How to Turn Your Difference into an Advantage – with Tania Katan
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Amazing “creative disruptor” Tania Katan has spent years sneaking her imagination into the office, using creativity to disrupt norms and turning her differences into her superpower.
As a woman, breast cancer survivor, and a member of the LGTBQ community, Tania shares real-life experiences to help transform your mindset.
You’ll be inspired to capitalize on your differences rather than striving for similarity, and leave a lasting impression so you stand out and get noticed.
This Month’s Guest:
TANIA KATAN is the CEO of Creative Trespassing, best-selling author, inspirational speaker, and co-creator of the globally viral campaign #ItWasNeverADress; a social movement that has inspired over 60 million people to see, hear and celebrate women for the superheroes they are. Her visionary way of formulating ideas led to the groundbreaking bestseller, Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life (Penguin Random House, 2019), winner of the 2019: Best Business Book of the Year: Creativity & Innovation, Porchlight Books. As an inspirational speaker, Katan is highly sought after to teach people and companies of all stripes how to kick limiting beliefs to the curb and generate unlimited creative breakthroughs. Some of the organizations and major conferences impacted by her talks include: CiscoLive!, Expedia, Amazon, Google, Humana, Etsy, TED, American Express, Wonder Women Tech, World Domination Summit, Uber, Inbound, and Comedy Central Stage. Katan’s transformative work has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, HuffPost, Time, BuzzFeed, CNN, GLAMOUR, Adweek, Mashable, Forbes, Money Magazine, and Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. She’s been a guest on the Good Life Project, Amy Jo Martin’s Why Not Now, and I Want Her Job.
Instagram: @theunrealtaniakatan
Our Host:
CELESTE HEADLEE is a communication and human nature expert, and an award-winning journalist. She is a professional speaker, and also the author of Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving, Heard Mentality and We Need to Talk. In her twenty-year career in public radio, she has been the executive producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Radio, and anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. She also served as cohost of the national morning news show The Takeaway from PRI and WNYC, and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel. Headlee’s TEDx talk sharing ten ways to have a better conversation has over twenty million total views to date. @CelesteHeadlee
Additional Resources:
- Get your hands on a copy of Tania’s book, Creative Trespassing
- Learn about the “Creative Trespassing: The Map” five-week course: a “super fun—and actionable—online coaching course for people who desire to leap from fear to freedom.”
- Sign up for Tania’s free newsletter to receive inspiration—and transformation—in your inbox every week.
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Tania Katan Interview Transcript:
Tania Katan:
Hi. My name is Tania Katan, and I am a coach, consultant and creative trespasser, among other things.
Celeste Headlee:
What does creative trespasser mean, and how do you make that a career?
Tania Katan:
That’s a great question. Fortunately, my mother supported me in figuring out the answer to that question. But basically, the idea is bringing more creativity and innovation into less overtly innovative and creative spaces and work cultures. And then showing that these cultures were missing layers that now they can’t live without.
Celeste Headlee:
This idea of embracing creativity and embracing difference seems to echo throughout all of your work. And I wonder when you decided to make that your focus.
Tania Katan:
Celeste, I don’t think I had a choice in the matter. I mean, honestly, I come from like a long line of people who were so untraditional and wildly and weirdly successful in alternative ways of being in the world, that all I wanted to do was fit in and adapt and adjust to social norms. But because of my upbringing, again, I didn’t have a chance. And I’m a child of the ’80s and all I really wanted was like a polo shirt that I could put the colors up on, and maybe even an autographed photo of Reagan, and to just go on with my life except for the Reagan part. So yeah. And then I realized that my disruptive nature was always kind of leaking out in school, and then later in the workspace, where I would ask questions and it didn’t seem like little girls, and especially I grew up in poverty and had a single mom who was an immigrant and didn’t speak English very well. So there were a lot of strikes against me which I didn’t realize were issues until I entered the school system. And yeah. And go ahead, Celeste, I heard you draw a deep and meaningful breath.
Celeste Headlee:
Yeah. You are very aware of your surroundings. I wonder if you remember how you made that shift mentally. In other words, not just in childhood, many of us experienced times when all we really want to do is fade into the woodwork, right? That is many people’s dearest wish, is to not be singled out, except for praise. The fear of our difference being noted and condemned can be crippling, and I wonder how you shifted from this fear of standing out and being different, to embracing that. Do you remember how you were able to accomplish that?
