I was at a lunch meeting the other day with a couple of women whom I consider to be pretty influential in our community. A few times during that meeting they mentioned that they would love to have someone like me involved in the work they were doing.

“Someone like me?” I questioned. “Yeah, you know” one responded, “a really influential person who could generate attention and excitement”.

That reverberated in my soul… ”a really influential person”.

I realized then that they were calling me what I had been calling myself in the secrecy of my own heart for more than a year; a person of influence who is highly sought after to provide counsel and offered leadership positions. Nobody was checking for me when I first started saying those things to myself, but I knew deep down that I had the potential to be those things — I just didn’t know how to become those things.

To go from what we are to what we could become, we have to get from knowing to believing. The shift in your life happens when you finally believe. When you’re convinced from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet that YOU ARE that which you call yourself, there isn’t anything anyone can say or do that should be able to convince you otherwise. That is where the power is.

So, who are you? You’re not your title, you’re not your degrees, and you’re definitely not where you come from. So, who are you?

You are a living, breathing human with gifts and talents, goals and dreams. You are influential. You are a world changer. You are a gift to this world. Start believing in yourself by declaring to yourself regularly, daily even, who you are. This isn’t something for you to share with the world, they will find out who you are soon enough.

I want you to know how to go from where you are to where you should be. It starts with changing your internal dialogue. See, before I was anything externally, I had to believe what I was calling myself internally. I had to become a leader first to myself. I had to become a knowledgeable and insightful person on the inside. I had to build up the skills and expertise that would bring value to others if I wanted to be sought after. If I didn’t believe I had these things in me despite my limitations and regardless my imperfections, how was anyone else going to believe these things about me?

You might declare: “I am a leader.” “I am influential.” “I am the best teacher in the region.” “I am the greatest social worker this world has ever seen.” “I am the best fashion designer in the midwest.” It’s up to you.

Who do you want the world to know you as? When you can answer that question and believe it with all your being, your external world will begin to reflect your internal world. If your internal world says: “I am a leader”, and “I’m influential”, then your external world will begin to create opportunities for you to step into it – and it’s up to you to be ready.

Listen, I know what it feels like to look at your life and think ‘WTF, I know I was made for more. This can’t be it!’. I also know what it feels like to not know how to make a change. But, I learned what to do, and I want you to know it too. Identify what you want, create a vision of it, work to become it, and believe nothing that says otherwise.

It probably took a solid year before I began to see any real changes in my external world. But changes came. And they will for you too.

I am who I say I am. You are who you say you are.