So many business coaches out there are encouraging you to “charge your worth.”

That kind of advice might work for white men, but for women who have been conditioned to measure their worth based on external factors, it’s anathema.

For centuries, women have been taught to measure their worth based on how they look, how they keep their house, how well-behaved their children are…

And now, with more than 51% of businesses being owned by women, we’re now measuring our worth based on the income we bring in or how many clients we enroll.

This needs to stop.

It’s time for women to stop taking advice from the very people who make us question our worth in the first place.

Because you are worthy. Period.

You know the drill – as soon as you come up with an idea for a new program or offering, you have a million reasons why it won’t work or why you can’t do it.

You worry that no one will buy your new online course or enroll in your amazing group coaching program.

You spend hours tweaking your Instagram posts or emails, trying to get the perfect message across.

You lie awake at night wondering if you’re really cut out for this.

You fear you’ll never make enough money - or have enough courage to work your business full time, because deep down, you believe you’re not good enough.

You know what you need to do to grow your coaching business. You’ve learned the strategies and the how-tos, yet something is holding you back from really putting yourself out there.

Have you ever had a hunch that came true?

Do you have an uncanny knack for guessing what will happen next in a movie?

Are you “always right” when it comes to sensing bad intentions in others?

If you said yes to any of the above, then you have a strong intuition!

The real question is: how often do you trust or follow your intuition?

I’ve always been an intuitive person, but in grad school, I didn’t trust my hunches or nudges.

When the professor asked the class a question, I almost always knew the answer, but I never raised my hand. Then, when someone else raised their hand and got the answer right, I always kicked myself for not trusting in myself.

I also got really close to a woman who ended up becoming my worst enemy. I always thought to myself, “I should have listened to my gut!”

Have you had any experiences like that?

Deepening trust in your intuition is an important way to build sustainable confidence in yourself. It can also help you make better decisions, avoid disappointing relationships, and gain the clarity you need to take the next steps in your path.

It might seem like magic (and those moments when you do trust your intuition often are!), but there are real and tangible ways you can deepen trust in your intuition so you can make better decisions for your life.

Have you heard that we think more than 50,000 thoughts per day?

Well, new research shows that number is actually closer to 6,200 thoughts.

Still, that’s a lot to process every day. That’s about 258 thoughts per hour or 4 thoughts per minute!

And how many of those thoughts are negative?

If you’re like most women, negative thoughts are almost part of your DNA.

You may not even notice how often you think negative thoughts about yourself, because they’re so ingrained in your thought process.

Negative thoughts erode your confidence by causing you to lose trust in yourself. And a deep trust is the foundation for building sustainable confidence.

If negative thinking is your default thought process, read on to learn how to reframe your thinking and choose empowering thoughts instead.

Where do you want to be six months from now?

Do you believe you have what it takes to get there, or do your beliefs about yourself stand in the way of achieving that goal?

Limiting beliefs are the thoughts you have about yourself, your business, your life, or any given situation that hold you back from achieving what you want.

They prevent you from moving forward toward your goals because you believe you cannot achieve your desires, or that they are not available to you.

If you’re struggling to start something new or achieve a goal you’ve had for years, chances are your thoughts about yourself and your situation may have something to do with it.

Confidence is a feeling or belief that you can rely on something or someone – including yourself.

It’s a deep trust in your ability to achieve the goals and success you desire, yet so many of us experience lower levels of confidence because we’ve broken trust with ourselves.

And once that trust is broken, it can be hard to get it back.

Here’s the thing about confidence: It can either propel you forward to achieve your dreams or hold you back for fear of failure.

And if confidence is a feeling or belief, you can use the BE YOU Mental Model to identify your Beliefs, Emotions, Behaviors and Effects and make the shifts necessary to build deeper trust in yourself and your ability to be successful.

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that life doesn’t always go as planned.

Many of us woke up to a new reality without a job or steady paycheck.

We were forced to change our social habits, workspaces, and holiday celebrations.

We suffered countless, unnecessary losses at the hands of our administration. Both from violence and the Coronavirus.

2020 was also a year of serendipity.

We learned to stay open to changing work habits, responsibilities, opportunities, and regulations.

We learned to pivot our businesses to adapt to virtual work or changing client needs.

We awakened to new opportunities to improve equity and justice in our work and personal lives.

