Inspiration for women who want to achieve more

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How do we become high achievers? Learn from successful women. Inspirational video of high achieving women.

“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more you are an excellent leader.”

Dolly Parton singer-songwriter

How does a woman become a high achiever?

inspirational image for high achieving women

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

First, according to a study about Harvard Business School MBA graduates, some years ago, women and men had similar values regarding their hopes for achievements in life and career.

Secondly, women rated factors such as a satisfying work that is meaningful. Also,  professional achievements and accomplishments are key dimensions of their professional lives. Furthermore, career growth opportunities and development programmes were of as much importance to them.

In addition, while some work in corporate jobs and others find job satisfaction and fulfilment in other professional areas, achievement and the desire for inspiration & growth are formed parts of our lives.

Whether we work in business, as artists or in public services, there are behavioural patterns that enable us to higher achievement. Such behavioural patterns are:

  • seeking clarity about her own self and the world around her
  • finding and generating energy in almost any situation
  • being courageous and bold, trusting her own abilities
  • continuously improving herself and her capabilities

We could continue this list, do some research and find that there are unique views on this topic. Instead, why don’t we view the following video and think about these amazing women? Moreover, every high achieving women is inspirational for their hard work, dedication and spirit. How did they do it?

Finally, get more inspiration by reading How do women do business? Also, you can learn about How do high achievers really think?

Building Self-Confidence – The Benefits of Believing in Yourself

believing In yourself cover image

Building self-confidence can have a magical effect on your life, it helps you to shine and enables your personal growth. Read on to see what benefits believing in yourself brings to you.

Have you ever set out to achieve something, big or small, and heard a voice in your head telling you how terribly you will fail? Or do you sometimes think you are not good enough and you just cannot do it? Many people have had experience with this voice. It is self-doubt. This taunting voice beats you into a corner when you want to stand up to the high winds of challenges in life. All it does is criticize you and make you feel worthless.

The greedy nature of self-doubt ensures it sweeps clean all confidence, logic, and reason from your mind. It leaves you with unhappiness and depression. Fear and insecurity occupy your mind. However, that should not be the case. Honoré de Balzac couldn’t have been more correct when he said that, when you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt. The best you can do for yourself, with the help of self-knowledge, is believing in yourself and keep building self-confidence.

The good news is that the voice is made up in your mind, and there are ways to control it, rather than shutting it down completely. Failure to do this will plunge you into the ditch of fear, anxiety, and insecurity, and it is the last place you want to find yourself since you will feel like you have little to be worth living for. Paralysis, physical and emotional, may also ensue.

The Benefits of Believing in Yourself

Resources, intelligence, and opportunity may contribute to the success of an individual. Still, when you look deep down into the core of the prosperity of successful people, you will find they started by believing in themselves.

Why would you believe in yourself? If you don’t, no one will!

Putting it simply, if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. If you want your boss to recognize your performance, you must clearly represent the qualities expected of you. If you’re going to convince investors to put their money into your business, you must show beyond doubt that you have a firm conviction that your strategy will work.

Building Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is an important attribute, especially when faced with challenges in life. Click to learn more about What does it take to be confident?

One sure way of ensuring you will dig deep and stand firm is believing in yourself; the belief that comes from within enables you to face any challenge without succumbing to fear. If you feel that your self-esteem is in ruins, you may start with something small and begin building self-confidence in tiny steps. Believe in your capability to speak up at the next meeting. Have faith in it so firmly that you see yourself speaking and providing input. You already know the topic of the discussion. Prepare yourself, think about potential questions, and the opportunity will manifest itself.

A Step Closer to Achieving Your Goal

It is crucial to find a way to shut down the inner voice that would tell you how big and unachievable your goal is. You don’t want to be afraid to take steps towards success due to insecurity or self-doubt. Believing in yourself is one of the surest ways to make big strides towards the goal you have been chasing for a while now. You only need a positive attitude and thinking to realize it will take you time and effort to achieve your target and keep building your self-confidence, but you will achieve it and shine. Learning more about The psychology of positive thinking is a good starting point.

It’s an inspiration

When you believe in yourself, you give yourself the motivation to work harder every day to move forward and go for what you desire. In the wake of difficulties or even setbacks, you cannot afford to stop, no excuses, you have to be consistent. Self-doubt is the crusher of big dreams many people have in life. You need the driving force to make it in life, and inspiration is a significant boost to get you motivated.

Gives the realization that mistakes are part of the process

Anyone telling you that you will always have a smooth ride in life towards your goal is lying. Failure is bound to attack when you think you have gotten to the level ground. The last thing you want to have by your side is self-doubt. It will make you believe that all is gone, and there is nothing more to do. However, when you build your self-confidence and believe in yourself, it will make you realize that, once you fail, you’d better stand up, dust off, and move on because that is what the journey of life is about.

