Happy This ONE Friday!

Every week, many learnings occur to me. Every coaching session teaches me something. Every experience I go through reveals something to me. And every day, my brain connects some dots in the universe.

So here we are, looking at This ONE together, my first-ever email newsletter. Its mission is to seize those learnings and share them with you, before they “puff,” disappear into thin air. I am junky for learning. And I know you are too!

It took me two months to conceptualize (and procrastinate 😶). So, this first issue, though in its earliest form, deserves a big applause! Feel free to write to me to congratulate me for finally pushing it out. As a bonus 🎁, I will share with you those mixed emotions, thoughts that came to me, and how I finally managed to take my first step.

Why is it named “This ONE”: Our restless brain is always thinking about “the other one”, or “the next one.” I wonder, what can happen if we simply focus on “this one” without wandering away? 🤔

And now, here is This ONE idea, along with its manifestations on assertiveness, difficult conversations, and crafting a career, for you to ponder on this week…

This ONE Idea

And if you believe in fulfilling your potential, what can you take away from This ONE idea? Below are how I connect my dots.

I. The Capacity of Assertiveness

What is assertiveness? People tend to associate assertiveness with how vocal and confident a person is. But these are merely byproducts and outcomes.

To exercise assertiveness is to honour this belief and to implement actions with this attitude consistently in all aspects of life. Being assertive is about bringing your voice and value to the table. It’s about helping your ideas realize their potential.

Click here for full article with Practical tips for increasing the capacity of assertiveness

II. The Potential of Difficult Conversations

We humans have a negative bias. This is why we tend to focus on the “difficult” aspect than the potential of difficult conversations. When we can see and acknowledge more in the other person and the relationship, more potential can be unlocked.

Say, do you see a salary negotiation talk as a difficult one? How about seeing its potential to unlock more mutual understanding?

III. At career crossroads *potential/capacity

Are you invested in your potential?

Potential is like a seed. Capacity is that pot we have. Too often we crave more of the potential and resent the small capacity we currently have.

Accept that the pot is all we have at the moment, rather than resent its imperfection. This is the first step of a growth mindset: to walk from where we currently are, not from where we want to be.

Work with the pot, give the plant your due care: water, sunlight, and soil. Find an opportunity to swap the pot for a bigger one where your budget and home space allows.

Which potential?

Joan Miró is a celebrated artist for his surrealistic masterpieces. Despite demonstrating talent in music from a young age, Miró decided to focus on painting. Does this mean he sacrificed his potential as a musician in doing so? For obvious reasons, yes. He would have achieved more in music had he chosen to invest more energy in it.

Perhaps we can connect the dots this way: each option has a potential. To make a choice is to invest in one potential and to forfeit the rest. But we could also connect it differently. Miró prioritized painting over music as a career, but as you probably know, his artworks are famously abstract and often inspired by music.  

Miró’s scenario has a similar inconsolable polarity we face at career crossroads. Many tech leaders find themselves with limited capacity to continue being technical experts while responding to their management work.

In my personal experience, I love writing, arts, and theatre, beyond the work of developing human potential. My capacity does not allow me to be a full-time writer, painter, actress, a professional coach, while being mom of a 5 year old. But it does not mean I cannot keep all my essence in my life and let them compound each other. That potential is a coach who writes, a poet who coaches, and a painter who acts. After all, that is who I am.

Nobody can stop me from becoming who I am. Except myself.

Question For You

How are your current capacity and potential helping or against each other? What can you do with them?

Want to share this issue of This ONE via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link:

This ONE: On fulfilling career potential, how to be more assertive, and the powerful way to manage difficult conversations.​

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Until next week,

Yolanda Yu
Coach and lifelong learner

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p.s. I am speaking at the following webinar…

Fireside Chat with Nandini Joshi, COO, StashAway

About this newsletter: You are receiving this email because you have engaged me as a coach or explored my service before. Please excuse me for taking the liberty of sending you the first issues. If you wish to unsubscribe from it, please reply to the email. I will remove you from the mailing list.

Every Friday, I share ONE idea and its manifestations and 1 question for you to ponder. Other ingredients you can expect will be book extracts, quotes, metaphors, tools, resources, and mini-exercises to keep growing your self-awareness.