Today I'm here to shake you up, to wake you up, and remind you of how POWERFUL you inherently are.

 

And I'm only sharing with you because I've had to get myself together a time or two in recent days, so I wanted to share a practice that has been helpful to me.

 

Most people understand the power of gratitude - how simply making a list of ten things you're thankful for can take you from "in a funk" to "on cloud nine" in less than the time it takes you to make out the list.

 

Ask me how I know.

 

But another side effect of gratitude for me is getting a clear picture of my own power.

 

I was making out a gratitude list recently and was expressing my gratitude for two concurrent group programs through Package Your Genius Academy, as well as a team to support my students. Just one year ago, I checked out because I was BURNT OUT - I had run two live cohorts each year in 2016 and 2017 while still managing my one on one client work. I was getting my kids prepped to apply for new schools and fundraising for my 10 year old's trip to China. So on the side of running my business, I was doing the most with all the extra-curricular stuff for the kids.

 

Once spring 2018 rolled around, I was spent.

 

I didn't have enough to give to another group. I wanted to, but I couldn't. And I realized that the way I was running my program could be improved so that it took less out of me. Long story short, I spent the next 12 months making changes.

 

I wrote and published the book that became a feeder for my programs, finally got a membership site set up to house the content for my programs, hired a business coach to help me re-structure my business model, started outlining the Maximum Exposure program, and started identifying coaches who could support me there.

 

Now a year later, life is no less busy, but I have a book out in the world and two group programs that are running pretty seamlessly.

 

In my gratitude for this big shift, I also gained insight into my own power to change things in my life - my power to make things different if I don't like how they are.

 

The same is true for you.

 

You and I? We are not broken people destined to stay broken. We are powerful.

 

You have the power to do something to shift your energy and move toward the life you see for yourself, toward the person you most want to be.

 

So much of your life is scheduled and dictated by your responsibilities, we often forget the degree of agency we have as people living in a modern society.

 

We have the choice to change our diets, change our relationships, change the information we consume at any given time.

 

We have the power to change who we surround ourselves with, what we listen to or discard, what we do moving forward. We have the power to change our habits.

 

Because we all have agency which is defined as the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.

 

Newton said it all in his first law of motion which states that an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an external force.

 

What outside force will you introduce to your life?

 

What small or big thing will you change?

 

So again - you have agency which is defined as the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.

 

And when you exert your power, you create momentum, which is defined as strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events.

 

I recently wrapped up one cohort of Package Your Genius Academy and we were reflecting on the lessons learned during the academy, what changed for us, what surprised us.

 

One of my students mentioned that she joined the academy because she felt stuck in her career. But what later surfaced was that she was stuck in other areas of her life, too.

 

But she dug in. She started doing assignments, pushing herself out of her comfort zone. Because she did the work - even though she wasn't always sure what the work was adding up to - she began to unlock her own personal power. While she wasn't sure the exact steps she wanted to take in her career, she liked the feelings she derived from being in motion instead of being STUCK.

 

She submitted herself to speak at a conference, which she'd never done before. (She killed it by the way). She launched a podcast and started sharing her ideas on her industry.

 

She reported back to our group that the act of moving in one area of her life made the rest of her life seem too static. It was like she could see the rest of her life clearly. Where she'd felt stuck in her relationships and even on household projects, she had renewed energy to tackle them.

 

That's what happens when you realize your own agency - the power to act - and your agency unlocks momentum. You don't know where it's going.

 

You may start speaking up in your personal life and unexpectedly see it spill over into your career.

 

You may launch a new podcast and suddenly find that you have more to talk about with your kids.

 

You might put yourself out there to pitch new clients, and find going out on first dates isn't so intimidating anymore.

 

 

So I urge you - first be grateful. If you're in a funk, try making a list of the things for which you're grateful. It's powerful.

 

Then make a list of things you've made happen. Now, if you've been in a funk and don't feel like you've made anything happen in a while, reflect back on when you were your most powerful self.

 

What did you make happen then?

 

Sometimes we just need a good reminder of who we are. It's easy to forget.

 

 

***

 

Are you managing your own PR efforts?  One of the hardest things about doing your own PR is coming up with new pitch ideas, fresh story angles AND knowing how to craft that message to the press. It’s time-consuming and easy to put off if you’re not intentional about it.

 

That's why we created Maximum Exposure - a one of a kind program designed to help industry experts land the media exposure their BIG IDEAS deserve.   Apply to join - bit.ly/MEMastermind