Episode 233: Your Inner Board Room
You are listening to Live Creative, an intentional podcast with practical tips for living your life on purpose. I’m your host, Miranda Anderson. And I believe in creativity, adventure, curiosity, and the magic of small moments. I hope that every time you listen, you feel empowered and free to live the life that you want.
Welcome Back!
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the show. You’re listening to episode number 233 of the Live Free Creative podcast. You made it. You’re here for another week. How are you doing? I have had a wildly busy month in lots of fun ways. I spent the first weekend of March in Philadelphia for class. I was home for about 24 hours before hopping on a.
To Morocco. I spent 10 days in Morocco with my sister’s sister-in-law and my mom. I was home for just under a week before I packed my bags and headed to Palm Springs, California for school last weekend. And then I flew straight from Palm Springs up to Utah where I hosted my seventh creative camp. With a beautiful group of creative entrepreneur women who were digging into personal projects, professional projects, rest, relaxation care, comfort, laughter.
It was connective, really a wonderful time. It had me already pining after and looking forward to the next creative camp that will happen this upcoming October. And now I’ve been home for about three days back in the swing of things. I came home right at the beginning of spring break, so my kids are all out of school, which makes for in some ways an easy transition because we don’t have the hustle and bustle of waking up and getting everyone dressed and breakfast and off to school in the morning.
It also has been a little bit tricky of a transition because everyone’s home all the time and I have been gone and feel like I’m now in the middle of. Entertaining in a fun way. We’ve, I’ve had lots of good times with my kids so far. We saw the Mario Brothers movie today. I’ve taken some of the kids to do their spring shopping, their spring summer capsule, wardrobe shopping, and I’ve started to do a little yard work and I also came home and set down work and.
For the last couple days. So, I need to start picking it back up at some point because just because my kids are on spring break doesn’t mean that I am. How are you doing if you are a parent? I’m curious how spring break has gone or is going for you. Did you go out and do something fun and exciting?
Did you stay low key and close to home? If you live in the western part of the United States, you may have had piles of snow, even though. Spring break, and if you live nearby me, it’s finally starting to get beautiful and warm. It was in the eighties today. I don’t think that we’re going back. I think that we may get little dips here and there in the weather, but I’m pretty sure that the new season is here to stay, and I am feeling very good about that.
Today’s show is a more candid, conversational show. I want to talk to you and share a metaphor that I learned a few years ago that. Really been helpful for me, and then it came up again a few, maybe last month in one of the lectures I was in for school, and it continues to serve me well. So, if you haven’t heard of this idea of the boardroom in your brain, I think that you’ll like it.
It’s a short, simple little metaphor that can help you with lots of different. Decisions and ideas and stories that are happening in your life. I want to introduce you to that today and give you a chance to experiment with it over the next few weeks or months. We shall discover if it serves you the same way that it has served me well over the last few years of my life.
Segment: Peaks of the Week
Before we dive in, I thought I’d share a quick peak of the week. These are going to be some of my spring and summertime favorites that I was able to pull out for my recent travels to make me feel so excited about the spring and summer. They’re also things that if I didn’t already own, I would tuck into my own Easter basket for this coming weekend.
So just a few favorite springs. Items that I’d like to share with you.
We’re going to begin with rubber Birkenstocks. You may be a Birkenstock fan or not. I love them. The leather ones, like the classic standard Arizona Birkenstocks. Last summer I picked up a pair. The rubberized ones. I think they’re more like silicone. They’re very soft and they’re waterproof. I wear them instead of regular flip flops to the beach and to the pool.
I got the flip flop style, so like the tea strap style, and they are so amazing. I found myself wearing them all over the last month when I was traveling. They’re. And squishy like walking on a cloud. So, I would wear them like slippers, padding around in the hotels, and then they would do great on the way out to the pool or the beach in the desert.
They work well, and they also have a surprising amount of grip on the bottom. So even for a lightweight hike, or if you’re somewhere by a river or a beach where it might be slippery on rocks, they have a little bit of grip, so you can hop around well on them. They’re much less expensive than the leather or vegan leather variety of bien stops, which is nice.
