Be Bold this year!

Face your fears, craft a plan, celebrate success

Be bold. What do you think when you hear these words? Some people think, “Whoop, whoop! Bring it!” Other’s may cower at the statement, thinking something like, “Hmm, no thanks. Not really my jam. Oh please, let me just hide in this crowd!”

Being bold is a choice. It takes feeling good in your own skin. It’s bold to believe in yourself enough to try something new. With a new year and new goals, why not make the decision to take up a new daily practice that could have you living BOLD from the inside out? Boldness is doing the right thing for your life, regardless of the fears and discomforts that are a part of the process of change and growth.

Be Honest with Yourself

The first step towards achieving your full potential is to ask yourself, “What are my goals?” Follow that up with, “What are the fears that are holding me back from achieving them?” If fears are creating a roadblock, analyze those fears and then craft a way to overcome them. Make a list. Once you’ve identified your fears, problem solve. Nearly every problem has a solution if you can figure out the cause.

Change isn’t comfortable

Make a “discomfort” list, those necessary things that stand in your way of progress. What task makes you cringe? What do you regularly procrastinate on? After you’ve crafted your list, it’s time to prioritize the discomforts from “kind of uncomfortable” to “Holy hell, I do not want to do that!” The process of embracing discomfort starts with the internal work of rearranging your brain and making a decision to move forward. What comes after deciding to move forward? Taking that step. Pick a discomfort on your list and give it a deadline to deal with it. Decide how you will feel when you do tackle that discomfort. Envisioning those positive feelings might be just what you need to consider as you travel down this new road.

Make a New Habit

If one of your goals involves making a daily change, it’s not a bad idea to make a list. Put your current habit in one column and put the goal habit in a second column. Now select one or two habits to be your key focus for the next few weeks. Chip away, one bad habit at a time. When a behavior becomes a habit, you stop using your decision-making skills and instead move into autopilot. That’s why breaking a bad habit that requires us to make an active decision can feel wrong. Your brain will resist the change in favor of what it has been programmed to do. The solution? Embrace the wrong.

Celebrate the Small Wins

As you vow to build that inner boldness toward your goals, stop and appreciate the progress you’ve made along the way. Consider how every success propels you to your next success. Recognize that. Celebrate it! Taking time to celebrate those small wins will go a long way to inspire you to keep on going to embrace the next discomfort. Learning how to celebrate the small wins helps you reach the big wins and to appreciate them all the more.

In the wise words of high-performance coach Brandon Burchard, “I would rather be a hot mess of bold action, a make it happen, learn on the fly kind of person than a perfectly organized coward.”