It’s your dream, it’s your goal - so don’t let anyone take it away from you.

How often do you really get excited by a goal you may have?  It’s something that feels right and intuitively you know it will work, that right now it is the best decision for you and your business.  You share it with a few colleagues and friends, thinking that they too will be excited for you; after all, they are the people whose input is important to you. 

But you end up leaving the conversation feeling wobbly, and start to doubt yourself and your ideas.

These are conversations that I sometimes have with my clients – when they are sitting in self-doubt after allowing the ‘good intention’ of another to take hold of them. To remove yourself from this self-doubt and regain your belief in yourself and your dream you can use the following steps.  

1.  Sit in the ‘it’.  Whether ‘it’ is self-doubt, annoyance, frustration, anger or whatever you want to name it, allow yourself to ‘sit in it’ for a period of time.  Now the period of time can’t be all day, it can’t even be half a day - it needs to be no more than 15mins.  Enough time for you to process what is important and what is not important from the conversation.  Enough time for you to speak with an impartial person who will allow you to work through what your feelings are, and be willing to ask you the right questions to move you forward. 

2.  Make a decision.  It is important to decide whether or not the feedback is valid.  If you feel it is, then that is it – time to move on.  If you believe in your goal as your gut instinct, then make a decision to move towards your goal.  Be clear on what this decision looks like, and put together the steps that will help you achieve your goal. 

3.  Stay focused on your outcome and don’t get caught up in the day-to-day activities you need to take.  This sometimes can feel hard and overwhelming with all that you may have on, but trust that you are on the right path.  Give yourself the space to see what you need to do next.

4.  Be persistent!  By this I don’t mean you need to push, what I mean is that you need to pull what you need/want towards you by being clear on the decisions you make.

Let me know how you go the next time someone gives you intentional or unintentional feedback that makes you feel ‘wobbly’! Place your comments below.