“What is it that you do now, Michaela?” A question that is coming up a lot at the moment.
I am grateful that people are curios because I can invite them to experience a powerful coaching session with me and tell them that what I do now is:
I help High-Achieving Professionals who struggle with anxiety to get rid of that anxiety and consciously create extraordinary results from the place of ease, self-awareness and with purpose.
This is not a randomly choreographed positioning statement, this is something I feel extremely (and I mean extremely) passionate about. Why? Because I’d been there. I’d been in the place of fear of failure, anxiety and excruciating pain created by my own inner critic for six long years. Six. Let me tell you, that’s a long time living on the edge, constantly expecting something at work to go horribly wrong.
Until I realised that nothing was going to go wrong. Things were going to go as I CREATED them. (When the penny dropped about four years ago, my mind exploded!). And if something does go off track and life happens, I’ll stop and either ask for help or re-examine my perspective I’m taking on the situation. You might think it’s obvious – well, it wasn’t to me.
And why do I focus on High Achievers?
First of all, I am a High Achiever myself. I used to think that High Achiever was a dirty word. That I should not stick out, I should go with the flow, should always do what I was told, should be less vocal, should, should, should… I used to think there was something wrong with me. Not anymore. My name is Michaela and I am a High-Achiever.
Secondly, NO ONE should go through what I went through. As High Achievers, we can drive ourselves crazy without realising it. Or realise it and still drive ourselves mad. At some point I did realise that things were not OK but I believed that that was simply how things were in the high-pressure jobs.
Do any of these sound familiar?
- You measure your worth purely by the results you achieve.
- Not achieving your targets / deadlines / project outcomes is your worst nightmare.
- When you get stuck you don’t want to ask for help because you believe you ‘should’ have the solutions.
- More you get stuck in the story in your head, harder you try to fix things instead of stepping away and letting things breathe a bit.
- You believe that you are going to get ‘discovered’ one day soon and people will realise that you haven’t got a clue about anything (Imposter Syndrome).
- Perfectionism, hmmm.
- Insomnia is your best friend. An occasional panic attack in the middle of the meeting comes as an unexpected ‘bonus.’
- You look for any distractions just to escape from your own thoughts. (more shopping, more Netflix, more travel, more partying, more gym, more working…) But it never works.
- People you interact with have no clue how you really feel and what’s going on in your head. You are ashamed to share it.
- You feel alone. Even if you are constantly surrounded by people.
- Everything is personal.
Maybe you can relate to some of the above. Maybe to all of it.
And if you do, let me tell you this.
You are NOT your results and you are certainly NOT broken. What is happening is that the story you believe to be true is broken and is not serving you anymore. On the contrary. It’s harming you and it’s time to rewrite that story. Somewhere, somehow, at some point in your life you started believing something that is causing you to feel the way you’re feeling. And I know that it is difficult to let that story go because even if it is an unhelpful story, it is a familiar one and (as strange as it sounds) it brings you a level of comfort caused by the familiarity of it. New story would mean exposing yourself. That would mean being vulnerable and you don’t do vulnerable. Who knows what that would bring? Uncertainty. I feel you.
But as a High Achiever, you have SO MUCH TO GIVE! So much to share with the world. So much meaningful contribution that you could bring. What about if your current story was stopping you from REALLY achieving some incredible stuff? Stopping you from discovering your true purpose, just because you are busy chasing this month’s targets and deadlines? Or stopping you from chasing those deadlines from the place of ease and real confidence.
Might just be the
- time to re-write your story and shift from fear to possibility?
- time to replace your beliefs that drive how you feel, think and act?
- time to get in touch with what’s really driving your anxiety and let it go?
I remember when I made that decision. I simply had enough. I think even my own fear was fed up with me. Fed up with the same old story and how sorry I felt for myself. And so, for the first time in my life, I asked for help. The rest is history…
And that’s what I do and why I feel so passionate about it:
I help High-Achieving Professionals who struggle with anxiety to get rid of that anxiety and consciously create extraordinary results from the place of ease, self-awareness and with purpose.
If you’ve reached your ‘enough is enough’ threshold and would like to explore what that shift would look like for you or what your purpose as a High Achiever is, I invite you to have a powerful coaching conversation with me. Allow me to hold safe space for you so that you can decide what you want your next step to be. Remember, I’d been there. I’ve got you.
Block the time that suits you either here https://meetings.hubspot.com/michaela40 or send me an e-mail to [email protected].
And if you would like to become part of our community, join our newsletter and stay connected with us here https://michaela-smith.com/.
With lots of love,
Michaela x