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.

Building sustainable confidence doesn’t happen overnight.

You might be saying your affirmations, writing your journal prompts, making a list of your accomplishments, and feeling great.

Then one day, someone calls you “too much” or a presentation doesn’t go as planned or you don’t enroll the new client after a discovery call.

When you don’t have a firm trust in yourself and believe in your capacity for success, one small curve in the path can send you into an impostor spiral.

I get it, because I’ve been there.

In fact, all it took was one feedback session with a former manager where she personally attacked me and my coaching business for me to totally lose all the confidence it took a lifetime to build.

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.

What would you do with more confidence?

Would you step outside your comfort zone and try something new?

Would you hit “publish” on your first blog post?

Would you matter-of-factly state your prices without fear of rejection?

If confidence doesn’t come easily for you, it might be overwhelming to consider taking powerful action or doing the things that scare you.

In that case, journaling is a great way to build confidence, because when you journal, you begin to deepen your connection with your inner world in a supportive environment.

You start to build trust in yourself, and you start to understand yourself better.

The act of journaling also helps you replace old, negative thought patterns or limiting beliefs with new, empowering thoughts and abundant beliefs.

You’re a dreamer.

You have big goals and an even bigger vision for the world you want to create.

You’re on the path to living your purpose, and you know what you need to do to get there.

You set strong, ambitious goals year after year.

You start the year off strong, motivated by your big goals, but a few months in, you start to slow down.

You don’t feel inspired to reach your goal.

Maybe you made some missteps along the way. Maybe it’s harder than you thought it would be.

Maybe your friends and family are distracting you or telling you to stop.

Maybe it’s just not meant to be.

Or maybe, you need a new routine.

It’s that time of year again!

A time for review, reflection, renewal.

A time to show gratitude for the things we’ve learned, the experiences that shaped us, and the mistakes that paved our path.

I love this time of year because it's easy to feel a sense of wonder and possibility. Holiday spirit is abundant, people are giving and generous, and those feelings are contagious.

It's also a perfect time of year to reflect on your life. Did you accomplish what you set out to this year? What lessons and gifts did life bring your way? What are you most proud of?

Spending time reflecting on the previous year also sets you up to plan your year ahead. By appreciating the memories, lessons, events, and experiences of the past year, you begin to understand what you want more of in the new year, and what you'd rather leave behind.

One of my favorite ways to celebrate my birthday each year is to spend time reflecting on what I learned over the past year (and years) of my life.

This activity allows me to acknowledge and celebrate my successes, learn from my mistakes, stay grounded in my truth, and set goals for my next year.

Similar to a Year in Review exercise, this is a simple way to come back to yourself. Setting aside time and space for reflection is an important component of aligned introspection.

Knowing yourself is a powerful tool that will fuel you on your journey to living your purpose, and by taking the time to consider how you’ve grown each year, you’re sending a message to the Universe that you’re ready for more.

Have you ever set a goal for yourself where, for a few weeks, you stick with it, you’re moving forward, you feel great, then suddenly, you realize you’ve gone so far off track that you can’t remember when you stopped?

I always feel that way about exercise! I’ll be plugging along each day on my Peloton, tracking each ride, feeling good about myself, then suddenly – it’s been a month since my last workout. What happened? Where did the time go?

It happens to the best of us.

When you’re on a journey to find and live your life purpose, it’s easy to get off track. Living in devotion to your purpose is not easy. You may not know all the steps you need to take. You won’t always see the path ahead of you.

And in those moments, it’s easy to let self-judgement or fear or self-doubt derail your progress.

The good news is that as easy as it is to get off track, it’s just as simple to recenter and get back in alignment with your goals.

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.

Thinking about finding your purpose in life? Wondering what you’re meant to do, but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you think you found your purpose, but you’re not really sure.

If this sounds like you, you’re in good company!

These are the same questions I’m constantly asked by women like you, who are looking for more meaning and fulfillment in their lives.

Finding your purpose can feel like a daunting task. It’s overwhelming to think about the one thing you’re meant to do with your life and how you’re going to get there.

Trust me when I say, it’s not as difficult as it seems to find your life purpose. You might just need some reassurance.

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.

Core values are the fundamental beliefs you have about your life.

They guide your behaviors, decisions, and actions. They bring about a sense of purpose and self-worth. They remind you what’s important to you and what you want more of in your life.

When you know what’s important to you, you can live in alignment with those values. This leads to greater fulfillment, clarity and self-awareness.

This self-awareness allows you to discover your purpose.

Your life purpose is who you are at your core. Identifying your core values brings you back to your center.

Values remind you who you are and who you’re meant to be in the world. They’re gentle guide rails to keep us on our path and help us choose actions that are aligned with what we really want.

When we find what we really want, we can truly live our purpose. And if every woman lived her purpose, every need in the world would be met.

This time last year, I could barely get off the couch. I was in a job that destroyed my confidence, I was drinking too much, and I had a long commute that left me exhausted.

I didn’t recognize the person I’d become.

I used to be the woman who organized group events, hosted dinner parties and volunteered for everything. I held leadership roles and tried new things and thought of every day as an adventure.

