After 7 years of self-leadership and coaching eMBA students, I was amazed by this year’s journey. The flexibility and the “let go attitude” the students had.
More over reviewing a life, moving outside the comfort zone when the environment itself is shifting to a degree that few have had the chance (or bad luck) to live is quite challenging.
The behavior, in that COVID context, that one could imagine, is simply to stay quiet and wait for the situation to settle before embracing big personal and professional introspection and perhaps start to move along an action plan.
Clearly, that resonated.
Changing job after 21 years is also quite dizzying. And a lot of thoughts came through. I think the more you know about you, the more your thoughts get full of possible “If”. What if this would do? What “if”… etc. It is a bit like when you have a junior and a senior consultant talking about a very sharp subject. It is likely that the brilliant young man comes across much more confident than the older one… the older one knows deeper the subject and sees better the possible hurdles. He, as a result, might have a tendency to answer in a less direct manner.
While we know that confidence is not competence, as one grows older: don’t forget to have a go, to try new paths and explore!
And it is during that journey that I got to know a bit about the Katie Byron‘s work. It basically suggests that one should stop believing in his/her thoughts.
Yes, don’t believe everything you think!!
For any disturbing thought, I mean one where your emotional level changes, you might want to ask yourself those few questions:
1. Is the thought true?
2. Am I absolutely sure that it’s true?
3. How do I feel when I think the thought?
4. Who would I be without the thought?
5. Then turnaround your thought
It is known that a human being has between 60 to 80 thousands thoughts a day… It is many questions to ask.
But it is also said that 95% of those are the same as the previous day. It is the mind wanderings of the brain!
By asking those basics questions, you can rewire your brain or make sure that you don’t always believe yourself. It is adding vocabulary for yourself.
And that can be of real help.