by Elizabeth Pritchard
I used to think working long hours, doing everything for everyone, achieving more and driving myself harder, would get me the recognition and success I craved. It did in some way, BUT at a huge cost. A huge cost to my health (a complete mental health episode that lasted for months and took years to fully recover), to relationships (a divorce and an estranged daughter over many years), and to my finances. I realise now that none of these desires were worth it, and what I also came to realise, was that I didn’t believe that I was worth it!
I thought that ‘doing’ was the vital ingredient for a life of satisfaction and meaning, and I was so wrong. Experiencing the scattered threads of my life, I was given the opportunity to reflect. Reflect on what was important to me, reflect on what I believed about myself, reflect on who I choose to BE, instead of focus on a life of doing.
So many of the women I work with as an Authentic Leadership Coach and Trainer are just beginning to discover this truth. That you ARE ENOUGH! It is not about what you DO, it is all about who you BE. Are your thoughts and actions congruent? Are you committed to personal growth and expansion and not just the accumulation of information? Are you committed to doing the work and taking ACTION, every single day. One tiny tweak, that moves you closer and closer to real life success. The life where you are present in the moment. The life where you experience joy in all things. The life where you choose to respond with thoughts and actions that serve you and the others around you, and not just sit back waiting for life to direct you.
We know from the work of people like Professor Sonya Lyubomirski, Dr Joe Dispenza, Professor Martin Seligman, Dr Emoto, Dr Bruce Lipton and many others, that we can choose to live in a state of joy and satisfaction. That we can create joy and meaning in our life regardless of the situation or adversity we find ourselves in. This is not the airy-fairy process of positive thinking; a phenomenon that has tripped up so many people in the past.
Positive thinking stays in the brain and does not get past the amygdala and thereby is unable to change the way we feel unless we embrace it emotionally.
When we CHOOSE who we are BE-ing, we are aligning our posture, our thoughts, our emotions and our actions. We obliterate the past patterns of incongruence between glib statements like “But I’m trying to see the positive side of this” and the feeling panic within our body. When we recognise the patterns of thinking that are not serving us, we recognise we can change them, and we can step into the amazing possibility of rewiring our neural pathways and create new empowering patterns.
When we create and practice these patterns, like going to the gym to build muscle strength, we get to build our inner strength. We build our ability to direct and choose our pathway. We build our life from this moment forward, and not keep falling back into the stories of the past.
The power and success of BE-ing surpasses anything we engage in. It is about stepping into who we truly are. Being aware of our strengths, choosing our thoughts and actions, and unleashing the power of enoughness, that is within each unstoppable woman on this planet! It is time to take the step!
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