While we all have dreams and aspirations, few of us are fully aware of our own potential. It can be hard to see the truly good and admirable traits in ourselves, just like it is our faults. However, believing in your own potential is a crucial part of developing your self-confidence.

In order to achieve all you’re capable of, you have to believe in the potential you have. It can help you to try new things, challenge yourself, and take risks that could all lead to success. We’ve come up with a few ways you can determine if you believe in your potential.

Spend Time in Self-Reflection

The first way to determine if you believe in your own potential is to spend time in self-reflection. Ask yourself what you are capable of; what are your strengths and admirable qualities. This time spent determining your potential is valuable to who you are as a person and achieving your full potential. During this time, try to focus on the following:

• What is your potential?
• What do you want to achieve?
• Do you truly believe you can achieve it?
• What can you do with this potential?

Focusing on these things and answering these questions will help you to identify your potential and believe in it more strongly.

Write Down What You See As Your Full Potential

Now that you’ve had time to reflect on what your potential is, you can list the qualities and skills that entails. This will help you affirm what your potential is and your belief in it. Study this list and keep it with you, being sure to look at it whenever you feel yourself doubting your potential. This will help you keep your potential in the forefront of your mind and helping you to truly believe in your potential.

Prove Your Potential to Yourself

For some to truly believe in something, they need to see it. This even extends to what they believe about themselves. A great way to truly believe in your potential is to prove to yourself you have it. Act on it; challenge yourself by pushing the limits of your potential.

This challenge can be career-, hobby-, or relationship-oriented, so long as it challenges you and forces you to showcase your full potential. Once you’ve achieved the goal you set for yourself and fully showcased your potential, you’ll not only have a well-earned sense of accomplishment and confidence … you’ll also fully believe in your potential without doubts.

Surround Yourself with People that Believe in Your Potential

We all like to think we don’t let others affect us, and the reality is that the people around us, especially those close to you, do have an effect on us and our emotions. If those close to you doubt your potential, you’re likely to do the same. You don’t need that negative influence in your life. Instead, surround yourself with people that believe in your potential and encourage you to achieve all you can. Their positive influence will provide you with encouragement and help you to see and believe in your potential.

We all have a river of potential inside us. Few people truly recognize and believe in that potential. Believing in your own potential is an essential part of your confidence and success. If you believe you are capable of accomplishing something, you’re far more likely to actually accomplish it.

However, believing in your own potential may not come as easily for you as it does for others. It’s often something we have to work on and prove to ourselves before we believe it. One way of going beyond the surface of believing in your own potential is to decide to live from this potential. This is what Life Coaching can do for you.

Life coaching is a self-improvement service designed to help you get out of a state of desperation and into a state of inspiration … to fully believe, see and live your full potential.

When you live in a state of inspiration, every decision you make and action you take supports your greater good and helps you to reach your full potential in any field of endeavor.

Life coaching will, for instance, help you to:

• Develop new skills
• Capitalize on your strengths
• Overcome weaknesses
• Expand your comfort zone
• Improve your thinking
• Eliminate limiting beliefs
• Clarify your goals and priorities
• Develop empowering habits and rituals
• Strengthen your core values
• Improve your ability to learn from mistakes and failure
• Upgrade your social skills and strengthen your relationships
• Unlock your life’s purpose

In a nutshell, life coaching is designed to help provide you with the support and guidance you need to excel in any area of your life. That’s what I do.

We hope we’ve helped you to see and believe in your potential.

If you’re interested in learning more about working with me, message me at denise@denisehansard.com. We’ll set up a time to have a clarity call to help you discover what your full potential can become!

1. Saying Yes when my mind screams NOOOOOOO! (and I know this “No” is only the fear talking)

We’ve all heard that we can’t be stuck in the past and that we have to move on with our lives, and have you ever stopped to think about it? Why should you move on from the past? Well, frankly, because it can affect nearly every other aspect of your life if you don’t. 

Few people devote time to thinking about how focusing on the past can be detrimental to their present and future. In this article, we’re going to provide you with, hopefully, all the arguments you need to persuade you to stop letting the past dictate your future.

What’s so bad about focusing on the past?

Focusing heavily on the past, whether in a negative or a positive way, is detrimental to you and your ability to move forward with your life. Let’s talk about the negative first: holding grudges. Holding on to a particular moment or event in the past due to a negative experience stunts your emotional and mental growth. 

