Defining Invincibility

“Under pressure, she became a diamond. Under pressure, she became unbreakable”. This quotation embodies what it means to be invincible. We’re not exempt from what goes on around us. We are impacted by the world, our environment, others’ views of us. Our invincibility is the ability to take those influences, take the pressure and turn it into something beautiful and positive. 

Your Perspective Makes You Invincible

In times of uncertainty, it’s easy to get bogged down by fear and anxiety. You don’t know what’s going to happen next and instead of making progress, you get stuck, you worry and you wait. Instead of making plans, you’re paralyzed. The current coronavirus situation is a good example of this. Now that you’re stocked up, what can you do but wait? Yes, we can stay entertained and take virtual tours of museums, but what else? Fear is threatening your invincibility. 

If you’re a Princess Diaries fan, you’ll remember Mia’s father left her a note where he wrote,  “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear.” I’d suggest we replace courage with invincibility. Something is more important than the fear that paralyzes us, it’s the positive outcome that we can create.

I’ve been asking myself what the next steps and silver linings are, especially while I work. I work remote on a regular basis so I still have the same schedule as I typically did before this situation, but many of my business partners do not. Many of the ways the world does business will change. This drastic and quick shift may become permanent as more workers move to  home offices. I would expect that after we’ve come out the other side of this world crisis, how we interact in business and with our end customers may be significantly altered. But the biggest question shouldn’t be, “how do I fill my time?” it should be “how do I adjust and adapt to the changes so that I can come out even stronger on the other side?” 

You become invincible because you keep asking this question and looking for the positive outcome every time you’re faced with change or uncertainty. It’s getting demoted, fired or laid off and starting the next job as if you haven’t been wounded. It’s getting back up to try again after being knocked down over and over again. Life will keep throwing punches whether they’re personal or global. How we view these influences is powerful.

Unlearning Makes You Invincible

When we are young, we believe we can do anything. We haven’t failed yet. We haven’t learned the feeling of disappointment or been knocked down yet. We are invincible. This always reminds me of dance. As a child, you can do a million turns and whip yourself around super fast because it feels like you’re weightless. You can fly for a minute and that’s exhilarating. But as an adult dancer, the first thing I think about is that I can’t fall over because I might fall on my wrist or break an ankle or pull a muscle and man, that doctor’s bill. There’s experience in those thoughts. I’ve broken and pulled things and paid doctor’s bills and there’s an aversion to that result. But if I could remove that thought and worry, I could fly just like the kids. 

One of my favorite examples of this is the Always commercial, Run Like a Girl. The younger girls in this video are so inspiring. They embody what we could be if we unlearn the worries we’ve built from experience. 

Ok, So How Do We Unlearn?

  1. Identify the damage: What bad experiences have you had that are impacting how you interact at work or how you move your career forward? Have you been told you shouldn’t speak up at meetings or that your opinion doesn’t matter? Have you been fired or laid off? 
  2. Find the Silver Lining: What can you be grateful for? Say you’ve been let go from your job. Maybe you have an amazing support system and they’ve really surrounded you in love and encouragement at a hard time. Maybe it’s taught you what you can cut from your budget that’s not crucial. Maybe it’s given you an opportunity to learn new recipes because you don’t have the cash to go out. At the end of it all, it’s taught you to be grateful for what you have in a way you weren’t before. 
  3. Find Support: For me, this has truly become the ladies at boxing class. We have an amazing community of support where we’ve been extremely real and sometimes raw in our feelings and pain. Sharing helps you work through it. This could be sharing it with a therapist, friend or even just writing it down and lighting the note on fire. Get it out so you can understand it and define it. Then most importantly, move on. 

Check out our cheat sheet HERE.

You Are Invincible With An Open Heart

When you open your heart to experiences and people, you connect with the world around you. It’s hard to do that when we’ve built walls around ourselves to protect us. As we unlearn, we tear down these walls brick by brick and allow ourselves to be real. 

Sounds counter-intuitive right? When I open my heart, I am vulnerable and able to be hurt….right? There’s a difference between trust and openness. Openness is authenticity, welcoming new experiences and connections. It makes you invincible as it allows you to enjoy the world around you to the fullest without the hindrance of negative experiences holding you back from interacting. 

I love the line from Moment of Lift, where Melinda Gates writes, “when women gather with one another, include one another, tell our stories to one another, share our grief with one another, we find our voice with one another.”  ….and our invincibility. 

When you dust off the aversion stress you’ve built up, you’ll find that under all that darkness, there is sparkle. There’s that child who could do anything. Who ran like a girl with all her might and believed she would change the world. Be her. Be invincible.

You cannot stop an invincible woman!

Comments

  1. […] Our invincibility is the ability to take outside influences, take the pressure and turn it into some… Ann not only has come out of her trials in life with more shine, but she gives that positivity and love to others. If you’ve had a personal setback or felt like your life isn’t what you expected, Ann’s story is not only inspirational, it’s a call to action. You may not end up in the place you planned when you were younger, but only you can find joy in your life and purpose in where you are now. […]

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