An Introduction to the Masterclass

Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Hey, this is Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, host of the Badass Women's Council Podcast. We are here for reflection and connection for the high achieving badass woman like you. And I'm so glad you're here, and you may as well just go ahead and hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any future episodes. Just seems like the right thing to do. Don't you think? Before we get started in today's very special reflection episode, I want to extend a very cordial invitation for you to join the Badass Masterclass. Yep, it's a masterclass for you, the high achieving career woman badass. I have joined together with three other masters, and we are leading virtual discussions four times a month around the topics of health, wealth, and leadership. We have assembled a format that allows you to learn some things from the master, but that's just a small part of the experience. Then we lead some reflection time and a robust discussion for you to meet other high achieving women from around the country. It is a rich experience. I'm super excited about it. I'm going to put a link in the show notes, and I would love to have you come and check it out. Let's jump on the phone, see if it's right for you. Okay, let's get into today's episode. I received so much great feedback from our January episode, where I asked you some reflection questions and gave you a chance to think through and kind of plan out 2020, 2021. What year is it? I don't even know. Time is so weird right now. It is 2021, Rebecca. So we're going to do something very similar today, and we're not planning for the year. But I am giving you some time for you to think about you because you know our tendency is that we go out looking for information. We go out looking for a podcast, or a Ted Talk, or a book, or a class, or something that can teach us and fill us up with more information, more perspective. And while that's important, one of the things that gets missed is our ability to call upon all of the vast experience that you already have between your two ears in your brain, from everything that you've experienced so far in your career, all of the classes you've already taken, podcasts you've already listened to. Sometimes what we need most is for us to listen to us because buried deep in our brain, in our subconscious, is exactly what we need. It's the answers to what we need. And when we make the time for reflection and stillness, we get a really customized answer to what we need. So today, we're going to take some time, and I'm going to ask you some questions, and you can pause the podcast and journal and jot some things down, or just pause the podcast and just think. Just take some time to let you respond to you. Sound like a plan? Okay, so we'll take a little pause here with some music, and grab a journal, grab a pen, or just take a few deep breaths. And let's center and get ready to reflect. Okay. P. S., all the music that you hear from the Badass Women's Council Podcast is my son's original music. And you can actually find him on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, wherever you go and download. So if you search Cameron Hession, the song from this podcast is actually called Clouds. And he also has another one called TV Land. Okay, that was my little commercial break to advertise my son. He makes an eighth of a cent every time you download a song, so hit it, do it a whole bunch of times. Okay, back to you. Let's talk about reflection. So I'm going to do a little context setting. So every day when you wake up, your brain has one job. It wants to make sure you survive and thrive. And you've probably heard me talk a lot about the difference between striving and thriving. And striving is when, actually, the word strive means battle and conflict, whereas thriving means to grow, prosper, and flourish. So we really want to thrive, but we accidentally get this detour off on striving that we're not going to talk about today. We're going to talk about what your brain really needs for you to thrive. Now at the very base of your needs is nutrition, food, water, safety, shelter and movement to fuel your energy, so your basic physical needs. So the first question I have for you is: How well are you doing at seeing this feeding of your body as fuel for you and your meaning and purpose and the energy that you want to have in your life? How well are you doing at taking care of your physical needs? Take a moment and just think through that. What could you do to see nutrition and movement and the things that your body needs physically, what could you do to shift your mindset to see that as a gift you give yourself? What changes could you make, just small incremental changes could you make? Okay, the next thing that your brain needs to thrive, just above the physical needs of food, water, and energy and rest, is really our self talk, how we speak to ourselves. It's our stillness, or gratitude practices, and the daily stuff of life. It's the optimism that we have in our choices. It's our own sense of faith. I like to say that we are our own first responders of any challenges that we have, any ideas that we have. We speak to ourselves first, before we speak to anyone else, or before we take any action. And if you think about this in terms of real first responders, firemen, EMT, their job is to assess the situation and make sure that everything is