Doubt


“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt”


William Shakespeare, 

Measure for Measure




 I’m lucky. 


 It is not often that I find myself daunted at work nowadays – it used to happen all the time. 

 Last week, however, there was a noisy return by the voice of self-doubt.


 If you have read any of the other blog posts here you will be getting the message that I genuinely love working with values. I also love sharing the things I learn and the insights I have gained along the way. So naturally when an invitation to speak at the 8th biennial Mont-Blanc meetings arrived earlier this year I was eager indeed. The invitation was not for me personally but rather extended to the Minessence International Cooperative, for which at the time I served as a founder director: that provided the open door for self doubt to return through and a substantial plank for it to stand upon.

Next there was the theme of the event with which presenters had to align their presentation and submit a short proposal to a conference committee: “Democratic governance, a vector of plural efficiency”. Now self doubt had a big drum to bang…. after all who was I to represent Minessence in the first place when there are individuals with far lengthier and deeper experience of the framework than I; plus what could I find to say about “efficiencies” and harnessing values?

As I write now, the event having concluded last Friday, it turns out I both had something meaningful to contribute to the big picture and was up to the challenge after all. As one member of the scientific committee has since commented “the values became central in the final declaration and in the informal discussions of the participants”.  

 So the next time opportunity presents for something  you want to do but are not quite sure if you can, I thoroughly recommend giving it a whirl. Consciously connect it with values that it matters to you to live and you may well surprise yourself.

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