Podcast Ep 321 - Rediscover Your Worth: Insights from a 6-Year-Old

In this episode of the Flourish Academy podcast, Heather Lahtinen talks about the unfiltered confidence and joy of a six-year-old's approach to life and business. She explores how we can rediscover our innate belief in ourselves to break through mental barriers and achieve greater success in both business and life.

Tune in to learn how embracing a childlike mindset can lead to more fun, creativity, and effectiveness in your entrepreneurial journey.


Show Notes:

• A heartwarming story about Chase, a six-year-old who embodies confidence and joy in his small accomplishments.
• Discussion of Holly Kraschaw’s article and how it perfectly captures the essence of a child’s mindset.
• The importance of telling ourselves positive things and believing in our capabilities, as children do.
• How societal conditioning and life experiences can diminish our self-belief.
• Strategies to reconnect with your inner child and regain confidence.

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TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast and today we are talking about a six -year -old's approach to life and business. My name is Heather Lahtinen and I'm a photographer, educator and entrepreneur and I founded the Flourish Academy as a resource for photographers of all levels. We want to help you pursue your passion on your own terms because we believe there is room for everyone.

In this podcast, we focus on creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are really holding you back in business and life. For the past 10 or 11 years,

I have been hosting a camera club on our property. I just invite local photographers. We photograph different things. It's just good, clean, fun. And a few years ago,

my friend Melissa was here with her two kiddos and her son Chase was, I'm thinking he was probably around five or six years old and we were photographing,

I think children, which is probably why they were with her 'cause sometimes at camera club, people bring their kids and sometimes they don't, it just depends on our focus. Anyway, we were out like in the woods photographing and Chase and I were walking back towards the house and we're on this trail and there was this small mound of dirt And he says,

"Ms. Heather, watch me," and he ran and he, you know, ascended this mound of dirt. This is probably two or three feet tall and he had his arms up in the air and he exclaimed,

"I am the greatest mountain climber in the world." And then he did it again and again, "Ms. Heather, Ms. Heather, watch. I'm the best. I'm the greatest," and then He was yelling for his mom and everybody else to watch what he was able to do by climbing this mountain.

He was the best in the world and he was so excited by this. And I thought, isn't this fantastic? At no point did it cross his mind to worry what other people were going to think about the size of this mountain or his skill set.

He wasn't, you know, Are they going to maybe accuse him or wonder, who does he think he is? He just didn't even have those thoughts because he was just having fun and he was embracing the fact that he's the greatest mountain climber in the world.

And I've shared this story a few times in the past, but a few days ago, I came across an article on LinkedIn by a woman named Holly Crawshaw.

She is a best best selling ghostwriter and she was able to articulate my thoughts on this scene way better than I could. Okay. Which is not surprising.

You guys, hello. She's a ghostwriter. It's what she does. So this is what she said. One way you can do and be more tell yourself you already are.

Hang with me. This is a self portrait done by my six -year -old sailor. Below it, she was asked to write one sentence about herself. In the sentence,

it says, "I am creative." T -I -F, which she's trying to say, "I'm creative." And there's obviously a picture in this post. Holly goes on to say, "When we were six,

we tell ourselves all kinds of awesome things. I'm fast. I'm smart. I'm creative." Ask a six -year -old about themselves and they'll only tell you what they're good at.

I'm just not an ideas person. I'm not a people person. I'm not good with details. Said no six -year -old ever. But between six and where we are now,

we've lived life. We've earned some battle scars and wounds. But what we're capable of has not changed. So why do we tell ourselves otherwise?

Us, our words, our mindset. Those are our biggest obstacles in life, not our wiring, our gifts or our talents.

Tell me one thing you're great at. You can do it. And there See, we were born worthy and awesome and capable of anything and everything,

I think we just forgot. Or probably more likely, it's been schooled out of us, literally by school, but also by society.

No six -year -old ever says, "I'm just not an ideas person, I'm not good with details," or I'm terrible at this thing.

They don't say that. Chase said he was the best mountain climber in the entire world and he believed it and I believed it about him in that moment. I didn't think there was anyone more capable of running on top of that mound of dirt with his arms in the air like victory than Chase.

What if you could go back to that brain, your six -year -old brain and just remember that you are capable of anything and even here's the kicker.

Even if you're not, you believed you were and that matters because if you believe that you can do something, if you believe it's possible, then you can make it happen. Why do we think and overthink and beat ourselves up and shame ourselves over every little thing.

I'm not good at photography or I need to improve my skill set. I'm not good at editing. I'm not good with math. I'm an introvert. It's hard for me to meet people.

I don't know if people really like me. I don't really know what I'm doing in any aspect of photography or business. How in the world is that serving you? Why would you continue to allow your brain to offer those thoughts and suggestions to you and not even question them.

You do not have to believe everything that you think, okay, A, but B, why not start thinking better thoughts like from the point of view of a six -year -old? Chase is the greatest mountain climber in the world,

the best. And this little girl, Holly's daughter, is creative and just owns it. She doesn't worry about what you're thinking about her. She doesn't care. Why does it matter? All that matters is what you think about yourself.

And my guess is you're just not thinking great things or you would already have achieved your goals and what you're aiming towards. This goes back to the episode where I talked about bragging because it would be difficult for me to go out and tell everybody how I walk around the house telling myself that I'm a genius all the time.

If you're listening to this podcast, I think you, I think you get it. I think you understand where I'm coming from. I'm not saying I'm a genius to like puff up my ego or put myself above other people.

I'm saying I'm a genius because I have the capability to think that and believe it and make it happen. This is childlike faith in our Abilities and what's possible for us wouldn't it be fun if you didn't have all of those overthinking worrisome tragic mean thoughts about yourself in fact,

who would you be if you weren't able to Think poorly of yourself. You could only think of yourself like a six -year -old. How awesome would that be? How much more fun would you be having in your life and business?

Which by the way when you're having fun you take better action, which gets you or leads you towards better results. Why do you tell yourself otherwise? You are capable.

Nothing has changed. You were born worthy. I always tell people that are struggling with worthiness issues. You know, when you were a newborn, you couldn't lift your own head. You couldn't feed yourself.

You couldn't go to the bathroom yet. Someone cared for you because you were born Worthy of that love and that care you just forgot.

I want you to tap into that to remembering that you were born worthy. There's nothing you have to do to earn it. You are still worthy and you can do and become anything you want.

I hope that you found this useful. I'll see you in the next episode.