It’s like the sunshine after the rain, when we let go of fear. Fear is a 21st century disease that can prevent us from growing. Preventing us from delivering on our purpose, our WHY. Leading to self doubt, self sabotage and impact our limiting belief systems! It can prevent us moving forward.
Reading a Forbes article recently. It talked about the role model effect and how it is super powerful. For this reason, these female leaders are the key to inspiring the next generation of female leaders. Demonstrating how to break down the fear barriers with females.
Furthermore,Esther Duflo an economist, conducted research, around the quotas for female politicians in local government in Bengal, India since 1993. The local villages that had long serving female representatives in local government had closed the gender gap in education. Consequently, they also found that the girls in these communities had set higher goals for themselves.
As a result, Bengal female politicians are the epitome of hope, fearfulness, courage and opportunities for these young women in their communities. Having a positive role model can turn a fearful mindset into a fearless mindset. Your internal world starts to change.
Furthermore, findings showed, that parents were 25% more likely to report having more ambitious education goals for their daughters. These female politicians, became the role models for the local girls. Gender barriers were broken and hope created in these communities. Inspiration flowed with ambition, changing perceptions and creating new norms.
However, when I reflected on a time when I was made redundant from an organisation, as a result of a global merger. Automatically, my instinct was to bury my head in the sand and carry as if nothing had happened. How wrong was I!
However I chose not to deal with the emotions at the time. Pushing down these feelings so I did not have to deal with them, choosing to ignore them. This manifested within me as feelings of self doubt and not being good enough at my job. Even more, in my new role, I found it was being impacted as a result of my previous experience. Furthermore, I allowed the fear and shame to impact some decisions I made as a result of this situation. It was like a dark cloud above my head. I struggled at times to see a way forward.
Eventually I addressed these feelings. I called this colleague who had replaced me in role in the restructure. During our conversation we discussed the merger and what it had meant for both us. Surprisingly he did not have the same perceptions of my redundancy that I had.
After that, I let the fear go, as we openly and honestly discussed. Suddenly it felt like the sunshine after the rain! A freshness in my mind. Clarity! Suddenly I realised I was my harshest critic. The harsh critic does not always serve with the best intentions!
Similarly, when we spoke openly we found that both of us had similar feelings and thoughts but failed to communicate them. Fearing, if we were viewed as being weak or vulnerable. Realising through our conversation was that we shared may similar thoughts and feelings around the situation at the time.
In conclusion, when I follow these 7 simple steps in my practice. They remind me not to hold onto thoughts and emotions that are not serving me and be open and honest:
7 steps from”fearful into fearless” mindset.
- Prepare to Show Up every day – be accountable
- Believe and Practice your values every day – be the transparent leader
- Communicate – talk about emotions!
- Practice healthy principles – exercise, good food choices, positive thinking, be kind to people and stay flexible
- Practice 10 minutes of gratitude every day
- Reward yourself for all your successes, no matter how small
- Trust your instincts
Let’s feel like the sunshine after the rain. Read more on female leadership