Let's get ready for some serious shift. This is a podcast shifting Inside Out hosted by your quantum shifter Angela McCourt, we're diving into ways to empower and enable a quantum shift. Inspiring topics hacks and guest speakers take us on a journey around authenticity, challenging status quo, personal power and living a purpose filled life. I'm excited about this episode, because many of these topics I've either talked about on social media or they're in my new book, Love your gifts permission to revolutionize authenticity and leadership. And it's really interesting, because the premise of the book is based on the new leadership skills and capacities that are needed to navigate uncertain times uncertainty, unpredictability, and really skewed perception of time and speed. And as I go through this monologue, I'm in my car. So I apologize for background noise that you might hear, I did try to cut some of it out. But I really wanted to hold the space for this monologue because I didn't script it. This just came from basically the need to get this message out and to really try to help others navigate uncertainty as well. And you don't need to be a leader to uncover an unlock a lot of the skills and practices that will help you on this journey. And that's really what I go through in this episode. So I hope you enjoy it. If you'd like to give me a review, that would be awesome on Apple podcasts. Otherwise, you can hit me up on LinkedIn at Angie belts McCourt, or on Instagram at Angie underscore McCourt, thanks so much for your support. What I want to do is talk a bit about how the human need for either certainty or uncertainty. And to give us kind of these two options. What I found is boring, a little, something I absolutely needed for many parts of my life many years. But I found that lonely paradox or the third option, instead of moving directly to living in uncertainty, which is a lot of hype nowadays. There is this kind of intermediary place where we can navigate mystery. And having that different mindset has been part of my journey, and really shaping and creating practices that have allowed me to be able to flow better in life. I found that I used to stress even more living in certainty, whenever anything wouldn't go as planned hand, this obviously isn't really the outcome that I was looking for, by the need to live in certainty. What I found by living in uncertainty as I've been able to find, I'm loosening my grip. And it's so much easier to just flow with life than to resist and to perfect or to control it. One of the big things that I found is there are some ways that you can find this paradox of kind of holding this center third option of navigating mystery, and I'm going to share what I've learned so far and see if anything might be an option for you. The first is letting go of my attachment to outcome. This has been probably one of the hardest, because every time I've ever set a goal and I've set it to action, a plan. I've always decided how it should happen. And whenever it didn't happen that way, I would be like what the heck, instead of just accepting and saying, Well, I got it anyway, you know, it happened. It just didn't happen. We're not. So this has been very challenging. But what I found in the past couple of years where uncertainty is so high in many areas of life that this has been probably my number one go to, in listening my grip on the attachment how hard to detach but loosening the grip really allows for less stress, and it allows you to be more flexible and navigating. How Something actually ends up coming to be, I found much more awareness in choosing different actions that maybe I thought were the right ones initially. And it has become much easier to just say, okay, live and let live, which is so not how I was 10 years ago. The second is around not knowing the answer. Another big one for me, I've always had this thirst for knowledge. But I've always found this constriction of my voice, unless I knew the answer, and had to share the answer. And so instead, what I found is living in curiosity. And I had a leader who did this so well, and was such a great model that I can see in action in the business world. And I really continue to try to practice and build this skill, mainly in honor of him for teaching it because most people I was around in that time, did not have this skill. And most people today are just just at the beginning of trying to develop it. And so instead of knowing it all, and knowing the answer, living from this place of curiosity, and even starting with, I wonder, where does it really come into play is solution collaboration in allowing, and enabling and empowering others to bring forth their ideas. And just getting to other possibilities that maybe weren't necessarily in the picture with that small set of information. The third thing is having fun, I now get to the point where I may not say, Oh, I feel stressed or Oh, I feel overtaxed. I'll switch to I need. And that's my new, high new monitor, I need some fun. And in what that means is that's my trigger, to not go into anxiety mode or reaction to whatever circumstances are going on. But it also what kind of energy is is running through me. But instead, it's how do I receive that? And how do I connect in a different way to the world around me in a way that is inspiring and open Nativity and open my alignment into my growth mindset much more fully. And so finding that fun, is then a really great way to one become much more aware and not shift into survival mode, but shift into growth. The next following that is adventure. So when you're navigating mystery, instead of viewing everything, as it has been assumed outcome. Myths are a great place to cook and stories around the hero and the impact and their worlds. And all of these pieces in that in that story about that whatever the message is about whatever character that message is about. They're all very similar in the fact that they didn't know what the answer was going to be. They didn't know if task they were choosing was going to lead them in the right place. They didn't know what the outcome was going to be. They didn't know they were going to die or live in that situation. They just did what they thought they needed to do. And so this is a really interesting approach to living in this paradox where we're navigating mystery navigating mystery, like we are literally a mythical character on this journey writing this movie, playing this movie of, well, what's