Lindsey made a few huge leaps in her life.

She had some of her first grade studies under a tree in Africa because there were not enough classrooms for all students to learn at the same time. Now she works with a non-profit that builds schools in places where children have no access to quality education. 

She knows what it feels like to be a teenage girl without access to proper sanitary products. Now she works with one of the organizations that provides reusable sanitary napkins to women and girls in Africa.

Just some years ago, Lindsey was in a demanding corporate role where she loved the team but was frustrated because she was underappreciated, underemployed and underearning. And yet now, she is inspiring and coaching women to raise their heads and aim higher.

A certified NLP Practitioner and Success Coach, Lindsey is a beautiful ray of energy. She works with talented and ambitious women in their mid-career to help them land their dream careers by coaching them on their mindset, subconscious programming and life-mapping.

Are you holding yourself back?

What is the most prevalent belief that holds women back?, I asked Lindsey.

Among other things she mentions our tendency to dream small.

Due to family upbringing, for example, the way we were always told to only take as much as we need and not be greedy (which as a mother I can appreciate, this needs to be taught to little kids, that and sharing! ) but as a result we grow up projecting this behavior onto nearly every aspect of our lives.

We, as women, tend to be mindful of the spaces we occupy. Our presence can be huge, our energy and spirit can fill stadiums and yet, often in business meetings women go for the most inconspicuous seat, out of the way, to minimize their presence, to dim their light.

Is this your experience in life? Are you holding yourself back? By making your desires small and insignificant. 

Are you overly mindful of other people?

Are you afraid to offend, inconvenience, or annoy those around you? So you keep your thoughts to yourself.

Another limitation Lindsey talks about is how we, women are overly concerned with what others may or may not say about us if we start doing, saying or being more of what we already are.

We are not making anyone a favor by holding ourselves back, in fact we may be blocking our talent from reaching those who need it. We may be doing a disservice to a company by playing small and not leaning in to deliver more value. 

In which areas do you think you can bring more of you? Which talents could you start applying more of?

Don’t hide, speak up and tell your story

As I spoke with Lindsey, she mentioned several times that her life changed when she stood up for herself and told her story. When she found her voice and the courage to be seen and act with purpose.

What I found interesting about Lindsey is that all the leadership roles that she has taken up are in line with helping those whose struggles and pains she understands from her own personal experiences.

Her work in a non-profit organization that builds schools allows her to do the important work of bringing education and hope to where it is most needed. She started school where she herself had to share classrooms so she wants to make sure that children in marginalized communities have a proper school where they can gather to learn, have fun, and be nurtured as well.

Lindsey was once in a position in a company that did not fulfill her but the ideal place she envisioned for herself was so beyond her reality that she could not even imagine it was possible to ever get to a place of her dreams. But she made the leap and now she is helping others to do the same, facilitating the change for women who are dreaming of going to the next level.

This makes me wonder, how many of us have a story that could inspire us to act? What personal experiences can we can take and extract energy from to act with the wisdom and show others to do the same in the most effective way.

I am sure we all have difficulties and challenges that we have overcome. Maybe someone helped us along the way, maybe a valuable lesson was learned from them, or maybe we just recovered and have never thought about it ever since. Yet, if we dig deeper, we could uncover some important insights on what it is we can take from those experiences and apply them to contribute to the world.

And another thing I wonder is…

What if…

What if Lindsey never took that leap of faith?

What if she had decided to stay exactly where she was, telling herself that she is only a girl brought up in Africa, with her facial scars – a sign of a bygone age when her grandmother had thought that the only way to administer medicine was through incisions on her face- that she is not good enough, that she should really just be happy with a good-paying job, lucky to be in a western country and just stayed exactly where she was. Maintained her not-so-bad status quo… Where would she be today?

The answer is probably, nowhere special. Exactly the same place, constantly wondering what it would feel like to live fully, to have courage to acknowledge her worth and to stand in her confidence. She would probably spend her days going to work, meeting a few friends, maybe complain about her work now and then and dream… dream about something nice that may or may not happen to her in the future.

But in that case the world would miss on a talented leader, empowering success coach and a contributor to life-changing humanitarian initiatives. But at the moment of her courageous decision, Lindsey was not thinking about that, she felt she was destined for a more meaningful life. While seeing only a few steps ahead, she took the first step, the step of finding her voice and becoming true to her authentic self.

This step turned out to be a huge leap, which she has been able to repeat again and again.

And what she thought was her physical imperfection? Well, when our confidence shines through, the beauty of our inspired soul outshines our physical appearance. Not only have those scars become less prominent and nearly invisible, unless Lindsey points them out and shares her childhood story, people do not even notice them.