Awaken Your Inner Wisdom: Pivot Your Viewpoint

​There isn’t only one way to see things. There is not a perfect way to handle a challenge. There is not only one description for a person. We live in a world of many perspectives, viewpoints, possibilities and opinions.

Applying this truth to how we tackle leadership, can serve to increase your confidence level. Let me show you how.

Your Inner Guidance System Via The Inner Guidance Cycle
​I have walked you through the stages of accessing your Inner Guidance System in the last few weeks. You’ve learned to move through the first two steps of the Inner Guidance Cycle. The first step, pausing, allows you to notice what has been going on both around you and inside of you. The next step I’ve encouraged you to do is to ponder. Pondering is getting curious about your thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It is by accessing this inner wisdom or your Inner Guidance System that will help you to find self-confidence. In this post, I want to talk to you about what to do with what you find when you’ve spent some time reflecting.

Unconscious to Conscious
The first two steps of the Inner Guidance Cycle have helped you to turn unconscious thoughts into conscious thought. We are usually so unaware of what is going on inside us. Because we haven’t noticed, we also don’t realize what the thoughts we are having are doing to our confidence levels.

Be Wary of Looping Thoughts
Being unaware of repetitive looping thoughts such as, “I can’t handle this” allows the idea to become an ingrained belief. Becoming aware that we’ve had the same thought, ten times in the last 3 minutes, makes it possible to examine the idea more carefully.

​The Insights
When we become more mindful of the fact that we repeatedly have this thought, we can inspect it. Is it true? Maybe not. Or, perhaps it is partially correct. You can then ask yourself what parts are true. “It is true that I can’t handle it all by myself.”  

This new understanding helps us to realize that we may need to learn something new, ask for help or try a different way. Awareness helps to shift our thinking.

The pivot
This change in thinking gives us the ability to see the problem and ourselves differently. Rather than the repetitive thought of;  “I can’t” we pivot to; “With help, I can.” Suddenly, the load seems a little lighter and our confidence is boosted. 

​Turing to new ways
Pivoting is turning. It is shifting the way we see a challenge, a project, another person, or ourselves. It is changing our perspective. 
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The following excerpt comes from page 139 of my upcoming book Mastering Confidence: Discover Your Leadership Potential by Awakening Your Inner Guidance System. It will help to deepen your understanding of the pivot step,

Our perspective is our view or our point of view. It might be the attitude we have about something or our opinion of someone. Our perspective is the current place we are looking from. It’s our vantage point. 

We see situations, people, and challenges from different vantage points that can change from day-to-day, depending on a wide array of things, including how well we slept the night before to an email we just opened. In the same way, we will see situations, people, and challenges much differently perhaps than a co-worker, boss, or subordinate. It’s important to recognize that there are many different perspectives that we, or anyone else, can have.

The challenge arises when we aren’t open to the way others see things. Equally challenging is when we are resistant to changing the way we see it. Most of us have tunnel vision. We want to see it only our way. We think that our way is the best way, the right way, or the only way.

Truthfully, though, our view is only one view of everything. No two people have the same view of anything. Our outlook can change dramatically from one day to the next or in a split second. It all depends on what we are thinking. Pivoting requires us to change our thoughts.

​How To Pivot
To change what you are thinking, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this thinking getting me to where I want to be?
• How else could I look at this problem, person or project?
• What is in my way of seeing this differently?
• What would move me forward on this?
• Where/who could I ask for help?

Making Your Pivot
​Pivoting allows you to get from where you are now, which is often stuck, to where you want to be. Think of it as an intersection. Pause when you get there. Ponder for a moment. Look at the direction you are going, then consider the alternatives. Which road ahead of me is going to get me to the future vision I desire. Then, let’s head down that path. Use the Inner Guidance Cycle to access your Inner Guidance System!

Up next week, I’ll help you with the final stage of the, Inner Guidance Cycle, proceeding.