Do this to GROW your confidence (The 30-Day Challenge for Midlife Women)

Hey, my braveheart sister. How are you today? I hope you're doing amazing.

Remember it doesn't really matter what's going on around you. What matters is what's going on on the inside of you. Can you choose joy? Can you choose resilience? You say I'm living vibrant and audacious and full out with complete peace and abandonment to the purpose of God in my life. You might say, well, you know, Dawn, that sounds really good. I mean, that sounds like actually pie in the sky.

Hello. Do you know that I have a big, huge grocery bill and my body's hurting and relationships are tricky and I have adult kids that are doing crazy? Yep. I get all of that. But what I want to remind you here at the top of this episode is that that's what's going on around. Those are circumstances, but we are bravehearted women. So, we have to have a stance. Not just a circumstance.

We will always have things happening, but if we allow what's happening on the outside to get on the inside of us and start dictating our mood, say I'm in a bad mood, nothing's going right, and start, you know, that pity party we invite friends to join us, then we are always going to live powerless and helpless. We're going to be at the mercy of what's happening in the world, in our world, our environment, with our relationships. You're not supposed to just be a thermometer. You're to be a thermostat. You don't take the temperature. You set the temperature. You decide what's going to happen to you. You decide your mindset. You decide the level of joy that you're going to have. You decide your outlook.

Okay. I'm going to be completely honest with you. I recently had an experience and that experience was, I was at a three-day event and there were so many people there. And when I got there, for some reason, I began to shrink. I felt small. I felt like a little fish in a big, huge, amazing ocean, and not even just amazing, but dangerous. There were sharks in that ocean, and I began to feel intimidated and small. Day one was a terrible day. I mean, just everything was going wrong. The wrong way.

So I got back up into my room at the hotel where I was staying and I said, wait a minute, Don, what are you doing? You're at a beautiful conference, knock it off, brush it off, and put your shoulders back. Go ahead and feel your feelings. But what do you want to do about him? Do you want to show up on day two like that? Because listening, and how we show up is so important.

Do you know that we communicate? We radiate our body language. You know, the world calls it energy, but it's the anointing of God. It's our presence. We do communicate. Do you want to have another day like you had yesterday? I said, no, thank you. I had to remind myself who I am. I had to say, wait a minute, what am I doing feeling small? How can I have a lack of confidence here? When I know I'm the daughter of the King, I'm loved by God. He has made me in his image and likeness. He has filled me with his Holy Spirit. He's given me gifts and talents. I'm among friends and people who are pulling for me as much as I am pulling for them.

Now dust yourself off, put your shoulders back, put your head up, and when I do that with my body, my body sends signals, my brain sends signals, it says we're in a good mood, we're happy, we're feeling strong, we're feeling a little invincible, we're feeling like our superpowers have all been flipped on and turned on and we're ready to show up, we're ready for the game.

Neuroscience proves to us that even the way if we curl our shoulders in and put our heads down, we will instantly start to release chemicals that say, I'm sad. I'm afraid. I don't belong, I'm intimidated. Fight and flight can kick in all of that was going on.

But guess what? Day two, amazing, beautiful time, wonderful connections. God was moving. I was drawing the invisible into the visible by standing on God's principles, and divine connections, everything was working.

For the rest of the conference, I showed up in my authenticity, remembering who I am, God's daughter, anointed, on a mission with purpose and I belong here just as much as you and just as much as you. I don't know why I'm going into all of that other than to say that sometimes life will send us spiraling out of control and it's okay just to take a minute and say, I intend on overcoming this challenge. I intend on standing without wavering. I'm going to persevere and I am going to come through as a victor.

So in this episode, I'm going to keep it short, but in this episode, I want to encourage you to set challenges for yourself. Let's start with a 30-day challenge. I want you to set a 30-day challenge to try a new habit, a new behavior, a new mindset, read something out loud in your mirror every morning, whatever it is that is important to you, something that nudges you out of your comfort zone, but at the same time, still easy enough that you can be consistent with it.

I want you to challenge yourself every day for 30 days. It might be as simple as standing in your mirror with the biggest smile in your power stance your shoulders back and your head up saying your affirmations. Maybe it's even just one affirmation. I will be successful today. I am loved by God and he has greatness for me, whatever it is, I want you to say yes to a new level by challenging you with a 30-day challenge. I want you to challenge yourself.

