Pulling out all things that were hidden under the carpet for so long!
The pandemic has brought about a paradigm shift in the way the world works, travels, does business, eats, celebrates festivals and so much more!
There has a been a huge shift and change in everything we do. Initially, people did not understand what was happening? How could something invisible be such a huge threat? They laughed it off and said it could not impact them. It was somebody else’s problem in some other country and it would not come to ours. But reality hit hard and soon enough the issue had blown out of proportion and was very much in our own backyard. Just like this virus, a lot of hidden demons were unleashed in my life.
The lockdown and being at home put my family members and me in the presence of each other 24/7. Everyone worked out of home, school was online for the kids, constant cooking, cleaning and a ton of domestic chores all heaped on us. I started noticing things that I ignored earlier, small things like the wall clock or fans had dust on it as well as the larger things. Changes in behaviour of my husband now irked me more than ever.
My business was becoming difficult to sustain and existing clients started putting projects on a freeze. Newer contracts were not being signed. My husband was extremely tense because the financial burden of running the house was now on his shoulders. He was shouting and would lose his temper at the smallest of things. Being at home and constantly managing domestic chores took a toll on me. I was irritated too. I started shouting back. Emotions ran high. I could not handle so much stress at once, financial, household work and business. I was physically tired, dizzy, muddled up and confused. I knew that I could not go out and network. I could not meet people face to face.I would not get speaking assignments in conferences and seminars now. I could not be on stage now. I could not go out to train or coach people And I knew that I had to go digital. I had to put my skills in front of people. And I had to face my inner demons. I had created a YouTube channel for myself years ago, but never had the courage to make videos and put them out there. I feared what would people say, will they like my video? Will my channel be a success? Will I sound stupid? And so many more fears. I decided that I am going to confront this inner demon, the fear of judgement. I decided that I would just present my authentic self to the world. The real me. I would share my knowledge, skills and experience with a genuine intention of making a difference. One fine day, I just started. I made a video of myself on my phone and uploaded it. I told my audience that I would give them 3 topics every Monday. They could vote for a topic of their choice and I would speak on the ones with the most votes. And I did just that! I gave them 3 topics to choose from and spoke on the one with the highest votes. It was so encouraging to see people cheering me for the work, telling me that they enjoyed the learning. I then created a tribe. Since I captioned by trainings as ‘Reach for the Stars’ I called my tribe ‘Nakshatra’ meaning star. In just one month of starting the videos, I have a tribe of 105 people in my private facebook group. My videos have received so many views and I have a humble subscription base of 75 people (all organic) and that too without using any marketing techniques. I still have to master the art of film making and video editing. But I am happy that I did not make that an excuse and I finally faced my inner demons and came out shining!
So my 6 tips for fighting your inner demons are:
- Recognise that your emotional triggers are your biggest insecurities and fears
- Confront them and take action instead of brushing them under the carpet
- Small actions taken every day will have a huge effect on your self-confidence and eventually in your life
- Personal progress is important not the huge external numbers or validations. Your barometer of success is you alone.
- It is natural to fall down, however pick yourself up every single time, dust yourself off, put on that smile and move forward. You can do it!
- Be proud of yourself. Celebrate your successes.
And before you go, here’s the link to my YouTube channel-https://bit.ly/rinnkug
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