The 5 AUDACITIES of Women Who Lead 3/5

If you had a look at the previous blog post, you would have noticed that I spent a lot of time on preparing for and grabbing opportunities. As much as I've had plenty of opportunities in my own life, there have also been times when I've been remiss in going for it. One would think that once the opportunity is identified, it would be easy to just grab it, right? Not really. It seems that just grabbing opportunities is actually not as easy as it sounds. Which brings me to the 3rd, Audacity.

AUDACITY no 3

FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY!

1. Fear

One of the main reasons I've not tackled an opportunity is because of fear. It sounds strange coming from a person who has taken on some of the world's biggest mountains, jumped off bridges and out of aeroplanes. Interestingly, within my own belief about myself, I can totally do it. I've never had any doubts about being able to take on the physical risk of climbing mountains. I have no fear of the risks involved in adventure. That's the thing about this kind of fear; it's not necessarily about a physical risk; it can be the risk of criticism, judgement or even just imposter syndrome. I have personally avoided doing things – that are well within my ability to do – due to a fear of judgement. So, I'm busy preaching to myself here.

I once heard someone say that fear is basically False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR). In other words, fear is not an accurate barometer for capability or success. It does, however, have the power to make us feel incapable or not succeed.

2. Imposter Syndrome

I didn't realise this at first, but it recently occurred to me that imposter syndrome is a form of fear. Think about it. When we feel like we don't deserve to be in a space, we are subconsciously worried that we may be 'found out' or 'seen to impose'. The consequence of being 'found out' is being thrown out. So, imposter syndrome is basically the fear of being thrown out. In order to counteract imposter syndrome, I decided to play this trick on myself:

1. Remind myself of my accomplishments. This is not as easy as it sounds, because one must simultaneously feel a sense of pride and be humble about it.

2. Tell myself repeatedly: "I belong here; this is my space, and I'm on a mission."

3. Cancel the thoughts of what others might feel or say about me behind my back. They're probably not thinking about me anyway.

4. Ensure that I add real value in the spaces that I occupy.

3. Doubt

Sometimes we second-guess ourselves. As if that's not bad enough, the people around us may create doubt by questioning our capabilities. If you combine both your own and other people's doubt, it's called "noise". Doubt is nothing but having a limiting belief. Limiting thoughts and beliefs have prevented me and others from doing extraordinary things, just because we don't believe that a thing can work out for us.

Did you know that belief is more powerful than knowledge? Here's an example. Many smokers know that it is bad for one's health, yet they keep smoking. Why? Just like anyone with a habit (good or bad) we do things based on what we think of ourselves and not what we know about the effects or facts about that habit.

Recalibrating a belief is a simple trick of speaking the opposite of a habit we'd like to change – persistently. Similarly, we can change doubts (which are beliefs from our internal voice) by speaking about exactly what it is that we want – not what we don't want. This is important. Speaking what we don't want sounds like this: "I don't want to smoke anymore."

Speaking what we want, sounds like this: "I enjoy the power I have over my ability to control negative habits." This is a strategy all peak performers use to get rid of unhelpful noise. Doubts feed fear, so the sooner we speak of ideal outcomes, the better we are able to go after big and scary goals, without fear or doubt.

It would be my pleasure to work with you and your team to explore and perfect thinking habits and peak performance mindset to unlock greater effectiveness.