Smashing Glass Ceilings (or How To Get Where You Want To)
This post is dedicated to 2 truly beautiful and inspirational business women who I met this week, who both spoke about Glass ceilings. Personally I never speak of them as I won’t entertain phrases or words or ideas that I know could undermine my success. But we all think and feel differently so I understand the power those Glass Ceilings can have.
Here is my quick top tip guide to Smashing those Glass Ceilings and getting rid of them for good;
Firstly one business woman pointed out to me that she does not have the time to do all that she truly wants to. I say to this, work out what can be dropped. In an ideal world there would not be dust in the corner of the room, or pre packaged veg used served for tea. But no one looks back on their death bed and says “I wish I’d washed more floors” work out what can be dropped from your daily to do list. If you don’t do this, ask yourself this question “If I don’t remove some things from my daily to do list what am I agreeing to?” and a hint here, its less success.
Success needs space, so create some.
Glass ceilings get smashed when you clearly see every last detail of your big goal. From how many hours you work, to what you spend your money on, to how much money you put away in savings. A great goal puts cracks in your glass ceiling before you even get started. So visualise your ultimate goal in every detail.
Take small actions, to get there. As I say at the start of my 6 week online course”How do you eat a mountain of cheese?”
The same way you would eat anything….1 mouthful at a time, so break your goals down into bite size chunks and keep them that small. That glass ceiling gets reinforced and a lot tougher to break when you set yourself up to fail, so keep those chunks small.
When things get tough, and lets be honest we all have those times. Accept that something has to give. Ask yourself what are my true values here and my primary core goals that have to be maintained and then let the little things that aren’t important slip. Again ask yourself “If I don’t do this, what am I agreeing to?” and the answer is likely to be a bucket of added stress. Your glass ceiling just loves some added stress!
When things get tough accept that you need to refocus your attention and divert from your big goals. Your big goals still exist and you can still be working towards them, but it may be the case that you have to decide to direct your primary actions on other areas, allowing a small action towards your ultimate goal will stop you from feeling bitter, guilty and a ton of other negative emotions that will cause procrastination and make you suffer further. So ask yourself “What small action will I continue to take towards my ultimate goal as I deal with these pressing issues?”
Don’t worry about what other people are achieving. You are not on their path way to success, you are on yours. One woman’s version of success will be CEO of her own international corporation while another’s will be a Breakfast bar business that is part time. Both if they get their ulitmate goals are successful. So don’t let your glass ceiling get a layer of toughened glass by trying to be something that doesn’t match up to what are your core values and beliefs about a happy successful life.
When you really feel like you can’t achieve and that glass ceiling is crushing down on you. Write down everything you’ve ever achieved. Don’t say you haven’t because you have. You successfully got dressed, fed yourself, possibly others, been to work, drove a car.
There’s things you’ve achieved and I’m not even been near you today! So list them all. If you are being heavily critical of yourself, ask your friends, your colleagues, your loved ones, your social media friends. You will be surprised how many people you have motivated, inspired, supported and helped. So remember every success. Every last one. A few pictures of those occasions are very useful to. These will power you on to know that you’ve been through tough times before and a bad day does not define you.
Know, absolutely know, that no matter what happens today you are awesome. I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t go out everyday with a secret in your head (You don’t have to tell a single person!) that says I’m awesome, then why should anyone else believe it?
Your past, your experiences, your beliefs can all undermine that belief that you are awesome so look to all those times when you have truly rocked, when you achieved, when you came through adversity. And then lastly….
Keep people around you that will motivate, inspire and support you and remind you how awesomely saucesome you are! There will always be people that want to rain on your parade, outnumber them with the ones that believe in you and that will lead you to……
Smashing that glass ceiling in one of 2 ways;
Either with an all mighty big bang that smashes it to smithereens so that its disintegrated with nothing left. Its a big way to do it so ask yourself how you normally like to tackle things because the other way is…..
With little tiny taps, you will be able to slowly but surely break down the negativity and the issues that have created your glass ceiling so that it slowly cracks and those cracks will all join together until you find little chinks and a beautiful clear sky above.
I do hope that helps….Its just a starter, but just remember you’re awesome!
xxx
