her children and work! Or a student from abroad who hardly speaks English when arriving, but works hard to make her dream come true of becoming a doctor.

We are all incredible and unique people, worth so much more than just a label.

A possibility to live into

Reading “The Art of Possibility” by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander provides insight into how to maximize your potential and open yourself to endless possibilities. According to their book, “giving an A” is a technique that is based on the belief that if we are given the chance to live up to our potential, we can achieve remarkable greatness.

Zander writes: “The A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into”. 

Benjamin, a well-experienced music conductor and the musical director of both the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Youth Orchestras, realized that grading student performances was inducing more stress than benefit. This pressure affected their capacity to express themselves musically with grace and delicacy. To counter this issue, he decided to award all participants an “A” at the beginning of class, provided they wrote him a thoughtful letter outlining their personal growth throughout the course – assuming they had already gained an “A” anyway.

Now, having an “A”, the student has the opportunity to truly focus on who they want to become, without the added pressure of living up to a grade. The mentor, or executive coach, on the other hand, can learn through the student’s letter about what possibility the student really wants to live into, and can assist them to blossom into the person they desire and so the student can reach more. 

Michelangelo once said: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved it until I set him free.”

Who are you really?

Are you only an “A” student?

Are you only the SVP at a Fortune 500 company?

No, of course this is not all! However, this is how we have learned to compare each other to others and how we live our lives. Yet, we are amazing people, capable of doing incredible things: And so we must unleash our potential.

In general, giving yourself an “A” entails focusing on the person you want to become, without any barriers holding back. Focus on yourself, your passion, and your potential, instead of others, labels, and levels. Speak your mind, unleash your feelings: Overcome your limits and reinvent yourself into the true you. Make the world see who you are and what you have achieved.

Provide yourself the opportunity for possibilities.

Live into your possibilities: Write your letter A

Whether you want to write your letter “A” for one of our executive coaching sessions or you just want to do it for yourself: Enjoy your experience and dream big!

1) Start with “Dear ‘Your Name’ I got my A because…”
2) Put yourself in the future “Today is the end of 20xx”  
3) Include your feelings, thoughts, attitude, worldview, ideas, inspirations, accomplishments, triumphs, awards received, places visited, things seen…  include you!
4) Describe with all the detail possible, what journey you went through to receive your well deserved “A”.
5) Avoid words like “I hope”, “I intend” or “I will”, says Zander. You have already received your “A”, so write about who you became on this journey.
6) Be honest and open. Don’t take yourself too serious (Rule #6, we will talk more about this soon) – this is supposed to be fun.
7) Discuss the letter with your closest people
8) Book your session today to also discuss it with your executive coach!

Unleash yourself and reach more!

Feel free to send us your letter to info@DasPotenzial.com. Use subject “My letter A” and will be more than happy to consider including it as an example below.