Protecting Purpose and Vision
Do you protect your new goals and projects, your inspirations, and ideas, from outside contamination?
As attorneys and professionals grow into leadership roles, they often discover that success depends not only on technical expertise, but also on the ability to communicate wisely and navigate important conversations and negotiations with clarity, steadiness, and sound judgment.
Their new goals, projects, inspirations, and ideas are seedlings.
Their new goals, projects, inspirations, and ideas are seedlings. They’ve just planted them in rich fertile soil and watered them.
They are barely sprouting up above the ground. They are young and fragile, easy to trample and destroy.
Most people don’t have our best interests at heart. They would sooner see us fail because our success makes them feel bad about themselves. Even the people we love, the people who are closest to our heart can, consciously or unconsciously, have mixed motives.
If we want to succeed, we must not share our goals, projects, inspirations, and ideas -- especially before we’ve got them fully grounded and self-sustaining -- with anyone but those we absolutely and wholeheartedly trust.
Again, sometimes we think we can trust our secrets with close family members and friends, when we can’t. If our gut says ‘no’, listen. It might not speak loudly, but we will feel a little nagging feeling or slightly uncomfortable. Our inner knowing doesn’t shout, it whispers. Listen.
Sometimes it’s best to tell no one rather than risk a negative projection or reaction, which can be camouflaged as ‘just looking out for your best interests’ or ‘playing the devil’s advocate’ and can fill us with doubt. And doubt is poison. It can easily destroy what we’ve started.
Once our seedling takes root and is a sturdy young tree, once our tree is able to weather challenging conditions and is able to not only survive but thrive, then sharing is a different story. We use our common sense and intuition to decide when the time is right.
“You don’t know my family or best friend", people tell me. Maybe not. But people will try to sabotage our success for all kinds of reasons. Maybe it makes them feel bad about themselves, shining a bright light on how unhappy or stuck they feel in their lives. Maybe they are afraid that you will no longer need them, that you will move away or distance yourself once success lights up your life.
So, let's protect our seedlings from all negative thoughts, projections and influences, and err on the side of caution. Let's trust our intuition and be discerning. Ler's nurture and love our seedlings, knowing and visualizing that they are now magnificent, strong, and sturdy trees.