And then they also are super versatile because you can wear them casually with lots of different things. The ones that I have are white. You may or may not like white. I found out after mowing the lawn in them, which I should not have done, I was. Reminding Milo how to mow the lawn. So, I was out there in them, and they got a little bit green, and I was able to bleach it right out.
So maybe white is a good option, even if you tend to get a little bit dirty. So, Birkenstocks teas straps, I will link them. And the other products that I share today in the show notes, none of this is sponsored. The links may be affiliate if I can find one on reward style. Otherwise, it’ll just be a key that sends you straight to be able to learn more about them if you’re interested.
Next up is my favorite summer hat, and I wear it year-round. You’ve probably seen it if you follow along on Instagram. And I’ve had a few different varieties of the clear V trucker hat. I prefer yellow. Now I’ve had two yellow because the first one I got.
Taken over by my teenager and so then I got a different one. The original one that I had, the We Hat was gone and so now I have one that says Save the sardines or free the sardines in French, which was hilarious when I took the flight from the United States to Paris in route to Morocco and a lot of the French flight attendants.
I was on Air France. Noticed my hat and gave me like wink, no nod about freeing the sardines. I thought it was great. I love, these are cheeky, but still high-end feeling trucker hats. They’re bright and poppy. But they don’t feel very childish. So, they’re great.
They’re about $40 and are fun to gift and fun to wear. They have different ones every sort of season and usually when they’re gone, they go. So, if you see one that you like, it’s a great time to get it. I’ve just had one at a time and that’s plenty for me. I can see heading into the summer where I like to put a hat on both for shade and just to complete an outfit.
If I haven’t done my hair that I may pick up a green one or a bright blue one or maybe a lavender. You can see all of them at the website that I’ll link in the show notes. And that’s the ClareV trucker hat.
My next peak of the week, spring summer edition is goodr sunglasses. These are G O O D R, and I’ve bought them at r e I.
They’re fun and they can be very simple, like black or tortoise shell feeling. I usually get one that’s a little bit more interesting, like a yellow acetate with a mirrored front. I had a great pair about two years ago that I wore absolutely to death until the lenses were so scratched. I wear them mostly for outdoor activities, hiking and biking, and kayaking, and keep them in the car, toss ’em in my bag.
They’re only about $25. Pretty inexpensive for nice, polarized sunglasses. They’re not like nice designer, but they’re the perfect sort of sustainable, realistic option that you can feel good about having, wearing all the way out. And then being able to afford another pair the next year or two if you need them.
So, I have gotten them for all my kids last summer, and I think that I’ll tuck new pairs into their Easter baskets for this weekend. I have a new pair that I got for. I guess a couple months ago with a beautiful, fun mirrored lens. They’re a yellow acetate almost translucent. I have a cool embroidered sunglass, what is that thing called?
Like a croakies that I wear a lot of the time when I’m traveling. I’ll have those on there so I can take ’em off and they’ll just hang around my neck, pop ’em back on. I also got the little croaky thing at r ei, so I will link those. Goodr sunglasses are fantastic.
And finally, my final peak of the week is summersalt swimsuits.
I’ve mentioned them before in my sustainable shopping episode. I just keep coming back to the, these being my favorite suits. I have a couple of them, and they fit. Beautifully. They’re super high quality and they’re made with recycled water bottles. The colors can be bright and fun, or they can be neutral.
They’ve also got some beautiful patterns. They’ve done a recent collaboration with rifle paper, so there’s like the bright florals if you like, that most of the ones that I have are basic color blocked or just a plain color. I feel amazing in them. They’re my go-to suits. I love ’em.
And I will probably add one to my collection this year because we’re going to be spending quite a bit of time at the pool and or beach. So got to make sure that I’m up to date in my swimsuit game. And summer salt is some of the best. So those things will, I’ll be linked in the show notes@liverycreative.co slash podcast if you’re interested in checking out more.
