Why You Need To Ignite Your Light

So often leaders reach out to me describing feeling burnt out or like they are constantly fighting fires and there is never enough time to create the impact they really want.

I wonder if you can relate? I know I can, and I also know that when you get to this point you start to lose sight of yourself, why you are doing what you are doing, and you start to lose the will to keep fighting to create positive change for yourself and those around you.

Gosh it drains my energy just thinking about this struggle (I’ve so been there in the past) and in my experience, it moves us away from the potential of being the powerful and luminous leader we have the potential to be…?

So, if you are feeling a bit like this, I wanted to provide some inspiration to you today about what you can do to re-ignite your light in order to show up consistently as the leader you know you need to be and more importantly, that your team needs.

To be clear here, I'm not talking about pushing through and working yourself further into burn out. Igniting your light means operating from a place of space, joy, and purpose in the way you lead and live.

You might be saying at this point ‘sounds nice Clare’ but it will never happen! If you are feeling this, then you are not alone. Here are the...?

Top 3 challenges I see that hold leaders back from igniting their light:

1. Being too busy and having way too much on their plate means overwhelm kicks in and self-care doesn’t get a look in
2. ?Putting others needs before your own in a perpetual cycle that leaves you unable to define what you really need and put the boundaries in place to defend this
3. Getting caught up in the expectations of what you think you should be doing vs focusing on what truly matters to you.?

And when we fall prey to these challenges, we get stuck in survival mode far from being the radiant role model for our teams and loved ones.?

Hey, no judgement here if this is where you are at. There was a time when I was trying to lead an agency and a team from a place of absolute burn out.?

As my great mentor Alice Hammerlae used to say “with the break downs come the break throughs!”?

When we start to hit rock bottom then the only way back is up. So often feeling like this or being in this place can acts as motivation to create positive change.

If any of this resonates with you and you are sick of feeling this way, then here are...?

3 Ideas to start re-igniting your light as a leader?

1. Clarity is crucial.?Carve out space and time to create clarity on what you actually want in life and work. Book in an important meeting with YOU and take yourself to a favourite location or café with your journal and brain dump down all the things that bring you joy, excite you and light you up.?
2. Start cultivating more energy.?Identify your strengths (I like Clifton Strengths as a tool) and map these across to your role. When we play to our strengths, they are the things we are good at AND that energise us. Increase the time you are spending playing to your strengths, say ‘yes’ only to projects that play to your strengths and look to others with complementary strengths to take on things that are draining to you and don’t play to your strengths.?
3. Build the confidence to challenge yourself.?Take some time to connect with what’s really important to you as a leader, how you want to show up, what is / isn’t working currently…now ask yourself, ‘what’s holding me back from being this and from operating like this?’ 9 times out of 10 the answer is YOU! So often we hold ourselves back as we don’t have the confidence to back ourselves, speak up and really give ourselves permission to be who we want to be.?

In my experience having worked with 100s of leaders to re-ignite their light and become more luminous in the way that they lead and live comes when you can intentionally focus on building CLARITY, ENERGY and CONFIDENCE.

When we start to operate from this place you'll inspire and ignite those around you to also figure out how to be lit up and bring their best selves into play. You will elevate and your team will elevate. You’ll start to feel more luminous and that will ripple to those around you, doors will open, opportunities will appear, and you’ll start creating even more impact on those around you.?

Now I wish I could wave my magic wand for you and just make this happen for you but the reality is it takes energy and effort to figure out what you want, put the boundaries in place and start playing for the long and not the short game. It requires you to not jump ship and think the grass is greener in a new job (yes, I’ve also been there and got the t-shirt on this one!) It requires you to carve out the space and time for you to do the thinking and the work then make a decision about where to go next from a place of inner knowing.?

What I can do for you is to ignite your thinking and let you know there is hope and a better way of operating as a leader.?

What I can also do for you is let you know that if you need support to work on these areas then I can share with you the exact leadership blueprint that I have worked with 100s of leaders on to shift them out of survival mode and into a more luminous version of themselves. I can be your coach and you can join me and an awesome bunch of leaders who are working on this exact same thing too.

If you have been thinking of carving out the time to do this thinking and stepping into the coaching room to work with me then this is my shout out to let you know that?doors will soon be closing for The Luminous Leader??small group coaching program.

We’ll be kicking off in early April and this will be the only way you can work with me in the first half of this year. There are just 3 spots left so If you want to find out more about The Luminous Leader? Program, then simply?reach out to us via [email protected]?ASAP and we can chat about whether this program is right for you. Let’s get your spark back!?

Here's to being a more luminous version of you this year!?