it going to be? How is this gonna happen? How are we going to do this? How, what's the result going to be? And ultimately, it ends up becoming this beautiful story of life and of finding your strength your superpowers and your skills. And not just from a survival perspective, but from a what is possible points of view and frame of reference, not just from a frame of reference, where here's what we know can happen is, what is the possibility of what happened. Next is all about balancing quality of our masculine and feminine energy that we have the masculine feminine qualities that everybody has doesn't matter what your gender is, everybody has. And you can tell when you're not in balance. Typically, when things don't seem to be coming out, right, things seem to be course, things don't feel right. Things feel stuck. It's because we're too much in one or the other. And I've spent the majority of my adult life and with higher, higher higher use of my masculine qualities based on my frame of reference for success, or achievement for being able to accomplish the goals I wanted to accomplish. But what I found in navigating mystery is there has to be a key yield rising of the feminine qualities, because this is where uncertainty can be navigated much more easily, we're mystery can be navigated much more easily, the masculine qualities are much more decisive to find their various structured, they're very permanent, they're very, and they're very goal oriented, they're very execution oriented. And as you can hear all of those things, all of those pieces are what creates may actually force certainty, forces. So releasing the force, opens up other skills and feminine qualities, where we can now go with the flow a little bit, find our center, round ourselves in utilizing all of our resources, not just our external resources, but our internal resources. being marched from a sense of using our inner wisdom, not just the external inputs that we've learned to use over time, and that has been our framework for success. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie, it's been our framework for success. The challenge of much more uncertainty coming into our lives nowadays, is very difficult to navigate it because we feel like we're constantly resisting, and up against this forcing to is no longer working. This does not work anymore. In this new world, it doesn't work anymore. Not only that, but it's actually holding us back as a species holding us back because everything is built off this frame of reference. And its frame of reference is outdated. And its frame of reference limits, our ability to see what's truly possible, to go down that path of what's truly possible and scary as hell. But definitely drawing, drawing to it. And when I think about a lot of the qualities that I've really started to build, that I started to develop, based on the quality of collaboration is one of the biggest, not collaboration in a forceful way, which has been the traditional way in the in the business world. The masculine quality, leading this collaboration with scores, it was hierarchy. It was very agenda focus. It was very outcome focused. It didn't matter who was in the room, or who was you know, literally, who was in the collaboration. What mattered was whoever was leading it was very directed in this old traditional way of how we've learned how to collaborate. So in a different way of CO creating is where I'm talking about, that leads to kind of second qualities creative creativity, creation, bringing things to life like Ashley, not just creating them in our head in our mind, but bringing them to life sharing them. That is a feminine quality of creativity from a solution, perspective, creativity in how we navigate the process of getting to the solution versus dictating it or versus being really part of this is how it has to be big open to possibilities. The arena of being very solution focused, activating our right brain in a way that It allows us to find that balance in our thinking, find that balance in how we use our energy, how we come across to others, how we engage with others, and then cooperation. So cooperation, actually showed up in my Myers Briggs as a string. And compared to the other leaders in the leadership team, it was like a weakness. And I battled it with our HR director at the time. This is actually a good thing, and especially at this level, you have to have some cooperation, because otherwise everything is valid, everybody has time. And so I am a big advocate for cooperation, it is not a weakness, it is one of the biggest strengths, we will see and need going into the future. And this is feminine quality, then, when I look at communication, this is a really big area of focus for me. And it's been that way for very, very long, I would say probably at least the last decade or so. And the reason is, because there's so much information coming out. And there's so much of a lack of information that we need. And what I mean by this is, as leaders are in any kind of an environment where we are, are part of our job is that direction is to help people connect to that direction, motivate others, inspire others to get on board with something that is a big focus for the company, the team, whatever it is, really, it is all about communication. Because as soon as there's a lack of communication, what do you find happens, people start making assumptions. And typically they're building stories that are negative, against what we're trying to do, or what the outcome could be, or what the intention is around it. So when we look at trying to how do we do this in a better way, you know, clearly setting expectations, and I've done a podcast on that. Also, really proactively communicating almost in this intentional way. Like, this is part of your job as a leader is your communication plan to your team, literally like a marketing plan. And it has to be timely. And it has to be clear. And it has to be sequence in a way that flows with human nature flows with behaviors that flows with peaks and valleys of extreme intense moments in the workplace. And then moments where things are much easier in a flow. It's happened because we're on cycle. It's always that way. Especially companies who focus on quarterly cycles, monthly cycles, annual business, which was new. And it's one of the most important flexibility in communication, to timely be in the moment with those people where they're at. So that you can get them on