It was the Golden Globes awards ceremony last night and, if you hadn't heard, one of the bigger winners, as expected, was The Artist.

I haven't seen it yet, Dunoon being blessed with an improved but not yet multiplex cinema, but am keen to. It doen't fit my normal viewing genres but it must be a good film and therefore worth a look.
As I considered it though, a few questions came to mind that apply to us and our lives. The Artist  seems to be good because it's different - black and white films are not in abundance at the moment and silent films are even less common. Maybe though its good and its different - I won't know until I've seen it. The question is, did it win the awards because its different and has it been made it different deliberately to win an award. Reading about the director, I suspect he set out to make a different film because that's what he enjoys - the fact that it is successful is probably a nice bonus though.
What about us - do we deliberately do things in order to win awards, the acclaim of the crowds or the commendation of our boss? Alternatively, are we working to produce our best because it brings us satisfaction - if we get a pat on the back then its a nice extra? How often do we focus on the praise that we'll get from someone else? A frequently asked question of mine is, 'How do you know you have been successful?' - we need to be able to determine it for ourselves rather than waiting for an external person or body giving us the big thumbs up.
And what about being different - so much of society now is very monochrome, with everyone looking like everyone else and if they don't, then simply trying harder to. People want to fit in and think that the way forward is to be identical. As I write this I think of the magazines where they show you what the stars wear and then give you the cheap alternatives so you can almost exactly copy them. Great, if I want to follow, but what if I want to stand out, be different, lead the way?
It seems the truly successful people in this life are those with the courage to go their own way, no matter where other people are going and to be content with that path, whether it wins plaudits or not. Doing what you want to do, as well as you can, brings its own rewards.

I went to a sales training day this week. Entertaining and interesting but I did feel like a rather small fish in a big boys pond, given the stature of selling that some of the participants were involved in. The best bit of it all was doing a practical exercise where I had to role play a sales meeting in front of some of the other participants.

I didn't want to play. But they made me, and actually it was very worthwhile. They graciously gave me helpful feedback that I can now put into practice.

But it made me wonder, why did I not want to take part. Basically I supose I don't like failing publicly, or even not matching up to other people's perceptions. This then led me down a line of thought about self-awareness.

Finding out about ourselves is often painful. Sometimes its about the results, because we don't want to know the answers, thinking they will be less good than we might hope. Alternatively, we don't like the process because it will be painful. It was certainly the latter that was bothering me. I was reasonably clear where I was at in terms of my actual sales abilities so the results were never going to be a surprise. However, roleplaying my inabilities in front of people whom I wanted nothing more than to impress was not something I entered into lightly. In fact I even tried to palm it off on another participant but they wouldn't let me wriggle out.

Oh what I would have missed out on. Actually the role play itself was easy. Like lots of things, the anticipation was worse than the ordeal itself and once I got into character I was oblivious of my observers. And the feedback they gave me was priceless. They even managed to say some nice things too.

How often do we see an opportunity to learn about ourselves and we either let it pass by or actively try to avoid the pain? When the chance is there, do we ask people to say what they think? Or do we duck down and hope they haven't observed anything notable?

And that's before we think about how well we wil accept their feedback once it is given...