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This week was a whirlwind. I taught 4-day design thinking workshop for 23 masters students from 10 countries studying international luxury. It was fun to challenge their business minds and give them a crash course in creativity. One thing was for sure, it was like no other course they've had before.

I told them the first day I wanted them to fail. I meant it in the spirit of UX: Fail early, fail fast, fail often. It's a way of learning quickly without investing too much time and money in something that won't work, or worse, something you hate. It's all a learning cycle. As I spotted on Instagram this week, "success is a collection of well curated failures."

I may have challenged the students, but they challenged me in new ways too. During the week I felt a bit like coach Monica Aldama from Cheer [see below] pushing my students to do more than they realized was possible in four days. In the end they all rose to the occasion and put together impressive projects. It was a fun, intense week and I learned just as much as they did. And I definitely needed a chill weekend to recover.

Here's this week's inspiration:

Watch.

Did I ever expect a cheerleading docuseries to be a highlight of my week? No. Yet Cheer on Netflix completely warmed my heart and I can't stop talking about it. It's the story of a community college with a national championship cheer squad. I have a whole new admiration for the sport, and I love how human the stories of its members are.

Read.

It's funny to be celebrating a movie that came out 25 years ago, but between my trip to Vienna and a Richard Linklater expo at the Centre Pompidou, I can't seem to escape "Before Sunrise." In honor of the anniversary the NYT article, "‘Before Sunrise’: The Making of an Indie Classic" shares a peek into how the movie really was made from those who worked on it.

Listen.

It's easy to think you need to look outside of yourself for answers, but more and more I've come to realize we hold so many of our own answers. Jocelyn Glei's Hurry Slowly episode on "holding space for yourself" is an interesting twist on the idea of holding space for others. “Without the space of time, there is no possibility of anything new unfolding — whether that be a creative project, or a new insight about your career path, or a healing of some wound that’s holding you back.”

This week I'm diving back into my own projects. I'm prototyping a new project that helps celebrate failure. If you have any interest in being a tester, respond to this email, and I'll give you the scoop. My goal is to move fast on this one.

I always love to hear what you're working on, so hit reply, and I'll cheer you on! 🎉

Have an awesome week! 💫

Anne S. Ditmeyer is a creative coach + consultant who helps people think creatively in their work and life. Sign up for a curiosity call to learn more.

anneditmeyer.com

Prêt à Voyager

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