letting myself emerge one step at a Time
Part of starting an entrepreneurship is marketing yourself or your product. For those of us that are shy and not used to putting ourselves out there in this way, marketing can cause some anxiety. So, of course, the thought of going out in public and putting up flyers about my practice made me cringe with dread. The one saving grace is that I knew in my heart that this was the next best step to take, so the motivation and inspiration was there.
As the morning inched by, I could feel myself slipping into procrastination. After sometime of allowing this, I finally persuaded myself to get dressed and start the day’s task of putting up flyers. I used positive self-talk to achieve each step it took to finish the project. Go to Kinkos, “Yes! I got here.”… Get flyers printed, “Oh! They look great!”… Staple business cards to flyers, “Awesome! This will be more convenient for those who are interested.”…Drive to the first location, “Sweet! That wasn’t so hard.”… and then the next, “Easy peasy!”…and so on. Each time I hopped back in the car from pinning a flyer, I felt more confident and enlivened. By the time I finished pinning the last flyer, I felt accomplished and even more ready to be seen. It took courage to market myself in this way and I made sure I gave myself praise.
I feel it’s important to toot your own horn for yourself because:
The inner child within needs to hear it.
There may not be other loved ones around to do it for you.
Sometimes it’s essential to look within for love and validation rather than outside of yourself.
I also use praise as a tool to reparent myself when I feel anxious or triggered. It has helped me build a more solid emotional foundation of which I didn’t have as a child. I grew up with an anxious attachment style rather than a secure attachment style so sometimes I need reassurance that I am safe, loved, supported and doing all of the right things. That reassurance has to come from me so co-dependency does not crop up in relationships. I had to learn this the hard way after seeing how my anxious attachment style caused discord in relationships over and over again.
As a result, I have learned to look to myself for what I need feel in relationship instead of others. The next step is learn to balance independence and interdependence.
It’s all a part of the journey, right? Onward as I let the emergence of me continue!
