Hey, it’s Stacy Rocklein and this is My Vulnerability Project. Today I want to talk about course correcting. The reason I want to talk about it in my vulnerability project is because this is an area I feel I’m out of alignment with, where my talk doesn’t line up with my walk sometimes.
That’s very important to me in this (human) experience.
Sometimes we have an intention whether that is for the day, a project, our lives, a relationship…we have the intention and our actions, for whatever reason, don’t align with our intention. So we are getting off course, and there are different ways to handle that.
Let’s talk about that. There is the way that I encourage my clients to handle that and that is the quail approach.
This morning I’m watching a little family of quail. There is an adult quail in front, and then all the little babies following the adult quail, and then there is an adult quail in the back. That one is just kind of walking around the sides trying to get everyone to follow the lead.
It’s a very gentle way to self-correct. It’s, “Hey, you’re misaligned from your intention. Remember, we’re going this way. Let’s get back on course.” That is what I encourage people to do with themselves. To be gentle and loving as they make their course corrections.
But there is another approach that I find myself using with myself. That is the sheep-herding dog approach. To keep yourself on course, it’s snarling, barking, and biting. Being really aggressive with yourself. “Get back on course! How could you be off course?! RIGHT NOW! LET’S GO!!” It’s very harsh.
Interesting though that I teach one way and I often find myself trapped in the other way. Not all the time, but sometimes. Enough that it’s something I want to work on.
And so my question for you is what approach do you use? What approach do you want to use?
Do you want to treat yourself like the quail. When you get off course, in a loving way, self-correct. Or if you are using the sheepherding dog approach, do you want to keep doing that? Do you want to keep putting yourself through that angry aggressive course-correction?
I would like to be using the quail approach, as well as teaching the quail approach. So that is something I’m working on. Kindness to myself and loving kindness in my course corrections. Best of luck in yours, too.