Something I had to come to grips with when we first started offering online courses more than a decade ago (yes, really; we were *so* early to the party!!) was that no matter how hard I try to craft The Perfect Offering, people will — always — fall behind.
Because life.
Because creating a new habit of showing up for yourself EVERY day can be confronting.
Because when we buy an online course, we’re investing in the version of ourselves we REALLY REALLY REALLY want to be… and there’s a ton of inertia for staying the same. Same, safe, and small.
That’s how the brain works. Even if we’re “growth oriented” vs. “fixed oriented” in the mindset department, there is a bunch of evolutionary wiring committed to keeping us from changing too much, too fast, always.
This is one of the reasons that things feel so icky to us right now, as a human population, BTW. The brain has a linear bias for learning new things. And we’ve just experienced exponential learning — too much, too fast — and it actually BREAKS a part of our brain. This is why we revert to our strongest muscles. Our addictions. Our bad habits. Our safest patterning.
I am freakin’ passionate about making massive change feel safe in the brain, BTW. It’s one of the reasons I’m “so okay” right now. Despite the fact that I was — just three and a half years ago — very NOT sober. Despite the fact that I’ve had my struggles with self-worth and growth and shitty money mindset and addictive behaviors and bad relationships. Despite all of that, I am doing so well right now because I have spent the past few years ACTIVELY working on making massive change feel safe. I’ve been conquering my own upper-limit problems (if you’re not familiar with the work of Gay Hendricks in this area, this talk I gave may help frame it up for you). I’ve been readying the ground for my success to take root — at exponential and fast-growing levels — every damn day.
So, specifically because I’ve been engaged in growth management, I’m not freakin’ the fuck out (as much as I could be) at a time when that levelheadedness is feeling like the craziest superpower EVER.
(And when that’s not how I feel? Icecream.)
Okay, so about this online course thing specifically. I offer one. We’ve reopened enrollment (when we had previously decided only to have enrollment available once or twice a year) and we’ve reset to 2019 pricing, because we know that NOW is a time when people need support, need a community they can count on, need connection, and frankly may really need the “distraction” of showing up for themselves every damn day, which is what we really help to make happen in our flagship course, Get in Gear for the Next Tier.
If you want to go straight to the Get in Gear info page, it’s here. You can enroll when you’re ready. No, I don’t know when we’ll go back to closed enrollment. No, I don’t know when we’ll reset to 2020 pricing. All I know is — right now — you can join us for unprecedented support for your creative career as we go deeper with the enoughness principles than you may have ever imagined possible. (How does that translate to bookings? Better relationships? More money? Happier daily state of mind? Emmy statues? Ask these people. Seriously. Click that.)
The reason I’m writing today though is more about online classes in general. There are a LOT out there right now. And a lot of folks beat themselves up for “being behind” or not finishing online courses. This happens in our 100-day program. It happens to everyone! (This article is obvi written for someone like me, who has CREATED a course for people she loves and who then feels like crap that she’s built a course ANYONE might not “finish,” but read it if you think it might help those of you who — no matter how much we talk to you about “THERE IS NO BEHIND, HERE” — may still like to torture yourselves about not finishing.)
Here’s a shift that helped me — as someone who has ALSO bought online courses she’s never “finished” — because now I NEVER beat myself up about not finishing courses. (In general, I try not to beat myself up about anything — this is actually part of what I teach in the 100 days. How to be on your own damn side for a change — because THIS simple act of not pushing AGAINST yourself all the time is a freakin’ superpower and it’s so flippin’ easy!!)
I stopped beating myself up about not finishing courses I bought when I came to grips with my primary learning style: INTERACTIVE.
Because I’m an interactive learner, I learn best from — you guessed it — interacting with others during the learning experience. Talking with classmates. “Yes, and…”-ing with the instructor and mentors.
Therefore, ACCESSING ALL THE MATERIAL is not what creates learning for me. Honestly, I don’t even finish most books I “read.” What I do is pay to join the author’s book-release-experience, which includes all sorts of interactivity… and THAT is how I learn.
And not just learn like a consumer of the info; I learn like a master of it.
Are you beating yourself up for something you could totally adjust a relationship with, just like that? Would you like for me to help you for 100 straight days of that? (Let’s start now. In fact, I’ll even throw in a BONUS COACHING CALL with me — FREE — when you enroll in 2020. Let me help you be your best self on the other side of all this. Not just with your tools and your tactics; your MINDSET and your setpoint for success.)
Meanwhile, I’d love to know how you’ve come to peace with what you don’t FINISH… especially at times like these when we *really* learn that “I don’t have the time” was never the reason we didn’t finishing anything anyway. š
Share in the comments below. I’m here for you. Let’s jam!
Love you beautiful people!
Enoughness is an inside job… and sometimes you need a guide to find your way there. Let Bonnie Gillespie get you started.
Yaasssss. I am an interactive learner to the MAX. Which is why I love taking classes WITH other people, and which is why (I think) I didnāt finish GIG the first round. I think I might have been by myself working around those days, so there were not many interactions or comments or feedback on my posts. Then I started to just not write a comment at all. Then I just started not doing the days. Iām now doing my second lap through and though itās taking me longer than 100 days, I donāt beat myself up. I tell myself ājust keep swimmingā and I understand that while Iām doing something every day for my career, it might just not be SMFA that day. When it CAN be SMFA, then I jump in and try to comment on other peopleās work so that the interaction is there for them, and me. No more beating myself up.
TOTALLY! When I enrolled in Denise Duffield-Thomas’ money course, I knew I was just doing so at that time so that I could secure the price as low as it was (knowing she would go up when she did her next launch). I knew I’d be “on my own” which meant I would watch maybe 10% of the early content and then never open another page… but there was (and is) the community and based off the convos we were having there *and* the livestreams Denise did (and does), I began to get so much value out of the CONVERSATIONS and the INTERACTIONS and that allowed me to feel as though I was (and am) getting what I paid for.
Again, I hadn’t even looked at 90% of the material! If I finished that sentence with the words “that I paid for” so it became “I haven’t looked at 90% of the material that I paid for” I would be in big trouble. It would mean my POV for what the value actually WAS (and is) was totally fucked.
I see learning and value as something so much larger than “you paid for access to these videos and these audios and these PDFs” and instead “you paid for access to a world… some of which you can access via videos and audios and PDFs… some of which you can access via convos and Q&A and just new ways of looking at things in your daily life.”
THAT is everything for me.