The more you focus on that, the less attention you have to give to what’s happening in the present. On the positive side of things, if you’re fixated on one particular positive event that happened in the past, you’ll miss all the positive and great things happening in the future. You also run the risk of comparing everything that happens from then on to that one “perfect” event. 

This fixation can lead to a few negative outcomes on your future. The more you focus on the past, the less you witness the present. You have a tendency to miss special occasions or important events. You move through life in a more distracted manner. The worst outcome of them all, though, is that you stunt your development and growth. 

How can focusing on the past dictate your future

As we said before, focusing on something in the past can manipulate how you view present moments. It can make you distracted during events you’d otherwise be fully immersed in or cause you to compare them to another moment from which you can’t move. 

These fixations can cause you to turn down new opportunities either because you’re afraid they won’t live up to the past experience or you don’t want to be taken away from it. Focusing on the past can negatively affect every decision you make, dictating your future. 

How do you stop focusing on the past?

The first step in putting an end to this behavior once and for all is to resolve to let it go. We know, it’s easier said than done, but you have to first consciously decide to do it before you can actually successfully let the past go. Letting go of the issues or moments you’re holding onto will allow you to finally move forward with your life and grow as a person. 

Fixated on a positive past event

If you’re fixated on a positive past event, letting go doesn’t mean the same thing as it does for those holding onto a grudge. Letting go in this sense is to stop comparing other events to this one. It doesn’t mean that you have to forget the moment you’ve held so dear, but it does mean that you continue to experience and enjoy each new moment, rather than comparing it to and being distracted by said moment.

Fixated on a negative past event

If you’re holding a grudge or fixated on a past event, letting go is typically forgiving the person (and yourself) to move on from the event. This can be very difficult, and the only person that can put an end to your holding onto the past is you. You have to be the one to forgive, let go, and move on. You’re only hurting yourself, otherwise.

Begin the letting go process by being kind to yourself … take one step at a time … Breathe.

PS … If you’d like information on this and other ways to shift your mindset, let’s talk! Email me at denise@denisehansard.com 

One of the very best ways to manage your time is to learn to say no. Saying no is a great way to control how you spend your time and take your power back. Most of us don’t know how to say no because our parents taught us very well not to say no. Many two-year-olds love saying no, and they are quickly taught that the word no is very unacceptable. It’s time to take back the power of no and earn more time in your day for doing what you really want to do.

• You’ll Reduce Your Stress – One of the worst things about overscheduling your time is the stress that it will cause. Learning to say no will automatically reduce your stress, even if the first few times you say no will be a little stressful. The freedom you experience will soon overshadow the fear of saying no.
• You’ll Be Perceived as More Professional – No one person can do everything. If you already have something scheduled and can’t do something, it is to be expected of a professional person. You don’t even have to provide a reason; just say that your calendar is full.
• You’ll Improve at Tasks You Really to Want to Do – If you’re not spending time doing stuff you hate doing, you’ll get to spend more time doing things you want to do. That means you’ll get more practice and become better at the things you already like doing.
• You Get to Spend Time Doing What You Want to Do – No one wants to spend time doing things they dislike doing, and they still tend to say yes due to the lessons they were taught. If you really want to spend more time writing or helping your clients/employees solve their problems, say no to doing things you don’t want to do and recommend someone else.                                           
• People Will Respect You More – Even really good people lose respect for those who act like doormats. You probably don’t want to appear as a doormat; you’re just trying to be helpful. Even nice people will take advantage of those who say yes all the time. That’s why you’ll notice it’s always the same three people doing all the work in any group. The “yes” people. Are you one of these people?
• Saying No Gives You the Opportunity to Say Yes – This may sound counter-intuitive and it’s true. If you learn to say no to things that don’t advance your business or life in any measurable way, you’ll have more time to say yes to things that do.
• You Won’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew – People who say yes to everything tend to do most things half way. They don’t mean to. They get too much on their plate and end up not being able to do the tasks they agreed to do to the best of their ability. If you say no, you can avoid this embarrassment.
• Pause, Breathe Deeply, Check Your Calendar – In order to say no without a problem, when someone asks you to do something, even if it’s something you know immediately that you do want to do, make it a practice to take a pause, take a breath, and check your calendar – internal or external calendar. The act of “calendar checking” can give you time to give some thought to whether or not you want to say yes or no.

