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Category: Dream Big - Start Small

What Autumn Reveals: Let Go When Something Has Completed Its Season

In nature, letting go is not the same as losing something. A fallen leaf doesn’t disappear. It breaks down and returns to the soil. Autumn doesn’t ask the trees to explain themselves before they let go. The leaves change color, loosen their grip, and fall. There’s no apology, no attempt to keep what once belonged to summer, no frantic effort to hold on just a little longer. What has completed its season is allowed to return to the earth.

However, we find it hard to let go because it feels like giving up. We’re driven to make things work, even when it’s difficult. We’re tenacious, resilient, and accustomed to finding a way forward, even when the path is demanding. 

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Start Treating Your Inner Critic as a Messenger, Not an Enemy

 I invite you to become curious about what the inner critic is trying to tell you and develop a different relationship with the part of you that’s afraid of getting it wrong.
We’ve all heard that voice…the one that says, “You should have handled that better. Why did you say that? Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. What's wrong with you?” That inner critic can be especially convincing because it sounds a lot like the voice that helped you succeed. 

It pushes you to prepare more carefully, perform better, notice your mistakes, anticipate what could go wrong, and hold yourself to high standards. And that often works…so it can be difficult to recognize when the same voice that helps you stay safe or successful becomes a source of unnecessary pressure.

The answer isn't to silence your inner critic. Trying to fight, suppress, or outthink it can create another layer of internal struggle. Instead, I invite you to become curious about what the inner critic is trying to tell you and develop a different relationship with the part of you that’s afraid of getting it wrong.

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Read The Ground: Your Origin Story Reveals Your Leadership Tendencies

Learn to read the ground upon which you are building your life.No doubt you’ve heard or seen stories of how trackers studied the ground to follow a missing person who has passed through the area. Bent grass, impressions in the mud, broken twigs, dropped items, or pieces of torn clothing all reveal a story about the person being tracked. Similarly, you can become skilled at reading the ground upon which you are building your life.

How? By studying your origin story! You can use it as a diagnostic tool…to help us read the ground beneath your leadership style.

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Origin Is The Ground You Build On & How It Shapes Your Leadership

Origin is the ground we build onWe often think of our origin as the opening chapter of our story. Where we grew up. What our families were like. The experiences that shaped us. The people and places that formed our earliest understanding of ourselves and the world.

But our origin is more than our backstory. It’s the ground we build on. It’s the infrastructure (i.e., structural foundation) of our lives and, more to the point, our leadership presence. It influences what feels familiar or threatening, what we expect from other people, and what we believe we need to do to belong. Long before we become leaders, we learn how to read a room, earn approval, or navigate conflict. It creates the size of our comfort zone and teaches us how much space we’re allowed to take, and whether it’s safe to be ourselves.

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Feeling Lost? 3 Tips to Get You Headed in the Direction You Want to Go

When you’re feeling lost and without direction in life, it’s helpful to ask questions to assess your life and then change what isn’t working for you any longer. Here are three life lessons that will have the biggest impact in helping you create more joy in these lost areas of your life.

There are times when the path ahead feels clear. You know what you’re working toward, why it matters, and what your next step needs to be. And then there are times when you’re feeling lost.

Nothing may be obviously wrong. Your career may be going well. Your relationships may look fine from the outside. You’re meeting your responsibilities and accomplishing the things you set out to do.

Yet something inside you whispers, This isn't working for me anymore.

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How to Step Forward to a Future You've Created

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