Spring summer peaks of the week. There you go.
Creative Coaching Spaces Available
Before today’s show begins with the meat of the episode, I wanted to let you know that I have a couple available spots in my creative mentorship coaching program. This is one-on-one coaching, one or two times a month where you can bring. Your big idea, your project, or even just a pile of sort of confusion, and I help you sort through it, find clarity, move ahead, and make decisions, and act on those things that you want to create in your life.
These can be personal projects, like how to develop a great system for meal planning or a rhythm in your motherhood. They can also be professional. Whether you’re preparing to write a book or build a course or begin a website, create a new offering for your audience, maybe you want to start a podcast, maybe you’re building a business and are trying to figure out your funnels and how you want to reach the right people with the message that you want to share.
These are the types of things that I work on regularly with my incredible coaching clients, and as some of them are finishing up their journey in coaching, I wanted to make sure you knew those spots are available for one or two time a month. Coaching. If you’re feeling a little tug and would love to spend some time working on your projects with me, visit patreon.com/live free creative to learn more.
The Inner Board Room
Several years ago, I was a brand coach with my friend Alison Faulkner’s brand school. She brought together these groups of hundreds of people, mostly small business owners or. People representing businesses in the beginning stages of branding, establishing a voice, understanding their direction and what they want to do overall, big goals and visions and dreams.
And one of the exercises that we completed during this full day brand school was, The idea of naming our inner critic, and maybe you’ve heard of this in other arenas as well, Allison invited us each to think of that mean girl or boy or non-binary person in our brain that would always sort of tap on our shoulder to remind us of all the things that could possibly go wrong or all of the reasons why we definitely didn’t have what it takes to do the thing that we want to do, and to take some of the power away from that voice by giving.
Them a name and a persona and fleshing out in some ways what this voice, who was us. Our own voice inside our heads. That maybe isn’t so nice to us. Sometimes give that individual, that voice a name and a description and a visual even maybe draw a picture of them, and that this somehow enabled you to befriend them in such a way that at least you were identifying that this voice was not just your own and wasn’t necessarily.
Someone to be believed all the time. I remember clearly that I pictured in my head this mean girl voice as being Zoe. I don’t know why Zoe felt like the right name. Just this sort of cool, demure, beautiful girl who had it all together and everything came easily for her, and she was a little bit.
For sure super condescending. And, just wanted to remind me all the time of why I just wasn’t quite measuring up. That was what my Zoe voice sounded like, and it was an empowering exercise for me to think of this inner critic, this inner, my inner mean girl, as someone separate from myself. In the subsequent gears, I have gone on and taken this metaphor a little bit further and.
Developed it in a new way. In my own mind that made even more sense for me, which is to expand on a few of the different voices that might exist in my head. Now, this is, we’re not talking about clinical voices in your head. We’re talking about the way that you sound different depending on your mood or your confidence level in the different things that you’re approaching in your life and how all of those argue, but they’re not all necessarily empirical.
That a lot of times the things that we tell ourselves aren’t true or they’re ideas or perceptions without a full understanding, and maybe as we learn more, then those ideas change. I went from years ago having just this sort of personification of an inner mean girl to what I now consider my inner boardroom.
So, I want to introduce you to this idea and invite you to consider whether it could be helpful in your life. It came up again, this idea of all the different ways that we talk to ourselves. One of my classes this semester, we were talking about thinking traps and chatter rumination, some of the negative thought patterns that we can get into if we’re not careful, and some of the ways that we get out of them using resilience tactics and optimism and, some of, a lot of actually like cognitive behavioral therapy type exercises to make sure that we like what we’re thinking and that it’s serving us.
And then being able to set to rest the things that may not serve us. And even though we can’t always just erase the thought or ignore it, we can acknowledge it and say, we’re not going to take your advice right now. Thank you for your participation. This is where the inner boardroom came back up in my memory.
