Who will you give yourself permission to be today?   This is a question that successful entrepreneurs and leaders are able to answer in a flash.

When working with people in business we find that they often reach a stage in their business and in their lives when they adopt a holding pattern.  They unknowingly enter a state of limbo waiting for permission to step up into a new exciting paradigm.  It is as if, in order to break the holding pattern, permission must come from an external source – unidentified, but none the less, the holder of significant power over the individual’s will.

This limiting behaviour may be the result of a mind virus that has infected the individual’s psyche since youth, back when permission was required.  Being given permission can be confused with encouragement – if you give me permission then you must believe in me??  Thinking permission is a pre-requisite for change may have been part of the psyche for so long it has become an unconscious behavioural pattern.  That is, until it is brought to light as the almighty limiter it is.

The need for permission is often related to a lack of self-belief, a feeling of non-entitlement or fear of failure.  Too often permission received from another becomes the evidence needed to support playing a different game and validates stepping outside the comfort zone.  So we wait.  This reliance on the consent of another is a high-risk strategy.  What if consent never comes?  What then?  You stay in this limiting holding pattern?

We could give you permission to believe in yourself and to have a sense of entitlement.  We could describe for you what we see for you, that is so much more than you see for yourself.  We could create a vision that we know you are up for.  We could give you permission to play a bigger game.  Yet still the last hurdle will remain – you and only you can sign off and authorise the permission slip.  Only you can give you the consent you need to step into an expanded potential.

What is holding you back?  Are you in limbo?

Write your own permission slip.  Who do you need to be today and what do you need to do to play this bigger game – to get out of the viewing stands and into the arena.

Give yourself permission to:

• Be curious about the stories you are telling yourself;
• Notice who influences you;
• Own the value you add;
• Practice self-care;
• Notice when fear is limiting you and to do so without judgement;
• Step into the arena and play hard; and
• Be vulnerable for your art.

If you stay in a holding pattern for too long you will miss the opportunities that present themselves to you and you will squander the value they may have added.  These opportunities will move on and offer themselves up to another candidate, and another, until someone who has already granted themselves permission embraces them wholeheartedly.  You will be left lamenting the one that got away.

This powerful mindset is very much a part of the psyche of successful entrepreneurs and great leaders.  It’s time to be a leader of self, and to grant yourself permission to play your bigger game.