It’s pretty amazing when you can catch your old thoughts that haven’t been serving you and in that moment you decide to shift those thoughts through a change in perception. I use to believe that the negative words spoken by those who doubted me, who questioned my ability and those limiting words aimed to ‘burst my bubble’, would best be used as fuel to motivate me, to prove to them and myself that I could do whatever they said I couldn’t. I use to believe that the more they laughed at me the harder I would try to prove them wrong. The more they said ‘NO’ the stronger and tougher I would become to once again prove something. After some self-reflection, it dawned on me that I had it all wrong. I finally understood, despite hearing it many times, that what others think of you and what they say is really a reflection of themselves, a belief that they have about THEMSELVES, nothing to do with you. If they doubt you and say you can’t do something, or say that you’re completely crazy, really what they’re doing is putting themselves, with their set limited beliefs, in your position and sharing what they really think of themselves and of their ability. So my challenge to you is, the next time someone doubts you or tells you that you can’t, or tells you it’s impossible, rather than compete with their words, use them as a chance to let your character shine through. Be the exceptional leader you really are and show them that if you can do it so can they. Be the light, the inspiration, the hope they need so they too can believe in themselves once more. So they can awaken the love, the passion and purpose that lays dormant inside. Sometimes what they really need is someone to believe in them because they forgot how to believe in themselves. I honestly believe that in the end we are all the same, we all have phenomenal gifts to share if we choose to see them.