Tania Katan:
Yeah. I think the first memory that pops to mind around this, or the realization that’s standing out is actually beneficial to being in the world, was when I discovered high school theater and speech and debate, because that was a place where I found my peeps. It was like we were all these like freaks and geeks who got to imagine worlds where we actually ruled the school. So in discovering theater and speech and debate, I learned kind of the basis for being in a creative world, which is like you get to make it up as you go along. And that was a really powerful thing and space for me to find in high school. Until that moment, I actually thought I was pretty cool, Celeste. I just couldn’t convince anybody else that I was cool. I’m totally sincere.
Tania Katan:
I was like a weird kid in that I had plenty of self-esteem. My parents thought it was cool to be weird in the world, but when I entered into traditional spaces like school, people assured me I was not in fact cool. And again, when I discovered theater and speech and debate, I realized that being cool was breaking social norms. It was creating a world that didn’t exist, especially for those of us who were sort of functioning on the margins, and that if we tapped into our creativity to do this, we were actually not only celebrated in terms of winning awards and things like that, but we actually felt good about ourselves. So I would say that that was a really pivotal moment for me.
Celeste Headlee:
I wonder if we can now apply this to everybody’s regular work life, because I think about how often clashes arise in workplaces because of culture, which is really just norms. What would you do if you saw a job listing where they said we’re looking for a good culture fit?
Tania Katan:
Well, the thing that popped to mind when you said that was, there was a time when I really needed a job, and the job posting had every skill that I had developed over the years, it was in that job posting. But at the end of the job posting, it said no phone calls please. Right? And I was living in Arizona at the time, the job was in Los Angeles. So I’m like, “Okay. How do I show them I’m really fit for the job, but not call them on the phone to follow up or convince them or whatever?” So I got into my car and I drove to Los Angeles, and I showed up first thing in the morning at the office and they’re like, “What are you doing here?” And I’m like, “Oh, I’m applying for that job and you said no phone calls please. So I drove here.” And you think at that point they would be like, “Oh, wow, this is great because the culture that we represented on the job posting was about creativity and innovation and public speaking, and you’re showing us all of these qualities in one gesture.” But in fact, they didn’t know what to do with me.
Tania Katan:
So after meeting with like five other people in the organization who didn’t find it charming that I took no phone calls seriously and drove there, I left. And the point of that story and memory is that there are lots of situations where they sort of tout “this is our work culture,” and yet there’s a disconnect with the on the ground realities. So when I find myself in those situations, or when I’m coaching or consulting with companies or leaders, I think the first thing to look for is that there’s an alignment issue. If a work culture is saying we’re like X, Y, and Z, but they’re not being creative or innovative and they want creative and innovative people to come in through their doors, there’s a disconnect that needs to be explored immediately.
Celeste Headlee:
So what kind of advice do you have for someone who is, maybe they already are in a job where they’re not a “culture fit”, where their difference does not align with the way that the workplace works, or the expectations of their boss? How do they have that conversation to maybe make their workplace a more welcoming environment for someone who is talented and a good worker, but not the same as everyone else with different styles and a different lifestyle?
Celeste Headlee:
And I don’t mean just your difference in terms of where you’re wearing cargo shorts and everyone else’s in a suit, I mean your difference that is part of your identity, that part of who you are doesn’t fit in. What should one do? Is there a way to bring this up to make your workplace more to help to make it more welcoming?
Tania Katan:
Sure. First of all, I’m glad that you said cargo pants, I haven’t heard that since the ’90s. So thank you for introducing that to the conversation.
Celeste Headlee:
Sure. Sure.
Tania Katan:
Okay. What I was going to say and what I tell people all the time when I’m consulting and coaching and going into companies and working with teams is that first of all, not all jobs are meant to last. I said it, I meant it. A lot of times we find ourselves in these positions where we know that we are giving all we got, we’re leveraging our skills and our awesomeness and our weirdness all to serve the mission and vision of the organization, and yet at every turn we are not respected. Sometimes it is not safe, and I am just saying peace out, bye. Don’t cling on to it for your dear life, it is not worth it. So I will start by saying that.
