Have you ever felt like you aren’t prepared for the life you want?
Are you hesitant to take action because you don’t feel like you have the skills necessary to be successful?
Do you feel like you’re not as talented as other people, which causes you to question yourself and your worth?
Are you looking at your past failures as indicators of your future potential for success?
Whatever the reason…if you’re NOT stepping into the life you want to be living…the strategy to help shift you from where you are to where you want to be is the same! And the best part? You already have EVERYTHING you need to make the shift!
Now this may sound counter-intuitive, but stick with me for a minute…I want you to envision one of the WORST things you’ve overcome in your life. Maybe it was a terrible breakup, a health scare, a lost job…whatever comes to mind when you think about something AWFUL that you experienced in your past.
Now think about this: What did YOU do to navigate that situation and its aftermath? Maybe you took control and took the action needed to solve the problem. Maybe you stayed in faith and trusted that this too would pass. Maybe you put your problem-solving skills to work and navigated a seemingly impossible challenge. Maybe you were able to pick up the pieces after a complete disaster and start rebuilding from nothing.
Whatever it was that you did that helped carry you through the situation is something to take note of…because OUR PAST CAN SHOW US OUR POWER. So when you look at your current struggles, fears, and uncertainties through the lens of your past overcoming, it enables you to see that you ARE prepared, you DO have the skills, you ARE talented and worthy, and you CAN create the change you want to see in your life. Because you’ve already been through the worst…and you’ve come out the other side. Embrace that fact. Acknowledge your strength. Take that leap.
And perhaps most importantly, TRUST YOURSELF AND YOUR INTUITION.
The first 1-1 call I had with my mentor coach was an informal call to see if I was sure I wanted to work with her. You see, I had come across her by “accident” (which I’d like to call divine right timing) when she was the substitute instructor for one of the coaching classes I was taking. When I look back at my notes from that class, I see a note in the margin: Mentor coach??? Because as a new coach, I KNEW I needed a mentor coach. But I ALSO knew that I needed that person to be someone I connected with…someone who resonated with me…someone I felt like I could really partner with to do the work.
On our first call (which again, was NOT an actual coaching call but rather a call to see if we’d be a good fit), I cried. Those who know me will tell you…I’m really NOT a crier…at least not openly. But there I was, 5 minutes in, crying on the phone to a woman who, even now, years later, I have never had a conversation with in person. And while I didn’t know it at the time, I think those tears were tears of relief…because I had finally found exactly what I needed. And even though I wasn’t fully aware of it then, my intuition KNEW…just as it knew over the phone in that teleclass that I had found my mentor coach.
So if YOUR intuition is speaking to you, I encourage you to take a moment to listen. What is it telling you? What is the message? Perhaps you can see it clearly, perhaps not. Or perhaps you feel like something is holding you back from seeing things clearly…
One of the things I’ve discovered during my growth journey is that the areas in which I’ve felt stuck or blocked are usually the areas where I have been telling myself “stories” that just aren’t true. For example, for a long time, I felt unable to snap out of the unhappy habits I’d adopted, and I was SUPER frustrated. The thing is…I realized that part of my problem is that I was seeing myself as an unhealthy person…because I was seeing the bad habits, PLUS I had been carrying around the story that I was “too fragile” to adopt new ones.
You see, I had a pretty bad injury a couple years ago. And when you find yourself suddenly unable to walk without excruciating pain, let me just tell you, that’s a special kind of terrifying! Thanks to some great health care professionals and the grace of God, that experience is far behind me, minus a few lingering things that, in the grand scheme of things, aren’t really that big of a deal. But…while the terrible experience may be over, it hasn’t been so easily forgotten. Because you see, when I was injured, there were a LOT of things I suddenly couldn’t do, both due to physical limitations and based on expert medical advice. And while that was a necessary part of the healing process, it had a weird side effect: It caused me to internalize the idea that I am suddenly “too fragile” for certain things. And unfortunately, once that fear set in, it’s been VERY hard to overcome.
So why am I telling you this? Because I think we ALL have our own stories that we tell ourselves that, while perhaps based in fact initially, are no longer true or no longer serve us. Thankfully, my experience of working with a coach and of coaching others has helped me understand this much better…and discover ways to help shift those perspectives to ones that have more of a basis in truth. But if YOU have stories you are clinging to, NOW is the time to let them go. And a great first step in doing so is to acknowledge what they are! So if you’re feeling brave, please share a story in the comments that you know you need to release. And if you need a bit more time to process before feeling comfortable enough to share publicly, go ahead and send me a private message. Not only will identifying the story holding you back help you to move forward; I just might be able to help! And if you feel uncertain, blocked, or stuck in some way, I encourage you to seek help, whether that be from me or someplace else. Because YOU have everything you need to move forward inside you…you just may need someone to help you see that and figure out your path forward!
