When Moments Like These Happen, They Teach You Everything.

This specific moment.

On live TV.

Being interviewed about the success of Business Jump.

At this specific moment, I surrendered.

I allowed myself to fully embrace what I have created and let all the feels wash over me.

I didn’t play it down.

I didn’t deflect to a different topic.

I didn’t race past the moment.

I didn’t minimise my achievements.

I absorbed it all.

I let the hosts words sink in. I felt it and owned it.

It has taken me a good 12 months to get to that point.

To acknowledge the power of what I have created.

And, bizarrely enough it happened on live tv, which I always said I would never do.

TV freaked me out to the core. I’m an introvert, much more comfortable being just me, behind my laptop.

Yesterday my publicist called me at 1pm and asked if I could be in the city for Sky News at 5.30?

‘What? Fuck no? No way? Live TV? Kat, I need to vomit at the thought of it’

But, the beauty of life and the universe was at play.

Secretly, under all the layers of fear, overwhelm, confrontation….

There was a tiny spec of a voice whispering to me, ‘Do it, you can do this, you’ve been prepared for this moment’

But, I didn’t want to listen to it. For a second I tried to pretend I didn’t hear it.

The fear was trying to dictate my actions and my decisions.

It was saying to me ‘What if you look stupid? What if you freeze on air? What if you forget what to say?’ ‘What if you completely fuck the whole thing up on air and ruin your reputation?’

It was thinking of all the excuses to get out of it. My mind was racing through all the options I could use to say no.

But my logic mind could think of no good reason to say no, except that I was scared.

I knew at that point I had to honour this tiny little bit of light that was trying to shine through.

My mind said to me ‘Nat, seriously, you encourage people ALL THE TIME to move past their fears, you have to practice what you preach’

After speed dialling my support network and hyperventilating to them all on the phone about it, I finally acknowledged this tiny little spec of light was my intuition, it was guiding me, it was flooding my mind so much that I couldn’t ignore it.

Despite being petrified, I knew I had to honour it.

So, I said yes.

I grabbed on to that light and allowed it to flow in and it started absorb and wash away the fear.

In the Uber on the way to the city, I focused on my breath, on my mantra of ‘Who am I here to serve and please allow it to flow through me’

I strangely felt peace. I felt excited. I visualised the outcome I wanted and set my intentions.

I stood in the studio waiting to go on live tv and stepped into the power of the light that had been guiding me.

It was now in full force.

Chatting with the host, all the words came to me.

I forgot all about the cameras, the tv monitors, the lights, the production crew and just focused on being present in the magic of the moment.

It was an out of body experience.

So, here is what I know for sure.

We have to trust that we are always being guided.

That our pain will reward us with success.

That anything that doesn’t go the way we want it to is simply a realignment because the universe can see the bigger picture and knows how to get us to where we want to go.

2017 was amazing, but it was also hard. It pushed me to my limits.

But, it was an education. An up levelling. An upskilling exercise.

The pain, the stress, the discomfort, the things that went ‘wrong’…

It was preparing me to be able to have the skills to handle moments like these.

And, look, I fully believe you don’t get to experience the magic of life without paying for it with strength, courage, resistance when it all feels like it is going to shit.

Business and life…. It pushes you to your absolute limits.

It drags you over hot coals, it slaps you down with a dead fish until you scream I can’t take it anymore!!’

And just when you think you’re done.

You rise.

Stronger than ever.

Ready to shine.

And able to step into your power.

Here are my tips on how to overcome your fear and step into your purpose:

1. When faced with a big decision:

Acknowledge the way you feel. Sort through your emotions, is the only reason that you are hesitating because you are afraid? What is it that you are afraid of? Weigh up what is going to happen if it doesn’t work out, and then weigh up what will happen if it does work out? For me, doing this TV appearance far, far exceeded anything that could go wrong for me. Ask yourself, is it aligned with my vision and where I want to go? As another example, about 6-months ago I was invited to go on A Current Affair, but it was to talk about whether cough medicine really worked, from a mums perspective. Sure, I am a mum and I use medicine for my kids, but it isn’t really my thing, and it wasn’t aligned with my vision, so I gave the opportunity to one of my clients whom it was aligned with.

What does your gut say?

We all know the saying to listen to your gut, and I am a big believer in intuition. My intuition was speaking to me from the minute I was presented with the opportunity but the fear wanted me to ignore it. However, when I got real still and focused on my breathing in the Uber it was loud and clear. I felt that everything was going to be ok and knew I had made the right decision, but it wasn’t until I was taking those steps of action and had committed that it became dead obvious.

Trust the process:

So often in life we try and control everything to pan out the way we want it, however, when we do this sometimes we get blindsided to the signals and new pathways that are being presented to us. I have tried to control loads of stuff in my life, and I have had loads of stuff go wrong but I trust that the universe sees the bigger picture and presents me with challenges to grow as a person so I can handle what is in store for me. Sometimes this means failing, sometimes this means going through conflicting times, sometimes this means getting it wrong but life experiences we need to move forward are never wrapped up in a red bow. Trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be and learning the things you need to no matter how they are presented to you.

Breathe:

I realised some time ago that I subconsciously hold my breath when I am stressed, and this exacerbates anxiety. It sounds like the most obvious thing to do, but really focusing on your breathing completely changes your state of mind and takes your body out of ‘fight or flight’ mode. When focusing on breathing, long breaths in and out it brings us back to peace. It then allows your higher self to start to take control and guide you. It is also a fact that when we are stressed our IQ lowers, and after having kids and baby brain who needs any further deductions in that department!

Flip it:

We’ve been conditioned to instantly think of all the things that could go wrong: What if I fail? What if I can’t do it? What if I look stupid? Instead, I started saying to myself, ‘What if I love it? What if it is an amazing experience? What if I regret not doing?’ It created a sense of excitement and I grabbed on to that feeling and expanded it.

Pain and discomfort:

So often we do everything we can to avoid pain and stressful situations, but in my mind that is where our biggest lessons are given to us. It is life preparing us for the next stage, it is testing and stretching our courage, our faith, our strength, our resilience. It is ok to fall down, to sit within it for a little while, but there becomes a time when we have the option to let it defeat us, or where we can choose to learn and grow from it. All of my biggest breakthroughs have come off the back of going through a challenging time. I know for sure, I couldn’t have handled and mastered my mind about going on live TV without the lessons I have learned from pain and discomfort.