And so, I thought that I’d cheer it here. So, I want you to imagine all the different ways that you talk to yourself a as being. Different perspectives around your inner boardroom round table. Imagine that your yourself, your true self has many ways of thinking about the same ideas, problems, dreams, troubles, and obstacles.
And imagine that you could see all those different perspectives around your inner table at the same time. A lot of times what happens when we are, especially in a negative thought pattern or criticism, rumination, catastrophizing in these scenarios, one voice at that table is shouting. They are making their point heard loud and clear, and if that were the only voice at the table, then maybe we would consider that to be the thing that was true and real.
When we remember that there are other perspectives available at any boardroom table, we can say. Okay, thank you for sharing. Does anyone else have anything that they’d like to say? This is like asking yourself the question, what else might be true about this situation? Consider other perspectives within your own head.
Not only considering other outside perspectives, but we’re also not even there yet, we’re to. Considering what other perspectives might I have from my own experience? I want to offer five specific voices you may want to listen to in your inner boardroom. Give place for these voices, for these perspectives, and as you’re listening to them, you can use the various ideas within your own mind.
You can come up with what feels true and right, and where you want to move ahead or what you’d like to do if this is an obstacle, if it’s an opportunity that you’re facing. These conversations are going to happen inside your mind whether you are thinking about them in this model or not, and I find this to be a little bit helpful.
The CEO Voice
So, the first voice at your table, I’m going to give you as the CEO. This is your regulatory perspective. This is the high-level think. The one who’s able to take in all the different perspectives, and this you might think of as your own highest self. This voice takes a long-range perspective, can allow for all the other voices to speak, and be heard, and then will ultimately take the leadership of deciding while acknowledging that not every single voice may get equal.
Say in each experience or opportunity, the CEO is the manager of the whole process.
The Risk Management Voice
The next voice that you may recognize would be risk management. This sometimes sounds like fear. Sometimes we consider all of what might happen if, or the what ifs in a negative sense of an opportunity or of a challenge that we’re facing all of them.
Oh here. Here’s something to watch out for. The risk manager in our boardroom really cares about our safety, not only our physical safety, but also our emotional safety and the safety of our ego. The risk manager doesn’t want us to be disappointed, doesn’t want us to be embarrassed, doesn’t want us to feel ashamed or left behind, and so this voice will be very cautionary.
In people who suffer from significant anxiety or depression, this risk management voice may have allowed perspective at the table. This one may come into play more often than the others and may be heated often as the, what might happen if, oh, we want to avoid that. There’s risk involved with that, and so we’re going to stay away from it.
Risk management is important. It does keep us safe. We. So grateful to have risk management built into our systems, and if it’s the only voice that we listen to, we most likely will not live our fullest, most beautiful, and deep lives. So, we have our CEO, and we have our risk manager.
The Catty Secretary Voice
I’m going to continue down the negative side first, and we go from risk management, which is a neutral, giving you the facts and figures, making you aware of what’s happening into the person sitting next who’s the catty administrative assistant that is so annoyed by the idea that you might do something big or exciting or inventive or different, that you might take a risk that while she’s sitting next to the risk manager, where she’s looking over that chart and wants to really drive home. All the reasons why, even though these things are risky.
They are not for you because of some personal jabs. This catty administrative assistant is like my original Zoe. She’s going to know the things that sort of push your buttons of insecurity, that you’re not smart enough, that you have too little time, that you have too many kids, that your body isn’t the way that you think that it should be, and you don’t want to put yourself in that position.
Maybe that not enough people listen to you or that. You’re not likable. Maybe you’re not as funny as you need to be. This voice is that mean critic that has no qualms about telling you exactly where she thinks you should stay, which is at the, whatever is two steps behind her. That’s where she’d like to keep you.
She doesn’t want you to grow. She doesn’t want you to try new things. She doesn’t want you to be even a little bit outside of your comfort zone. Because then you might possibly develop, and blossom and she just couldn’t have that. I think that catty administrative assistant is risk manager taken to the extreme, and so they operate in two separate rolls around my boardroom table.
