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Leaders are expected to be the most confident, intelligent and successful ones inside the room.
But while the challenge of handling new opportunities, projects and teams without being fully equipped is one thing, winning the battle within ourselves is another.
This is the battle that we call boundary conditioning.
BOUNDARY CONDITIONING
We all have certain unconscious boundaries or limitations on how we think about things, and what we think is possible.
It all started when we were children.
Children between ages 0-7 are in a really influential stage of their life. Offhand remarks of parents or adults can strike their core easily.
This is why most people get their core thinking and core beliefs from this stage.
We develop a “comfort zone” in our thinking that we tend to stay within.
This helps us make sense of the world and gives us a sense of order, stability and control.
A young child’s brain cannot critically analyse information. So it tends to accept statements as truth simply.
An adult might make an offhand remark to a young child, never realising how it can have very wide-ranging, long-lasting effects on the child.
For example: “You’re not good at learning.”
Those beliefs stay with us.
As we become adults, our “comfort zone” becomes an unconscious boundary in the way we think.
We tend to stay operating within those childhood boundaries for the rest of our lives, even when they no longer serve us.
They keep us playing the smaller games in life and prevent us from realising our leadership potential.
THE STEPS
Ask yourself these questions:
What is one boundary condition that you have been through already, something you never thought you could do and you did it?
What is one area that you would like to grow in as a leader?
What is one step you can take?
Create space to answer these questions, shift your fear to seeing opportunities and experience your leadership potential unfold.