Context: Won’t It Be Awesome When...
/Did you know your self image can impact your ability to fail or to achieve? One of my favorite aspects of coaching is to collaborate with clients so that they are able to accomplish goals that they perceive as impossible. This type of collaboration requires a willingness to analyze their self image because it impacts the way they make meaning about the world. For example, a CEO of a small company came to me because she felt like no matter how many hours she worked, her work was never good enough. We discovered her self image and way of being were in direct relation to her seven-year-old self who struggled to complete phonics worksheets correctly. The possibility of becoming a successful CEO was being constrained by her past, and it wasn’t serving her anymore. In order for her to change her self image I asked, “What if it’s absolutely true that your work is good enough and you’re overqualified? What would your life look like and what would you have to do for that to happen?” When she started describing a world where her work was good enough, a new context was created that opened up a space for her to declare what was possible.
Your context is a cognitive lens through which you filter life and then that meaning shapes your way of being. My client learned that her self image was getting in the way of valuing her work. Once she created a new self image, she started to believe that her work was good enough. When she choose behaviors that aligned with a CEO whose work impacted the growth of the company, she started showing up differently because she decided on different conditions. As a result, she was free to act authentically into the new context, the pressure to BE ‘good enough’ disappeared and she trusted that she could achieve the impossible.
Take the Action Challenge to change your context:
Identify your self image by noticing how you describe yourself.
Shift your thinking by asking, “What if it isn’t true that I am….?”
List the behaviors that will support these new conditions.
Take action to live in this new context by saying, “Won’t it be awesome when….”
Today is the day to stop living from the past. Decide to show up powerfully by taking the Action Challenge to change your context. I’d love to know how your self image is impacting your ability to fail or to achieve.
P.S. Share this post with friends, clients or colleagues that filter life through a context based on the past. Together you can create a shift in thinking and take action on what’s possible right now. Note: This blog is just a suggestion and not a replacement for coaching.