In my mind, I want to heed my risk manager and I can give space for catty secretary to talk. I’m most often not going to pay her any heed though I’m going to acknowledge that she has needs and she’s insecure. And this is my boardroom, so this is my inner insecurity giving voice and having a place at the table.
And that is totally okay. And we’re also then going to move to the next seat at the table and see who has something else to say. I’m going to move from catty Zoe over into my work BFF or my life bff.
Work BFF Champion Voice
This is the alter ego of. Our caddy, administrative assistant, and inner critic. This is your inner champion. This is the voice who knows that you can do no wrong.
She’s your hype girl. She’s you’ve got this. You are the smartest, you’re the best. Everyone loves you. You couldn’t possibly go wrong. This is the balancing. Other side of that inner critic where you have your cheerleader, who supports you and wants what’s best for you, and will tell you, yeah, go for it, girl.
Even if what you’re proposing is maybe not the best idea for you. So just like we need to consider risk management and caddy secretary with a grain of salt. Our inner champion also can be tempered a little bit by reality of yes, I can, and I want to, and, what else do I need to know in this scenario, they balance each other out. Neither one you’re, it’s never going to be a 1000% yes or no. It’s going to come into like, where do I find this beautiful middle ground? And what does that say?
So, we have our CEO who’s managing the whole meeting. We’ve got our risk manager who’s very.
Pointing out some of the difficulties that we should be aware of. Our catty secretary, who’s got all mean girl things to say. We’ve got her alter ego, which is our work bff, or our work-life champion who. Is your number one fan and your biggest cheerleader, and then we have our r and d team.
Research and Development Voice
This is where all the ideas generation is coming from R and D is, they’re the creative team.
They’re our innovators. They’re thinking of what next? What do we want? How do we get there? They’re coming up with great ideas. Taking advantage of, seeing what resources we have available and stacking them together in new and interesting ways. R and d are our Idea Generation Center, and they are so fun to listen to.
R and D could populate books with ideas all day long of things that you could do that you may want to do. That would be cool if you did. Things that. May not even actually desire, but that could be possible for you. This is just on all the time. And if you have a personality like mine that you are maybe an Ingram seven, maybe an adventurer, maybe a self-starter, maybe a high achiever.
I was laughing at Creative camp last weekend with my photographer Kelli, who was around at, after the end we were cleaning up and we were both joking about how. Coming up with business ideas is not a problem for me. I could create a business a day for the next year without a repeat because my r and d are always working overtime every single day.
I think, oh, that could be a fun business. Oh, that’s something I could do. Oh, that’s something I could do if I gave r and d. The microphone at the whole meeting and just went with whatever she said. I would not only have the multi octopus arm business that I currently run, but I would also have like several other little baby businesses on the side, and I probably would not be able to manage any of it.
I’m just in survival mode right now with school and work and family as it is, let alone. Letting r and d come up with new ideas all the time. That said, I have a couple little ones in my hopper that I am that my r and d has had some idea generation that I really love and I’m excited about.
I’m, my champion is saying yes, do it. The time’s right, it’s, go for it. I’ve set my catty secretary aside of no one wants that. No one’s going to sign up, whatever. And I’m trying to really balance out like risk management. Do I have the space and time? Will it override some of the things I’m currently doing?
And c e o, my executive management is taking a long lens for now. A couple of these r and d projects I have on the back burner of. Yes, I want to do them. Yes, I’m feeling good about them. No, the time is not right now. So just put a pin in it, continue to dream about it and flesh out those ideas and take notes about it and do research, and we’re not going to move ahead with solid steps at this stage.
That’s the boardroom. Now, there are probably some characters in the boardroom metaphor that you really resonate with maybe. Are good at r and d like I am. You’ve got r and d all the time, giving you new ideas, innovation opportunities that you want to just skip around and do all those things.
How does your board room operate?
Maybe you haven’t given voice to r and d for a while. Maybe your risk manager and your inner critic, or your caddy secretary have been taking over most of the time and silenced r and d. Many ideas coming out there. You don’t have a lot of what you want to do next, or what are your passions and dreams and desires for your life?
