Go With Your Gut

So many people function from a state of overwhelm and just learn to cope and function. I’m no different. But I also know that it gets lonely in that state. It feels like something has to give. Today I talked about some things going on with me recently and how I’ve navigated my own overwhelm, because it’s definitely been there.

We tend to use our use our limitations and faults as an excuse as to why we can do things or why we aren’t good at something. In my experience, that’s a choice we make. We want to brush them off and push them down because we don’t like that they make us feel weak. What if we accept they are part of us and work to channel them or manage them. Pushing them down is like being on a diet, it’s all you can think about. Think about how you can find the strength in limitations and faults instead of letting them limit your capability and accepting defeat

Do you ever feel like your working so hard at something and it just won't happen? You feel like your forcing it? Or, you feel like something is just not happening for you, so you want to just give up? I've been there.

I talk in my book Go With Your Gut: Then Keep Going about my faith. Its been a crazy journey but one thats made me grow. In this episode, I chatted with Christian business coach Elise Smith. We talk a lot about having that pivotal moment when she chose to go with her own gut and had that "ah hah" moment.

We also talked about what it looks like for both of us to lean into our faith and trust in the process. Learning to trust in the process, take the action that needs to be taken, and then let God handle what we no longer can. Blind faith.

Emotions. Not a subject most people like to talk about. Why because they are messy, complicated, and make a lot of people feel weak. I wanted to talk about why we should "feel the feels." Not in a weak way, but in a "deal with your crap so you can move on" sort of way.

Years ago i learned to start doing this and its been messy, yes. But its also helped me be able to manage myself better and move on with things that don't need to take my energy. I found that when we don't deal with our emotions, it can lead to quite a few physical problems further or sometimes not so far down the road.

Whether your "good" at the soft skills, it might be worth your time to polish them. Also because more and more companies are finding the value of emotional intelligence in their empoyees.

How does fear make itself known? In so many different ways. If you can relate to me and it either used to paralyze you or still does, its hard.

So how can we shift our mindset and flip the narrative to turn the adrenaline from fear into motivation. I'll tell you a couple different scenarios in which I had to do this for myself. It takes practice and we won't be perfect (or even close) the first time.

Perfectionism. I've never been a perfectionist but I have had qualities quite similar. I have a strong belief in progress over perfection. I've wanted to do a lot of things that I had no experience doing. But over the years, I've learned to trust myself that I will figure out how to do it. That is, if I want it bad enough.

I get very excited to do things and then i get discouraged when it doesn't work or go as planned. The difference i've found is changing my mindset about this process. I go into something knowing it won't be perfect. Knowing it will take a learning curve and it will get better. I have accepted and am willing to be bad at something, in order to eventually be good at it.

Nobody likes “dark times.” This times when your struggling through hard times, conflict, maybe some challenging relationships, or internal stuff. What things can we do to move through? How do we come out of those times stronger and better?

Nicole comes from a technical background in IT but knew there was something more for her. She tells us how she worked through taking that leap of faith and going for what she wanted. We talk about that moment of figuring out what we want and what that means moving forward.

We talk about what it was like for Nicole to work through those tough internal moments and the steps she took to break through those barriers.

You can connect with Nicole via he website www.nccalhoun.com or via linked in at http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleccalhoun

Fear of Judgement (internal or external) has been a big factor on if I move forward with something or not. I’ve had to learn to change my thinking and shift my mindset because mostly they were things I made up. They were not true. So I’ve learned and I’m still working on this, to move forward regardless of what I’m telling myself might happen.