I am a bit late on the blog post front this fortnight -sorry peeps!! I was fortunate enough last week to get an invitation to the Victorian Telstra Women’s Business Awards for 2017, and it was one of the most inspirational events I have ever been to. I did not know a soul except for the wonderful woman who invited me, and quite frankly I was super nervous. But, I didn’t let this stop me from accepting the invitation. I took the opportunity over the fear of feeling nervous and potentially standing in the corner on my lonesome, and sh*t was I glad that I did.

This amazing night showcased so many women, doing so many amazingly inspirational things, and often with multiple other personal challenges testing them at the same time. It was another great eye opener of what you can achieve when you put courage, resilience and purpose first, and it added another piece to the perspective puzzle of life.

It was also a reminder for me of how easy it is to get into a rut, or a routine (but not the one you try to create, like the eating well and going to the gym type of routine!).  It is far easier to stay in your comfort zone, keep things ticking along and play it safe. One thing that these women all had in common though, was that none of them played it safe.  They worked out what made their hearts light up, what they felt like their purpose was, and they went for it.  Most of them had been in comfortable jobs that they woke up every morning and hated, or roles that didn’t light them up inside, but it took them just one big word to ultimately make a change in their lives that set them on a path that would change them for the better, and it has changed them forever – COURAGE.

The highlight of my night was listening to a speech by Holly Ransom. If you don’t know of Holly Ransom, here is a link to the long list of insane achievements that this powerhouse already has against her name. This speech hit me hard. It resonated with me, and actually moved me to tears at one point.

Holly’s speech covered many things, but most importantly it spoke about the importance of courage and the power of choosing it over fear.  It sounds so obvious, right? But how many of us can truly say that we choose it every time? That we select courage over fear. I know I choose fear sometimes even for things where I might not have that much skin in the game, or that might not even be a big deal – “let’s not go to that restaurant, it might not be good”, “let’s not go to that party – we don’t know anyone!”. These are all super simple examples of choosing fear over courage, and if we all dig deep, we can probably all think of examples in our day to day lives where we let fear of the unknown rule over courage to seize the new opportunities in front of us.  

What I loved about Holly’s speech was how she broke it down into three questions to ask yourself, each time you feel that you might be letting fear overtake courage.

Firstly, what is the worst thing that can happen to you if you select courage over fear in whatever the current example might be?

Secondly, what is the true likelihood that the worst thing that could happen, will actually happen?

Thirdly, what could you, or would you do to reverse things, if the worst thing above actually DID happen? What could you do to fix it?

These all sound fairly simple, but if you work through these steps mentally each time you are thinking about doing something that takes courage, or something that you haven’t done before, you will instantly feel more confident. Why? Because you have already worked out in your head that even if the worst of the worst does come true, you CAN fix it, you CAN reverse it, and you WILL be ok.

So, what will be the first thing that you consciously push forward with courage in, and seize the opportunity of the unknown, instead of the fear of it??

If you want to know more about some of these amazing and inspiring women, check out the link here to this year’s 2017 Telstra Business Women’s Awards finalists and winners.

Thank you also for your wonderful and kind words following my latest blog post around Overthinking (check it out here if you missed it)– it become very clear to me how many of us suffer from this at times mentally paralysing trait.

If you are genuinely looking for some help in how to manage your overthinking and how to use it is as a strength instead of a derailer, feel free to hit me up at [email protected] for an obligation free chat about how we can help you get out of your own way.