How To Turn Your Challenges Into Your Magic
Imagine I invited you to play a magical game where the end result would leave you with a new view of yourself, your capabilities, and your potential.
The game would only take a few minutes, but what you get from it could give you confidence and focus for years to come. It could very well help you realign your goals with what really matters and step out of self-sabotaging behaviors that keep you spinning in circles.
What’s even better is you could apply what you get from this game to your role as a leader, entrepreneur, and innovator. The ripple-effect benefits could reach into your personal life and reignite your spark that makes you passionate about all you do.
Let’s take this magical game out of the hypothetical and play it. You only need yourself, something to write with and the willingness to be honest.
Ready to play? Let’s go.
Step One: Select
In the graphic below, you’ll see The Magic List. It consists of several word pairs, with one word in black letters, and one word in blue letters. Your job is to pick one word from each pair that accurately describes you today. You may want to pick the words you aspire to be, but in order for this to be effective, you need to take a “warts and all” approach. Be honest and accurate of your present moment, not who you used to be or who you wish you could be someday. Go for the full frontal truth of you.
Step Two: Examine
Now look at the words you chose. Did you pick all words in black? Did you pick all words in blue? Did you pick a few of each?
Most people, when doing this with total honesty, will have a combination of words in black and words in blue. It’s OK if your results sway more in one direction than another, the most important thing is that you give yourself a moment to honor where you are in this present time. (Wipe that judgment away if you’re focusing on what you see as negative traits!)
Let’s start with the words in black. These are attributes you see in yourself and clearly are proud of. I call these your energy giving traits, because these gifts energize you. They make you feel more on purpose, vibrant, and living in your genius. As you look at those words (I suggest you write them down), acknowledge these are gifts you carry with you.
Give yourself a moment to drink this in. How does it feel when you claim these for yourself? What feels possible? How does this affirm you?
Step Three: Release
Now, let’s look at those words in blue. I call these your energy draining traits because they disempower you and prevent you from your own greatness. They can block your creativity, fill you with doubt, and rattle you with indecision. You may look at them and feel frustrated that you’re still carrying them around with you.
These challenges actually contain huge gifts in them, as you’ll learn.
But first you get to release them. Imagine them floating away to the farthest edges of the universe. Visualize them dissolving, dissipating, disappearing. No need to send them off with anger or vengeance, just thank them for being your teachers, wish them well, and let them go.
Step Four: The Magic
Ready for the magic trick?
For each word in blue that you chose, look at the opposite word, the word in black above it. Write that down. For example, if you selected anxious, write its opposite, confident. Do that with all of your blue words.
You now have a new list, your Magic List! Your Magic List holds the empowering traits that will turn your challenges into fuel for your soul. By activating these, you shift the dis-empowering traits into empowering traits that help you move forward with more energy and clarity for your work in the world.
Bring your top 5 energy giving traits from Step Two onto the Magic List. This is who you are. This is the potential and power you hold. This is the empowered, purpose-filled, on-point you.
You can now use these words to create daily intentions and affirmations to keep you inspired, empowered, and excited. I like to pick 3 to focus on each day because 3 is an easy number of things to remember. You can repeat the same 3 each day or change them up.
Here are some examples:
“In all I do, I am creative, willing, and prosperous!”.
“Beginning now, I am a focused, curious, confident leader.”
“Starting today, I am bold, determined, and giving.”
The beauty of The Magic List is discovering that on the other side of every energy draining trait lurks an energy giving trait. True empowerment happens when we take charge of our own energy and flip our challenges into magic- the special magic that is inside us all.
You. Are. Magic.
Much thanks and appreciation to Reverends Andriette Earl and Jack Elliott of Heart and Soul Center of Light for introducing me to this exercise.
About the Author
Nancy Marmolejo is an executive coach who teaches leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs how to tap into their Deep Genius, the invisible force we all hold that uncovers our next levels of leadership capacity, problem solving, and creativity. As the founder of TalentAndGenius.com, she’s committed the past 15 years to uncovering what makes us great and putting meaning into what we create. Dubbed a “professional paradigm shifter”, Nancy’s been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Univision, Smart Money, Redbook, as well as many popular podcasts. Learn more about Nancy at TalentAndGenius.com
Read Nancy’s book:
Don’t Say That, Say THIS: Navigating Grief and Loss in the World of Social Media
