My favourite thing about my work is that “Aha!” moment.

When somebody sees their patterned way of thinking and recognizes their opportunity to choose a new mindset that will help them thrive in their life.
I spoke with a potential client yesterday who shared that, as he plans his business launch, he will be cutting his rates in half. And then maybe half again!
From his share I understood that he does not believe in his value. So I asked him, “When was the first time you were worried about letting somebody down?” And immediately we were back in his childhood on the kitchen floor with a spilt bag of sugar.
Our worries and our judgment of self starts really early. I have yet to meet another human that doesn’t carry around some sort of inadequacy story. But imagine if we no longer lived with that self-doubt. Imagine that every time we were worried about making a mistake we saw it as a learning opportunity instead.
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett
So how can you make it feel safe for you to make mistakes?
In the case of the example above, we travelled back in time. We sat with that child on the kitchen floor and we held him. We told him that spilling sugar was no big deal. We told him that we could work together to clean it up. We consoled and loved the scared, hurt little boy.
In a very short time this potential client saw that he no longer needed to be afraid. That he was no longer alone. That making that kind of mistake was okay. And that he no longer needed to see himself as inadequate because of some spilt sugar from decades ago….
If we aren’t held back by our habituated ways of thinking, the possibilities can be limitless.
What thoughts do you have that you can now see limit your potential?
Photo by Ben McLeod on Unsplash