This is my time, this is your time. This is the time to OWN IT!

Own your power. Express yourself. Do what you want to do. Find and destroy your barriers to your success. Be the Bad Ass Leader you were meant to be.

For as long as I can remember, I have been expressing myself and dedicated to other people expressing themselves and being powerful, never being a victim but being a leader. Being a leader and expressing yourself is not always easy. You often get pushback. You will likely have reactions to you. You may have people who don’t like you. You may even be called names, like pushy, opinionated, and if you are a woman, you may be called a bitch. You may have to stand for your power and your influence through people not being happy about it. And here is the thing— if you don’t, what is your experience in life? I know I have had to deal with much of that and it is worth it.

I have talked to so many people, and worked with so many clients through the years on this very topic. The answer to that question- If you don’t express yourself, if you don’t stand for yourself, what is your experience- is consistent. The experience of one of feeling small, weak, victimized/victim, unfulfilled, frustrating and sad. Just look for yourself for a moment- when you did not say what you wanted to or backed down from what you were standing for, how was that for you?

The decision is often easy when we are talking about it and you can see that you do have a choice. You can choose to stand for yourself and your power and deal with potential pushback and the potential of not always being liked or you can yield your power, keep yourself suppressed and deal with your own experience of being small, weak, victimized, unfulfilled, frustrated and sad.

If that is not enough for you to stand for yourself, I want to bring in one more element, which I will do through sharing a conversation with one of my coaching clients.

I was coaching Suzy*(name changed) recently on this topic. She was sharing with me that she was not saying what she wanted to, was backing down on a very important topic to her at work. I asked her to really look at why she was doing this. What she said was “I don’t want them to be mad at me. I want them to like me.” Ok, that is pretty common. Then I asked her what her own experience was to which she replied; “I feel weak and ineffective and unfulfilled and stupid.” To which, I had her look at something. I said to her, “So, you don’t stand for yourself and don’t say what you want to say so that they will like you and not be mad at you, right? Now, you don’t know if they like you or don’t like you, right? This is all something you are thinking is happening, but you actually don’t know it is happening or not, right?” She said, “Yes, that is true.” I said, “So you suppress yourself in order to have them like you, which you don’t know if that is happening or not, and then you do experience feeling weak, ineffective, unfulfilled and stupid. The question is, does that really work for you- to suppress yourself for something that may or may not happen and cause yourself to feel weak and ineffective. The question is what is impacting you is located only where you are in your decision.” She started laughing and really did get the joke was on her- she was her own worst enemy and she could free herself from her own constraints. She called me to tell me she went into another situation, asked for, stood for and got what she wanted. She owns her power!

In writing this, my intention is that you do the same. Own your power, ask for what you want, stand for yourself. Be a Bad Ass.

If you are interested in exploring coaching and destroy your personal barriers to being a Bad Ass Leader in your business, producing extraordinary results, book a Free Strategy Session today.