Overcoming fears and being yourself
Posted by Georgia Scott
Michelle Poler has spent the last 10 years helping audiences move forward with confidence. "It’s so powerful when people make the decision to be themselves,” she says. "It sounds easy, but we all know it’s not," she says. "In fact, one of the hardest things to do is to just be yourself. Even so, everybody says it as if it’s so easy."
PracticeLink is proud to sponsor Poler’s AAPPR keynote address, "Irreplaceable: How to Go from Being One More to Becoming One of a Kind,” as well as provide copies of her book, Hello, Fears.
Facing your fears
Poler began her career as a speaker in 2015 after facing 100 fears in 100 days. "It completely changed my life," she says. "I started talking a lot and understanding fear in all different kinds of ways. I started seeing patterns and understanding how fear affects people."
At its core, fear enables us to protect ourselves from legitimate threats. Left unchecked, however, fear can also hold us back. And facing it takes courage.
Poler teaches people how to break down fear by removing barriers and looking inward to help them understand who they are. "What I do when I teach my courses is help people fall in love with themselves so they start seeing beauty where they might have thought there was just a shadow," she says.
The joy of being unique
"It’s like an invitation to see the things you don’t love about yourself as a byproduct of what makes you great," Poler says. "And so when you start seeing yourself like that, you start embracing all of who you are and just being more comfortable with who you are, more at peace with who you are and having that extra courage and even permission to show yourself to the world as you are."
Poler says this process is the opposite of toning yourself down or hiding your unique self because you’re afraid others may not understand. "We’re already used to toning ourselves down, but when we tone ourselves down, we become one more of many," she says. "When you try to be like everybody else, you will just be like everybody else. And then, who are you?"
Poler often encourages others to think of someone else - perhaps a celebrity or someone they know personally - and think about what makes them unique.
"If you think about who’s authentic, you think of someone Join us for Michelle Poler’s keynote address at AAPPR Monday, March 24. that is outspoken, that you know speaks their truth; they put their touch, their special touch, into everything they do. They bring their personality into whatever they do. And that’s so appreciated in today’s age. Because I feel like today, everybody’s getting very generic, because we are so aware of everybody else."