Richard was in the hospital recently.

(Spoiler: He's totally fine and this isn't a story about illness. It's about something else, unexpected.)

At one point, the IV in his arm needed to be replaced. 

A nurse came in to handle it. She tried once. Missed. Tried again. Missed again. Understandably flustered, she went to get someone else. In came nurse #2. More experienced, it seemed. But she missed, too. Twice.

Upset, she said, "I'll need to get a supervisor."

And that’s when Richard stopped her. 

"Wait a minute,” he said. “You can do this."

He asked her a few questions and figured out that it wasn't a skill issue per se, it was nerves. She was second-guessing herself, terrified of doing it wrong. 

He encouraged her to try again. He said, "You need to do it. You’ve got this." (And btw, I sure in heck wasn't doing it! 🤣)

So she tried again. And again. And eventually... she nailed it. Got the IV placed. And she was thrilled. Very relieved.

Obviously, Richard has never worked in a hospital. (Not even a Grey’s Anatomy watcher!) He simply didn’t let her give up so fast.

Later, we shared this with another nurse who replied, "Yeah, after two tries, we usually go get someone else." 

Okay, there are probably policies, safety procedures, best practices. This isn't about whether that nurse followed protocol to the letter. (Plus Richard is a patient patient.)

The point is: people give up too easily!

And when they do, they miss out on learning. On getting better and proving to themselves that they can.

We’ve all done it. Pulled the plug early. Handed something off before we really tried. Told ourselves, "I can't."

But sometimes you just need someone like Richard did to say: "Try again. You’ve got this." 

So, either get a coach or start doing this for you!