How do you KEEP speaking up?

Speaking up is valuable. Whether you are advocating for someone else, drawing attention to a truth you see, lifting up someone’s story or shouting about your own brilliance or needs, speaking up builds connection and resilience and sometimes even results.

And speaking up can be exhausting. Continuing to try to shine a light on something that matters more to you than to others, to take on a system that feels (and often is) impersonal or even malign, to continue to choose the struggle? All of that can drain resilience at least as often as it strengthens it.

So how do you stay strong? Be choosy.

We’ve talked a lot about how choice is the antitdote to fear in our brain – that making choices lights up the prefrontal cortex and calms the amygdala. Or, put another way, choice reminds our brain that we have some control and gets us to feel less danger, less discomfort, less stress.

So choose:

·       When you speak up. It doesn’t have to be every time, or even sometimes. You can be strategic in your timing.

·       Who you approach. You wouldn’t bother telling a long story to someone who doesn’t speak any of the languages you speak – so don’t tell these truths to people who genuinely can’t understand you

·       Where you put your energy.

Be choosy so that you can stay aligned with your goals. Be choosy especially when you feel your resilience flagging. And when you have the energy, speak up for what matters to you.

How choosy are you? Hit reply and let me know!

All my best,

Dr. G