The Shine On Connection with Lara: Feel connected to women in our global community through shared stories and experiences
We sat down to chat with Lara, our Head of Community & Partnerships and Shine Leader to discuss what’s going on, on the ground with our fearless global community. In this article, Lara will be sharing the experience of Louise Sun and her expedition to Mount Kenya along with her own insights on what the concept challenge can do to help us thrive as women. Over to Lara….
Our digital community Shine On was created as a home for all women who have experienced Shine but primarily to build a home for women worldwide to connect and build collective confidence and influence. We provide free masterclasses every month and a safe space for women to share, discuss and grow together. By challenging each other to think differently and share experiences, we can collectively grow in confidence.
Confidence is a hot topic in our coaching discussions on Shine On. How can I be more confident? How can I deal with the inner voice that tells me I am not good enough or I don’t belong here, or I can’t? That in itself is a challenge for many of us. But challenge and challenges are actually fuel for confidence. When we get through something difficult, something we didn’t believe we could do, we grow in confidence and self-belief. The renowned Professor Ian Robertson defines confidence as the belief that you ‘can do’ and it ‘can happen’. There is no better way to build that belief than to actually ‘do’ and feel that it actually ‘happens’. Add in physicality to that challenge, and the impact of experiential learning is invaluable in building the confidence that you can do, and it can happen.
One of our Shine On members, Louise Sun, is a rising star working in the civil service. She shared her experience of taking on a challenge she never believed she could do and what that has done for her confidence and influence.
“I recently climbed Mount Kenya and thought I’d share a few reflections from the five-day trek to reach almost 5000m which reminded me of the confidence masterclass on Shine On a couple of weeks before I left. Firstly, thank you to everyone on Shine On for thinking of great affirmations and positive messages. They certainly did help get me through the climb. Comments that particularly stuck with me were those around reframing challenges as performance fuel and reframing my inner voice to say ‘”you’ve got this, you are enough, aim for progress, not perfection and actually remember to enjoy it!”.
Louise’s six key reflections on building confidence through challenge are as follows:
Interestingly, Louise has been praised for her leadership, collaboration, and inclusivity since returning from Mt Kenya.
There is no doubt that the brain and body are intrinsically linked, so why should physical and mental confidence not be intrinsically linked? The experience of finding confidence through a physical challenge has impacted every area of Louise’s life and instilled in her that you can build confidence.
What challenges do you have ahead of you that you can ‘chunk’ down and take one step at a time? For example, can you set yourself a physical challenge in 2022 that allows you to experience turning ‘I can’t’ into ‘I can do’, and ‘it can happen’?
Shine On!
Lara
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