Happy Halloween: Free Your Ghosts!

Halloween is such a great holiday — candy, disguises, scares, and traditions that dance with myths and legends. I hope you have a wonderful and playful day on the 31st. But once the sugar shock wears off and the candles sputter in your pumpkins, take a moment to say farewell to the ghosts who aren’t doing your dreams justice.

EVICT THE PERSONAL GHOSTS THAT GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR CREATIVITY

Let’s face it, most of us are haunted by the past in some way or another. Most of these hauntings aren’t the people we’ve known. They’re stories and ideas that grew out of trauma and other learning experiences. The ghosts that remain are unexamined beliefs about our limitations that keep us thinking small. When we give these beliefs power, they invite their friends in to scare us even smaller with reminders of experiments gone sour, assumptions about future possibilities, insubstantial until we give them the power to affect our choices.

And we do give them power, at least until we acknowledge that we created them. They are the ghost stories we told ourselves as protection from future failures. They are the reactive beliefs we activated unconsciously in order to survive a trauma. If they ever served us, we need to thank them and send them on their way so we can live fully and creatively. It takes courage to sit down with unconscious beliefs and make them conscious choices, or show them the door.

LET GO OF THE PROFESSIONAL GHOSTS THAT HOLD BACK YOUR LEADERSHIP INFLUENCE

Every single one of us have been told by mentors or teachers or bosses that we’re great at certain things, and not meant for others. These messages come both directly and indirectly. When we let these assessments frame our ambitions, we stop learning and start getting stuck in a rut. The more stuck we become, the less likely we see ourselves as leaders, and the more likely we typecast ourselves as followers. And why? Because we’re haunted by deficit-based assumptions that make it hard to see our strengths.

Good leaders recognize their gifts, and lead from wherever they find themselves. They learn from mentors but don’t let other people define them. And when they encounter a ghost idea that’s holding them back, they ask two key questions: Was it true? Is it still true? It takes humility and courage to answer these questions honestly. Until you own your gifts, and accept that you have gaps that collaboration and training can fill, the ghosts of old judgments will haunt your ideas about what you can and cannot do. And your ability to lead and learn will be hobbled if you let those judgments define who you might be or become.

EXORCISE THE WRAITHS THAT WANT YOU TO SAY NO TO INNOVATION, and YES TO MEDIOCRITY

We all have these ghosts, too. They’re the doubts and fears that make us stick with what we know instead of what we think could make life better. Innovation requires us to experiment, to move outside of the comfort zone guarded by the rules that haunt and shrink us. These wraiths are truly scary. They ask impossible questions like Who will pay for that? and make authoritative statements like You’ll lose your job if you say that in the meeting… or No one will believe that’s even possible!

These ghosts are a little harder to liberate because they live at somewhere between social conventions and your identity, so you might need friends and collaborators who will help you see opportunity where the wraiths declare dangers. Find your tribe, and these hauntings will dissipate like a bad smell in a breeze. Don’t tackle innovation without a team of supporters who’ll keep you motivated and curious.

BOO! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

When some old idea or assumption goes bump in the night, turn on the light and give it the boot! You’ll feel better, I promise.