Free Your Mind
I gave the keynote address, “Free Your Mind,” at a Possible Woman Conference in Atlanta. The Conference theme was “Imagine” and my talk kicked off the day. In preparing for the talk, I was again reminded of the importance of imagination and having a mind that is “free” if we want to build strong careers.
I have said it in other articles and I say it again: You must be able to see yourself being and doing the things you want to be and do BEFORE you can actually be or do those things. Sound corny? Maybe. But it is absolutely true.
You must be able to see yourself as a technical expert, great leader, supervisor or manager, top contributor, or highly paid executive before you make the first step in that direction.
What stops us from imagining? Why is it so hard? It was a lot easier when we were children. Don’t you remember? We could imagine a best friend, imagine we were Superman or Wonder Woman. Imagine we could fly the highest heights or swim the deepest oceans. Our minds were free and our hearts happy because no one told us we could not be or do and we believed we could.
During the height of the Black Power Movement, the battle cry was “free your mind!” It was a cry anchored in the hard realization that feet, hands, and minds were shackled during slavery. We realized the extreme difficulty of breaking the shackles of the mind (self-doubt, low self-esteem, low expectations, limited vision, and small dreams), even when hands and feet were free.
If you are to succeed at work — I mean really succeed — you must have control of your mind and see yourself traveling roads not before traveled. So what if you have not seen anyone who looks like you, or come from where you are from accomplishing what you want. You become the first. Stop holding back on dreaming. Dream Big! Plan big! Work big! Free Your Mind.
THE LESSONS:
Your thoughts matter and they matter big time! The mind must be protected like Fort Knox.
Those who are not your cheerleaders know when they get into your head and control your thoughts, they have control of you.
Positive affirmations – Self-Talk - can be a great way to counter the negative talk coming from others about what you can or cannot achieve.
Once your mind is free, help someone else break free of chains that bind the mind!