JOURNEYS TO BEING F.I.T.

Use a mental road map to manifest one’s successes personally and professionally – Merilee Kern

For entrepreneur, professional speaker and success coach Sheryl Grant, transformational leadership through personal development and community building is the name of the game. Having won Ms. Olympia at the age of 55, Grant clearly knows what it takes to realise achievements – in both life and business.

Today, through her eponymous company Sheryl Grant Enterprises, she is helping CEOs, executives and other entrepreneurs to master key areas of their careers and lives in general.

So what’s her ‘secret sauce’? Grant taps into neuro training, physical fitness and increased productivity to unlock personal ambition, revenue potential and self-confidence. She maintains that success minded individuals must aspire to be ‘F.I.T.’ – leaning heavily on ‘Faith, Intuition and Tenacity’ to reach their goals.

“F.I.T. cultivates your inner ability to push through any of life’s perceived obstacles, break through barriers, and manifest your heart’s dreams and desires,” Grant asserts. She adds: “Whether you seek a job promotion, new business endeavour or healthier body, F.I.T. helps establish a mindset and emotional framework that will nurture, uplift and inspire these – and other areas of your life.”

A key aspect of her F.I.T. presentations and webinars is a focus on developing mental strength through neuro training using a variety of relevant techniques. With this having piqued my curiosity, I recently connected with Grant to gain an insight into some of her mind bolstering methods.

She explained that these can help us cultivate a greater awareness of who we are, develop a road map of where we need and want to go, and conceptualise how we intend to get there.

DIALOGUE Start a dialogue with yourself and begin by asking some basic questions: ‘Who are you?’ ‘What are you good at?’ ‘What do people whom you care about see in you?’ ‘When have you felt the most alive?’ ‘What can you learn from others who have a strong purpose and are inspirational to you?’

Ultimately, living with purpose means focussing on what matters most to you! And following the money, as well as your heart, don’t have to be mutually exclusive. There’s not much mystery as to why most people work – it’s to earn money. However, there are many ways in which to pay the bills.

The ‘why’ refers to your underlying personal reasons for choosing a particular business and what you are trying to accomplish. Knowing where you are going is as important as understanding why. It will inform and strengthen your personal and career identities, as well as how it will help you to reach your goals more quickly.

Such self-awareness also fosters drive, confidence and self-esteem that can transform you into an unstoppable force, and give you the strength to persist even through failure and adversity. As a result, you are likely to be happier and an inspiration to those around you.

STRENGTHS Identify all of your inner strengths. When people are living in their ‘sweet spot,’ they’re more productive and will naturally add value to the world around them. Accordingly, this mode is when people also tend to make more money!

What are the things you’ve always been good at? What motivates and inspires you? Perhaps these are things that come naturally to you – so much so that you wonder why others struggle in the same area…

While passion can certainly blossom in spheres in which you aren’t naturally talented, Grant’s personal and professional experiences show that we are rarely ambitious in areas where we have no natural talent. As civil rights leader Howard Thurman wrote: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive – then go do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

ADD VALUE Doing work that you’re good at but holds no passion for you is not a path to fulfilment. When we know our greatest strengths and where we as individuals can add the most value, we can better focus on the opportunities, roles and career paths in areas in which successes will likely occur.

These are usually the same avenues where a person finds the greatest sense of accomplishment and contribution. All too often, we undervalue strengths, skills and expertise that we have naturally acquired over time. A great way to discover this for ourselves is to discern how we’re equipped to help solve issues in the workplace, career, organisation or industry.

Further, we need to find out which problems we enjoy solving and which we feel passionate about attempting to solve. The answers to these questions can help one focus and develop a much clearer series of intentions that are based on natural strengths, and those tasks one innately excels at, rather than trying to eliminate weaknesses.

Grant overcame personal challenges in multiple areas of her life by employing the strategies outlined above. She reveals she quickly learned that her greatest difficulty was not the obstacles in front of her but rather the lack of belief and trust in herself.

By shifting her mindset from fear and limitations to a focus on empowerment fuelled by faith, intuition and tenacity, she reached greater heights than ever before, and continues to do so.

Grant also believes that unlocking one’s inner presence helps transform leaders into the best business people and human beings that they can be. She had suffered in her own life until she established and wholeheartedly practised her F.I.T. philosophy.

In doing so she not only realised extreme changes but also actually enjoyed the process. And the people around her enjoyed her more as well. I for one will certainly relish my own journey striving to get F.I.T.