Introduction To Stepping Up

Jan 24, 2018

This blog/podcast will focus on the tools I’ve found useful for overcoming self-doubt and aims to lead by example so that you are inspired to further your own journey into personal growth. Ultimately, actions will do far more to help overcome internal negativity than anything else but there are more tools in the tool belt to be explored. It’s a hard and gritty journey, but worth it. If you’re ready, join me. Step up with me.

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Welcome to Stepping Up To Your Potential, a combination blog and podcast where I share with you my journey of personal growth. My name is Sondra Robinson. I call this a combination blog/podcast because first I will write the blog post and then I will record it for release as a podcast episode. So whether you prefer to read your content or listen to it on the go, you will not miss out. Be sure to subscribe so that you get all of the episodes or posts, whichever format you prefer.

Let me share a little bit about me so you know where I’m coming from and you can decide if I am the right person to help you on your journey of growth.

Story Time

I remember when I was 15 and considering where to apply for my very first job. There was a veterinarian’s office nearby, owned by the parent of a classmate. I really wanted to work there, but far in the background of my thinking was the idea “I’m not good enough for that.” I instead went to a fast food restaurant and that is where I began my working career. Now I recognize that that background thinking has been with me every step of the way through this life, hidden so far underground that I never consciously saw it until relatively recently. When it was finally seen, I was able to recognize the cascading chain of that core concept through every bad decision in my career, relationship and finances that I have made. It even led me into bankruptcy court.

See, by failing to recognize this hidden idea, it had permission to rule all areas of my life from the shadows. Most tragically, because that concept was operating at a baseline level, I was unable to see all the value that I had been building, the successes I’d been having. My thinking was that those don’t really count because they came easy. Those successes grew out of me being who I am, and because of that those can be ignored. The thinking went ‘afterall, if I can do it so can anybody else. Nothing special about that.’

It was about 5 or 6 years ago that I embarked on a serious cycle of self-evaluation. I won’t kid you, it sucked. Personal growth is not a fluffy journey filled with kittens and rainbows. For me it was filled with taking many hard looks at myself and seeing both the ugly and the good without judgement. Just … seeing the ingredients that make up me, literally simply taking an inventory. It’s not a journey many people want to seriously take. I get it, I really do. It’s hard. But now that I’m starting to come out the other side, I can see the profound personal benefits. The changes which I can now recognize are happening to my emotional operating system. A big part of this journey was my anonymous personal growth blog which is now about 3 years old. But just as that blog is anonymous, I also did nothing to promote it. See, part of that negative idea I’ve been wrestling with includes not wanting to step up to the mic. Preferring to stay in the background, quietly helping maybe one or two people.

But the content of that blog has now reached a point where I feel that I need to take the mic in hand and say “I have something I want to share. It benefited me, and I hope it can benefit you.” And that is how Stepping Up to Your Potential was born.

The Point

So exactly did that personal growth blog help me? What the blog did was force me to start taking an honest evaluation of my life to date. That dispassionate inventory of skills, traits, successes and failures mentioned earlier. With judgment reduced in this assessment, I was able to see a laundry list of high-powered actions and results that I have taken which directly refuted that negative mindset. Essentially, the blinders came off and for the first time I saw the value inherent in myself and what I can bring to the table. It was, quite bluntly, shocking.

But it wasn’t the blog that ultimately began to quiet that negative self-talk. It was evidence which flatly refuted that trash idea. It was active proof that when I apply myself, success happens. Seeing this so clearly made me look around and wonder where am I in my life right now that I can start to step things up, actively and consciously choose to keep building more successes bit by bit.

One of the biggest areas I can step up is to step out of the shadows. Step away from anonymous in the corner and my voice and name out there. Let me tell, for someone who’s used to being unseen and unheard all the time, this step is utterly terrifying. But I’m taking it anyway because it’s the next one that I need to in order to keep growing.

I don’t think that voice will ever really go away, but I can build alternative mental routes. I call this the ‘yes/and’ mindset. Don’t worry about taking things out, add to them in alternative ways. Every different choice I make, every tiny success and learning opportunity that results, they all add weight to shifting the away from the negative voice until it becomes smaller and smaller.

I invite you to join me. I’ll review some of the ideas that really worked for me, warn you of some of the trials that might lie ahead, and let you know how my current explorations are going. I will warn you. This is not fluff piece and it’s not designed to make you feel great without having to do anything. I know this will turn off some of you, and that’s fine. It tells me you’re not ready and you know it on some level. I absolutely applaud those who recognize “nope, not ready for that” because this road WIlL take emotional stamina and psychic fortitude. But it is worth it. Oh so worth it!

That said, I’m still on this journey. I’m not at the end and I don’t really think it has an ‘end’. It’s an evolution of self. I once heard someone say that out of all the souls available to come onto this earth, I was chosen because only I can do the things I need to do. Think about that. You are the only one out all of the souls possible that has the potential to do what you can do. But it’s a potential. It will remain dormant until it’s unlocked. And that’s what this blog and podcast is all about. Taking one small action as a time toward unlocking the true potential that you carry within. The bonus is that for every single little step up that you take, it adds up. Opens new doors. Unlocks new possibilities. So, if you think you’re ready, join me in this journey. Step up with me.

Video

Video is now also available through the YouTube Channel. The background during the speaking portion is a close-up of my 75 gallon freshwater planted tank at feeding time, so it’s relaxing and still fun to watch. While this introduction doesn’t have a video, most of the rest do.

About the Featured Image

I got into photography for my sewing blog and discovered I really enjoyed it. When it came time to think about imagery for this blog, I decided to use many of my own photographs. That said, I have a lot of friends who are also photographers. Where possible, I’ll use some of their work and include a description and link. If you wish to use any of the images that feature my own watermark (DW Photography) I am fine with that under 2 conditions — leave the watermark visible, and link back to my root blog page of SondraRobinson.com.

This particular image is from Glass Beach, California taken in August of 2017. This section of the beach is literally covered with tumbled glass due to the unique tidal and rock formations in this area which funnels sea glass into a concentrated area. If you take a moment, you might be able to see why I chose this particular image for this post.