One of the things that became glaringly obvious to me when I started ​Women Speaking Up​ a number of years ago, was that what was stopping a lot of people from being visible was both:

• visibility fears and doubts.

This I expected. It was the reason I started The School of Visibility in the first place; because so many people were talking to me about the fears they felt about becoming more visible. But also,

• having way too much stuff on their plates which was causing confusion and overwhelm in their business and life.

This was surprising to me. I knew that this was an issue of course, but I hadn’t – at the time – made the link between being visible in a way that’s sustainable and enjoyable and the sheer amount of information we’re taking on each day. I didn’t realise that habits of making too many commitments or carrying too many ideas around for future implementation were all negatively influencing people’s experiences of visibility.

This chronic ‘too muchness’ was leaving students feeling scattered. Too full. Pulled in too many directions.

When you combine that with any inner resistance you might have to being visible, even coming at the idea of being visible feels too much.

Which means that visibility tasks end up naturally falling to the bottom of your to do list.

Coming to understand this has shifted my focus inside ​Women Speaking Up​ over the years. Of course we continue to do visibility block clearing work. But we also focus on doing work to clear out the unnecessary noise, the distractions, the overwhelm.

Which frees people up to make decisions, follow through, and put work out into the world without feeling stressed and/or exhausted.

When we’re fearful about doing something we can become attached to busy tasks. We can mistake busyness for purposefulness. Which ultimately keeps us from embodying our message and allowing ourselves to be visible for that.

So it’s critical that we both clear the decks of all the things that are getting in our way, and that we find a way to simplicity. Only then we can be visible for that which matters most to us.

The ​information clean up process​ is a very useful tool to step you along that path.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to check it out, ​you can do that right here​.