This time last year, I wished my days away, just trying to get to the weekend or the holiday or the vacation.

I wasn’t enjoying my life, and I wasn’t taking care of myself.

Through months of therapy and personal development, I built a stronger self-awareness: a deeper sense of who I am and what matters to me.

I also left that job and chose to grow my own business. With my own rules. Where I could use my strengths and live my values every day.

And I’ve never been happier.

There’s one thing commonly at the core of our hesitations. It’s why we don’t take that step forward, try that new yoga class, launch a new product or service or look for a new job.

That one thing? Fear.

Fear is a natural response to the world around us. After all, our brains use fear to keep us safe. Think about it: when you’re about to get on a roller coaster or give a presentation to a new audience, you start to feel the physical symptoms of fear, like fast heartbeat, sweaty palms and butterflies in your stomach.

That’s normal. But, we run into trouble when we’re held back by our perceived fears. The fears that we worry about and agonize over that aren’t really things we need to be afraid of.

Things like public speaking, interviewing for a new job, asking someone on a date. Those are perceived fears. We fear the end result – something that hasn’t even happened!

The bad news is that those fears can cripple us, cause anxiety, depression and keep us in our comfort zones.

The good news: fear is only as powerful as we make it.

“You’re not good enough.”

“No one will pay you for this.”

“Who are you to give people advice on being confident?”

These are just a few of the thoughts that run through my head on a daily basis.

As soon as I became a full-time entrepreneur, I started to question every move, every decision, every program or service I designed.

As a healthcare executive, I rarely questioned myself. I believed in my ability to be successful in my job, and I often heard great feedback on my programs and training from colleagues and supervisors.

But even though I still hear great feedback from my clients and friends, I don’t believe them.

Oh boy, this is a big one.

We’ve all had moments in our lives when fear stopped us from doing something. Whether that was setting up an online dating profile, buying a new car or starting a new job. Think about a time in your life when fear stopped you in your tracks. What thoughts ran through your head? What emotions did you experience?

I’ve pushed through a lot of fearful thoughts in my life: I was afraid to go to college 10 hours away from my family, I was afraid to leave my six-figure job for an uncertain future, and I was afraid to start coaching. My dad passed away in 2011, and the one thing he taught me that I continue to teach others is to always do the thing that scares you.

Because here’s the thing about fear: it’s only as powerful as you make it.

Ever have that feeling that you just don’t fit in?

Maybe it’s at work or with a new group of friends. You try really hard to impress them, you give up part of who you are to be like who they are, but at the end of the day, something doesn’t feel right.

That’s how I felt in my last day job. I knew the organization’s values were different from my own, but I didn’t want that to be an issue because I cared deeply about the work I was doing.

But it was always an issue because I wasn’t being true to myself. My confidence plummeted, I felt like I could never live up to who my boss wanted me to be, and I lost a sense of who I was.

That sense? That’s self-awareness. That feeling that what you’re doing isn’t matching up with who you are on the inside. That inner wisdom that you stand for something bigger, or you’re meant for something more.

Self-awareness is the most important quality any woman can have. When we focus our attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our current behavior to our internal standards and values.

Knowing and understanding ourselves are powerful guides toward living our best life. Improving our self-awareness builds confidence to help direct us on our life’s path.

I’ll be the first to admit it – I don’t always believe in myself.

My inner critic tells me I’m too young to be an expert. That I don’t know enough about business or marketing. That no one will want my services. That I’m not pretty unless I’m wearing makeup.

Sound familiar?

That nasty voice in your head that tells you you’re not good enough to do the thing you want to do is stealing your confidence.

You likely have an idea of how more confidence would impact your life – or you wouldn’t be here.

In case you need a reminder, confidence improves your chances in the dating game and in relationships. It increases our perceived physical attractiveness by others and improves our performance at work. It even improves our mental and physical health.

But we can’t live healthy, confident lives when our inner critic is screaming that we’re not enough.

So much of what we say about ourselves is negative. Affirmations give us the opportunity to choose words that help create or eliminate something in our lives, such as creating success or confidence or healthy relationships, and eliminating low self-esteem, destructive behaviors and even pain.

Affirmations help us retrain our thinking and speaking into positive patterns so we can truly transform our lives. We can get more of what we want and less of what we don’t.

But be careful because everything we say is an affirmation. Every thought, every sentence is just confirming what we want in life.

So, if you say “I’m so happy and grateful now that I lost 20 pounds,” one minute, then say “this won’t work” the next minute, which one do you think will win out? The second one!

Negative thought patterns are so deeply ingrained in all of us, and it’s really hard to break them. Practicing positive affirmations is one way to break that cycle.

We’ve all had those days where we feel like we’re floating through time: struggling to start a project, lacking the motivation to get out of bed, facing a blank screen without a clue what to write.

That’s where I am this week. Sometimes, when I feel stuck like this, I don’t even know what day it is!

It can be difficult to pull ourselves out of the cycle of overwhelm, confusion and disinterest.

The good news is that there are simple things we can do to give our brains a break and let inspiration flow naturally.