30/05/2022
I’ve just been reflecting and thought someone might find this useful to hear…
Quiet and shy, I found it difficult to start a conversation... that was with the people I knew, speaking to strangers was much worse!
👉 What changed?
When I was younger, I was happy to go unnoticed. I didn't want the attention and so I didn't want people to speak to me.
As I got older and started to work on my mindset, I still had this lingering belief that I didn't want people to speak to me and worse still, I was projecting that belief onto others which meant I wouldn't try to speak to them either...
👉 I needed a two-pronged approach to combat this. Firstly, I needed to change my belief that I didn't want people to talk to me. This BELIEF was no longer USEFUL to me and was holding me back.
I reflected on my own identity and used affirmations to reinforce who I wanted to be - someone who was open to new connections and welcomed engagement.
👉 Secondly, I needed to change my BELIEF that EVERYONE ELSE felt like I did about not wanting others to speak to them...
Spoiler alert: they didn't.
I started to experiment. I started small. I set myself a target of saying "good morning" to one stranger each day. Soon it was 3 per day. People smiled and so I later added a question, "How are you?" and later still I added a compliment, "I like your shoes..."
The awareness of these two (very) limiting beliefs played a huge role in improving my communication and collaboration with others and made a massive difference, firstly to my career, but more importantly, to my relationships with family, friends and colleagues.
This all feels a bit deep for a Monday! 😂
👉 Can you identify any beliefs that are holding you back?
What can you do about them?