We shifted our goals to accommodate new ways of being, new ways of working, and new ways of learning.

As much as we tried to hold on to our old ways of being and our old goals, the Universe had other plans for us.

For better or worse, we’re in a different place in 2021 than we were when we started 2020.

We can lean on the power of serendipity to help us stay open to new opportunities and chance encounters that can realign us to who we’re meant to be.

An abundance mindset flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It’s grounded in the belief that there is more than enough for everyone.

It starts with a deep belief that you are enough, that you have enough, and that you’re deserving of the things you have in your life.

Gratitude helps you cultivate an abundance mindset, because it’s all about having appreciation for the good things in your life; what you already have.

If you’ve ever paid attention to your thoughts for a day, then you’ve likely noticed some very negative things you tend to think about yourself:

“I ruined dinner again. Everyone will hate this meal! Why do I even bother?”

“I forgot to pay my credit card bill – I’m such an idiot!”

“I don’t know enough to be a health coach. Who would take health advice from me anyway?”

“I haven’t achieved anything in my life. I’m stuck in a job I hate, and I never have enough money. I’m a total failure.”

So much of what we say and think about ourselves is negative. And those negative thoughts influence everything else in your life: Your Beliefs create Emotions, which create Behaviors, which result in Effects.

And the Effects you get reinforce your Belief. So when you believe you’re a failure or you don’t know enough about something, your emotions and behaviors will cause you to act in a way that makes that a reality.

On the other hand, if you believe you have everything you need to be successful or you believe you are smart, capable and talented, your emotions will shift, and so will your behaviors, to allow you to achieve your goals.

Think about the last goal you set for yourself.

Did you push forward past fear, overwhelm and doubt to achieve it?

Or, did your fears, feelings of overwhelm and crushing self-doubt hold you back?

Those thoughts, reinforced over time, come from a scarcity mindset, or the belief that there will never be enough, resulting in feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety.

A scarcity mindset can cause you to limit yourself through your beliefs and actions, preventing you from achieving your biggest goals, keeping you in debt, or destroying your confidence.

You might feel that you don’t know enough, you don’t have the resources, or you’re not good enough to achieve success or build wealth.

You might think, “who am I to go after this dream?”

And if that sounds like you, know you’re not alone, and there’s nothing wrong with you. You just need a subtle shift in your mindset to think more abundantly about your life.

What would you do with more confidence?

Would you boldly pursue your passion and live your purpose?

Would you ask for the raise or promotion you deserve?

Would you put yourself out there to make new friends or attract your dream clients?

Sure, confidence can help you achieve all of those things.

But the truth is: you don’t need confidence to take big steps like that.

In fact, taking the big step creates confidence.

But in between those steps, you can build confidence over time. With smaller, more manageable actions you can start today.

Manifesting is bringing something tangible into your life by cultivating the experience of what you want to feel, then living and believing in that experience so it can become a reality.

An abundance mindset helps you manifest anything you want because it starts with a deep belief that you are enough, that you have enough, and that you’re deserving of the things you have in your life.

It’s a strong feeling of security and confidence in yourself. A belief that you already have everything you need to be successful. That anything you want is available to you.

That deep belief is the foundation for manifesting. Manifesting is about making everything you want to feel and experience a reality for you – through your beliefs, emotions, behaviors, and effects.

Manifesting isn’t about asking the Universe for help, then stepping back and waiting for what you want to just fall into your lap. You have to do the work. You have to take powerful, aligned action to achieve your goals. This isn’t a passive exercise.

Remember: your thoughts create your reality. If you believe you’ll never be good enough to go after your dream job or start your own business, you’ll behave in a way that gets you that result. In other words, you likely won’t take action toward your goals.

On the other hand, if you believe that you have enough knowledge, wisdom, strength, and guidance to achieve your goals, you’ll feel confident enough to take powerful action and manifest those goals.

An abundance mindset is the deep belief that you are enough, you have enough, and there is enough to go around for everyone.

If you’re like most women, you might find it hard to stay in an abundance mindset. Especially if you’re struggling with self-doubt or impostor syndrome.

Over a lifetime, you’ve been conditioned to think in a negative or scarcity mindset. You’ve been conditioned to trust fear over faith, lack over abundance, and doubt over confidence.

Your thoughts create your reality. If you believe you’ll never be good enough to go after your dream job or start your own business, you’ll behave in a way that gets you that result.

