Challenges are unavoidable, more so when you’re a parent.
Providing the best life for your children presents the most challenges and requires you to make some tough decisions for the betterment of their future. These decisions can lead to sacrifices, perhaps on dreams of starting a business, pursuing a specific career, hobby or otherwise.
Things occur a certain way and may stop you in your tracks of what you think is possible.
But that doesn’t have to be the case.
While I may not know the intricacies of parenthood, I do know that it is possible to retain these dreams and work towards challenging goals while your daily life happens and seems hectic. All too often, we rely on external factors and circumstances to ‘allow’ us to succeed but to excel and become your source of empowerment, you have to look from within.
I know this sounds cliché but unlike a fairytale where things always turn out the right way in the end, moving towards that goal requires direct action to achieve them.
Addressing the Odds
It’s not uncommon for us to develop pre-conceived odds externally throughout our lives. These could develop from childhood where our parents tell us we’ll never achieve x or y because of where we grew up. Or hearing negative talk surrounding race, gender, looks or otherwise and believing that something is unachievable if you don’t have the right qualities.
Have you ever heard “once you have children, say goodbye to your dreams”?
As demotivating as these statements are, they cause a deep belief that prevents us from taking action in the future. We hear about extraordinary people overcoming challenges all the time, but when we see them, our first thought is, “well, I can’t do that because of X or Y”.
So, how do we overcome these statements? Empowering ourselves starts with a solid foundation and an understanding that succeeding personally and professionally starts with solid self-awareness and embracing yourself for you, not what ‘labels’ society designates you.
It is said that the sky’s the limit. We can wish, dream, visualise, manifest and practise affirmations, but before those can take effect, we must first develop the groundwork from within. If we look closely at the women, men, and youth doing great things, one thing is common – they embrace who they are now and continue to work on their goal regardless of what others are saying.
This helps keep the momentum high and provide the needed motivation to reach those goals. Addressing these odds becomes substantially more manageable when you channel your gifts.
Channeling What Makes You Unique
We must focus on where our energy is placed to thrive and do something different, and that focus is best placed on acknowledging oneself. Channeling your focus on your gifts, talents, and all that makes you human opens up opportunities to make money, start a business, build and create a career and go beyond the status quo that keeps one stuck or limited.
What do you need to do this?
An accurate understanding of what you bring to the table, the skill sets you can offer, and the value you provide
A vision of the life you want to create, what direction you want to take and what you would want your life to look like in 5 years time
What ripple effect do you want to have on those around you, who do you want to impact with your actions and who matters the most to you
Who of those around you can support you as you choose to shift focus on altering your life?
Once you answer these questions and understand what makes you unique, you can start taking direct action rather than being a bystander in your life waiting for something to happen.
We can further amplify our ability to adapt and change course by employing other brain-friendly activities.
Be Realistic With Your Expectations
Nothing discourages us more than failing to meet important goals, but we set ourselves up for failure if they are unrealistic from the get-go. Instead, create small but achievable goals. We’ll feel rewarded as a result and more likely to continue onto the bigger goals.
Embrace Everything About Yourself
The key to becoming your own source of empowerment is to embrace who you truly are. Forget those pre-conceived limitations and believe in your own ability to adapt to your surroundings and become the person you want to be – by leveraging the amazing person you are right now.
Be Open to Learning New Things
No matter how much of an expert you are in your field, there is always something new to learn, even if it is only a new way of doing what you already know. Being open to new information helps form stronger neural connections, aiding information retrieval in the future.
Ask Brain-Friendly Power Questions
Affirmations can have incredible effects on our self-perception. We can go a bit deeper by asking questions about the meaning you give certain thoughts. These help us get unstuck when we’re unsure why there are obstacles in our path. Most of the time, these obstacles are self-created and require more profound thought and work to remove successfully.
Empower Yourself
You’ll start to see yourself in a new light after implementing and using these tactics. Instead of accepting life as an “It is as it is”, you’ll begin to see openings you can take to put yourself on a new path. A path that you’ve long desired to be on but couldn’t find the right way, time or opening to get to.
Then, when things get tough, you can reflect on what makes you truly unique and find the appreciation that you and only you can do what you do.
Need Help?
As a High-Performance Brain & Neuro Agility Trainer and Certified Life & Executive Neuro-Leadership Coach, I use emotional agility and neuroscience-based approaches to empower and prepare my clients’ hearts and heads to take the journey from where they are to where they want to be. If you’re struggling to get there, I can help.
This post was first mentioned in the Authoritti5.0 Magazine
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