For an entrepreneur, professional speaker, and success coach Sheryl Grant, transformational leadership through personal development and community building is the name of the game. She’s built her success on three visualizations that can apply to any CEO or entrepreneur. Here are her mental strategies for breaking through tough times.
A Ms. Olympia, beyond the age of 50, Sheryl knows what it takes to realize over-and-above achievement both in life and in business. Today, through her eponymous company Sheryl Grant Enterprises, she is helping CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs, and other professionals master critical areas of their careers.
Her secret sauce? Sheryl taps into a trifecta of neuro-training, physical fitness, and increased productivity to unlock personal ambition, revenue potential, and self-confidence. She urges success-minded people to aspire to be FIT: Faith, Intuition, and Tenacity, to reach their goals.
“FIT cultivates your inner ability to push through any of life’s obstacles, breakthrough barriers, and manifest your heart’s dreams and desires,” Sheryl explains. “Whether you seeking a promotion, new business endeavor, or a healthier body, FIT helps establish a mindset and emotional framework that will nurture, uplift, and inspire all areas of your life.
A key part of Sheryl’s presentations and webinars is a focus on developing mental strength through neuro-training. With my curiosity piqued, I recently connected with Sheryl to gain some insight into her mind-bolstering methodologies. As Sheryl explains, “It can help us cultivate a greater awareness of who we are, develop a road map of where we need (and want) to go, and conceptualize how to get there.”
1. Start a Dialogue with Yourself
Begin by asking yourself some basic questions: Who are you? What are you good at? What do people you care about see in you? When have you felt the most alive? What can you learn from others who have a definite purpose and who are inspirational to you? Such self-awareness fosters drive, confidence, and self-esteem that can transform you into an unstoppable force, giving you the strength to persist through failure and adversity. You’ll likely be happier, too, and an inspiration to those around you.
2. Identify All of Your Inner Strengths
When people live in their “sweet spot,” they are more productive and naturally add value to the world around them. Accordingly, this “mode” is when people also tend to make more money! What are the things you’ve always been good at? What motivates and inspires you? Perhaps it’s things that come naturally to you, to the point that you wonder why others struggle in the same area? While passion can indeed also blossom from areas in which you aren’t naturally talented, Sheryl’s personal and professional experiences have shown that we rarely aspire toward ambitions for which we have no natural talent. As civil rights leader Howard Thurman once wrote, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive, then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
3. Know Where You Add Value
Doing work that you’re good at, but which holds no passion for you, is not a pathway to fulfillment. When we know our greatest strengths and when we know where we can add the most value, we can better focus on the opportunities, roles, and career paths where success will likely occur. These are usually the same areas in which a person finds the highest sense of accomplishment and contribution. All too often, we undervalue our strengths, skills, and expertise that we have naturally acquired over time. A great way to discover this for yourself is to discern what you’re equipped to help solve in the workplace, career, organization, or industry. Also, uncovering what problems you enjoy solving, and what challenges you feel passionate about solving. The answers to these questions can help you focus and develop a much clearer series of intentions that are based on natural strengths and on things that you are innately good at, rather than trying to bolster or eliminate weaknesses.
By overcoming personal challenges with the strategies above, Sheryl says she quickly learned that her greatest difficulty was not the obstacles in front of her, but rather the lack of belief and trust in herself. By shifting from a focus on fear and limitations to a focus on empowerment fueled by faith, intuition, and tenacity (FIT), she reached greater heights than ever before.
In summary, Sheryl conveyed her belief that, ultimately, unlocking one’s inner presence makes leaders the best businesspeople and human beings that they can be. She suffered in her own life until she established, and wholeheartedly practiced, her FIT philosophy. In doing so, she tackled extreme changes and enjoyed the process along the way.