On the other hand, if you believe that you have enough knowledge, wisdom, strength, and guidance to achieve your goals, you’ll feel confident enough to take powerful action.

The latter is an example of an abundance mindset; a belief that you already have everything you need to be successful.

When you think about finding or living your purpose, what thoughts come to mind?

Are you excited at the opportunity to find more joy and fulfillment in your life, or are you overcome with fear, hesitation, or overwhelm?

Do you know exactly the steps you need to take to live your purpose each day? Or, are you like most of us: you know you’re meant for more, but you have no idea what that is or how to get there?

When the future is unclear, fear of the unknown can cause us to think with a scarcity mindset.

A scarcity mindset is the belief that there will never be enough, resulting in feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety.

A scarcity mindset can cause you to limit yourself through your beliefs and actions, preventing you from finding or living your purpose.

Your values guide your decisions and set the tone for how you live your life.

But how do you know if you’re really living your values?

If you’ve done the work of identifying your core values, you may be wondering how to bring your values to life. Or how to bring more of them into your life.

Living your values means to be the most authentic version of yourself in all aspects of your life. Not just at work, or with your family, but in all areas that matter to you.

Just as your purpose is a compass leading you back into alignment with who you’re meant to be, your values guide you back to who you truly are.

If I had to guess, I'd say the first half of 2020 didn't go exactly as you planned.

Between the Coronavirus pandemic and social uprising in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, this year is certainly one for the history books.

While 2020 brought so much fear, anxiety, heartbreak, stress, overwhelm, loss, uncertainty, pain, and outrage, it also brought us "closer" to family and friends through virtual dinners, coffee chats, and happy hours.

For some of us, it brought life and jobs to a halt to allow us to focus on what's most important to us. For those on the front lines, it brought your purpose to light - serving the world in a way you never dreamed imaginable.

2020 is a collective awakening - some of us are waking up to our role in white supremacy. Some of us are waking up to a career that no longer aligns with what we want. Some of us are waking up to the start of healing generations of trauma. Some of us are waking up to realize the lifestyle we're living is no longer sustainable.

We're all waking up to something. And awakening brings profound change.

It’s easy to feel lost, confused, or overwhelmed right now.

The Coronavirus pandemic upended and shut down life as we knew it. Social uprising and protests for Black Lives Matter are demanding radical change. Change for individuals and society as a whole.

Our jobs have changed. Our income has changed. Our social lives have changed. Our belief systems, organizational systems, and government systems are being challenged to change.

Change is overwhelming, even when it’s a good thing. Especially when it’s necessary.

Impostor Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon involving the belief that you’re inadequate, incompetent, and a complete failure despite evidence that you actually are successful. It’s also the inability to believe that you deserve success or that you achieved success as a result of your own efforts, skills, or expertise.

Impostor Syndrome affects about 70% of the population, and minority groups, including women, people of color, and people being “the first” are disproportionately affected.

How do you view the world in general?

Do you generally think that people are rude and selfish? Or, do you believe that people are generous, kind, and warm?

Do you feel like everyone is working against you? Or, do you feel like others are there to help you?

In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen Covey explains that when you live in a world of scarcity, you compete for available resources, even when there is an abundance of them.

Does this sound familiar?

We see this a lot in corporate environments. Promotions and raises are few and far between. There are not enough women on our leadership team or board. We’re constantly in competition with similar businesses, vying for a bigger share of the market.

And in recent events like the Coronavirus pandemic, we’re scrambling for the last roll of toilet paper, the last bottle of hand sanitizer, the last box of pasta or can of beans. When just days before, the shelves in stores across the country were stocked full of them.

Fear of the unknown can cause us to think with a scarcity mindset. A scarcity mindset is the belief that there will never be enough, resulting in feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety.

On the other hand, an abundance mindset flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It’s grounded in the belief that there is more than enough for everyone.

During difficult or uncertain times, it's easy for our thoughts to spiral. We often think of the worst-case scenario, and each fearful thought breeds another. You've probably noticed this at some point in your life. Sometimes these thoughts are so powerful, they cause us to become overwhelmed and shut down.

Mindfulness helps us slow down, pause, and observe our thoughts and emotions in the moment. This helps us cope with challenges because we're interrupting those fearful thought patterns and preventing ourselves from ruminating over the situation.