Back to school has brought up a lot of emotions in my household; my young daughter was anxious about her new class and learning to read this year. She told me how she read aloud in class and was ‘so happy she didn’t fail’. My heart sank, I knew we needed to work on her mindset moving forward. Her new mantra is “it’s okay to make mistakes, that’s how we learn”, we repeat it several times a day.

It's funny how once you hear something, it keeps coming up; life feels like a Seinfeld episode sometimes! I sat down with a colleague today and we were talking about execution of projects (new and past), marketing, and the growth of myHSA. We talked about the importance of productivity and output over perfectionism and overplanning. So many amazing features of our system have been a labour of love and refinement over time. These ‘mistakes’ have been learning moments where we grow and get to know our clients better and our platform improves because of it.

We also discussed the importance of just getting started! You don’t need to know everything or have all the answers to begin. Like I told my daughter, if you don’t know the word… break it down, sound it out, it’ll get easier with practice. The more we put ourselves in uncomfortable situations and get outside our comfort zone, the easier it becomes to do it again. We remember last time wasn’t so bad after all – and if it was, then we likely gained valuable experience for the next. Even as adults, it can be very intimidating when we are asked to speak to something we aren’t experts in, or worse, when we don’t believe we are.

Wherever you’re at, here’s your nudge to try that thing you’ve been thinking about. Don’t overthink it.

Allison Gigliotti Head of Growth myHSA