Three Lessons on Being Fierce or Lessons from ANTM
Recently, Oxygen aired back-to-back episodes of America’s Next Top Model, Cycle 11. From 14 contestants, one would become America’s Next Top Model.
Great background noise to do chores to, I thought. Turns out, ANTM provides lessons applicable in wider contexts, beyond fashion.
Three Lessons on Being Fierce
1. Own Your Awkwardness
The ability to own one of her personal characteristics helped Marjorie go fairly far into the competition. By taking charge of her physical awkwardness, Marjorie turned it into something beautiful.
Understanding and working with your weaknesses can help you get closer to your goals.
2. Go with the Flow
Episode after episode, the judges gave Elina feedback about having too much control. They wanted to see her let go a bit more. She was eventually eliminated because of her control issues - her photos, while beautiful, didn’t really improve, in part because she didn’t listen to feedback.
Going with the flow requires you to be open to experiences as they present themselves. These experiences lead to growth if you’re willing to learn, evolve, and change. If you’re controlling every experience, your opportunities to learn are limited, since you’re setting reasonable expectations around outcomes.
3. Complacency can mean the End of the Road
Clarke went from having the top photo one week to being eliminated the next. How did this happen? She said she only needed one good photo - she went through most of her shots and at the end, her best photo just wasn’t good enough.
Falling into the complacent mindset caps one’s growth and can lead to being left back on JV when the rest of the team makes Varsity.
Tags: ANTM, Complacency, random lessons