Tania Katan:
And then there are other situations where we find our weird, wonderful offerings are not being heard, listened, or celebrated, and that’s fine, but a way to work through that and work with the organization is to show, don’t tell. So this is something I learned in creative writing, and I’m sure perhaps you’ve learned in journalism as well Celeste, which is, instead of, sometimes we say the same thing over and over again, “It’s not working,” or like this process is just not helping and people don’t listen. So just show an alternative way of doing or being. So, for example, once I found myself working for a company where they really championed health and wellness, but there was a great deal of pressure to never leave the office. One would think going for a walk might help with health and wellness. So what I did, I showed that it was healthy to leave the office, and I would go for a walk. And at first people were shocked by this gesture, and pretty soon I would have colleagues sidle up next to me and they’d be like, “Hey, Tania, where are you going?” And I’m like, “For a walk. Want to come?” And they’re like, “Yeah.” And-
Celeste Headlee:
Ooh subversive.
Tania Katan:
Yeah, but in corporate culture, it was subversive. And pretty soon what happened was it wasn’t just me walking, it was like a whole group of us. So we showed our work culture that maybe if they wanted to champion this concept of health and wellness, it would behoove them to allow and encourage a space where we could be healthy and well together. So that’s one thing that I recommend is to actually embody the thing that’s missing from the organization, and find others who will be a part of that as well.
Celeste Headlee:
Okay. So how do you know the difference then between your — How do you know the difference between your difference? How do you know when what’s at issue is the fact that people aren’t accepting your difference, as opposed to something that is an actual piece of constructive criticism? How can you tell the difference between those two things?
Tania Katan:
Cargo pants, I’m pretty sure.
Celeste Headlee:
Sandals with socks.
Tania Katan:
I had to do a call back. So explain that to me. Let’s kind of break that down a little bit. You want to give me like an example of this?
Celeste Headlee:
Sure. So I’ll give you a perfect example from my own life. So I once had a boss, and this was when I was quite young, tell me that I was too loud in volume, that I just spoke too loud. Now, I was the only person of color in an all white workspace. And it turned out I really wasn’t that loud, his tolerance for a more resonant voice was simply very, very low. And yet I have had people who are too loud in a workplace. It could have been that he was correct that I was disruptive. How do I know the difference?
Tania Katan:
I think a great deal of therapy, quite frankly, Celeste, honestly. Yeah. But you bring up a good point. So the litmus that I use, because I’ve also been in those situations where I’ve been “too loud,” is whether or not my loudness, whether or not my disruption is serving the mission and vision of the organization and company, whether or not my loudness is serving as a way to speak up, and by up I don’t mean volume, I mean up the corporate ladder, up the hierarchy, up to the old guard that says things like, “You can’t do that. Oh, that’s impossible. Oh, you’re too loud because you’re a lady.” So I always check in with who am I serving in those moments? And look, sometimes I’ve been in situations, I’m sure you have as well, where it’s been like ego on my part. Right? My speaking up has been about like, “I need to make my presence known. And look at me, I’m hot dog and I got ideas. I’m so creative.” And there’s definitely been that. So the check-in with me in a good rule of thumb is to check in with who are you serving when you disrupt. That’s what I say.
Celeste Headlee:
How do you then turn that difference into creativity then? Let’s assume that we’ve gotten past the difficulty of fitting into a workplace culture, we’re in an environment in which our difference is celebrated, or at least welcomed. How do we then leverage that to make us be more creative and more innovative?
Tania Katan:
Well, first of all, difference is creativity. Creativity is this idea in action of making something that sort of doesn’t exist, some coming up with a fresh idea, a fresh perspective, or a new way of solving all problems. So to be different is to be creative, and what the way in which we honor our differences. So, one thing, I end up speaking and consulting in a lot of tech companies, and there’s this idea called T-shaped skills in agile project management bates, I’m like, “This is all like a new language to me.” I basically was on another planet, and then I got dropped into corporate culture, and I’m like, “Hmm, T-shaped skills. Well, my name is Tania. I should be proficient in that.”
Tania Katan:
Anyway, but really the idea of T-shaped skills is what we call in the creative space, we call collaboration. And either way in any way it is about leveraging our diversity in every direction in order to come up with something that is larger than the sum of its parts. So the moment you embrace your differences, and by differences I mean flaws, weird quirks, things that make you wonderful, and also that make you awkward, is the moment that you start to tap into real ideas and imagination in terms of solving everyday problems, even in the workspace. So when somebody sort of orchestrates all of these wonderful humans together, and each one of us individually are like, “I’m weird and wonderful and awkward, and I’m going to bring all of that to these collaborations,” then we’re really acknowledging the depth and breadth of what individual humans can bring to a collective or a collaboration. That’s the only reason that businesses exist, is for people to bring in their skills and knowledge from the outside of the office inside, in order to develop new meanings or solvable problems.
