These past couple of weeks have brought opportunities for growth to me in a few different ways. 

1. Balancing personal life & entrepreneurship
2. Overcoming self-limiting narratives to show up and serve
3. Validating your unique service in an overwhelming field/crowded space

I’ll break it down for you in each category really quick:

Balancing personal life & entrepreneurship

Challenge: Learning how to make space for grief and personal challenges while working as a coach and business owner.

Lesson: Our most aligned community will value our humanity which includes the ups & downs.  There isn’t a requirement for us to wait until we’re 100% happy & energetic to show up & be helpful to others. At the same time, we can & should also make time to care for ourselves fully first and be the embodiment of the care & healing methods we teach. 

There’s a tricky, invisible expectation that hovers over us as leaders & founders, especially in the transformation & healing space. As space-holders and teachers, we feel the responsibility of showing up with enough power to be safe and helpful for our clients. This responsibility is so real, but I’m learning that my ability to show up as safe & helpful can exist in chapters where I also am processing grief and hurt in the appropriate moments. Navigating that duality and gaining more and more muscle memory to do so, becomes such a helpful skill as we take on more responsibility along our journey. I’m grateful for this lesson & practice.

Community reflection: What experiences do you have with this duality? Of processing big feelings yet still showing up to hold space, lead, and impact? Share your insights!

Overcoming self-limiting narratives to show up and serve

Challenge: Having past successes or fixed expectations limit what you believe is possible within the opportunities right in front of you.

Lesson:  Find new outlets, release expectations that don’t serve you, and channel your gifts however you can. 

For example, I had felt challenged in growing my business while living in Taiwan because it presents fewer opportunities for local in-person events. This became a self-limiting narrative for me. In the past in the U.S., my in-person events were where I felt most confident and could easily leverage opportunities to network and receive more invitations to speak. This past month, I went head-first into being a guest on other people’s podcasts. I just filmed my 4th interview a couple of days ago and realized how much I love & value the opportunity to speak, even if it’s through a screen to only one other person. Being online has pushed me to lean into my intuition to make the audience less invisible while I’m speaking. When I do, I’m able to connect with delivering the insights and value the listeners may be looking for, even if I can’t read the room & interact with them in the moment the way I could at an in-person event. The feedback from those interviews have been really positive and I am excited to share the episodes with you as they release. Ultimately, just taking action & showing up with my gifts & service allowed me to release my self-limiting narrative and find a new path to my desired destination.

Community reflection: What experiences do you have with self-limiting expectations or fixed expectations that hold you back? How do you overcome them?

Validating your unique service in an overwhelming field/ crowded space

Challenge: Maintaining clarity & confidence in what you do and why you do it while navigating a messy, crowded terrain.

Lesson:  Balance blocking out the noise to connect with your inner voice & value while making sure you don’t exist in a vacuum and you stay in dialogue with the community you are growing. 

Each time I enter a new context, it takes me a cool minute to get my ball-bearings and find out who I want to be in that space. Mainstream messaging pushes fast action, but that simply doesn’t work for all of us. I believe that those who are the most sensitive to well-being & integrity need more time to assess, reflect, and take intentional action. However, in that phase of pause, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by everything we are observing and lose sight of our unique value & service. While I have a well-practiced routine of blocking out the noise to return to my inner voice, the past few weeks reminded me that an additional step of seeking dialogue partners who can reverberate your voice and adjust your messaging is just as important. This brings our clarity full-circle and ensures that the voice that we’re honing is helpful to others. 

Community reflection: What experiences do you have with connecting with your inner voice & value? With testing your voice in safe, constructive spaces? How do you overcome the overwhelm of information & messages in your field?

Recognizing opportunities for growth can be powerful doorways to new opportunities and acceleration for our missions. These moments reminded me of the power of reframing what feels limiting & finding the lesson within.