Saying no can truly give you back enough time to create the life that you really want to live. If you’re feeling hurried and overwhelmed take the time to practice saying no. By saying no you’ll take control of your schedule and feel like you get more time in your day.

PS … If you’d like information on this and other ways to shift your mindset, let’s talk! Email me at denise@denisehansard.com 

Poor organizational skills can hinder your professional career, cost you time and money, lead to poor relationships, and even to declining mental or physical health. To keep up with your responsibilities and be highly productive, you must possess organizational skills. Thankfully, with training and dedication, you can learn to be more organized. Yes, even you.

Being organized means that you can prioritize, declutter, and schedule people, tasks, or things wisely based on your goals. Being organized can improve all these things and more:

Improves Time Management

Staying organized allows you to always be on time, so you avoid missing important deadlines or appointments. When you are not organized, time is often wasted searching for needed items, tools, and paperwork. Spending time searching instead of doing it can lead to missed deadlines, forgotten meetings, and not having time to go to outings with friends and family.

Improves Mental and Physical Health

Being organized allows you to de-stress, improving overall health as you no longer miss important deadlines or scramble to find important objects through your house or office. Decluttering your space is known to reduce cortisol levels, the hormone responsible for stress. If you want to feel calmer, clean up your space immediately.

Improves and Increases Productivity and Efficiency

Being organized helps you use your time more wisely. When you are organized, you feel like you have more time to work on essential tasks leading to higher productivity. Having the resources that you need front and center without having to fumble through other clutter leads to more valuable time to finish your tasks and produce high-quality work. Having everything you need ready to go can also make overwhelming tasks easier to get done and be used as a source of motivation to keep going.

Creates A Clutter-free And More Hygienic Environment

Clutter leads to dust or more dirt collection that can wreak havoc on your physical and mental health. A clutter-free environment is more hygienic and is known to decrease cortisol levels, leaving you relieved, satisfied, and happier, not to mention ready to work and tackle all the tasks you need to do.

Leads to Improved and Better Relationships

Organization provides fewer opportunities to stress or worry while spending time with friends, family, or other meaningful relationships. Organization includes arranging every aspect of your life to make it easier. This includes ensuring you only work at work, not at home or during other people’s time.

As you can see, being and staying organized is the key to optimal success. If you want a successful career, more meaningful relationships, and improved physical and mental health, you must adopt organizational habits.

PS … If you’d like information on this and other ways to shift your mindset, let’s talk! Email me at denise@denisehansard.com 

Changes, sometimes seen as challenges, are unavoidable. The truth is, changes are to be welcomed. They build character and allow you to grow as an individual. They help you discover your passions in life and lead a more successful life. While they seem disastrous or somewhat disturbing, there are strategies you can adopt to make it seem a little easier to deal with. Here are some tips to help you overcome life’s changes … big or small.

• Take Baby Steps – Don’t expect yourself to learn and overcome changes in life instantly. Taking small baby steps will make the change seem more manageable and less life-shattering. 

• Allow and Feel Emotions – Changes can be scary, happy, nerve-wracking, and so much more. The emotions you feel will depend on many different factors. Don’t ever avoid them or push them away. Allow the time to recognize them and feel them grow and push yourself. It is okay to be mad or cry to let out frustrations, ultimately preventing you from moving forward. (Learn more about this in on my YouTube channel …. H.E.A.L.)  

• Meditate and Exercise – Meditation and exercise are said to rewire the brain. They send feel-good chemicals to the brain that can help reduce cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress. Not only that gives you an activity to focus on separate. Just because something in your life changed doesn’t mean everything else has to. You can exercise or meditate easily where you are right now or anywhere.
  
  
• Recognize & Celebrate the Rewards – The most you will grow and learn as a person is through the changes you face in life. If you don’t expect changes, it is likely you won’t get much from life. Take a moment to recognize & celebrate what this change is bringing to you. What are you learning from it? Don’t let any lesson go to waste, and take your time to absorb everything. Recognize what value you bring to your life, take time to celebrate the growth this brings and then focus on these aspects to keep you moving forward.

