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Success is Closer Than You Think!

By Edna Figueroa - October 3, 2019

8 Powerful Lessons Learned from Pursuing My Dreams.

I always share with clients that in order to fulfill their dreams, they must take time to reflect on what’s truly important to them. So it seems only fair that I take a moment to share with you some personal reflections after a year of pursuing my goal of starting my own professional leadership development and executive coaching business.

 

My “Aha”! Moment

My clients have been my most powerful teachers. I have been equally enriched and elevated by my clients’ own “Aha!” moments. After coaching entrepreneurs and corporate leaders across many industries, levels, and functions, I’ve heard that I can make a real difference and that I have a gift in seeing what others cannot see. Looking back, it has been this community of partners who helped ignite my vision to help people discover their talents so they can do their best work.

After spending 20 years helping leaders and organizations create more strategic impact and organizational health in the corporate world, the lessons I’ve learned in building a small business have profoundly influenced my approach to helping others achieve the future they care about the most.

 

Personal Lessons to Help You Achieve Success

My goal as a professional coach and business leader is to help those who are experiencing career transitions, or are pursuing the next level of leadership in a corporate role, achieve personal and professional transformation. I can offer many tools to help clients in their pursuit. But the most important element — especially to those starting their own business – is to stay in the land of yes. Don’t ever give up on your dreams, because success is closer than you think!

These personal lessons have helped me “extend the runway” when things got tough, as they often do when you’re pursuing your passion.   This journey also has provided a missing piece to help me become a trusted advisor who helps entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality, and help organizations create an environment where people’s voices and contributions are valued.

 

Eight Lessons for Success

Here are eight of my biggest discoveries.

  1. Don’t pretend you know it all. My biggest wins were achieved from everything I did not know. The things I did not know were the very things that pushed me forward the most, including making bold changes to my business strategies, working with clients in new (to me) industries, and leveraging what I call my largest acquisition of knowledge to create value.
  2. To succeed, stay the course. Sometimes it feels that your knowledge gives out, and you think about quitting. It was in these moments that I learned it was okay to wonder if I was on the right path, and that it was okay not knowing it all. In these moments of “wonder” I found a liberating creativity and discovered who I really was and what I was capable of doing.
  3. Life moves forward through conversations. I’ve learned that sometimes you are only one conversation away from an insight that will help you reach personal fulfillment and success. Don’t be afraid to honestly engage in conversation with others – even sharing your own concerns and fears.
  4.  Learn how to stay in the land of yes. When it all seems to fail, I learned that I needed to dwell in the land of possibilities, as that is the place where the truth lies, and where you get to create what is next.
  5. There is no substitute to uncovering our own definition of “Self.” This is the most critical step in understanding what part we have to play in achieving our best life. Knowing what shaped our definition of “self” helps us embrace our most important personal and professional transformations.
  6. Discover hidden talents. The same talents that got you where you are today, will not help you accomplish new goals and achieve a new future. The entrepreneurial journey offered me a chance to uncover new capabilities that always have been part of me, but that I did not know how to activate. I discovered that it is never too late to connect to your innate talents. This is where you will get to play your best game.
  7. Relationships are supreme. You get to create them. They will help you push through the doors that lead to the land of the “Hell yes!”
  8. Claim happiness first over success. This was my first mistake. I got the order of these wrong. I grew up thinking that success will come eventually if I did the right things, studied hard, joined the best financial firms and engaged with the right networks. And yes, these things are important, but they do not guarantee happiness. I’ve learned that if you discover your happiness, success will follow.

To Launch Your Dreams, Avoid Limiting Yourself

Many people I encounter have not been able to move forward to achieve what is next in their life. I notice how close they are to reaching success, yet they are stuck because they believe a limiting story about themselves. I noticed their biggest fear was connecting with their own magic, and the massive gifts within that would make them great. My goal as a coach is to help clients see that “Success in Closer Than You Think!” Follow me as I share more insights about how to tap into this power in subsequent posts.

 

Since early 2018, Elevate Leadership Coaching LLC (elevateleadershipcoaching.com) has served over 30 clients across a range of industries, levels, and functions. We believe in co-creating innovative leadership development programs to help organizations create a new model of success where everyone can discover their own unique gifts and align them to the organizational values, so together they can do their best work. I’m particularly thankful to Zocchi America Management Consulting, Lee Hecht Harrison, Merrill Lynch, OmniHR, my mentors and business partners, and all of my clients who have put their trust in me! 

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