Better Every Day challenge

Have you ever considered a new year resolution involving fitness?

Have you ever bought gym membership and never used it as much as you thought?

Have you ever intended to get fitter but spent more time buying the gear than doing the work

There’s a lot of us nodding at this point.  Me too.   What we know from this is that exercise and physical fitness don’t come to us in fits and starts.  Fitness requires sustained effort.   

Yet most of us when we’re developing ourselves or our teams look to achieve peak work performance in much the same way.  

Companies buy expensive training programmes.  Everyone does the training.  A big fuss is made.  The circus then moves on and we slide that glossy binder onto the bookshelf as our mark of achievement and life carries on.   We got the training shoes, we just never put them on.

Like physical fitness, millions of dollars are wasted every year repeating the same process.   Sprint learning, condensed learning, bite-sized learning, lunch-time learning. 

The pattern is the same – compartmentalising what makes us stronger into the shortest time possible so we can get it done without compromising anything else.  And yet we know that the best way to actually build muscle, whether physical or mental, is through small repeatable actions and habits.

Hey you can even go on a course to learn about positive habit formation – how funny is that!

Thriving Leader Shorts

For the next few weeks on Thriving Leader, I’m going to write Thriving Leader shorts – tiny bite-sized things for you to try in your week ahead, maintaining our focus on Imposter Syndrome. 

Physical muscles develop progressively in layers.  I want you to think the same way with your personal effectiveness using a process called thickening – layering capability upon capability.

I’m going to do this with you, challenging myself in the process.  Call me your personal trainer if you like.

I may help lots of people through coaching but I know each of us isn’t perfect.  

Let’s do a deal – I’ll give you some personal reflections and then challenge you to try out some new stuff to build into daily habits.  No shiny binder.

Just Better Every Day.

My story for this week

In my family photo album, memories of me as a child seem to stop around age 13.

My Mum has many photos of me up to that age.  Post 13, it’s like time stopped. 

Occasional photos of me in a family group photo at a wedding, hiding behind others, but that’s about it.   It’s when I started to feel self-conscious of image, how I looked, who was bigger, taller, stronger, self-confident, or better looking.

The rational part of me has always known we are who we are.  Sometimes rational thinking is just not enough.

On Thursday I was out at a school, where amazing things are happening supporting children with their education.  I was with a local MP or maybe congressman / woman if you’re reading this in the US.  It’s the kind of thing you would want to see in thousands of primary / elementary schools not just one.   It’s a story that needs to be told.

And it was my job to support that story-telling.   There was a point in my life where imposter syndrome convinced me there were better, more articulate, more photogenic people who can tell stories better than I can.

There probably are.  But right now in that moment there’s me, and a choice.

We sit down in front of the camera – key lighting hopefully will mask four successive days of early starts and not shine off my head too much. 

I look into the lens.  We start recording, the words flow, and I am in my story-telling zone.   My brain is so absorbed in the fulness of the moment that there is no space for my imposter syndrome to play.  I am in the moment – the story has to be told.  That’s it.

When the video is found and edited others will review it to see which words they want to use.  I’ll trust the editing process.   I don’t want to look back and critique.

The question is, how can someone who will happily walk around a store evading mirrors behave that way when the lights come on and the camera starts to roll.  How can this Imposter Syndrome be suppressed.

For me this week it was purpose.  

In my mind this school was an example of many who need to be helped.  And the way to get that help is telling the story.  It is a story that needs to be told.  I am not the story.   Arrogance and narcissism are not in my values – I can use that to discipline myself that this story is not about me.

The only thing that’s in the way of the story being told is my own sense of Imposter.  And I won’t let that happen. The key is learning to get out of your own way. No one else can do it for you.

Your challenge this week

Look at the week’s challenges that are ahead of you and identify one moment that you know is going to take you out of your comfort zone, where you will feel less qualified, less prepared, less deserving to be there.

Write down all the good that stands to come from you doing this thing

Write down all that might be lost if you buckle and seek to duck out of it

Look at the people around you and ask yourself why are they entrusting you to do this

Use this as your higher purpose.

Just think  

All too often we are our own worst enemy.   We are taught to zero in with laser accuracy on our shortcomings, whilst strengths are taken for granted as if they descended from on high without any effort at all.

There is a reason people ask you to do things.   The way people see you, more often than not, will be far kinder than you are to yourself.

Focus on the value you stand to create when facing a difficult challenge, find your purpose and use it as the anchor to pull you through.

If you’re looking to shift your performance & balance in the months ahead then here’s an offer for you.   I’ve six spots only for my bettereveryday performance mindset bootcamp starting in January – for individuals or a team.   Once they are gone, they are gone.

In studies of over 275,000 people, higher PQ leads to higher salary, greater success in work, relationships, friendships & creativity.

In teams it lowers stress, burnout and sickness related absences. 

Managers with higher PQ perform 31% better than the average when other factors are equalled out

Drop me a line coaching@ibrowne.uk and let’s chat about how to make this work for you or your orgnisation.    

Tell me how you got on with this week’s challenge within seven days of me publishing this article and to reward your commitment I’ll give you a 10% personal discount as well.