Listen closely because this is foundational... We are always playing a double game: your inner game and your outer game.

• Your inner game revolves around the way you feel, your beliefs, the meaning you give to events, your identity.
• Your outer game revolves around what you need to do, the actions and interactions you have with others around you.

The challenge is, we have been trained to focus on the outer game and dismiss the inner game:

As a kid and you don't feel like going to school, what have you been told?

Instead of figuring out what was causing that resistance.

As a teenager when you weren't sure what degree to pursue, how did you approach it?

So you end up in a career you really aren't passionate about.

As an adult in the workplace and you need to work with a colleague you dislike, what was the accepted approach?

And you feel stressed and beat up after years of "being professional"

Now that you're building your own businesses, you've been taught to network, get visible, make offers. But your outreach falls flat because you've neglected your inner game.

Do you feel confident in your offer? Do you feel excited or curious to connect or nervous? Do you feel enough and worthy to do this work? ... So many feelings that have been repressed now have an opportunity to bubble up again because you're stretching outside your comfort zone!

The thing is, your outer game and inner game need to keep pace with each other.

• If you progress in your outer game, but fall behind in your inner game, you get "Impostor syndrome".
• If you focus on your inner game, but neglect your outer game, you don't get evidence to support your new identity.

The greater the gap between your two games, the feeling of mis-alignment becomes more pronounced. If your inner game falls behind, you will get a stronger sense of being "found out", that you're just waiting for the shoe to drop. If your outer game falls behind, you will get a sense of being unseen and unappreciated, and you'll feel frustrated at being ignored.

So whenever you're working on something and you feel that mis-alignment, ask yourself:

For many, their inner game is what falls behind. That's why my work focuses on helping others get re-connected to themselves and re-kindle the joy and freedom to build from their own unique strengths.

If you're curious to find out more about how your inner game can improve your outer game, let's chat! Book some time here.

You can do this. It's just a matter of adjusting your game.

👍 Michelle

Live your best life!