That moment when I suddenly realised, that I was still wearing/walking around with 'MY BLOSSOM' when I got to Boston Airport, literally wearing my heart on my sleeve so to speak ... 🙄 (part of an exercise in a workshop I had attended). Showing my inner strengths, powers, and qualities to thousands of strangers felt urrghhh!
But then it made me smile ... and think. What would it be like if every person at the airport was wearing their own 'blossom'? I imagined how wonderful it would be if everyone was walking around, openly showing and sharing their light & strengths! During the workshop, however, I was one of the very few people who had several columns filled to the outer edge. The majority had filled in only small, if not tiny, portions of their blossoms. Was I over-exaggerating my strengths - as someone in the group suggested? Was I arrogant? Misjudging myself? To me, however, the real question is this: What does my self-assessment say about the filters that I use to measure myself? Do I filter for shortcomings? Do I filter for strengths? We are SO deeply socially conditioned -especially as women- to NOT embrace, own, and lead with our strengths and powers and to play small, hide, nod, and stay quiet! And so on. We are afraid that we might be seen as arrogant, full of ourselves and so on. So ... I can colour in my 'blossom' filtering for shortcomings. OR I can fill it in by filtering for my strengths. What IS the objective reality? There isn't one. I am who I believe I am. I know that what I filter for I will see. What I focus on grows. What I grow and OWN I can put to use. It takes courage to own & shine your light. It's actually much MUCH easier to stay small. And if you are on a journey of deep inner & outer development & growth, you KNOW that this path is by nature paved with #humility anyway. You also know that there is infinite scope for learning & growth way beyond the teeny seven petals on this card. And THIS is where it gets really scary - the good kind of scary -when you realise that there IS no limit. Being held right between knowing and owning your powers fully, unapologetically, & fearlessly - shining your light unapologetically AND understanding that in the bigger scheme of things you have only just begun is an incredibly powerful place to be. This is where I work with my clients - men&women- who are learning to own & use who they are FULLY. ​ We remove the inner obstacles to the undiluted force of your being. No. More. Holding. Back! Owning, fully embodying all of your powers. And then connecting THAT -the nuclear power at the center of your blossom- with what this world needs - THAT is explosive. THIS is what I am here for. ps exercise from the 'Adaptive Leadership' track with Zander Grashow at the annual #npi conference in Boston. (We were given very specific interpretations of the meaning of each column such as 'ambition' meaning purpose etc)
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