I’ve noticed a trend of late where women who are set to meet with me for coaching or mentoring or cheerleading (that’s my favourite) keep pushing that meeting out.
I get that there are always going to be business or family priorities that come up that require your schedule to shift, but this isn’t that.
It seems that when it’s personal, when it’s about our individual growth, when it’s about putting ourselves on the agenda, it’s easy to postpone or reschedule.
I have a theory about why this happens: too many of us think that taking time for ourselves, for self-reflection, for growing our self-awareness isn’t as important, i.e. it’s not ‘real’ work.
An even worse theory is that it’s selfish or self-indulgent. My mother often labelled me selfish whenever I took time, as a single parent, to restore and replenish myself or just to think by myself.
Both theories are wrong.
Look, there’s always going to be ‘stuff’ that keeps us busy. If we let it, we could spend our entire days in busywork. I’m not saying some of that isn’t important, but if you’re going to step up and be the confident women you know you can be, you’ve simply got to make time to grow yourself. This is how you build confidence!
And this means, spending time doing nothing but thinking about who you are, what’s working, what needs to be changed, why you do the things you do, and how you might need to grow. It’s hard work but it’s the real work of your life.
Try this ONE thing
Try this one simple thing this week: at some point each day, take a couple of minutes to reflect on you:
are you happy?
what do you like about yourself, your behaviour?
what may need more attention?
Resist the temptation to put this off, and see what you can learn about yourself in one week. I guarantee you will have some insights that will propel you forward.
I want you show up as the confident person you are meant to be. This world needs you and me being our fully confident selves.
I've done it and I can show you how to do it. Sign up for my blog at https://bit.ly/kltheonething and please join the conversation by sharing your comments and stories on LinkedIn or dropping me a note at karen.laidlaw.theONEthing@outlook.com.