I think it’s kind of crazy how some days at the end of the day, I’ll look back and think, “Wow, you kicked ass today! You were rocking it!” And then other days I look back and I’m like, “Oh man, you sucked! What were you doing today?” You and me as human beings, we have a tendency to focus more on those days that we suck versus the days we were rocking it. And the problem, what happens when we get here for too long, is we start to spiral downward out of control – to the point where we question, am I good enough?
If you’ve been following me the last few weeks, you know I was struck by a recent Forbes article where their counsel is sharing their top tips for women in leadership. Each week I’m going to share one of those tips, along with my experience and my take on that, with the hopes of helping you shorten your leadership learning curve. Today’s tip: you ARE good enough. Even in those “you suck” days, you are good enough.
You have been placed with this responsibility, you are in this opportunity because someone knows that you deserve it – you’ve earned your right to be there.
We all have good and bad days. When you get to that bad day, I want to help you so you don’t spiral out of control. Because just saying, “Hey, you tell yourself you’re good enough,” isn’t always that easy, so I like to have a couple of things nearby. One is a list of my accomplishments; it’s like a resume, right?
You list all of these bragging things on your résumé, why not have that nearby, posted up?
When you hit that bad day and you wonder, “Am I good enough to be in this? Have I earned this position?” you can look back at all of those accomplishments and say, “Hell yeah I deserve to be here! I AM good enough.” Then I love to have praise. Praise from other people, whether that’s a text, an email, a voicemail; something handy nearby that reminds me externally. Not just for my own sake, but somebody else saw that in me.
It’s okay to have that positive praise, that external thing, helping you get through those bad days. You ARE good enough. Stay tuned with me over the coming weeks, as I share the rest of them. And if you have a tip that you would like to share to help someone else shorten their learning curve, please post it in the comments below.