This recognition of all these different areas of our own inner voices, our own boardroom, can invite you to consider where am I giving my who? Who has the mic in my mind? And are there voices in my own? That haven’t been heard from in a while, and how can I use my executive management, be my own CEO, and pass the mic to r and d.
Let’s pass the mic to our work wife our inner cheerleader. What does she have to say about the life that we’re leading? Let’s, mute, as in, let’s put our boardroom in Zoom room for a little while and mute everyone except for our inner cheerleader and let her hype us up for a. Let her remind us of all the incredible things that we’re doing right now today without doing anything different.
She can give you your report of lives that you’ve touched of incredible commitments that you’ve kept of the way that you are living every day in alignment with some of your core values, even if that doesn’t look big and outward and shiny to anyone else. Has she been talking to you lately? Do you have her voice in your head?
As loudly as you have catty secretary’s voice in your head, telling you all the reasons why you just don’t have it together and you aren’t doing enough, and look at all those people who are achieving more and better than you. Let’s quiet her. Mute her mic, take the unmute. Your champion, your cheerleader, unmute your r and d and ask them, what do we have in the pipeline?
What big dreams and ideas do we have coming up that we want to look forward to? Yes, we can unmute risk management about all of those at any time. We can get the low down on the cost benefit analysis. We can take a wide-angle perspective and we don’t have to jump into everything that r and d tells us to do.
Does she have a voice in our head? Are we aware of our desires and our dreams and the possibilities that we can generate on our own? I like to think about giving space for all these natural voices to arise and be conscious of whether they currently have a place to speak in my experience, in my life.
If you are giving a lot of voice to your critic and not much to your champion, it’s no wonder that you feel a little bit down on yourself, or it’s no wonder that you don’t have a lot of confidence in moving forward in new ways in your life. That’s who you’ve been listening to. If your personality and problems tend to be more like mine, that you bite off more than you can chew fairly frequently, that you’ve got a lot of r and d and championing happening and haven’t given a lot of voice to risk management.
Pump the brakes on occasion. Maybe you want to unmute that mic for a little bit and say, hey girl, what do we have space for coming up this next year? What is our energy already being spent on that we enjoy and that we love That we can say, okay, that’s good for now. Let’s just stay the course and maybe pause on any of the new r and d that comes up while we finish up and wrap up.
Tie with the bow, the things that we’re currently doing that we love. Rather than spreading ourselves so thin that we’re unable to enjoy any of it. If you want to take this episode one step further than just listening and thinking about it inside your head, I want to invite you, and I’m going to do the same thing, because I think it’s a good idea and I haven’t done it because I just thought of it.
Take some Board Room Notes
I want you to take out a piece of paper. Write these titles, maybe draw five big circles or something. Write these titles. Your c e o, your risk manager, your caddy secretary, your work champion, life champion. I’m saying work because I’m imagining it like a work boardroom, but it really is just your life champion.
You’re your cheerleader and your r and d team. Give actual space on a piece of paper for each of these voices to be heard. Right now, just considering pretend that you’re having this hypothetical meeting with your current board of directors in your brain, and what do they have to say today? The CEO’s going to say, okay, we’ve got these big projects.
We’re working on risk manager. Tell me what you have to say about these projects that we have happening in our lives. Maybe that’s the kids are on spring break this week. Maybe that’s, I have a new business idea. Maybe it’s, I, am working on a new project at my corporate job and what am I going to do about it?
Maybe it’s, I am sending my last child to school next year and I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my time, because I haven’t spent. Anytime the last five years paying attention to myself, I don’t really know what I like anymore. Great risk manager. What happens? Or maybe we must turn it to r and d first.
What do you have to say about these things? What is your voice about these things? What does risk management say? What does cadie secretary say? Give her a voice. Let her get it all out there. Let her tell you what she thinks about it, and then turn it over to your champion in your cheer. To rebut that and to bring another perspective.
