Q&A w/ Emily-Jane Sarroff
✨Overcome your limiting beliefs and take ownership of your life!
2021 is indeed just the beginning for me. The year is setting the foundation for where I hope to take my mission across my life. I know exactly where I am going, I know exactly who I want to become, and I know exactly what impact I want to make on those around me. This year is really the starting point of all that.
Why did you decide to drop out of your Master’s degree and leave a job in the architecture industry to pursue coaching?
Just after graduating with my bachelor’s degree, I started the Empower with Em podcast. At that point in time the podcast was just a passion project of mine, something I was building for fun alongside my social media platform. I was highly passionate about self-growth, so I wanted to create a way to take my learnings and share them with other people. That is what the podcast allowed me to do. As I commenced my studies in my Masters of Architecture, I realized that I began to invest more time and care into my passion projects than what I was investing into my studies, and the same was happening at work. I showed up for this degree and this job that I just was not passionate or excited about. When I realized this, I started to do some serious reflection and began to ask myself, ‘Why am I even doing this?’. The answer became clear to me. I was only in my job and my degree for the sake of pleasing my parents and boss. I wasn’t following this path because I necessarily wanted to; I was doing it because it was what I had been brought up thinking I ‘should’ do. When I realized that I was living my life on other people’s terms, I decided to do something about it. So after serious thought and action planning, I took the leap, dropped out of my masters, started building my own business, and went on to resign from my job in the architecture industry.
Your goals for 2021
I have quite a few goals for myself this year! I would say that 2020 was predominately a year focused on self-growth for me; while this is a constant journey I continue on, I am also focusing heavily on growing my community and business this year.
My main goal is to connect with as many people as possible and help them transform their mindsets to be far more empowered. In 2020 I was able to truly step into my power and accomplish so much for myself, so now, my 2021 goal is to help as many people as I can do the same.
How can someone break free from their limiting mindsets and build self-belief and a growth mindset?
It is pretty simple. It all comes down to choosing to start believing in yourself. Some people will find this choice easier than others, and there will be some people who will need to do a greater deal of inner work to become aligned with this belief. But the core element of over coming your limiting beliefs is choosing to simply believe in yourself.
When I made the shifts in my life that enabled me to build a business for myself, the key factor that drove me to my success was that from the very moment of deciding what I wanted, I installed 100% confidence within me that I WOULD find a way. I installed this greater sense of knowing and conviction that no matter who didn’t support me or what obstacles I faced; that I would succeed because I chose to believe in myself.
So the first step is just to DECIDE that you will believe in yourself and have confidence that you will find a way to get to where you want to be.
For anyone who feels resistance around this decision, the second step is to start breaking down and rewriting your old beliefs. What this involves is:
- Identifying what your current limiting beliefs are,
- Become clear on how they are holding you back,
- Rewrite the belief so it serves you better.
By rewriting your beliefs, you can turn them into affirmations or mantras to speak into your reality.
In terms of developing a growth mindset, this involves shifting your perspective from scarcity to abundance, from disempowering to more empowering. Above all else, though, developing a growth mindset means creating a curiosity for learning by beginning to look for the opportunities in all your experiences and challenges.
Are there any rituals, affirmations, and practices one can adopt to step into their highest self?
There are so many different rituals and practices that people can start implementing. The biggest thing is learning from the people around you, seeing what they practice, and implementing the other things that resonate or connect with you. Everyone is different so what will work for me, might not necessarily work for the next person.
A few different things people can start exploring are:
- Daily journaling (Self-reflection to help you unpack and understand your thoughts and emotions)
- Meditation (Practicing being present and still)
- Grounding exercises (Disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with nature)
- Caring for your health (exercise and diet)
- Affirmations (These will be different for everyone and depending on what you are trying to affirm within yourself. If your highest self means you stepping into more self-love, then your affirmations will reflect that. For someone who associates their highest self with career success, then their affirmations will align with that. In my IM-POWERED webinar e-book we go through creating affirmations together.)
How vital is mentorship and accountability in building a better mindset?
Mentorship is everything! I cannot express just how important it is to be modeling success. While some people can take their growth journey alone, this often ends up consuming more time than necessary. My mindset towards growth is that I would instead invest in a mentor to save me time and energy to get my results faster without having to make the same mistakes that people have made before. Time is the only resource we will never earn back, so if you could spend some money (renewable resource) to gain you more time (nonrenewable resource), then doesn’t that seem like a no brainer?
In saying that, you don’t even need to ‘invest’ in order to get a mentor. There are plenty of free mentoring resources available including webinars, communities, podcasts and so much more that people can access for free.
The fact is mentorship and accountability is sometimes the only thing missing from someone’s big breakthrough! If you have been feeling stuck in your progress or as though you are going around in circles then find a mentor and get some help! It will make a world of difference for you to be able to model the success of someone who is in a position you would love to be in, but furthermore it is going to also fast track the growth you would make compared to if you were just figuring it all out alone.
Top 10 things one should start practicing today to excel in life.
In no particular order:
- Create yourself a routine that supports your success
- Devote minimum 30 minutes per day to gaining new knowledge- personal development reading or podcasts
- Practice healthy habits- care for your body through a balanced diet and exercise. You only get one body, and it is the vessel that is guiding you through this life, so show respect and love for it.
- Journal about your thoughts and emotions- unpack them, process them, feel them and then release them.
- Choose positivity- optimism, and happiness is a choice you get to make. It isn’t necessarily easy, but it will take you further than negativity.
- Practice gratitude- be grateful for where you are now, the opportunities and people you have around you. You cannot receive more until you learn to be thankful for what you have.
- Be wise about the people you choose to surround yourself by- your environment and the people within that environment will influence your success. It will either push you forward or pull you back, so make sure the people around you support your growth.
- Don’t get so caught up about stressing over the past- the past has happened, it is done, focus on the present and the future. What can you do now, and where do you want to go from here?
- Follow your passions and do more of what you love- live your life on your terms because, at the end of it all, this is YOUR life and no one else’s.
- Enjoy the journey because, as it has been said before, the journey is the destination.
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