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...

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. ...

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...

 I had a college professor who explained during a lecture that there wasn't just one way to get somewhere. He said there was "the" way like there were many paths you could take to reach your vision or end goal and there was "thuh" way - meaning that there was only one way that would work and all the others were subpar or would even fail to achieve the desired goal.

And as I reflected on that lecture, I realized that this could apply to many things. For instance, in math there are a few ways to get to 10. Such as 5+5, 2+8, and 1+9.

And in business, there's no right way to achieve a vision or goal.

We would all love the direct route, but what typically happens is the curvy, zig-zag path.

You might have one way that you think it ought to be handled, but if you're working with a team and not fully leveraging what they are individually and collectively bringing to the table, then the vision will not be as full and impactful as it could be. By allowing your team the opportunity to...

It’s another day at the office, and it seems like everything that can go wrong has, and you are frustrated. Maybe it seems as though each time you complete an item on your action list, three new items are added. Or perhaps you can see delays in schedule or cost over runs and no sign of improvement. Or perhaps you are short-staffed and do not have a new employee starting anytime soon to help with the workload.

I know I’ve had each of these situations happen before, and I definitely felt frustrated and overwhelmed. It can be easy to let the things that aren’t going well to be all that we see. And when we focus on those frustrations, we tend to see even more of them.

Soon enough, it feels like a continual spiral of overwhelm and frustrations that can be challenging to stop. When that happens, how do you go about changing your perspective?

The answer is easy, but it takes effort and practice.

When you look for the positive, you will start to feel a shift. Not only...