Being able to look at these things, look at what the voices in our heads are saying, and then identify what threads of truth run throughout, and what are totally bogus things. Like why would I even think that? I know that’s not true. Having a couple neutral, like r and d’s, neutral and risk management is neutral.
They’re just like facts and figures, ideas, and frame of reference and. Our secretary and our cheerleader are not neutral. They are very opinionated. They are in it on a personal level. I think it’s helpful to have all four of those perspectives, the sort of neutral and then the storyteller, and then of course your CEO that’s able to just take all that information, synthesize it, and then decide what do you want to do.
Who do you want to listen to? Who, whose voice feels the most resonant right now? Who feels the most Who? Who feels like they have the closest alignment to what you really want? And by giving voice to all the things, our doubts, as well as our hopes, we create space to not be afraid of what we’re think.
To not be afraid of what other people might even say, because I guarantee that you and your inner critic and your inner cheerleader have more criticism and compassion for your own ideas in your own life than anyone in the outside world might consider your boardroom what they’re thinking right now.
Maybe even, like I said, take out a piece of paper and ask them what are they thinking right now? What are some of the thoughts going through your head? You may be surprised about some of the things that come out. You may be surprised if you do this exercise, and you write down some of your thoughts.
Somehow. Writing enables us to get to places in our, in the sort of recesses of our brain that just thinking doesn’t. I talked about this a few weeks ago with Kim Christensen when we did our Writing as Healing podcast episode. That was fantastic. I’ll link it in the show notes if you haven’t listened to it.
And I’ve been experiencing this myself as I’ve been doing Morning Pages from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. This is 50 years old now, and still the most poignant part of the program is stream of conscious writing. Every morning I’m writing things down that I didn’t even know were in me. I’m writing things down that I didn’t know I thought until I wrote ’em.
This is powerful to be able to give voices to parts of your mind and your perspective that you don’t even know is there. And I think pulling out a piece of paper and writing down what each of your boardroom members is thinking right now could be beautiful and helpful. This is an exercise you can do at any time and at, if you notice, at some point that you’re thinking, kind of turning over thoughts that feel like they’re very one-sided, you can use this metaphor to consider who has the mic right now?
Okay. Who’s her equal and opposite that I want to hear from as well. So, if r and d is running away with ideas, you can say, okay, great, this is fantastic Now. Risk management say about that. If inner, caddy secretary, if caddy secretary has the mic just on loud and has muted everyone else and she’s just going for it, allow her to finish or cut her off, mute her and say, okay, what does my inner cheerleader have to say about that?
What does the champion say? Giving equal time to different perspectives on the same topic can be powerful and really balance. The truth is never on the extreme. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle of what we think. And if we’re only listening to one person in our boardroom all the time, we’re not going to get a full perspective.
We’re not going to even understand ourselves in the different ideas that make be generated in our own heads. So, I hope that this metaphor has been helpful and that you can use it to identify the different perspectives that you have as you’re living your own story. And you can give place for the different perspectives and voices in your head to cheer you on, to support you, to maybe flash a mirror of some insecurities that you might have in the effort to.
Keep you safe and that’s okay. And those can come along for the ride, even if you don’t give them the full microphone all the time. Even if you don’t say that you’re going to follow along with what they say. Pretending that our inner critic doesn’t exist isn’t as helpful as acknowledging her and giving her a voice, and then also letting the other voices in the room speak as well.
Kind of counterbalance that. So, I hope that’s been helpful. I can’t wait to hear what you think about it. If this episode has been, Inspiring and you think a friend or family member could use it, please take the time to screenshot it and text it to them or share it on your social media. It’s been a while since I’ve seen I, I don’t know, maybe we’re just not sharing podcasts as often as we used to on stories, but if you have a minute and you could screenshot while you’re listening and then post it to your Instagram story and tag Me.
I would really love for a live free creative podcast to continue to touch people’s lives and hearts. As it has mine and hopefully yours over the last almost five years. Thank you so much for listening in and being here. I hope you have a fantastic weekend. I will chat with you again next time.
Bye-bye.