It gives you a positive attitude

Winston Churchill once said attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. He was right. When you let negative thoughts flood your mind all the time, achieving your goal will be difficult. It is self-belief that makes you have the right attitude towards success.

Regaining your self-belief

Maybe you have lost the belief in yourself that we have discussed in this article, and you are wondering how you can get your self-belief back. All is not lost. You can regain your confidence and become successful in life. The following are ways in which you can start believing in yourself again and contribute to building self-confidence.

Avoid people who bring you down

You have more than likely come across individuals who believe everything is impossible or so complicated that it is not worth the effort. These are the people you must avoid at all costs. They will do nothing less than shoot down your ideas when you come up with them, making you develop self-doubt and insecurity. Follow the link to see How do people drag you down?

Identify your doubts

What are the things you think you cannot achieve in life? Why do you think you cannot reach them? Identifying what you think you are not good at is a sure-fire way to overcome fears and doubt and take the first steps in building self-confidence.

Count your achievements

One way to boost your self-confidence when you feel down is to count and celebrate your results and accomplishments, even the smallest ones. It is the time when the usual pep talk does not cut it. Get a pen and pencil, and list your successes one by one. Having someone tell you what you have achieved over the years is also an excellent way to increase your confidence.

Love and trust yourself

What people with self-doubt lack is self-love and trust. These two make you understand that the cause of action you take is the right one, and nothing will ever stop you from achieving your best and believing in yourself. Let’s get building self-confidence; you deserve it!

Photo from Unsplash

How Do Women Do Business?

How do women do business

2-min read

Businesses – small entrepreneurships and large multinational organizations – are built on passion. The passion of the founder and the passion and dedication of the people within the business. How else would you deliver something better every single day? Read on to find out about how women do business differently.

Women in business. Interesting topic, isn’t it? I love it!

Some believe business is the domain of men and even though the number of women in various areas of business has increased over the last decade, there is still room for improvement. I have built three companies so far and can confidently say all the businesses had a woman’s touch.

What is a woman’s touch exactly?

I have recently heard an interview with a property mogul. He explained that, in his opinion, women go deeper into the details to understand the whole process and the steps in it. Based on my experience, I can certainly confirm that.

For better or worse, I like to understand what is happening in the process. I say ‘for better or worse’ because going too deep takes precious time and I had to learn to be satisfied with the interpretation of critical metrics in my businesses. It was a learning curve for me to understand that my efforts to become knowledgeable about every teeny-tiny step in a process was merely my way of handling uncertainties and insecurities. I thought knowing all about it would make me more confident. It helped some, for sure, but it didn’t make the difference you would believe.

What made the real difference was to select excellent people and work with great suppliers. The ones who know their job and do their job.

I also understood from the interview that this property mogul thought women put more emotions and passion into a business. Comments similar to that haunted me for years.

Male executives dominate the side of my business where we deal with business transformations; and I heard such comments, not once.

The problem wasn’t the comment itself but how I interpreted it. Whatever those men meant to say when they made such a comment, I believed it had a negative meaning. Also, I wasn’t the only one.

Today, I can proudly say that, damn right, I put more emotion and passion into my business. Just differently.

Businesses, small enterprises, or large multinational companies, are built on passion. The passion of the founder and the passion and dedication of the people within that business. How else would you deliver something better every single day?

Being passionate is a good thing, as long as it drives forward the business. I believe, the problems start when fear and lack of self-confidence creep in, question marks queue in your mind every single day, and doubts build up. I make no mistake, it happens, you cannot avoid it from happening.

Putting more emotion into the business is not wrong; it’s just different. Women and men are different, and therefore they do business differently. Previously, I didn’t do research on how women do business, but I know how I do it. I put compassion in it, and I am well aware of that. Furthermore, I know that my thoughts drive my emotions, and see the difference between an opinion formulated based on feelings and hard facts. So, this is precisely why I think it is fantastic that women build businesses differently than men do.

The world is changing. Technology cuts through the fabric of business and society and people want to be connected more than ever. The level of self-awareness is increasing, and people stay with companies who demonstrate social responsibility. We get closer to the balance of heart and mind every single day. Women doing business is a part of this evolution. I am fortunate to be a part of this evolution.

For more inspiration read the following article Inspiration for women who want to achieve more.

How to combat our everyday challenges effectively

how to combat everyday challenges article cover image

It is as critical to face everyday challenges with dignity as to have the necessary tools for such a task if you are to tackle them effectively and emerge a victor.