Celeste Headlee:
So what kind of advice do you give to executives and leaders on the best ways to foster that kind of environment for their team members?
Tania Katan:
Build it into the actual day to day of running an office or a company or a team. A lot of things I’ve experienced, especially when I’m consulting with tech companies, is the moment they start to scale, they’re like, “Woo, we’re so great, blah, blah, blah,” and all the things that actually made them innovative and awesome go away. It’s like they sneak away in the middle of the night. They sort of forget everything that got them to the point where they have the ability to grow. So one thing is to invite everybody every single day to take a 10-minute creative break. So that can be anything from I’m going to give everybody a writing prompt, the writing prompt today is remember your first day at work, go write for 10 minutes and then you don’t even have to share it. Just the act of disrupting these patterns and habits that are keeping us stuck.
Tania Katan:
We open up our computer and we type, some of us fake type and we’re just so used to typing, we don’t have to think about it anymore. So literally having your colleagues grab pen and paper and sit down every single day for 10 minutes and do a creative exercise will profoundly shift your work culture. I promise you this, I know this to be true, and I give you that gift. But the moment that you take that rhythm and you break it, you’re saying to you, to your colleagues, “Creativity isn’t that important. We can always shell that if we get too busy.” No. This is why companies right now in the pandemic, the ones who are doing well are the ones who know how to shift their consciousness on doing something differently. And the ones that are flailing are the ones that are like, “I guess we should have really stuck to championing and creativity instead of letting that go away,” because this is what you need in order to survive and thrive in the world and in work.
Celeste Headlee:
So what about the upsides of tradition and habit? Are there any? What are the benefits of balancing creativity and innovation and difference with familiarity and habit?
Tania Katan:
I think habits become an issue. The minute you form a habit, I think it’s time to disrupt it, honestly. Because a habit is something that you were conscious of developing at some point, or you weren’t, maybe TV is a habit of yours as – you watch TV, and it becomes a default. And that’s a problem. That really like F’s up all of our thinking. So the minute you’ve got a habit, I think disruptive, think about driving home and picking a different path, think about even if your habit is, “I’d like to generate and brainstorm a lot of cool creative ideas,” disrupt that. Decide that you know what’s-
Celeste Headlee:
I’m going to generate some crappy terrible ideas.
Tania Katan:
Yeah, yeah. That’s right. That’s right. Generate crappy ideas while we’re in cargo pants. It’ll take you to a whole different level.
Celeste Headlee:
Right.
Tania Katan:
Yeah. But I think that this default, this is also, I was writing about this and talking about this recently, it’s so like American to pursue comfort, thus the cargo pants. So when you form a habit that’s comfortable for you, what I encourage you to do is to disrupt it and form a new one, because these deep grooves that we’re carving into our brain it’s just default thinking.
Celeste Headlee:
So your personal story, you walk the talk, right? I mean you are a two time breast cancer survivor, I say that word knowing that you have —
Celeste Headlee:
Well, I mean you have your own story about your reaction to that word. You had both of your breasts removed, and you have just the scars left there, and when you chose to start running races you didn’t want to hide that difference, you wanted to embrace it. Am I repeating this story relatively accurately?
Tania Katan:
As if we were related, yes.
Celeste Headlee:
So tell me about how that worked out. What has been the response? Was it the right decision?
Tania Katan:
Sure. So I feel like I… I’ll give just a little more context for listeners. So at 21 years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer once, had a mastectomy, went on with my life. At 31 years old, I was diagnosed again with breast cancer, had my second breast removed, and went on with life. And one thing that I had seen, Celeste, to your point, is that nobody was willing to share what it looked like to have breast cancer, what it meant to have your breasts removed. So, as you said earlier on in our conversation, basically my whole personal and professional life and activist life is focused on seeing people, ideas and things that aren’t necessarily celebrated or heard, and shining a light on them.
Tania Katan:
So I was like, “Well, I’ve survived breast cancer a couple of times, and I am healthy. I’m a healthy body, but in a new form. And I wish that somebody would showed me what it was like to have mastectomy scars. So maybe if I run a race, I’m running a race anyway to raise money to cure breast cancer, maybe I could do it without my top on. And in doing that, maybe I could show other people who were scared like me, that they were going to have their body just wildly disfigured, that it was okay and you can be a healthy body in a different form.”
