Own your power!

This is my reflection and learnings from watching Carla Harris at the 2017 Pennsylvania Conference for Women. Thanks to my friend for sharing this vid with me!

Take Charge

Own your power, dont ever doubt what you have in you, because once you start doubting you give away your power.

Empower others, when you empower others you magnify your impact.

Taking Risks

Be comfortable with taking risks, you need to take risks to understand and define your power.

Take risks even when you are scared, because fear will only block you from your success, nothing more.

Every time you approach anything in life from the position of fear, you will always waste that opportunity. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.

Failure always brings you experience, so even when you fail it is a good thing.

Its easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. Sometimes the person you are asking for permission dont even have the power to give you permission, but you give them the power by asking.

Dont worry about making mistakes, mistakes are valid and valuable part of your life. If you dont make mistakes it means you are not reaching far enough. Making a mistake does not make you special, everyone makes mistakes. What makes you special is how you get up, nobody will get up but you will. Take the blessing of the lesson and move on.

Default to going ahead first, default to moving forward! If you make a mistake and someone tell you, you shouldn't have done that, say "Oops, sorry i didnt know".

DO NOT dim your light/life for someone's convenience.

Ask yourself 3 things before you take risks:

1. Will this new thing give you skills and experiences that you will not get if you stayed in your comfort zone?
2. Will this new thing expose you to people and relationships that you will not get if you stayed in your comfort zone?
3. Will this new thing open more doors and unlock opportunities in your future, that you will not get if you stayed in your comfort zone? Take the risk if all 3 is fuck yea!

Celebrate Life

Celebrate victories often, both your own victories and those of ppl close to you. Stand there and feel it, dont be in such a hurry to get to the next achievement without taking the chance to soak in where you are right now.

Life is a journey, you have a long runway so dont be in such a hurry to get to every place, enjoy every single lesson that life brings you. When life comes to teach you a lesson, if you dont pass the test you will repeat the class. So it is important that when things happen, take extreme ownership and ask yourself how you caused that to happen and the 5W1H.

Always Ask

You dont ask, you dont get. Life/Career rule. You are solely responsible for your life and career, dont wait for others to get you there, ask and go after what is yours.

Always understand the market value of your position, and see if you are delivering on that value, if you are, always ask for more.

Sponsor Relationships

It is important to invest in a sponsor relationship, the sponsor is the person that is carrying your paper into the room. This is the person that behind closed doors, will argue passionately on your behalf. This person is spending their valuable political and social capital on you.

Your ability to ascend in any job will be a function of somebody's judgement, judgement about whether you are ready and whether you will be successful and whether the team will follow you. Judgement is directly influenced by relationship, which is why you need to maintain that sponsor relationship.

Conclusion

This is real life, this is no rehearsal, hit the gas and go ALL IN. You have nothing to lose, go get it! Exercise your power, use everything and anything you can, ask for help, dont ever let someone's rejection stop you from achieving anything you want.

Always default to trying, you already know what "no" looks like, so why wont you play the game and get that "yes"? Always, always play for YES.

It's your life! Take extreme ownership, take control and fucking go after everything you want!