Insight

Just when you think you not only know, but accept who you are, and are prepared to show up and speak up in that identity, change comes in. This change either external or within, shifts your perspectives, values, beliefs, paradigms, and anything else that shapes your identity. You know speaking authentically is how you can easily connect with what you are saying, how you are saying it, so that who you are speaking with connects with you. Yet how the bleep are we supposed to do this, especially when many aspects of our identity evolves quickly due to the fast and constant change around us? How can we be authentic when we ourselves are changing in real time as we speak?

This is a lesson that was hard for me to learn since I left corporate land for a 2 year sabbatical, and then went on to start my first business. My identity was shifting and growing so quickly with all that I was learning and experiencing, I became lost in how to show up. The hardest part for me was that I have a strong background in marketing and sales, and through that experience, I know the power of consistent branding, even for who we are professionally.

The answer I received I challenged a few times due to my own disbelief, that is challenge it by ignoring it. Each time it taught me with a cost that the answer was correct. So do you want to read the answer or continue to enjoy the limiting power of showing up as a fraction of yourself? Afterall, that zone is very comforting and predictable compared to uncertainty and the fear that comes with it. I know, I lived there.

Slowing down is how you may speak authentically when your identity is shaken by change.

So what? (But really, what the?)

It is not about slowing down when you speak, though if you have a thick accent compared to your audience, or your energy is racing due to adrenaline coursing through your system, speaking slower helps.

It is about creating a space where you take a moment or two to slow down, gather your thoughts and process all around you. To explore the messages different emotions are telling you and then release them and their energy. To slow down so you can get creative on how to make connections between the existing dots you have and the new dots change has introduced to you.

Investing in this time of slowing down, allows the moving pieces of change to stop swirling around you, to settle and come down to a stop. This is where you decide what parts that frame your identity stays and what parts go.

The more frequent you invest time to slow down, the quicker and easier this practice becomes. For example, if you keep all your expense receipts for the month and then enter them all in your expense report in one go, it will take a lot more time compared to doing it at a higher frequency during the month, like once a week.

This is the same for our identity. The more frequently we slow down to allow change to settle for that moment, we increase our capacity to regroup our identity and be confident in it. Then we are able to show up and speak up with authenticity that connects and makes an impact.

What helps me slow down

Listening to music and podcasts helps me get into a zone where I can slow down and prepare to do this practice. I can also listen to these two things while travelling, doing mundane tasks, or exercising. It creates the transitional space that signals to my body, mind, and spirit that I am about to step into my slow down mode to reflect, recharge, or release the excess I no longer need to carry. It is why I am invested in using podcasts as a service stream, to help Blossoming Speakers like you and others to prepare to get into their zone to process, reflect, release, renew, or practice the learnings that came to them. But more on that podcast investment later :-)

All the best, Susan.