Imagine it's the NCAA final four, the pinnacle of college basketball and you hear the anthem - 'In One Shining Moment, you are running for your life, you are a shooting star".
Like that star player of college basketball, you face tough opponents, personal challenges, and unpredictable crazy plays. With the right strategy, mindset, and positive attitude, your shining moment is just within reach!
During our AcornOak Community monthly deep-dive this past week led by Virginie Glaenzer, Susanne Mueller, Sung Hee Han, and Uma Welingkar discussed the topic of “What could be the barriers that would prevent us from achieving our goals”.
Let's break down the journey one game and one play at a time towards that shining moment in 2025.
Breaking Down Challenges
To achieve our 2025 goals, we need to recognize and address obstacles that may hold us back. If we can identify those barriers, it will enable us to build a winning strategy.
These are grouped into 4 major categories that cover both professional and personal challenges.
Facing Our Toughest Opponent - Yourself
Every top athlete faces self-doubt before a big game or championship. Imposter syndrome whispers ‘You are not good enough or you don’t deserve to be on this court’.
You feel insecure and overwhelmed and lack expertise in new technologies and trends like AI. Remember you have made it this far, trust yourself, your skills, effort, and preparation. Silence the inner critic and use your power like a boss. Be authentic, and vulnerable and ask others for help.
Remind yourself ‘I belong here, I have earned this moment in time’.Dealing with Emotional Highs and Lows
Championships are not won without the emotional highs and lows, the ability to stay composed under pressure is the key to winning.
Emotions generally make or break our performance, stay aware of these emotional landmines that can derail your progress. The people-pleasing personality, always saying yes to everything at the cost of your mental health, Feeling the success guilt you have had so far, and questioning if you deserve your dreams.
Hype yourself like a coach who motivates their team. Bounce back quickly after a lost opportunity and celebrate small wins.
Remember “All those years, no one knows how hard you worked.”Optimizing Resource Management
Time, energy, and focus are key to your success in any field be it on a basketball court or in your life.
Susanne Mueller, an acclaimed coach said “Use the Time to Think (T2T) strategy. This does not mean stop what you are doing, rather pause, strategize, and set your next steps”. Own your own calendar, it is not a badge of honor to have a full calendar, prioritize what’s important and not what’s urgent.
Sung Hee Hung, our cross-cultural leadership coach suggested “Say “no” to the energy vampires that drain you, do not let distractions derail you”.
Stop viewing money as a barrier, use it wisely, and pay it forward. Start seeing it as a tool for your success.
Remember “One Shining Moment, You Reached Deep Inside”Considering External and Macro Challenges
It is not a fair world now is it? Markets shift, industries change and the economy throws us a curveball. These shifts unfortunately are out of our control and cannot be predicted or accounted for so just like any top athlete who reads the opponent during the same we have to do the same thing.
Uma Welingkar, put her product hat on and said “Being complacent is what kills us. Stay adaptable and be ready to pivot at any time”. Learn continuously and keep up with market trends, up your skills. Stay calm under pressure and adjust your strategy on the fly.
Remember “Win or lose, you always did your best”Success Playbook: Checkpoints and Adjustments
Have a long-term winning championship plan for 2025.
You see coaches and players doing half-time adjustments or taking time-outs to adjust, review, and strategize. It is the same for all of us in life, set up quarterly checkpoints, review, and pivot if needed to any of the four challenges that we just reviewed above.
Virginie Glaenzer, our fearless leader and a marketing guru challenged us to grow our business by saying “Launch new services to gain new clients to increase revenue and gain new clients”. Say “no” without guilt protecting your mental health and well-being.
Invest your time in building new relationships and creating a dream team of mentors and allies. Virginie also suggested, “Use AI skills to sharpen your edge and build a narrative to pitch yourself when you struggle to market yourself”.
Practice daily and reiterate and refine your offerings. Launch new services to gain new clients. Build a mutually beneficial network that you can reach out to.
Winning Mindset: Be Confident in Crunch Time
Just like the star players, do not dwell on the lost shot or free throw. Learn from it and move on quickly.
Build a long-term roadmap for 2025, with quarterly goals. Lay out clear, actionable steps. Do regular reality checks with your dream team of allies, mentors, friends, and supporters. Be open to feedback, stay agile, and pivot as needed. Banish the nay-sayers from your network, choose wisely, and pay it forward.
As you look at the barriers that prevent you from achieving success, work on at least one of them every quarter. Use your dream team to review the progress you have made on it. Enjoy the small wins you have made along the way.
Final Thoughts
Through our discussions on various challenges, we realized that the focus doesn’t have to be on what’s holding us back.
Instead, it’s about what we can do to achieve our goals—celebrating each win, learning from setbacks, and steadily marching forward.
Repeat these 4 words - “2025 is my year”. Some days you will hit the buzzer beater which is euphoric for you and your team, other days you may miss a shot, which gives you a moment to pause, reflect, learn, and improve over the opposition.
What matters is that you are in the game giving it your all and playing to win. Your moment is waiting for you to take that shot. Your anthem concludes “In one shining moment, you have reached for the stars”
Join our community, AcornOak, and get the support to help you break those barriers. Discover our community here.
About the Authors
Fractional Chief Leadership Coaching Officer
Fractional Chief Cross-Cultural Officer and Executive Coach
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