Closing the Gap

Hi there, you're listening to the Shift to Your Bliss podcast series. If you're in your 30s and beyond, with some life experience, and you're looking indeed searching for more in your life, your work and your career, then you're in the right place. In this podcast series, we will show you how to shift to your bliss. My name is Dr. Sheila Jaggard. I'm a world traveler from Machu Picchu, to the pyramids of Egypt. I've studied alongside Thomas Leonard, Bob Proctor, Dean, Grazi, OC, and Deepak Chopra. And after five decades, I've created my very own formula to help you shift to your bliss. Welcome to the podcast series shift to your bliss. Are you ready? Let's dive in.

Hello, again, it's Dr. Sheila here, Shift to Your Bliss is our action steps. Today we're going to talk a little bit more about focus. And as you recall, in our last session, we talked about where you are now where you want to be and the gap in the middle. What we're going to talk about today is really making sure that those steps keep you moving forward, those steps keep you moving in the path to get to where you want to get to. And I'm going to use the story of one of my coaching clients to illustrate this.

my coaching clients who actually it was just a wonderful gal, she had been promoted into a management position. And this was an organization that was primarily men, it was an organization that really did not have a lot of positions in management for women. And she wanted to make an impact, really, really bright gal. And she decided that what she wanted to do was to really do something different with the client base that she was working with. And she wanted to do something that would really help the clients to understand more of not only her division in the company, but also about the way in which she worked because the client base didn't really know her as a manager. They knew her in her sales role, but they didn't know her as a manager. And so she and I were brought together and the organization provided her some opportunity for coaching and and so she chose to coach with me. And it was just fascinating for me to learn from her. She, she was early 30s. And this was a brand new thing for her. She wanted to be a success, she also wanted to be able to bring her team along, because the prior boss had not really built the team. They had really actually had people work individually. And so her story was, I'm new at this, I'm not sure I can do it. And so I want to just take baby steps, I want to just be able to make maybe one step at a time to get to where I need to get to. So I said, Okay, let's talk about what your long range plan is. Remember, it's the where you want to be. And she said, Okay, and so she told me that she wanted to have this event, it was going to be a an event for clients and customers. And she was very excited about doing this. But she also said she wasn't sure that the staff that were going to support her work, ready to do this or even able to do this at this point in time. So I asked her how she felt this would work. And she said, Well, I don't know. It's it's going to be a difficult but I'm up for it. So do you see the difference? She already had made up her mind that her story was going to be I'm going to give this all that I have, and what more brilliance Can you have than that?

So we started to work on where she was right now. What kinds of things were going on. And we went through and talked about the story that she had. And she was telling herself, you know, women don't make it in this particular industry. Women are always kept down, which we know happens in some industries. And she wasn't sure that she was going to be able to pull this off. When we started talking about how to heal her story. What was it she had to change? Well, it was really changing her mindset, and not worrying about what the company had done before not worrying about the industry but changing her mindset to she can do this. She can get this done. So then what happened was we started talking about imagining how this could be. She went through wonderful visualizations I have to tell you, it was a delight to go through visualization with her because she was able then to say, this is what I'd like to do. And this is what I'd like to do. And she actually was working through all the steps that she needed to work through. Then we talked about where she is now. And the steps she needs to take with her staff to get to where she wanted to get to. The truth of the matter is, those steps were not monumental steps. But prior to breaking it down for her, they seemed huge. And I think that's sometimes what stops us, you know, when we think about something, oh, that's just that journey is going to be really too difficult for me, or that's going to be too big, we stop ourselves. And what I'm going to say to you is get past that, recognize that there's something that's trying to stop you and it doesn't need to stop you, you can do this. So she made the decision that she was going to start making these steps. And she started having staff meetings much more regularly staff meetings that people took on new opportunities, people took on new challenges. And she had a deadline for when she wanted to have this event. So she was essentially working backwards from the deadline to what she really wanted to achieve. And I have to tell you, I do the reverse scheduling myself. That's how I was able to do my doctorate the way I was, because I took the date that I wanted to graduate. And then I work backwards, she took the date she wanted to have as the event. And she worked backwards. And she had it planned out every single step along the way in the gap.

And the beautiful part of this was, there were some pieces that came up and they were really quite big issues. And if she hadn't done the steps, those big issues could have derailed her immediately. The idea about focus is that when you run up against a challenge in that gap, that what you say to yourself is It's okay, I'll figure this out. I just need to put more steps in. You know, when we think about how we break down some of the work processes that we do, that's exactly what it is, what are the steps? What are the things that we have to do, in order to get to where we need to get to, you know, if you're planning a trip, it's the same thing. You figured out all the things that you need to take in your luggage, you figure out all the things that you want to do when you get to you to the place that you're having your final destination. You plan out the pieces and you do the research. And that's exactly what focus is planted out, do the research. Sometimes those challenges will seem big. And that's okay. You know, I always like to say to people, when the challenge seems big, that means you're on the right path, it means that that's exactly what you're supposed to be doing. That's exactly where you're supposed to be right now. The challenges appear, so that you can move in a different direction. Or you can continue on, or you can pivot or you can say to yourself Interesting, interesting challenge. It's not going to stop me, it doesn't it's not relevant. So when you're in focus, when you're in that gap space, with the steps, that is exactly when you're going to be doing some of the work to get to your vision, that vision that you really want to have for where you want to be, and the story you want to have. Remember, the old story is dwindling in its importance to you. And I told you in our last session that, you know it showed up again, years later, when I was trying to decide something I was going to do in my business. Because it had been in my head for so long. It took residency. So depending on how long that story has been in your head, the truth of the matter is it may in fact, keep coming back saying ooh, remember me, doesn't mean it has to stop you. It's the same process. Well, thank you very much appreciate you bringing that up. But here's where I am now. So as things turned out, they were able to get everything organized, and they were able to get the event organized and some of the senior VPs were coming to the events from the head office. And they were astounded at what she was able to do. Her career has taken off. She's an amazing, amazing woman. And you know, I really believe it was the step by step process of focus that got her to where she needed to go. The gap space is so important. Figure out the steps. I know for some of you it's tedious work others of you, you may dive into this and spend a long time in those steps, don't overthink do the steps, the steps will reveal themselves. And then as I said earlier, in in the last session, what will happen is things will materialize, things will come to pass, things will happen for you. I hope that's helpful for you in your focus. In our next session, we're going to talk about transformation. We're coming to our final steps, folks. If you can get your gap steps organized. The transformation is just secondary. Thanks so much for tuning in today. And as always, this is Dr. Sheila. Remember, life is a journey. We're all on the journey. And please remember shifters that until next time, close the gap.