with greg layton

The Inner Chief is for leaders, professionals and small business owners who want to accelerate their career and growth. Our guest chiefs and gurus share powerful stories and strategies so you can have more purpose, influence and impact in your career.

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In this episode, we explore the three powerful techniques to recenter the soul and mind.

It is also part 2 of how to overcome imposter syndrome which we discussed in Ep 65 Imposter Syndrome.

The soul can easily get lost as sea in the modern business world. With the incredible pace of business and life it is easy to lose connection to yourself. When you lose this it rattles your confidence and belief that you should be in the position you’re in. So it plays a key role in beating imposter syndrome. It is also vital to get right if you want to feel composed, present and have that sense of gravitas so many of us find elusive.

There are three major ways to recenter the soul and mind:

Regular Focus Session

Once or twice per week set aside an hour and give yourself the opportunity to deeply reconnect to your soul, purpose, vision and strategy.
A simple breakdown could be as follows…you do what is right for you:

  • 20 mins of meditating and calming the mind
  • 20 mins of reviewing your purpose, vision and strategy
  • 20 mins of planning and rehearsing for the week ahead

This is much like a ship’s Captain who regularly takes their bearings, heads down to their quarters and plots their progress. They take time to take stock, review the impact of the weather, tides and performance of their crew.

At the end of this session, you’re seeking absolutely clarity on the week ahead and also a sense that you’re reconnected to your purpose and soul.

Mini Resets

Throughout the day when things get really busy use these three powerful and simple tools to reset the mind.

a. Rhythm
Using the speed of your footsteps, slow down and speed up your rhythm as required. Perhaps as you are walking towards a key meeting slow the steps down, demonstrate composure and calmness.

b. Breathing
Going hand-in-hand with rhythm is your rate of breathing. Taking small moments throughout the day to reset your breathing resets the mind and your state. Try a perfectly even breathing rate of 2 seconds in, 1 second pause, 2 seconds out, 1 second pause and repeat just 5 ties. You’ll find that in 30 seconds your entire state has shifted.

c. Posture
The final link in this chain is your posture. You’ll find that by adopting a very well grounded and centred posture you’ll experience and associated shift in state.

Mindsets and Mantras

Put a few of your favourite quotes and mantras into your back pocket so that you can whip them out when appropriate. Some that I love are:

  • Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
  • I keep putting money into the global bank and it keeps paying me back with interest
  • A problem shared is a problem halved
  • Start with why

In truth, I have dozens that I use. Would love to hear yours.

The key here is to create a regular rhythm. Without the rhythm you lose the fitness and like a captain not checking their bearings will drift right off course far from your destination and purpose.

For the final instalment of how to overcome imposter syndrome, please head on over to episode 69 – Creating Clarity and Focus.

Stay epic
Greg