What Do You Do When a Door of Opportunity Opens?
There has been a lot written recently about women’s innate ability to lead. One reason that is consistently mentioned is that women are more risk adverse than men. Many thought leaders believe that because women are more cautious, they make better decisions. I believe there is some validity in this especially if you look at the recent events on Wall Street. It’s only speculation of course, but there is a widely held opinion that if there was more diversity at the leadership and board level, this current economic crisis might have been averted. Who knows?
Can this cautious outlook sometimes work against us? It is possible, in my opinion, to be so cautious that you never move forward in your business or career. Being overly cautious can paralyze you.
Almost every major milestone in my own career has been due to me taking an enormous leap of faith and trying something new; something perhaps I was not totally prepared for but decided to embrace regardless. When a door opened, I ran through it and never worried how I would master what was required to be successful in this new opportunity. I’m not saying that every time I took a risk, it worked out well. There have been times that I have fallen flat on my face. When this happens, it’s important to dust yourself off, gather your wits about you, and start all over again. In other words, never let your failures prevent you from learning a lesson, picking yourself up, and seizing the next opportunity that comes along with the same passion and energy.
What is the essential ingredient we all need to have in order to take a risk? Self confidence! Self confidence fuels your persistence and determination and helps propel you through any open door. In fact, with enough self confidence, you won’t even wait until a door of opportunity opens for you, you’ll go find it!
It’s critical for your success, whether you are an entrepreneur or corporate professional, to periodically connect with your value and talent to establish and grow your foundation of self confidence. This, in my opinion, is the secret to success.
We need to periodically connect with our value and talent because we often take our accomplishments for granted. We lose that connection to what is unique and wonderful about us. Do whatever it takes to honor your accomplishments and ability. One suggestion I make repeatedly is to keep a success journal and record all your accomplishments and review your entries each week, celebrate your achievements, and think about what these successes say about you. This will fuel your self confidence and your ability to take on new opportunities, which, in turn, will lead to career and business success.
Self confidence is the secret of success.
Wisdom from Seth Godin
Seth Godin has a new book out called Linchpin in which he talks about our “lizard brain”, that part of our brain that holds all our fears and limiting beliefs. The Lizard brain keeps us from doing our most creative work and often signals us to stay in our comfort zone and not take risks.
This audio is a 45 minute presentation that Seth did in New York last week. He talks about how these fears sabotage us.
I really love the story he tells about an employee he had in his company years ago who never failed at anything he did. He was his best employee, but Seth spoke with him and said if you don’t fail at something soon, you’re fired! Why? Because we all need to stretch and take risks to truly be creative and successful and distinguish ourselves from others.
Listen to the wisdom and let me know what you think. How do you tame your lizard brain?
Give Yourself a Pep Talk
Do you ever wonder how elite athletes like Tiger Woods or Roger Federer stay focused; how they manage to maintain their peak performance? I marvel at their ability to recover after a bad shot or a lost match; their resilience and ability to let go and forget their poor performance and come back with strength and fortitude.
How do they accomplish this? Well, almost all professional athletes work with coaches to re-program their thinking. Successful athletes think positively and use positive self-talk and affirmations to build their self esteem and confidence.
Athletes, like many of us, are subject to memories of previous events where they fell short in some fashion. These memories of past failures affect the present state of mind and cause us to believe that we will repeat the failure when presented with the same type of scenario. Sports coaches helps athletes to recall early images of success and focus on the positive to build basic confidence. They often assist athletes with creating positive self-talk and affirmations to counter the negative thoughts and feelings. This helps athletes to believe in themselves and stay focused on success.
We can use the same methodology to be successful. When you work on your own positive self-talk and affirmations stay focused on the immediate goals at hand and stay in the present. Recognize the negative thoughts when they occur and reprogram your internal dialogue to positive statements.
Give yourself a pep talk and you will achieve your goals. Focus on your previous successes and believe that you will win again.
Fear of Failure
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish—-Ovid
What great wisdom from a Roman poet. But how often are we willing to take risks and take chances? It’s pretty scary, right?
Have you thought about what your business would look like if you had NO fear of failure and rejection? Fear is such a powerful obstacle for most of us and the reality is that this fear constantly holds us back from success.
In theory, the solution seems so simple. Just put your fears aside and march gallantly out into the world with your message. We all know that it is simply not that simple. Many of us are terrified. If we all had the ability to overcome our fears, success would be achievable for everyone who seeks it.
We cannot escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures….Take a risk a day-one small or bold stroke that will make you feel great once you have done it.—Susan Jeffers.
I love this quote because the goal of completely eliminating all our fears is daunting. Why not make fear a friend who accompanies us through life but never holds us back? It’s OK to acknowledge that you are frightened, but when you let fear control the accelerator, it is very difficult to move forward.
What are some of your fears about promoting yourself and your business or your current job position?
- fear of rejection
- fear of making a fool of yourself
- fear that someone will find out you’re really not that good
- perfectionism
- fear that people won’t like you
- fear of success
Let’s recognize that we all have some of these fears and let’s recognize that these fears are preventing us from getting out there and promoting ourselves effectively.
What would your business look like if you were willing to make fear your companion and not your gatekeeper?
Can you take one small risk each day to promote yourself?
What is the worst thing that can happen? You might just catch that fish!!!
Check out my February Group Teleclass on Self-Promotion.
Sell Yourself and Your Services: How to Feel Comfortable with Self Promotion.
http://www.womenssuccesscoaching.com/services/group-coaching/
4 one hour sessions starting Tuesday, February 3rd at 7-8pm EST.
