Wealth and Prosperity
Believe What You See By: Michele Badie
D
"Do you see what I see?" is a question that I often ask when speaking with professionals about the trajectory of their careers. The imposter syndrome tends to sometimes sneak into the self-talk that occurs when strategizing career moves and minimize the list of accomplishments that many professionals worked hard to attain. In those moments, believing what you see within yourself from the earned wins and lessons based on your work performance and professional development can be a deal-breaker. Real Beauty Sketches is a short film on self-perception produced by Dove films. In less than seven minutes, the film delivers a powerful truth of how women describe themselves based on their perceived mirror image versus how another woman describes them through sketches completed by an FBI-trained forensic artist. One of my takeaways from the film is that women can sometimes have a harsh perception of themselves that can limit them seeing the beauty that they radiate. The emotion and mindset of recognizing how beautiful we are can simulate how we view our career contributions and the value that we deposit into our workplaces. A quote by Marianne Williamson, author, spiritual leader, politician, and activist, came to mind after watching the short film. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about
26 PDWMAG.COM October 2020
Career Tipper
shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.� Self-perception should sit at the top of our list when determining our career moves and the permissions that only we can issue to ourselves to evolve to our professional best. How we perceive ourselves impact the pace of manifesting the resources and connecting to the right people that will help us experience the professional roles of our choosing. Take a moment to recall the emotions and takeaways from past moments of doubt, differing opinions, career reboots that successfully transformed into a frequency of empowerment, growth, and confirmation that you are capable of conquering the perceived impossible to the full extent of your belief in your abilities to do so. Like beauty, we believe what we see in the mirror just the same when it comes to our careers. Similar to the ladies in the Dove Real Beauty Sketches, how we choose to describe ourselves and our professional experience on resumes, networking up with leadership and across with industry peers, and during interviews matters. How we see ourselves shows up when reviewing career opportunities that we perceive we qualify for. According to LinkedIn's 2019 Gender Insights Report, research shows that in order to apply for a job, women feel they
