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Top Ten Ways to Get Over Yourself
Article as appeared in The New Leaf ™.
After eight weeks of writing about building a practice I need a break, and I expect that you do, too. Fortunately, one of the principles of authentic promotion is "Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously."
Building a practice is a daunting task, and it raises serious questions. Who am I? What values do I stand for? How do I deliver value in my work? How will I show up? How much will I charge? Who do I need to be in order to sustain this? Where will I get the support and focus I need? How do I work with my fears and limiting beliefs?
All these serious questions are important, yet we must not take ourselves too seriously. What's the secret?
In the spirit of not taking ourselves too seriously, I'll share what I know about this in the form of another Top Ten List.
Top Ten Ways to Get Over Yourself
- Practice the Failure Bow ("Bow to Failure," The New Leaf, Volume 2, No. 19).
- Shift your perspective. When disappointed, ask yourself, "How much will this matter in five years?"
- Give yourself credit for choosing and acting, whether or not the short term results of your choices work out. Every choice--even a poor oneóis a platform for learning.
- Remember, you are *playing* a bigger *game*. When it stops feeling playful it is time to fly a kite! (Yes, literally.)
- Treat yourself like a valued employee. Take regular breaks in the day, week and month.
- Ask for help early and often. The sooner you get over believing you have to do it all yourself, the sooner you will get over believing you have to be perfect.
- Let every error be the opportunity for swift, gracious correction. Itís not nearly as important to be perfect as it is to be at ease with recognizing and correcting errors.
- When you catch yourself dramatizing your problems, lean into it. Give yourself five minutes to get truly melodramatic, or to tell you tale of woe and intrigue as a stand-up comedy act. "You think you have computer problems? Well let me tell you!."
- Shift perspective (in the other direction). When you find yourself disaster planning--running your current difficulties out to their most horrific possible conclusionsócheck in right here, right now? Are you breathing? (Well, then take a breath.) Is their peanut butter in your refrigerator? Are you okay in this very moment? Let that be enough, moment to moment, until your gremlins back off.
- Cultivate a spiritual life. The very best way to get over yourself is to have an abiding awareness that there is a power greater than yourself. How you cultivate and practice this awareness is up to you, and it is indispensable for sanity in business.
Copyright (c) Shaboom, Inc.™ 2002. All rights reserved.
U.S. Library of Congress ISSN: 1530-311X.
You may reprint or copy or distribute The New Leaf ™ provided this copyright notice and a link to http://www.mollygordon.com is included.Top Ten Ways to Get Over Yourself
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