Hello and welcome to a new work week!
For the past three weeks, we’ve been looking at the topic of improving your leadership health. So far, we have talked about 3 things you can do to improve your leadership health. Today, I’ll be sharing the fourth point which is:
Step Out In Faith
Ready! Aim!! Fire!!!
Ever found yourself stuck in ready or aim? Wanting to fire but never getting around to doing so? Having good ideas and intentions but not taking action on them?
You need faith!
I can totally relate to ready, aim, no fire; bought the t-shirt and all that (and I’m still learning).
Isn’t it amazing how you can step out in faith (or be courageous) in one area of your life but struggle to do it in another area?
I once heard someone say that if you can’t seem to decide on a specific path, just pick one path, take it, and commit to it. If it works, great! If it doesn’t, you’ve learned one way not to go and also picked up a few lessons on the way. Basically, don’t stay stagnant, take action.
I agree with him.
Experience has taught me that dilly-dallying is a time stealer and it brings with it – frustration and regret. I’m almost certain you have your own tales of woe, regarding dilly-dallying (hesitation, stalling, delaying, being indecisive).
Why then do we not take action even when we’ve experienced, seen, and heard how dissatisfactory it is not to take action on our desires and goals?
Well, there are a lot of reasons people don’t take action on an idea, goal, or mission. While each person’s reason is unique to them and their experiences, the underlying factor for not taking action stems from a similar source; fear.
Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of more, fear of less, fear of opinions, fear of conflict, etc. You fear what may or may not happen to you if you take action to achieve your desires or goals. You might find yourself waiting for many months or years until conditions are perfect so you can step out. Only to find yourself losing steam or wandering off on another path as a result of excess preparation.
Maybe you happen to fall into the category of leaders who go full steam ahead with their personal and professional development. Taking on courses back to back, enrolling in one program or another, piling on degree after degree; all in an attempt to find the right time to strike out.
News flash – the right time will never come if you keep seeing every time available to you as the wrong time. Conditions might never feel right and the stars might never completely align the way you want them to; it’s called life. The practical way to know if a certain time is right or not is to step out in faith and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Fear is a big barrier we all encounter in different ways and we must do our best to overcome it if we want to truly succeed.
Simple (not necessarily easy) strategies to address fear:
- Identify how you feel or behave when you think of taking action on the things you’re dilly-dallying about
- Recognise the fear behind the feeling or behaviour
- Capture the voice/thought behind the fear
- Reframe the thought to something positive and empowering, then speak back the reframed thought to yourself again and again to interrupt the fear-induced thought (there’s recent research that says; in order to interrupt/replace a negative thought, you need to say three positive things)
- Act out your reframed thought and stay committed to your actions
Use the strategies above to help you kick fear to the kerb and step out boldly in faith. If you need to brush up on some skills, get relevant training. If you’re struggling or need help to walk through a certain process, find a good coach or mentor to help you.
Reach out to me if you need help to shift your mindset and take decisive steps toward your dreams or goals. Until next time…
Keep Leading Right and Living Light,
Belinda
