Burn the Belief That’s Holding You Back
I recently spent several days in Cancun at Social Jet AI’s Altitude Conference, surrounded by incredible women (and three lovely gentlemen). This wasn’t your typical industry event. It was intentionally different, combining content creation, mindset work, and confidence building in equal parts, with plenty of photo and video shoots to bring it all together.
As usual, the real conversations happened at dinner and at the bar in the evenings. That’s when people loosened up (hello, cocktails) and asked the questions they were too shy to ask during the day. And thank goodness for those day sessions to get them thinking.
I was a bit surprised by some of the common themes that were coming up:
“I’m afraid to become too successful because my people might judge me.”
“I’m afraid to really go for it, in case I fail.”
“I’m not sure I deserve success.”
Excuse me? OH HELL NO! We have some work to do.
If you’re experiencing any of these fears, try this:
Picture someone you care about saying to you:
“I won’t love you if you become too successful.”
“You’ll never make it. You’re going to fail.”
“You don’t deserve success.”
You wouldn’t say any of this to someone you love. So why do you believe the people who love you would say it to you? We are only this cruel to one person: ourselves.
Women, in particular, feel a responsibility to make everyone else comfortable before themselves, but we know deep down that we can do more good if we unleash our highest potential. You are not obligated to keep yourself small for anyone, and you are doing yourself and the world a disservice by doing so.
One attendee told me about her fear of failing. I shared that when something scares me, I feel I have to do it, and Cruise Business Blueprint is evidence, because when I floated the idea to friends Kate & Nikita, I said, “I know I have to do it because it scares the sh*t out of me.”
You can decide not to let things intimidate you. You can’t help being scared of something, but you can choose to keep putting one foot in front of the other anyway. What’s the worst that can happen? You fail? So, you do something else. But I bet you won’t.
As for being “deserving” of success, this is just a lie your ego is telling you so that you don’t take any risks. Stay safe. Stay small. Don’t rock the boat. It’s trying to protect you. How sweet.
The sad thing about all of this is that it’s simply YOU getting in your own way, for no good reason. The first step is to acknowledge these fears (and any like them). Once you have called them out, you can start doing the work to let them go. Several people said that just saying them out loud helped them to squash them.
What’s one limiting belief you are carrying around? Write it down. Burn it. Or tell someone and set the intention to let it go. We have enough to worry about in this crazy world. Don’t be your own problem.
You’ve got this.