Tania Katan:
So I set out to run my first topless 10K of sorts, and then I got to, I’m sure there are a lot of listeners right now who’ve run races, 10Ks or marathons and things like that, and you show up to the race, and I was just like, “Yeah, I’m going to take off my shirt, and this is going to be awesome.” And then it’s like, there’s thousands of people. And I’m like, “Oh my God, this is so stupid. Why am I doing this? I am dumb.” And I started to panic. Because really, this idea of exposing my mastectomy scars wasn’t about being a spectacle, it was just about showing that there was a different way to be in a healthy body. So I remember at the first race the announcer’s like, “We’re going to start in a few seconds. Runners, are you ready?” And it’s like, “Yeah.” “Okay, ready? We’re going to go.”
Tania Katan:
And before I went, I looked and I saw a woman looking at me and I’m like, “Okay. Listen, lady, I’m going to take off my shirt in a few seconds exposing two mastectomy scars, and I don’t want you to freak out.” And she looked at me and she paused and she said, “Can I hug you?” And it was in that moment of real tenderness that I understood what I was doing was bigger than my fear. And also kind of fueled me to go into situations where I sometimes looked like I feel like I belong when I’m talking on like a TEDx stage or for companies like Expedia, but there’s a part of me that feels a little, and vulnerable, and naked and wonders do I belong here. And that moment of that woman being tender and hugging me really has accompanied me to lots of places that audiences have no idea that she came with me there.
Celeste Headlee:
And this act of embrace of difference that you seem to repeat over and over in your life, I mean, you’re a member of the LGBTQ community, you have found a different career path for yourself. Right? I mean you’re a CIO, chief inspiration officer.
Tania Katan:
That’s what they call me and send birds.
Celeste Headlee:
Does that get tiring?
Tania Katan:
What part would be tiring? What do you mean tiring? I get to really know it’s the opposite of tiring, Celeste, and here’s why. It’s back to the alignment issue. It was tiring for me when I was pretending to be a good, stiff, rigid worker in corporate culture. That’s exhausting, that’s compartmentalizing, that’s siloing. Nothing works in a silo including us. So the moment I started de-siloing, or sort of saying, “Oh, well, I guess I could be creative in…” Like when I worked in a supermarket bagging groceries, nobody’s saying you can’t be creative. The moment I started inserting more parts and skills for my creative life was the moment that I felt way more energized and confident about the way in which I worked. So, no, no, the opposite.
Tania Katan:
And this is, again, I work with a lot of people when I’m coaching individuals, their first thing is like, “Well, I’m actually the director of this major organization, and I just don’t feel like I could be creative.” I’m like, “Well, that’s what’s killing you and your organization.” It’s the minute you omit the things that make you so valuable that you lose your sense of value, and that you’re also not giving your best to these organizations.
Celeste Headlee:
What causes that fear do you think?
Tania Katan:
Oh, well, it’s systemic. It’s these systems that are showing us and telling us that getting out of line is not awesome. And in fact, actually, you know what, Celeste, I was giving a talk the other day and I was talking about imposter syndrome for a fortune 100 company, and this woman was like, “How do I conquer? I feel like an imposter, and dah, dah, dah,” and she was telling me her accomplishments and I’m like, “You’re not on imposter, you’re like impossibly awesome.” And then I realized, oh my gosh, and what slipped out of my mouth without thinking about it was I said, “You’re not an imposter, the system is. It should be imposter system, not imposter syndrome.” So, to your point, I think that we enter systems thinking the systems are right or somehow correct. I mean, look, I won’t go into the larger context of where we are in the world in this moment, but that seems to be the biggest issue, is when we think that what makes us awesome, impossibly awesome, is what we should leave out of a system. And if we want systemic change, we have to change the way in which we act, and we are, and what we bring to systems.
Celeste Headlee:
I do want to go there to where we are at this moment in the broader world, if for no other reason that perhaps more than at any other time, what is happening in the broader world is almost impossible to escape, especially in the workplace, especially as you rise through your career path. And I wonder, when we’re talking about differences and identities and styles, that’s become political. And certainly, things like racial identity and sexual identity were always political, but they could be set aside in, or had to be set aside, I should say, in previous decades. Now it has become part of the air we breathe, we are politicized, we are divided, differences end up being arguments. What is your advice for getting through all of these differences that are sort of creating a gulf through the middle of the country?
