I recently recorded a new Mp3 called Journey From Emotional Follower to Thought Leader.
[If you haven’t picked it up yet, it’s part of my Breaking Free From The Middle Kit. You can get immediate access and download the recording on the right of your screen)]
Here’s the Cliff-notes version:
We live on a continuum of consciousness and awareness. Part of our life purpose, as I see it, is waking up to who we truly are-not on an ego level, but at the level of spirit and soul. It’s our ability to hear our heart & soul speaking to us and then guide us through our life that is where our true freedom is experienced.
There are different levels of awareness on this continuum. None is better than the others, they are just different. We all, as human beings, experience all of these levels of awareness at some point in our lives. Some progress through these levels. Some stay stuck for years. Some move back and forth for years in between levels until they calm their emotions down enough to actually control their thoughts.
On one end of the spectrum we find the Emotional Followers. In the extreme,these are folks who:
- Are often totally derailed by life, by the drama of life and their emotional reaction to their past (and their present);
- Typically don’t plan their future, but can spend a lot of time worrying about it!
- Have very black and white thinking and tend to base their life on opinion vs facts;
- They are easily swayed by the crowd and follow along without thinking, without awareness of what they are doing;
(…while many of us have days like this, I really don’t think any of you are living in this state all the time, you wouldn’t be reading this if you were!)
Thought Leaders on the other end of the spectrum are:
- Totally conscious and aware;
- They know they create their reality and results, and just how to do it!
- They find pleasure in their lives, in the feel-good experiences and in the challenges;
- They are willing to forgo comfort for change;
- They know what they have to offer is valuable, and that they inherently have value, and they create their business and life from this place;
- They have 3c’s of leadership: Clarity, Courage, Conviction.
And then, we have the folks in the middle…Middle Managers. Middle Managers are stuck in between the two extremes of consciousness:
- They know what they need to do to move ahead, but they are not doing it!
- The feel Frustration and Fogginess;
- Second-guessing themselves, waffling and puddling (my personal favorites!) 😉
- Back-and-forth movement, or no movement at all for periods of time are the norm;
- The subconscious beliefs running the show are most often:
~there’s not enough;
~look good no matter what;
~fit in at all costs; and
~comfort rules!
It’s really hard to build a business when you’re working with these underlying values and beliefs.
It’s not your fault! You learned them at an early age. Not just by your parents but by well-meaning teachers, friends, classmates, sports teams, culture & society at large.
And like my coaches say: “it’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility”, which means basically: stop blaming the world for your problems and get your head out of your ass.
It is essential to your success in any area of your life, and especially your business to get your mind in the right place.
I learned that the hard way.
Just how do we do get our mind in the right place? Especially if those little voices are so sneaky we don’t even know how to recognize when they are running the show?
Here’s the biggest thing that has helped me:
Recognize the patterns.
~Vulnerability. When am I most likely to be listening to and speaking from those little voices of the Emotional Follower or Middle Manager? When I’m vulnerable to them. For me, I’m most vulnerable when I eat something that doesn’t sit well with me. The biggest culprit? Sugar. (I know, you probably didn’t want to hear that, maybe it’s a vulnerability-creating substance for you too!) Why is this? Because food affects our mood. Mood can affect our thoughts (and the voices we listen to – which are the thoughts we listen to in our head -and coming out of the mouths of the people around us).
~Emotions/Feelings. Fogginess, indecision, overwhelm, sleepiness, anger, etc. Notice how you feel, and what seemed to trigger it.
~Action (or inaction!). Doing time-sucking activities instead of doing what you know you need to do. How often does that happen? When?
~Repetition of conversation: Often it’s the same old story and people involved. It’s repeating yourself and your story ad-nauseum to certain people, often with the hidden intention of getting some reaction from them. [I’ll be writing more about this in the future!]
These are just a few of the ways that I’ve been able to catch myself in Emotional Follower or Middle Manager mindsets.
We all do it – get sucked into these lower vibrational states or mindsets at one time or another. The key is to recover quickly and get ourselves back on track and choose our thoughts more consciously, more and more of the time.
If you’re struggling with the patterns, seeing them or breaking free from them, give me a call. Let’s see what’s getting in the way of you becoming a thought leader, in your head and in your business!
