The Light Within Us

When I saw Michelle Obama discussing her new book on her book tour in Washington, DC last month, she got me thinking, “Where and what is the light that we carry within us?” I’ve posed that question to myself ever since her talk. This newsletter will share my conclusions.

I am thinking about a room filled with a group of women superintendents with whom I worked a few months ago. Only a few of them could answer the reflective prompt, “In what areas of leadership do you believe you have great competence?” Many didn’t believe in themselves because they gave in to fear, and they lacked self-trust to do really hard things … like lead through a pandemic. To find our light means that we have an opportunity to decode fear, analyze it, challenge it, talk to it, embrace it as a known entity that will not bring you down. That is a real skill which we can study and embrace.

Our light also invites us to celebrate, enjoy, and see as a gift that each of us can shine our own light on everyone around us. That means we get to have a little celebration every time we see someone we love. We light up and share our love with them. It means we embrace the fact that we can make every person feel seen and valued. We have that power and that gift. Why wouldn’t we use that gift to make someone else’s day better?

Self-trust to counteract fear also means that we invest in the growing of our own competence. The strongest, best version of competence is a humble, rock-solid belief in yourself. Belief in our own competence means that we truly know that we can figure out the challenge, we know who to call when we are stumped, we know that we can do hard things and not melt, and we know that there is an opportunity at hand to strengthen that self-trust and be grateful for it. Our inner strengthening only comes with taking on huge feats and challenges even when we were unsure of the outcome. Clearly, it does not come from playing it safe.

We are poised at the top of the new year, 2023. Let’s celebrate our own light and shine that light on everyone in our midst all year long. Imagine what a joyous year this can be.

~ Fran

Find your light with these reflective questions:

1. Am I safe? What is at risk? Can I afford to make my world a little bigger by embracing something new? 
2. Am I afraid because I am in actual danger, or is it simply because I’m staring newness in the face? 
3. In what ways have my hurts turned into my fears? How have my fears turned into my limits? Can I afford to make my world a little bigger?” 
4. Do I belong? What do others think of me? Am I seen? Do I celebrate myself and what I bring to the table? 
5. Whose rules am I playing by? How guarded should I be? How assertive? How real?

Love these quotes about finding our light!

1. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy 
2. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”  – Nelson Mandela 
3. “I see your fear, and it’s big, I also see your courage, and it’s bigger, we can do hard things.”  – Glennon Doyle 
4. “We are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s business. We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”  – Gwendolyn Brooks 
5. “The stories of past courage … can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul.”  – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

These are five of my favorite books on about finding our light:

1. Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Dr. Vivek Murthy 
2. The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell 
3. Becoming by Michelle Obama 
4. The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama 
5. Nerve: Adventure in the Science of Fear by Eva Holland

January 2023

January 3-5, 2023
Leadership Coaching, North Little Rock, Arkansas
January 9-11, 2023:
Principal Leadership Training, Arlington, VA
January12, 2023:
Aspiring Principals Training, Virginia Beach, VA
January 13, 2023
Principal Leadership Training, Arlington, VA
January 18-20, 2923
Leadership Coaching. North Little Rock, Arkansas
January 25 and 26, 2023
School Culture Facilitation, Bavarian International School, Munich, Germany
January 30 and 31, 2023
Leadership Coaching, North Little Rock, Arkansas