I am currently coaching an extremely impressive lady who has an awesome career portfolio. She has worked with some of the top CEOs, Senior Directors, Military top brass, high achieving sports personalities, public sector and top private sector companies.
Her extensive experience and knowledge spans a vast range of industry sectors, really diverse training and coaching challenges, including International sporting events, high performing individuals and teams and Peers of the Realm.
Yet she has spent much of her career feeling she is ‘in the shadow’ of the trainers and coaches she has worked with, playing the ‘Supporter’ role. Often working as an Associate Trainer or part of a team, she hugely underestimated the impact she personally was having on her clients, despite many of the major organisations and senior Execs. she worked with wanting to retain her services long after the contract was finished.
Working with her is a sheer joy as she is now stepping into her incredible power and realising just how talented she is and how much she has to offer! She will soon be hitting the speaker circuit as a highly experienced ‘Thought Leader’ with some amazing stories to tell and insights to share, and I for one, can’t wait to hear her speak.
People with such talent, experience and knowledge can literally change the lives of the people they work with and to hide that talent away is depriving the world of a great gift.
So what is it that makes up play small? What makes us ‘hide our light under a bushel’?
So much of it is down to our upbringing. Most of us were brought up to be modest and not to ‘boast’ about our achievements -to be quiet and keep them to ourselves.
I can well remember my Father saying to me ‘Don’t get above your station young lady’ when I over enthused about something I was proud of achieving at school.
When I got to secondary school, sports days were made non-competitive so people wouldn’t feel left out or inferior -what happened to striving to be the best you can possibly be?
None of our top athletes got to where they are today by being average and the high achievers have coaches who work on their mindset, their self-belief, their inner voices so that they believe with every fibre of their being that they can and will win!
So how can you step into your power today? – One of my strongest recommendations is to work with a coach who can ask all the right questions to get to the root of the person you truly are and who can give you time to think, reflect and share your thoughts and help you to make sense of them.
If you can’t afford a coach right now then get together with a close friend or colleague and give each other the space and time to explore the many different aspects of your lives that have shaped the person you have become today.
If no-one is available then take time out for you and consider the following –
- Take some time to reflect back on all your life experiences, learnings, training and relationships that have impacted most on you.
- What did you do well in at school, college, university? What are/were your hobbies, sporting achievements, creative projects?
- What job roles have you loved and where have you produced the best results?
- What do people who hold you in high esteem say about you? – Your best clients, colleagues, business or life partner, parents, child? Write down some of those positive words and put them where you will see them every day.
- What value do you bring to your business and personal life and how could you spend more time doing the things you are naturally talented in and where you consistently deliver excellent results?
- Take some serious time to think about where you want to be in 3months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years time and start to take the baby steps that will move you towards your dreams.
Beyond where you are now lies an infinite power that would astound you, so step into that power now and live the life you were born to live!
Finally – Great quote which captures the essence of this article –
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”. Marianne Williamson