I wanted to share a little about my story today, a reflection after presenting last nights live Vegetarian Cooking Class.
In the past 4 weeks I have presented a live class 4 times, that has been seen by over 2000 people and counting.
I presented the class over Zoom, directly engaging with members, sharing stories, information and educating the audience.
These classes alongside the multiple live streams we hold for members, the daily information being shared on social media channels and beyond.
This evening I was live on BBC WM discussing health, fitness and wellbeing...
The reflection isn't how well I am doing haha, the reflection is that just a few years ago I couldn't even take an Instagram story.
I remember standing there trying to say what was on my mind about High Intensity Interval Training. I couldn't get my words out, my tongue kept getting twisted, I kept forgetting my next sentence.
I decided the best thing to do would be to write it down.
So I wrote out a few paragraphs and went back to the phone to read them out.
It didn't happen in the end, not because I didn't know what I wanted to say or how to articulate it, but the fear of judgement, lack of confidence and low self esteem gripped me.
Now I speak to people every single week, who aren't on social media that much and haven't experienced this.
What they have experienced is knowing they know the answer but being worried they are wrong, not putting forwards their suggestions in work meetings only to see others take the credit for their ideas, struggling to open up dialogue with new people and be comfortable in social scenarios and finding it difficult to accept the right person into their life, because they just don't feel worthwhile enough themselves.
When I hear these stories, they scare the hell out of me in all honesty.
Everytime I hear this, I realise that it could have been me.
It could have been me confined in life, not realising my potential and not breaking through the mental barriers that restrict progress.
I could easily have kept trying to contain the mental anguish that comes with knowing you have more to offer, but being too low in confidence to put this knowledge into meaningful action.
For me overcoming this wasn't an overnight success. If you want to completely transform, it takes time, effort and commitment. Initially it can even feel horrible! But the worst feeling is knowing that you have so much to offer but containing your potential through fear.
I know so many people will advise, fake it until you make it.
I just don't think that is the right approach for most.
I think getting a firm grip of your personal values, understanding what your drivers are as an individual and realising just how many people are being impacted by you not backing yourself is a far more effective strategy.
You may have heard me talk about personal values before. They are things that you do in your days, weeks and months that you love beyond doubt. They tend to be the things that you won't hesitate to jump out of bed for, that you can get lost in way into the night and don't feel like they take a lot of willpower to complete.
When you align to these values, you live in a state of happiness and enter a flow state.
Now taking it back to social media and my online presence. The reason I love the chance to jump on podcasts, record my content and setting up live classes now is because every single opportunity presents a path for me to live by values, educate and inspire the community with something we cannot live a fulfilled life without, health.
I realise that the education and experience I have accumulated is far more powerful when shared to the people that need it the most within our community and I know that in the long term it will change people's lives.
This was a huge realisation when overcoming low confidence. Do a little deep work, do a little reflection of who you are and just how much you matter, because you do matter and your life experiences, education and nature have the power to make an incredible difference on others.
You can choose to break the cycle around your low confidence and self esteem, but know that it comes with challenges and know that sometimes you do need support, you do need to be held accountable and sometimes you need a little bit of a push to get started!
Start at the start, realise your power and share it to the world.