Now here are the five things that are going to happen for you when you decide that you're going to put yourself on a 30-day challenge, whatever it is. The first thing, of course, is you are going to grow. Say that to me. I will grow. Isn't it time to grow again? I mean, we can only just stay at this level for so long. Then we have to stretch ourselves. I'm getting ready to go to South Africa for a little shy of two weeks. While I'm there for the two weeks, I'm getting stretched. I told the woman who's bringing me in with ignite South Africa, June. I said, June, you're stretching me. I'm usually the one that's stretching other people, but it's good for me to be in that position. So you're going to grow challenging yourself will stimulate your growth in a way that comfort, good times, and familiarity won't. So that's the first thing.

Second thing, you will become better. You're going to be a better version of yourself because you're going to navigate when you face the challenge that you're putting yourself on, you're going to be building resistance, you're going to be getting greater capacity. You're going to know that I'm smashing it. I'm doing it. I'm learning from these obstacles and the struggle and I'm facing myself. My resistance, my hesitancy and my procrastination are all the things that work like anchors to keep me down, I'm facing those and I'm defeating them. And even if I make a mistake or even if one day I can't give myself that gold star, I still am going to create a historical account that says, I can grow, I can gain capacity, so yeah, I'm going to be better. I am going to enlarge my ability. And that's the next thing. When you overcome, you prove yourself as a stronger, better version of yourself, but you're having an opportunity for personal growth and self-improvement.

So let me say it again. Number one, when you put yourself on a challenge, I think I got a little bit out of order here, but you're going to grow, you're going to become a better person and you're going to gain capacity and then you're going to feel stronger. You're not going to crumble so fast, you should use what you've learned and what you're learning as you face the challenge that you're putting yourself on that, you know what? I don't have to let myself off the hook. I can harness this self-discipline. I can build this physical strength. I can build this mental strength because we know that resistance, like in the natural if we're lifting weights, we build muscle. Well, in the soul realm and the spirit realm, when we put ourselves on a challenge and we do it, we're building mental muscle. We're building our strength.

Then next you will boost your satisfaction and self-esteem, your life's satisfaction. When you start seeing yourself achieve what you are doing, you're going to feel good about yourself. You're going to feel like you're flying. You're soaring. You're going to sense that, wow, I'm doing it. I'm proud of myself. I'm encountering these obstacles are this challenge and yet I'm pressing through. And so my self-esteem starts to rise and I have a sense of greater accomplishment, deeper concentration, more focus, more belief in myself, more calmness, less anxiety, sense of contentment.

And here's the last thing that's going to happen for you when you put yourself on a 30-day challenge, these things are going to come the last one, you are going to expand your mind to possibilities. Like you're going to say if I can do this. What else can I do? That's the benefit of challenging yourself. You're going to succeed. When you succeed, you have more confidence, just as we mentioned. You're going to say, I have the ability to do this again. I want to do this again. Only this time I'm going to do it. Add something and now all of a sudden, you're going to see I have new skills growing that they're budding. They're coming to fruition. I'm growing in knowledge. I'm growing in experience. So, what else can I do? What else is out there for me? What else can I challenge myself to do? And so you're going to teach yourself through this 30-day challenge, how to reposition yourself in life so you don't go through life, shrinking, feeling small, backing up, being a wallflower. And that's not to say you have to be bodacious and loud and irreverent, but it means that you're showing up ready to live life vibrantly full and beautifully. It's flourishing all your color.

I think of it this way. Remember The Wizard of Oz and the first part of the show, it was all black and white. Then she had a dream and what happened? Everything turned into vibrant colors. Live your life in color, live it on purpose, live it with intention and standards. Let's say, I'm here with a purpose for a purpose, and I'm not going to fail because God's not going to let me fail. And it's okay if you're in transition right now, and you're trying to figure out what's next, be patient with yourself, be compassionate with yourself, but nudge yourself, make yourself take a 30-day challenge, whatever it is.

All right. That's what I have for you today. That's my encouragement for you today. I hope you'll take it up on me. So, if you do take it up and start a 30-day challenge. I want to hear from you. I really like to know. Yeah, I did this. And so I'd like you to leave a comment below as you're listening to this, make sure you let me know and reach out to me, let the other people who are listening to this. I took you up on it. I did a 30-day challenge.

You can also be part of my Facebook private community for women who are midlife and beyond. So we're 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. You know, all of the second half of life. And you can find that link in the show notes, join the private Facebook group. I'd love to see you there. Let me know how you're doing.

All right, bravehearts, That's what I have for you. Can't wait to connect with you soon. Dawn Damon, your brave heart mentor, reminds you it's your time to find your brave and live your dreams!