What happens when we stop comparing ourselves to others... And start comparing ourselves to our past selves.

Last week, I had the incredible honor to speak at the AIF Global Women Investors’ Forum at The Yale Club in NYC. The theme of the event was “A Holistic Approach and Strategy for Building Resilience”and I had the great pleasure of kicking off the day, where I talked about my experiences attempting to attain work/life balance during my time as an executive, and led the participants through some exercises on finding a path to livincg a more holistically aligned life.

Before we began our first exercise, I told the room about how, in my own career journey, my imposter syndrome forced me to constantly compare myself to others. Everyone else always seemed to have it together!?

This often kept me from using my voice, despite evidence to the contrary that I know what I’m doing. Each of my promotions was evidence of just this.

What would it be like, instead of comparing myself to others, I compared the current me to past me to see how far I’ve come??

And to take it a step further, knowing how much I’ve accomplished to date, what does my future look like?

With this in mind, the very first exercise I had the room take part in that morning was to fill out a timeline stairstep (an idea given to me by my incredible public speaking coach - thank you, Melissa!). Attendees not only plotted out their career journeys thus far, but they were also given a chance to visualize their futures.?

No longer were we going to let comparison steal our joy - now, by comparing ourselves only to where we’ve been, we could see ourselves in an affirmative new light!

Throughout the remainder of the day, I was fortunate enough to get to hear many deeply insightful women speak on panels about a range of topics they face in the Investment industry today. I learned that, like many women in male-dominated fields, while they’ve come a hell of a long way, there’s still so much progress that needs to be made on so many fronts when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As the last panel of the day was wrapping up, the moderator asked each participant to tell us something they’d say to their 20 year old selves.

Mind. Blown. ??

Talk about holistic!?

The day was literally bookended with insights regarding our younger selves and the wisdom and accomplishments we’ve obtained in the years since.

Advice included:

?? “Don’t take yourself so seriously.”

?? “Find balance in whatever form brings you joy.”

?? “Take that seat at the table, even if you’re not explicitly invited.”

I can’t begin to tell you how impressed and in awe I am of the attendees I met at this event. It was fascinating to hear about their challenges - and triumphs - in a competitive, fast-paced, male-dominated industry.?

And what a gift to have this reminder reinforced:

When we stop comparing ourselves to others and start recognizing how far we've come and what we are on our way to achieving, we realize that each and every one of us deserves to have our voices heard, our ideas implemented, and our dreams fulfilled.

Cheers to you, Tracy

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I’m super excited to be co-leading an upcoming LinkedIn Live with my friend and colleague Rachael Freedman on Wednesday, October 18 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET. Join us as we present: “Unlocking Your Potential: Two Powerful Strategies to Overcome Limiting Beliefs.” You won’t want to miss it! Register here.

??What Impostor type lives in your head, rent-free? Take this quiz to find out - and get some tools to uncover what it wants for you and how to start conquering it! ??

It’s not too late! Come see me next week at the Digital Analytics Association’s OneConference, the premier educational and networking event for analytics professionals. Held in Chicago Oct 10-12, this year's event’s theme is “Back to the Future” - for early-careerists to experienced executives, this year’s conference is one you won’t want to miss.

I will be talking about the challenges of - and how to be successful at - keeping up in an ever-changing industry, something about which I am intimately familiar.

More information can be found here - if you are interested in attending, let me know and I’ll give you a discount code. Hope to see you there!

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