Have you noticed how easy it is to get hung up on what we think we ‘need’ to know? When we ask the question “How can I be a leader?“, we proceed to look for the best book, the best class, the best something or someone to teach us the answer. We assume that if we just had the information, the right knowledge, the correct five step plan… we would be able to do it!
Often, however, the real challenge isn’t learning new information–it’s unlearning and forgetting old assumptions. In order to create a new behavior or new belief, we have to make space for it. If there’s no space — if our inner selves are full of fear, self-doubt, criticism, etc — then new and good things won’t be able to grow. Too often the very answers we seek are right under our nose–the more information we gather just buries them deeper. What we really need to decide is what to let go of.
What baggage are you holding onto? What stories are you telling yourself that are standing in your way or holding you back? It’s not that you don’t know how to be a leader. You do. Andre Gide once said: “If you want to discover new lands you must first have the courage to lose sight of familiar shores.”
What familiar shores must you let go of first?