stable and safe. And so an EMT doesn't come up on a crash site and respond in a degrading kind of way. They don't roll up and go, " What were you doing? Why were you driving so fast? Are you an idiot?" A first responder's job is to say, " Are you okay? How can I help you?" And if we can learn to be our own first responder, and speak to ourselves with that same kindness, and give ourself the space to respond and think through things in an optimistic sort of way, it sets us up to be more optimistic in our decisions. So my reflection question for you today in this next step is: How are you doing in the way that you speak to yourself? What could you do to be more loving and kind in your self talk? The next question is: How are you doing with that stillness practice? Do you have a spot in the day, either first thing in the morning, or any time throughout the day, where you've just got five, 10 minutes just to sit and be still? Okay. The next thing that your brain needs in order for you to thrive, and all of this is reflection, this is all of us sitting... All of this is us sitting with us. The next step is: Do you know your gifts, talents, and abilities? Do you know what your unique gifts, talents, and abilities are? This is where we want to build a career around us, the things that we are uniquely qualified for. And one of the things that's really difficult about our unique gifts, talents, and abilities is they're so innate to us, they don't seem like a big deal. Oftentimes we think, " Well, doesn't everybody think that way? Or doesn't everyone see it that way?" And the answer is no. We're unique down to your fingerprints. Look at your hands right now. Look at your fingerprints. You are just as unique in your mindset and your gifts and talents. So my question for you, a couple of questions in this area: What are your unique gifts, talents, and abilities? Just take a little bit of time and ponder that. See what bubbles up. Sometimes this is difficult for people to really get to, so another question that I have for you is: What do people compliment you on? These are usually clues to your unique gifts and talents. What do people compliment you on? Okay, so those are three areas that your brain's looking for to thrive that are all about reflection, you sitting with you and making these choices for yourself. But that's not enough. In order to truly thrive, our unique gifts, talents and abilities are designed to serve the needs of other humans. So the next thing that your brain is looking for in order to thrive starts with connection, and it's: How do we feel when we're working on teams with the people that we work with? Are we psychologically safe? Can we bring our emotions and ideas? Can we make mistakes? So how are things going for you? Are you in a work environment where you feel like you can be you? And many of you are leaders. You lead teams. You're leading meetings. How are you doing at creating an environment for these people, for these meetings, that are psychologically safe, where people can bring their emotions, make mistakes, and be themselves? Okay, next step that your brain is looking for in order for you to thrive is: Are you bringing your unique gifts, talents, and abilities to your work? Are you giving these gifts generously with kindness? Are you being intentional about how you use your gifts and talents? Okay, the next question about connection is: Do you know how your work impacts other humans on your team, or your customers, or whoever it is that you serve? Do you know the value, relevance, and impact that you have in your daily work? Because as you've often heard me say, " We are not machines here to produce, we are beautiful humans here to add value, relevance, and impact." So where are you adding those things to other humans with your work? Okay, y'all, this is a big part of the coaching work that I do and the conversations that we have in Rise and Thrive and the Badass Masterclass. I'm passionate about helping career professionals reflect, to know themselves so well that they can bring themselves into their role passionately with generosity and kindness, to use those gifts and talents, because when we know the value and impact that we have, we go to bed at night with a greater sense of satisfaction. We're high achievers. We're always going to go to bed tired, but there's a strong difference between going to bed at the end of a long day exhausted from striving and just trying to get to inbox zero, and going through the motions in the meeting, versus thriving, where we know the impact we had to other humans that day. If you would like to dive deeper into this, if you'd like to have some help inventorying your unique gifts, talents, and abilities, that's the kind of work that I do. And you can schedule an appointment with me. We can spend about 90 minutes, two hours sometimes, inventorying those things so you can use them with more intention. Okay, so I hope you have found this time valuable. We'll continue and do a reflection episode once a month on various topics. If you have some things that you would like to reflect on, shoot some ideas my way. I would love to hear from you. All right, y'all, I hope you make it a great day. This is Rebecca Fleetwood Hession. Thanks so much for being here. We'd love to stay connected. We can do that if you jump into the online community at badasswomenscouncil. community. We've got lots of cool people in there already, and if you come in, they'll just be cooler.