Are You Waiting to Grow into Your Shoes?

The Next Level…

From time to time I have clients who are entering a new phase of their life or work—a big promotion, starting or entering a growth phase of a business, perhaps something in their personal lives.

Although they never quite use these words the feeling that strikes me is that they feel as if they are not quite ready, or not quite good enough for that role, like a pair of shoes that is ‘too big’, and they need to grow into it.

The work we do together helps them feel comfortable and confident, totally at ease in their situation, even looking ahead ready for the next thing.

Here’s the thing, we are always equipped for where we are—how could we not be?—we simply don’t feel it. The feeling of not being ready, not being good enough, not being competent enough, comes from our thought in the moment.

Sure, sometimes there are skills and experience to be gained, but how we feel about where we are and therefore the actions that we take, comes from our state of mind.

Like driving a car. If you drive, there will have been times when you felt as if there was all too much going on at any one time—too many levers and pedals (certainly in the UK where we all drive a ‘stick shift’) and how on earth are we going to be able to remember everything at once?

In Your Stride…

While the newness of the experience is real, we can take it in our stride or we can panic about it—and that’s the difference that coaching brings to someone experiencing a big step up—the learning curve is inevitable but how we manage the learning curve and how we perform while we’re on it is down to us.

The better we manage it, the more rapidly we’ll progress. Not just to the step we’ve taken, but the step that’s beyond this, and beyond, and beyond.

Where in your life are you taking a step up and how’s your state of mind?

Are you filling out the shoes or feeling like you still need to grow into them?

With love,

Cathy