Your thoughts and language reflect how confident you feel and are perceived by others. The more your thoughts are of a “can do” attitude, the words you use for self-talk as well as shared with others will reflect this way of thinking. As the affirming thoughts and words keep playing on your mental loop, you will exude confidence.

To bring this full circle, let’s say you were asked to give a presentation to a large group. And let's say that it's either your first one for this magnitude or public speaking is something you've yet to become more confident in doing.

What would your first thought be? What would you initially feel? And what would you tell yourself?

So, let’s say that you felt unsure of yourself and really didn’t want to do it, how might you shift this feeling and thought so that you felt more confidence delivering the presentation? Instead of allowing the negative thoughts and feelings replay over and over in your mind, try telling yourself...

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

I love this quote!

It puts into perspective how we as leaders influence our businesses and organizations every day with every interaction and every decision. This quote also reinforces the guiding principle behind one of my all-time favorite books, The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David J. Schwartz, which is “You are what you think you are.”

Take a moment and think about that for yourself – you are what you think you are.

What have your thoughts been?

Empowering?
Confidence building?
Solution-oriented?

Or

Defeating?
Limiting?
Doubting?

Our thoughts are powerful and shape how we see ourselves.

That perspective shapes our filter on what we see, what we say, and what we do. We all have times when we can get into our heads and not even realize that we have started down a path of self-doubt.

And could thoughts have influenced your decisions?

...

One show I absolutely loved when it was out and still watch the reruns is TLC's What Not To Wear! I love the process of transformation for each guest on the show and all of the helpful tips along the way. The process reminds me of the passionate entrepreneur and recognizing the leader within. Watch or listen and let's dive in!

Enjoy!

To get started, let's check in with what you have to work with.

Do you have an idea of what you want to achieve or your vision set?

Check!

How about the bigger goals in between the details and the vision to create a bridge?

Check!

And have you identified all the steps - or as many as you can - that are necessary to bring this idea to reality?

Check!

Excellent! You’re ready to go reach your goals and turn a vision into a reality, but there’s one small thing… you feel overwhelmed where to begin.

The goals you’ve set are big.

The steps you’ve figured out are good, but they also feel big. It’s almost like the steps you wrote down are smaller goals versus actionable steps. So, you take more time and break the steps down even further. After you’ve done this one more time, you’re pleased that you were able to figure out a map of sorts, but that feeling of overwhelm starts to creep up and make you wonder how you’re gonna really achieve...

 Let's talk about making the best of where you are.

In fact, this episode was inspired by sand crabs. Yep - these little critters seem to dance along the sand as they scurry from one hole to the next. With as much fervor as they can muster, they kick sand out of the way to create new holes and when you look for them, it seems like all you can see are their eyes.

And that's if you paid attention to them.

What I've noticed about sand crabs is that they do not seem phased by the sand mounds they have to climb or if they have to wait in an existing hole for a seagull to pass.

They went with the flow and made the most of where they were.

They reminded me how important waiting is.

How important patience is.

Sometimes waiting where we are may be exactly where we need to be. That can be so frustrating when we don't like where we are or how things are going, but we need more information to make a decision. Or the timing may be off.

The duration and reason for waiting can affect our...

Recently Mark and I watched The Greatest Showman, and I was moved by one of the key songs - "This is Me".

It reminded me of you and stepping up as leaders, so I wanted to drop in and share what came to me.

• Focus on your vision, even when the naysayers kick in
• There's always a way, when it's important to you to make it happen
• Leverage your team's individual strengths to bring out the best in them, which brings out the best in everyone
• Be willing to get out of the way and put your team members first, so that everyone succeeds
• Remove barriers so that the vision comes to life versus staying focused on only path to get there
• Don't lose sight of the people who mean the most to you, who have had your back from the beginning and when you doubted yourself
• Let people know how much they matter to you, and they will go the extra mile for you
• When you have your idea, you have to get visible and be willing to stand out from the crowd in order to be seen
• You have to be willing to go out on a...

As you lead your business or organization, it can get noisy and overwhelm can start to creep in.

Lots of information come in from different sources, and you must decipher which ones require your attention to move your vision forward.

Sometimes it can feel like there’s so much happening.

So much information you’re receiving that it’s hard to hear that still small voice inside that’s ultimately guiding you.

Sometimes the information is more noise and not helpful or necessary.

Other times, it’s needed for your business to succeed, but even in those cases, too much data can cause overwhelm.

This doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself or at that very moment, but it does mean that you must decide if it’s important to do or not do and take action accordingly.

So how do you ignore the noise and focus on what matters?

Simply stop, get quiet and get back to basics.

By stopping and taking a moment to calm your mind and block out all the...

 You’ve brainstormed and dreamed about new goals and new opportunities you want to achieve.

You’ve written them down and created a plan that you can’t wait to start.

Then slowly but surely, life starts to get in the way.

The actions you mapped out on your plan seem to be getting pushed out versus getting done. The momentum you had for making your goals happen has dwindled. Your schedule that was once one of your favorite tools has become a reminder that you are not doing everything you set out to do.

So what do you do?

It can be easy to beat ourselves up for what we haven’t gotten done or getting off track, but that won’t help. It will only add to the frustration, not make it better.

Instead, consider these seven tips to get back on track:

1. Take some time to regroup and assess where you are
2. Recognize what was done. Remember - you did accomplish some things, even if they weren’t all of the items you initially thought were going to happen.
3. ...

If you're ready for your next opportunity in your career or even as an entrepreneur who has to pitch a contract, a cover letter will help you bridge your experience to your new potential company. Listen to this video for tips to get your cover letter ready for success and the next step - your interview!

And when it’s a job you really want - the position that's more satisfying, leveraging all of your potential, and increasing your paycheck - the resume and cover letter can feel more like an obstacle, especially if you:

• Feel like your career path has been all over the place and are unsure how to include very different experiences into a cohesive story that feels authentic and clear to a potential employer while connecting to the job you want
• Feel overly concerned about showing if you’re either over or under qualified depending on the position being applied for
• Feel overwhelmed to know how effectively articulate your experiences and skills on paper, so that the hiring...

This idea was inspired by a recognition approach from one of the organizations I was in back in the corporate world. We awarded baby playdough - you know the little ones you find in a party pack - to individuals who suggested creative, out of the box ideas to move our overall big picture vision forward. It didn't matter if the idea was implemented as much as it was rewarding the creativity and courage for sharing something different. We wanted to achieve something different and we knew the "same old, same old" type of thinking wouldn't help.

It's like Einstein said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

In addition to shaping and sharing new ideas and thinking out of the box, I saw the playdough with a couple of other reminders. One was to detach from the outcome and be willing to start over when needed. Sometimes we can get so attached to an idea or thing that we can't let it go in order to make room for something better. Maybe that...