You're in a gap between who you were and who you're becoming. Your communication confidence can feel borrowed. Your sense of self can feel like it needs a new address. Each edition delivers one small step to help you communicate with more confidence, and move through change without losing yourself. Read one below, if you find yourself in it, you're in the right place. Written by Susan, Director of Blossoming Speaker and creator of the Speak Afraid Method.
What if courage isn’t buried inside you?
InsightFor years I believed courage was something I needed to dig for. The deeper I went, the more I’d find. So, when change arrived and shook something loose inside me, I kept digging, head down, inward, searching. I didn’t realise that all that digging was actually my most convincing excuse to stay still. I was in the uncertainty gap. No longer who I was, not yet who I am becoming, and in that in between space, I couldn’t articulate much. The words sat at the tip of my tongue and wouldn’t come. My presence got smaller. I stayed quiet in rooms where I used to speak up, not because I have nothing to say, but because I wasn’t sure yet who was saying it. What changed things wasn’t going deeper. It was opening up. Courage isn’t buried. It blossoms. Just like a fruit tree in spring, it doesn’t force itself open. It becomes open. To new information. New people. New experiences it couldn’t have accessed from inside a closed bud. The moment I stopped digging and started observing what change was actually presenting to me, things shifted. Not dramatically, but quietly. Like the first sign of a blossom you almost miss if you are not paying attention. So what?If you’ve been searching inside yourself for the courage to speak up or show up through a change you’re navigating, and coming up empty, you’re not lacking courage. You may not be opening up to it. You open up to it through trust in what you already carry, and by being open to what the change is bringing toward you. Next steps.Think of one change you are currently navigating. Instead of asking, “do I have the courage for this?”, ask, “what is this change asking me to become open to?” There is no need to act on what you discovered straight away. I encourage you to sit with it for a little while which gives it space to open up more. If this is sitting with you, the Blossoming Speaker Podcast just launched, and the first episode goes deeper into exactly this. It’s called, Courage, where are you? And it is a good place to start. You can also find it on your preferred podcast app. All the best, Susan. |
Minute Insight by Blossoming Speaker
You're in a gap between who you were and who you're becoming. Your communication confidence can feel borrowed. Your sense of self can feel like it needs a new address. Each edition delivers one small step to help you communicate with more confidence, and move through change without losing yourself. Read one below, if you find yourself in it, you're in the right place. Written by Susan, Director of Blossoming Speaker and creator of the Speak Afraid Method.
Insight I sometimes think that being under pressure is like being a boiling potato. Yes, thanks to me practicing the Speak Afraid Method, I am becoming more courageous and confident in sharing different perspectives to help you communicate through the uncertainty gap of change. Now back to boiling potatoes. Pressure is required for the potato to boil and for it to change its state from raw to cooked. Pressure here is not a problem but something required to help the potato transform. It’s when...
Insight I’ve said “you are enough” to other people more times than I can count, I even included it as my first affirmation in my book Confidence Booster, Affirmations to Reframe Your Mindset and Boost Confidence. I meant it every time I said it and wrote it. I can see it in others clearly, and know it is a truth. But believing it about myself, in a way that sticks, well, that is a different conversation. So I spent time learning why and so far, I came across two reasons. I will discuss one...
Insight There is a tiredness from change that I feel is not talked about much at all. The kind that comes from still showing up for your team, your clients, your family, lets face it, all the people who need the version of you that feels most like yourself. Yet here you are in change. A change that is currently transforming who you are becoming, so their ask and your desire to show up as yourself becomes a little harder. Especially when you are in what I call the uncertainty gap where you are...