   

• Take Breaks – It is okay to take a break and vacations. You don’t always need to be busy. Research shows that the average worker is only productive for about three hours. Therefore, you will only be wasting your time not taking a break. The mind and body need time to rejuvenate and develop better problem-solving skills.

   

• Seek Help or Advice – You won’t know the answer to every question, and neither does everyone else. However, other people can provide a different perspective you may not have thought about and can provide ideas on making the change easier to overcome.

   

• Accept It Don’t Fight It – Change is not fun, but it is even worse when you fight it. Fighting it will only lead to more mistakes making it harder to overcome.

   

• Don’t Avoid Self-Care – Self-care is essential for your physical health and mental health. Eat a healthy diet, adopt proper hygiene routines, get regular health screens, and do the activates you need to feel good. Improving your overall well-being and physical health will give you the energy and mental clarity needed not just to survive a change but to thrive during one.

   

• Learn from Others – You have access to a wonderful tool that does wonders for overcoming changes; the internet. The internet provides the ability to seek, find, and even share stories or stories with others. To learn and see that you are not alone in dealing with any change. To gain motivation and inspiration from others who have made it through.

   

• Outline Your Goals and Aspirations – Use this time to recognize what you want to achieve. Even if it may seem entirely out of reach, this can motivate you to develop ways to solve the problem. As they say, “where there’s a will, there is a way.” By setting your intention, you will find ways to get there and be successful without a doubt.

Implement these ten tips the next time you face a difficult situation. This way, you can take control of your life, cope, and take on any change that life brings you. 

PS … If you’d like information on this and other ways to shift your mindset, let’s talk!

At this time, are you feeling the pull to having more in your life? Maybe you wake up feeling “off” or maybe bored with what you are doing. Maybe you have been thinking about that one thing to change and are unsure if you can do something different and if you can, where do you begin?

First step, choose to …

Start today and commit to taking the actions needed. The secret to getting what you want from life starts with you and only what you do to get there. Your actions directly reflect what you have around you and what you achieve in life. While there will always be some things that are entirely out of your control. That doesn’t mean you should do nothing and expect everything. The following ideas and suggestions will help you get what you want from life.

Face and Take On Failure

Fear of failure is the number one mistake many make when they don’t achieve their goals or aspirations in life. While society is curial and doesn’t seem to allow time for this, you must ignore it. You need to fail in order to learn and understand the world and yourself. Sometimes the fear of failure alone is why many make mistakes anyway. Find ways to let go of things you can’t control and even the things you can. It’ll open new doors that can make it easier to get what you want, in the long run.

Ignore Others’ Thoughts And Opinions

If you are not harming other people, you really shouldn’t worry about what other people think. This is because you will never please everybody. The only person you need to please is yourself anyway.

Outline and Take Actionable Steps

Don’t just write down a goal and daydream about it. When you outline your goals, you need to include steps to achieve it. Often people get stuck thinking about the big picture instead of using that time for productivity. Every big goal accomplished is done so by achieving a series of small goals.

Be Open and Honest with Yourself And Others

Don’t hold back. Let everyone know what your goals and aspirations are. The more you talk about them and surround yourself with the same people, the more likely you will be successful. Ask for respect by setting the boundary for constructive critique. 

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others 

What can happen to you can happen to everyone else and vice versa. Everyone is different but also the same. Remember, everyone is like you. They are merely trying to reach their goals and have a successful life. Be happy for successful people, not envious. You will not get where you want to go if you are frequently envious of those around you. Some people will be more successful than you, and some will be less successful. Instead of being envious, use them as an example. What are they doing to get there that you can do too?

While there is no guarantee you can get everything, you can do what needs to be done to experience most of it. Remember, you can’t expect anything from life unless you take the necessary steps to do it.

PS … If you’d like information on this and other ways to shift your mindset, let’s talk!

Do you have racing thoughts and anxiety? It’s hard not to as the chaos of 2020 continues on. The difficulty of focusing on anything else when you feel as if you are being bombarded with negative information constantly causes anxiety to take control of your mind. You’re filled with worries and uncertainties. You can’t calm down or rest … possible having restless night after restless night.

Fortunately, there are ways to control anxious thoughts, and it just takes practice to master the techniques.

