I recently began working with a man who is entering a new company as the Leader with a capital “L”. He enters the company with an awesome track record. Despite his previous successes, he is feeling nervous, and even a bit insecure about entering this new culture. He even admitted that he finds himself wondering if he is up to the task of creating what is expected of him.
I know exactly how he feels, because he is expecting me to help him. I am feeling the same types of thoughts and emotions and the pressure of living up to his expectations. Fortunately, I understand that when it is time to grow, it is normal to feel nervous about what we must do and who we must become to make it happen.
Making It Happen
I believe that one of the most challenging things is to walk into a room with the responsibility of leading. It is truly a sobering and humbling feeling. The pressure, when perhaps half of the team is secretly hoping for your failure, and the other half is hoping for something better than they have ever had before is intense.
For me, it is difficult to maintain a belief that I can actually train a “President” or another “Senior Leader”, to become better than they already are, or than they have every been before. I can’t tell you how many times the thought, “what makes you think you can do this?” has gone through my mind.
Fortunately, I am a firm believer that we invent reality and that we have the power to perceive things and way we want. It takes a good imagination, and a view of what “may be” to move toward something bigger than who we really are. I could spend my time believing that I will never be qualified to train presidents of organizations and that would most likely become my reality. Instead, I believe I can and that gives me the courage to show up and act accordingly.
Stepping Into Certainty
The big question is, “How do we do that on a consistent basis?”, and the answer is to press forward. The only thing that can really stop our forward progress is fear. It is natural to feel that fear, but we must overcome it. The only thing we can do to overcome it is to step forward. The first few steps may feel like steps into insanity, but little by little, we will begin to feel certain.
A funny thing is that the fear will always be there, no matter how many steps we take. Before each major step, we will doubt, for just a brief moment, whether or not we can take the next one. That is the interesting thing about our successes. They don’t take the fear away from us, we just learn how to push through it. This is what gives us certainty. It is not that our fear disappears, we just know what waits for us on the other side of it.
Moving Your Dream Forward
I am imagining that you are a lot like me and my new client, and that you are also staring in the face of a new opportunity. It is probably very different than the one I am describing in this article, but I am pretty sure one exists. The very thought of it makes you nervous. You want to move forward, but you are not yet sure how you will.
What are the obstacles that you see? What do you need to make them irrelevant?
Who do you need to become to embrace this new opportunity? What experiences from your past can you draw upon to you the courage to move forward?
One of the most exciting times in life is when we ind ourselves standing on the edge of opportunity. It’s kind of like standing on a rock and getting ready to jump in a lake. When we stand on the edge and jump, we feel the energy and the joy of the experience, but if we stand on the edge and wait, the knots and tension in our stomach may become more than we can bear. Have no fear, the water’s fine!
Live Today! Love Today!
Andrew Thorn
760-559-3548