No single human being leads a quiet, smooth and happy life that is devoid of stress factors, ills, or complications all through. Challenges form part of our human existence. They are ubiquitous and, in a unique way, help shape how we ought to deal with situations, appreciate what we can’t solve and, of course, handle issues and problems.
And, whether you like it or not, challenges will always be there, regardless of your financial situation, your age, gender or status in the society. But, if you choose to avoid them and run away, you will be doing perhaps the worst thing for yourself. Problems are to be faced, and not to be avoided. So, instead of running away or blaming someone, use the following techniques to combat them effectively. For encouragement check The power of now and how you can harness it.

A 4-step method of overcoming everyday challenges in life

Step #1: Identify the problem and state it clearly

One you decide to face the problem head-on, you must know what the problem is as well as its nature. Sure, you might be looking bold, but calm and raring to go, but you ought to know who your real “enemy” is. If you are at war with a problem that you don’t fully know, then you will not solve it well.
Therefore, stay calm and take your time to know and understand the problem. It is from the proper understanding of the issue that you will formulate the right goals, how you will work towards attaining them and perhaps stay on course once the journey starts.

Step #2: Gather your troops

Well, you have grounded yourself, and your heart is bubbling healthy even though you know that there’s a challenge ahead. Assuming that you have properly studied the problem, it is about time you gathered all your resources and identified your strengths and weaknesses. Experts advise that you make a comprehensive list of all that you will need. Among the things you will need to combat challenges are:

  • Materials and other tangibles
    Using books and magazines to digital resources, you can gather whatever is fit for resolving the issues you face. When you are aware that you don’t have enough resources, try to be patient and buy some time. Go right ahead with what is at your disposal or just adopt an alternative, perhaps more creative technique. It’s all about being intuitive, and some aspects of timing, too.
  • Personal skills and expertise
    Some say hard work beats talent. Work extra hard, hone your skills and polish that expertise, and you will overcome the issue. Be an expert in your field and don’t compromise on quality.
  • Collaboration
    You might be striving to fight the problem on your own, which is impressive. But with a larger group comprising different minds, talents, and energies, you will win with ease. Remember, to be successful you need not only others but also their support. After all, many hands make work easier.

Step #3: Come up with a working strategy

From the proverbial 5Ps – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance, an effective strategy at hand means you are equipped to combat everyday challenges en route. Rack your brain, come up with a feasible strategy and execute it as efficiently as you can.
Formulating a fit for purpose strategy takes time because it needs evaluated information. You will be assessing yourself, much like you reviewing and knowing more about the nature of the challenge. But as you do so, don’t waste valuable time to grant the challenge to grow and develop, because resolving an issue of a greater complexity will require more resources and efforts from you.

Step #4: Implement the strategy

A fit for purpose working strategy isn’t necessarily the shiniest one, that is according to successful entrepreneurs who have had to wait for the successful working formula during the umpteenth time. So, don’t feel let down when the first, second and third plans don’t live up to your expectations. As you work towards reaching those goals and stay clear from the challenges, just remember that consistency is the key.
For some specific challenges, creativity, skill and intelligence are needed the most. But for others, timing paired with diligence and determination is the most profound requirements. In short, you must know what the challenge really is and how to utilize your resources to ensure a simple, glitch-free and successful completion.

But, you can’t make use of each of the four techniques if you lack the following virtues:

  • Calmness and composure
    Costly decisions often emerge from emotion-driven choices. In the midst of the challenges, stay calm and watch your thoughts.
  • Accept the reality
    Yes, everything seems to be going awry. Yes, no one appears to care and yes, you might look hopeless and miserable. BUT, the first way of fighting the everyday challenges, is accepting that indeed you are fighting a dire situation.
  • Don’t blame anyone
    Take full responsibility for the problems so that you can start the road to recovery in earnest.
  • Avoid the analysis paralysis
    Don’t spend too much time thinking about the problem. Neither should you spend a colossal amount of time checking the strategies. If you do so, frustrations and fears will kick in, and in the end, you will start blaming yourself more.
  • Focus on detachment
    Challenges will always be there, but when you choose to live with them, trust me, you’ll lead a happy life. Try to step out of the circle of problems, distance yourself and look at them from a different angle.

For some, challenges mark the end and lead to a miserable life, stress and depression. But for others, challenges aren’t baggage at all. They’re what spur creativity, offer a window of opportunity and a perfect launchpad for stardom. For more Techniques to overcome everyday challenges click here.
It depends on how you perceive the nature of the challenge and what lies beneath it. So, on which side are you?

Cover photo by Lou Levit on Unsplash