Try these tips to control your anxiety:

• Distance yourself from the worrisome thoughts. Learn to look at your anxious thoughts in a different way.

The key is to reshape how you think about things.

When you get an anxious thought, immediately identify it as a sign of your worry and not reality.

Labeling your thoughts correctly raises self-awareness and makes it easier to control them. It also gives you something else to focus on instead of constant worry.

• Ask yourself questions. When you get an anxious thought, stop and ask yourself these questions:

What is the real reason for this anxious thought? What am I really afraid of?

Is there real danger, or is my mind simply playing games with me?

Is the negative outcome I’m imagining likely to happen?

How can I stop or change these negative thoughts into something positive?

• View your thoughts as data. Sometimes it’s helpful to view your thoughts as data and your mind as a data processing center.

You’ll get a lot of data coming in throughout the day. Some of this data can be incorrect and confusing. This is an example of anxious thoughts. 

You may also interpret the data incorrectly. This means you allow the anxious thoughts to take over and control you. You let them grow and fester.

As the data processing center, you get to decide how to handle all the information. Remember you’re in control. This means you can choose to toss out or ignore the incorrect data.

Also, keep in mind that the brain is designed to detect danger and is hypersensitive to it. You may pick up on things that aren’t even real.

• Focus on the present. Many anxious thoughts are focused on either the future or the past. You can break free by focusing on the present.

Avoid thinking too much about the past or future by interrupting these thoughts. Notice when you’re thinking about the past or future and guide your thoughts back to the present moment.

Sometimes thoughts from the past can make you afraid of the future. Remember that the past doesn’t have to repeat itself. You have the power to change how your future will be shaped.

• Take action. Anxious thoughts often prevent you from taking action. They keep you stuck in fear and worry. Learn to take action even when you’re afraid.
  

Find one thing you can influence positively in that moment and take an action.

Action can actually decrease the number of anxious thoughts you have on a daily basis. It can show you that there’s nothing to be afraid of, that you’re powerful, and that you can make a positive difference.

• Get rid of unhelpful thoughts. Some thoughts may be true, but they aren’t helpful.

Learn to tell helpful and unhelpful thoughts apart.

Then, start to filter out the unhelpful ones. For example, if you know that the odds of making a perfect presentation at work are low, but you still have to do it, this is an unhelpful thought. It doesn’t encourage you to do your best.

Anxious thoughts don’t have to control your life. You can use these tricks to effectively take control of your mind when you find yourself worrying or feeling anxious.  

PS … If these tips aren’t enough, consider reaching out for additional help.

With everything that is going on now – over worked, remote work, uncertainty of work to come, are you finding it difficult to cope with it all? Decisions on almost anything seem exhausting and complicated. What used to be an easy task is now taking on so much complexity you are not even sure it is worth it. And, it’s your job … whether that job is in your career life or in your home life. Yet, you can’t not do your job! People are counting on you!

I understand how you are feeling. I’m also having those moments feeling like the smallest of mundane tasks (which I used to love doing) suddenly take on a whole different feeling. A simple example of this was when I went to the grocery store the other day. Keeping myself & others safe by masking up, paying attention to the time I went (the earliest I could go … 6 am … so there would be less people) and distancing from others all seemed so MONUMENTAL that it exhausted me … and it only took an hour! Even as I was leaving the store going to my car, a kind gentleman looked at me commenting … “sometimes it just doesn’t feel like its worth it.”  I sooooo get that!

In my work, each day feels like a week, each week feels like a month and every task takes a Herculean effort just to accomplish one simple thing – like writing a newsletter. This is when I begin to question, is it worth it? Am I supposed to be doing this “coaching” thing?

The answer is …  an emphatic YES!

I love what I do and love when I am coaching my clients. I love assisting them in discovering their own worth giving them the roadmap to their success in their career and life. I can’t not do it.

What about you? Are you having these questions pop up for you? Are you feeling the exhaustion that comes with work these days? Wouldn’t you like the roadmap?

Join me for a FREE Webinar …

BEYOND CHAOS & COPING FOR CORPORATE WOMEN
A Roadmap for Creating Harmony, Balance & Appreciation in Challenging Times

If you’re feeling somewhat out of balance during these times wondering if it is worth it, then come on this webinar with me. Click here to sign up for the time that works best for you.