Tania Katan:
The one tool that I think is the most powerful tool and something that I’ve really focused on since I was little is good humor. And it’s not always the tool of choice of humans, but it’s mine. So it’s what I’ve gotten, it’s how I point out inequities and injustices, especially when I have a stage that I’m on, and/or a megaphone that I get to speak through or get that privilege. So one thing that I find myself in a situation many times where I am speaking on a stage, and maybe there are 500 or a thousand or more people, of which maybe 90% are men, and maybe 80% are white men, and presumably if 90% are men, they’re not lesbians, so I’m the only lesbian there. So I feel like my job in life and in the world is to use humor as a powerful tool to point things out that are, again, injustices and inequities.
Tania Katan:
So one talk that I gave, and this was my joke that they cultivated, it was 500 men, and they were all wearing suits in very degrees of like gray, and it was me basically dressed like a lesbian cartoon character. So I go up there, and I feel uncomfortable, right? And again, humor is a powerful tool that actually springs from moments of discomfort, and somehow has the power to transform that. So I’m standing up there in fortune 500 dudes, a lot of them are reading as cis and straight and all that stuff, and it’s a technology conference and I’m like, “Hey, how many thespians are here?” I’m like, “I’ll start with theater,” and people uncomfortably shifted their seat and don’t say anything. I’m like, “Oh, no thespians, huh? How many lesbians?” I say more optimistically. And then everybody’s like, “What the…” And then they start laughing hysterically at a probably both discomfort and recognition that I’m the only one here, and that’s not okay.
Tania Katan:
And then thinking about that, that’s also, Celeste, something I’m really interested in, is allowing a space for people to interpret and think about and incubate, maybe even for years, or have conversations about these moments. Like with running the topless 10Ks, there are lots of races that I ran where people avoided eye contact with me, where people were talking in hushed tones about how they disagreed with me. This was in the context of a breast cancer race. I got kicked out of a breast cancer survivor tent at one of these races because I was topless, because I had no breasts, because I wouldn’t endure whatever they endured.
Tania Katan:
So I know that those moments where people are feeling like confronted are really important, so I use humor. And I don’t ever use, just so you know, self-deprecating humor, that’s not my jam. I use humor, like artists use art, which is to say that a strategy is to put two things that don’t seemingly belong together, together, and that’s when the humor or absurdity comes. So like this cartoon character lesbian in front of all these suited dudes is interesting, and there’s definitely absurdity and humor there. So that’s the super power that I use.
Celeste Headlee:
Okay. So before I let you go, is there any sort of daily discipline someone can engage in that might help them become more comfortable in their own skin, being more comfortable with who they are and being different?
Tania Katan:
Absolutely. There’s an exercise that I include in my book, Creative Trespassing, that I will give listeners now for free of charge, that really, first of all, it is a practice. Okay? And I want to stress this, a lot of us, especially in American culture, are so like motivated by the result or the product or the thing and that, and we forget about the process of it. So this is an exercise that you have to commit to doing, and then it becomes easier. You can start off with a piece of paper, get off the computer, and write two columns. One column is limiting beliefs, and the other column is unlimited possibilities. So you have to be honest with yourself, and in column A, limiting beliefs, write down all the beliefs that you hold that are stopping you from achieving your dreams, or that become obstacles from you, for you being in the world in the way that you want to be.
Tania Katan:
So some of my limiting beliefs, for example, are “I don’t belong here”, or “am I crazy, like I’m so crazy, I don’t belong here”, etc. And then in the other column, unlimited possibilities, you’re going to write the positive opposite of that limiting belief. So if my limiting belief, for example, is I don’t belong here, then I might write in unlimited possibilities, then I belong everywhere. And if it’s I’m so crazy, my unlimited possibility could be like I am so creative, I have freedom of thought, etc. So I promise you, if you practice doing that, maybe keep your piece of paper with you all day long because, let me tell you, some limiting beliefs will just pop up, you’ll realize that you can actually change your thinking and literally change your brain. Going back to you can change these habits that you fall into, and instead of them being limits, that they can be unlimited possibilities.
Celeste Headlee:
Tania, thank you so much.
Tania Katan:
Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it, Celeste.