Stop Holding Yourself Back
This is a Mayzie Media production.
Hello, most awesome one. I'm Ahyiana Angel, and you are listening to the Quit Playing Small podcast. Your space for inspired thinking, encouragement, and goodness.
Today we're diving into holding back, and I want to tell you to stop. Stop holding yourself back. Stop holding yourself back from your desires. Stop holding yourself back from your ideas. Stop holding yourself back from your dreams. Stop holding yourself back from your potential.
This is certainly familiar territory for me. But, I want to ask you, how many times have you talked yourself out of what once seemed like a viable idea? Huh? Maybe even a brilliant idea. You second guessed it. You thought, huh, if it's so brilliant, how could I be the first one to think of it? You worried about the competition in the space.
You figured somebody else had to be doing it already and doing it better. You found a way to make yourself insecure and feel inferior and nobody else was involved. You did that all on your own. How many times can you recall putting yourself in that situation? That's one of the easiest things we do to sabotage ourselves.
We let all the chatter run around in our minds, but today I want you to confront that chatter. I want you to tell it to hush. Shut up, even. Sit down somewhere, because it's time to stop holding yourself back. For my corporate climbers. How many of you have decided that you were not qualified for a position before even applying, you didn't wait for somebody else to bust your bubble and shoot your dream down.
No, you were gonna do that all on your own. We are so good at that sometimes. How many times have you sat mute during a crucial conversation, even when you had great value to add. From big to small, we all managed to find ways to hold ourselves back. To shut ourselves down, and often we don't even recognize it.
I know I've definitely had my times like I said, and when I walk away from a situation and I think about what I should have said or how I should have acted, or what I should have done. Or when I see something that closely resembles something I thought of before, and I think about, oh, I had that idea. What could I have done with it if I had taken it all the way? Those are the times that I realize I'm holding myself back in different aspects of my life, and I've gotta stop.
So what can we do to stop holding ourselves back? I'm a person of action. So the first thing that I would say is when you have that idea when you encounter that application, when you find yourself in a position where you think I should have your first action, could be reverse. Go back, apply for the position, go back, speak to whoever you were speaking to before and just say, Hey, I wanted to follow up on what we were talking about.
Go back, decide on one thing that you can do to execute toward that idea that you had. So the first thing that we can do when we're really trying to reprogram our minds and stop holding ourselves back is practice reverse. Do a little reverse motion.
and see what we can do to backtrack to maybe save ourselves right then and there in that moment, and stop ourselves from holding back on the greatness that's ahead of us.
The next thing that I would suggest when trying to stop holding yourself back would be to increase your skill set. That doesn't mean that you have to wait around to do something, and until you increase your skillset, do it simultaneously. If you're second-guessing yourself, if you're holding yourself back, if you find yourself being in that position, start researching how you can increase your skill set.
Start taking action toward how you can increase your skill set because increasing your skill will increase your knowledge, which will then in turn boost your confidence. And finally, you've heard some version of this one before, but lean into the discomfort. If it feels intimidating if it feels exhausting to even try if it feels like you're out of your depth if it feels like maybe you may be making a fool of yourself, lean into it. Try it anyway. Who actually cares? Who is going to determine that you actually made a fool of yourself? Nobody is gonna stamp a fool on your forehead for trying.
So you can be your own biggest critic or you can be your own biggest champion. I think I choose the latter. Which one will you choose?
I have one more challenge for you before we head out into the world to live our greatest days. If you are enjoying this podcast, don't be selfish. Please share with a friend so that they can incorporate it into their routine and enjoy as well.
Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I hope you choose to be a champion of yourself. I'm rooting for you as well. Don't let me root alone. I will catch up with you on our next episode, and as always, be well.
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