board and motivate them and bring them to a sense of alignment to each other to the vision to whatever is the most important thing going on at that time. So with this communication, communication plan, style approach, strategy really is there is awareness, there is awareness, and there is alignment, to understanding where the team is actually, you cannot be isolated. As a leader, you have to be connected. Even if it's just who is your person on your team who has their intuitive, they are really in tune with what's going on with the team. They come with not just hey, here's what I'm seeing going on. We really need to what's the solution that they're offering. Okay, not just what's the problem. But what's the solution? That person can be your eyes and ears, and not in a way that they're fire? They're tattletaling? No, they're advocating they are the messenger of your guests. They're the messenger, gift and archetype of the team. They represent the team. They represent the entity, this living organism, this team, living organism that's happening under your leadership. They're the one they are the one you can count on. You don't have to be on every single call to figure out what's going on. You can pretty much gauge on people's engagement interaction results with you know where we're at, in delivering something new creating something new. If people are stuck, they're stalling out or whatever. So communication In this balance of masculine feminine energies is a huge part of being able to increase our skill set in the right way, way more than just communicating proactively, effectively, you communicate effectively. And what does that mean? What is the definition of communicating effectively. And this is really where conversation in the workplace conversations between leaders and teammates, conversations between teammates and teammates, matter conversations between customers, and you, you matter. Because expectations are significantly different. Depending on who you're talking to, and making assumptions on what's expected, can create a lot of traps. Connection is the next main other main one that I want to talk about that is really important. And I would say as a leader, this sense of nurturing is coming about and what I mean by that, that feminine quality of nurturing is not just about dating, it's not it is it is a nurturing means that you actually care about the other person, you care about their well being you care about where they're going, you care about their development, you care about how they're showing up, and how you can help support them be there that bigger, better, higher level. So and this is really a great way to do this is through connection. And connection is the feminine quality that especially in a very decentralized world, and a very, very much shifting technology world has become really important. And because over the past couple of years, we've gone through this massive isolation, we need to bring the extinction of isolation about the only way we can do that is through connection. It's your connection and caring, you know, so it's how do you how do you be attentive? How do you be present really present? Not just, this is another task I have to do as leaders have a one on one with my employee, you know, my teammates? It's how can you really be present with them? How can you listen to their body language? How can you listen to the words they're using? And really gauge where they're at and really gauge how to connect with them more effectively, instead of a cookie cutter approach with every single person, how you do on what's going on? What about this project? What about that project, you have to be able to connect in a deeper way, because that's what people are looking for. Getting back to uncertainty, I would say trust. Trust is huge. What does that mean? Well, trusting in life, trusting in the universe, trusting in God, God, whatever you believe your source, trusting in yourself, trusting in others around you, trusting in your own decision making trusting in your ability to find that bigger possibility. Being open trust to be open and trusted, not easy, is not easy. It is something that can be skewed from past experience. It can be skewed from our own subconscious mind. And how it innocently tries to protect us yet creates these barriers, which impact trust. And as I found that, trusting in the unknown, trusting in the ability to navigate and in you yourself, can come out the other side just fine trusting that everything will be okay, which is one of my biggest entrepreneurs is trusting that you'll make the right choice and navigate the changes and shifts as you need to trusting in your resources. All of them external and internal. Trust is a big practice, big muscle that you can build that really helps to be able to navigate history. One of the last big things I would say that I found and what I've really, really tried to practice and this is hard. So I left it for last. And I think a lot of people are probably gonna resonate with that if anyone out there has ever read anything by Brene Brown, she talks about this a lot. So where hers is a lot of shame they meaning research around why we protect ourselves, wearing the shield, covering our chests with To shield protecting ourselves, putting our walls up, all of those pieces that kind of give us this sense of control in our world is also limiting. It is also holding us back, it is also keeping us from being able to easily more easily navigate to mystery versus not being able to handle uncertainty. Because as soon as uncertainty kinds of law, or pierces the shields, the breastplate on the chest, that is, then it becomes excruciating. Instead, just letting that breastplate call. And just being vulnerable and authentic, regardless of whatever outcome can happen in a way that is, you know, putting yourself at risk sort of thing. And allowing for that vulnerability, allowing for that authenticity, to, through, really help to navigate, and especially called The Paradox of navigating mysteries. But even in the world of uncertainty, you're all the way into uncertainty, dealing with that. You're definitely in a much better place. If you're able to remove the protective barriers that you have around you. The only thing you should really be protecting is your energy, not your mind. Your status, not your criminal record, not your celebrity status, your popularity, whatever, and that's not going to help you it's not going to help anyone