You’ve got big dreams and goals completely outside your career. 

They’re the dreams and goals that light you up inside and terrify you simultaneously. You’re finally going to write your novel, become an artist, or maybe master the craft of Japanese woodworking. 

All of which are firmly on the other side of your comfort zone. 

When you decide to challenge yourself and move beyond your comfort zone, you feel like you’re standing on the edge of a cliff on a windy day. 

You’re staring into an abyss and can’t see the bottom. Your brain will do everything in its power to pull you away from the edge and back to the comfy sofa of complacency. Your brain tells you (with great confidence, mind you):

You’ll look like a fool. 

You’ll fall flat on your face.

You don’t know what you’re doing.

It will fail, meaning you’re a failure.

You’re not the type of person who does this type of thing.

You’ll be judged and criticized, maybe even laughed at. 

Plus, a litany of other terrible commentary. 

Not only does your brain tell you all these terrible things, which can be enough by themselves to drive you back to the comfy sofa of complacency, but your brain also ups the ante.

It tells you there is no way you’ll survive all those terrible things. 

If you leap and fall, you won’t recover. 

But you desperately long for a life of purpose, meaning, and fulfillment outside your career. 

You want to tap into your full potential and leave no stone in your life story unturned. 

You know you have to leap, so how do you silence that voice long enough so you can leap?

The best way I silenced that voice after prison was to cultivate deep self-trust.

What is self-trust?

1st, I’ll tell you what it isn’t:

Self-trust isn’t the faith that nothing bad will happen when you leap. You have no way of knowing that. You may fall flat on your face. 

What self-trust is, and why it is imperative to you and crafting your remarkable life story, is this:

Self-trust is the deep, inherent wisdom that you will survive regardless of what happens when you leap.

If any of the bad things your brain was telling you would come true, do, in fact, come true; self-trust is what informs you that you’ll survive.

You will be okay.

And when you know you’ll survive, that you’ll be okay, no matter what comes to fruition, you silence the inner critic long enough to leap.

Here’s the most beautiful part of this equation.

When you leap, you reinforce your self-trust, 

If your leap works the way you hoped -you increase your self-confidence.

Here’s the kicker: 

If your leap works doesn’t go how you hoped -you increase your self-confidence.

Because you stumbled and fell, and you survived.

This is how you cultivate self-confidence. 

Now, it’s getting even better. 

Do you know the potential we discussed earlier?  

You expand into your full potential when you consistently practice the self-trust cycle. So, you’re not only surviving, you’re thriving. 

Let’s rewind briefly because we can go even deeper into this.

Remember all the things your brain told you would come true? 

You’ll look like a fool. 

You’ll fall flat on your face, etc?

Let’s say some of them did come true.

You’re here, on the other side of what your brain told you you’d never survive, and you’re thriving. 

What can we learn from this?

Your brain’s a boldface liar. 

There are two ways we can prove this:

1. You’re thriving on the other side – that’s evidence enough.
2. When your brain told you that you wouldn’t survive failure, it predicted the future. How could it possibly know how you would respond and that you couldn’t handle it? If you could accurately predict the future, wouldn’t you be doing it?

Your remarkable life story will be built on a foundation of self-trust. 

Now, how do you cultivate self-trust?

Hands down, the best way I know is what I practiced after prison, and what allowed me to conquer my fear of public speaking and writing my book is this:

Make and keep commitments to yourself. 

• When you commit to working out 3x this week – and do it.

• When you commit to showing up for family and friends – and do it.

• When you commit to writing at least 700 words towards your collection of essays – and do it.

When you consistently make and keep your commitments, you become the person who does what they say they will do. 

You can count on yourself – and you cultivate self-trust.

Do you want to take the practice to another level? Add celebration to the equation. Every time you make and keep a commitment, celebrate yourself for it.

You’ll be rewarded with the pleasure hormone dopamine, and you’ll train your body to want to keep making and keeping commitments.

You’ll become more and more willing to leap boldly into the unknown and into the extraordinary. 

📣 If you’re ready to stand in your power, and unleash your potential the Midlife Mastery Program is for you. Schedule your free call here.