Trust Your Track Record

In executive coaching and in therapy, we use a concept called the transfer of learning. Transfer of learning is when you apply the skills you have learned or used in one area to a new situation or context. It can be especially useful when you are making a transition to a new role or industry, starting a new hobby, beginning a new educational journey, or starting a new job at a new company.

In my head and on the bulletin board above my desk, I have codified it slightly differently: “Trust your track record.” What I mean: Trust the things you have learned thus far to take you forward into the new thing. Know this truth: you are not a new baby, fresh to the world, knowing nothing. You know things. You have learned things. You have acquired skills and experience along your journey, wherever it has taken you, that have given you the capability to step into this new thing with confidence. You have survived and thrived in a world designed to tear you down, and hooray for you! You have everything you need to be a success at whatever is in front of you, and you will learn the rest as you go.

We often use the words “fake it ‘til you make it.” The truth is, we’re not actually faking anything. We’re pulling from years of knowledge and experience and tapping those reservoirs to access success in this new endeavor. You’re looking at this new thing and thinking, “How will I do this?” Meanwhile, your brain is calling a roll call of the various moments in your life where you experienced similar things and used similar skills and bringing them to the surface, so that you can get started:

Going to a party and don’t know anyone except the host? Your brain will conjure up memories of your first day of school and how you got through that and reuse those lessons for this moment. Starting a new project and have no idea where to begin? Your brain will pull up all the projects that have had similar elements and give you a starting point, which you can refine and edit to fit this one. Launching your own business? Your brain will root through all the times you had to create a process, or a role, or an identity for yourself, and will impart your learned wisdom onto your plate right now.

It’s interesting that we assign something so flippant to the fear and anxiety that we feel in new situations: “fake it ‘til you make it,” when in fact, the only thing that we’re faking is the confidence that comes from competence, and from feeling like we have done this specific thing enough times to fully own our competency in doing it. Sometimes we do need to fake that confidence, but we’re always backing it up with real-life skills and experience and competence in other areas that can be transferred to this one. Give your life lessons and brain some credit, and trust your track record.

Don’t underestimate your ability to fly in a new direction, those wings have taken you very far already!