The worst thing you can do is hold back. If you don’t go after what you want, or after a challenge and get out of your comfort zone…you’re keeping yourself from doing great things.
Why hold back on your potential?
Why stunt your personal growth?
Why impede your professional development?
“Unless you're willing to look a little foolish, forget the possibility of becoming great.” Cher
Are you terrified of public speaking? Are you too old to learn a language? Are you too tired and impatient to communicate effectively? Communication can be difficult at times… but when we improve our skills in these areas, which we can then not only do we feel more fulfilled in the process and doors we never even knew were there, start to open.
And I’m not just talking about performing or doing public speaking, but….
How many times have you come up with excuses for not rising to challenge or not perusing your passions?If you think back, you probably found some external force to blame. We all do this. We like to blame others for our lack of motivation, inability to start, or inertia when in fact we just have ourselves to blame.
Excuses ? We hear them all the time: Oh, my full-time job keeps me too busy. There’s already a company that does that and there’s no space in the industry for that. Such and such is not niche enough… the list goes on and on.
We’re so good at coming up with excuses, especially.. particularly for the things we actually want in life.
Why is that? Why do we let other people’s dreams, and wishes, and passions take priority? Maybe it’s because we’re scared. Maybe it’s some other reason we cant quite put our finger on.
If we want to do great things, we have to at some point look foolish. And so what? What are we worried about? Perceptions of others? Judgement? Unsolicited advice? Criticism? Who cares?
And let me say this: even if we think we look foolish, the audience might not think so, your colleagues might not think so… we’re good at being overly critical of ourselves. Especially if we’re new at something. But how can you get good at something if you don’t try first? Aside from looking “foolish” … which you probably won’t, we fear judgement. But think about it. Does it really matter if they judge us because we appear silly and foolish?
Should we really care about evaluation apprehension if that means we are taking risks and exploring the multitudinous layers of our true essence?
We evolve, we grow, we do better and then we look back on our very first attempt and say “wow, how far I’ve come” and that is an amazing feeling.
Let's do a little exercise.
I want you to think of what it is that you want the most. Personally or professionally.
- How do I get there?
- Who’s holding me back?
Chances are for the last prompt you’ll find it’s you holding you back.
Don’t stand in your own way anymore.
- Boost that confidence.
- Create that product.
- Build that business.
- Learn that language.
- Live in that country.
- Give that TEDTalk
And check off as many items off that great big bucket list of yours because we only live once… at least not many of us has memories from past lives if there’s such a thing.
Alright, let’s go out there and follow our dreams. Because no else can live our life for us.
Thank you for reading!!
