Your Next Clear Move

You’re More Ready Than You Think: How to Lead With Confidence Right Where You Are

• Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity

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Ever felt a quiet whisper say “you’re made for more,” but you’re stuck coloring inside the lines? Debbie unpacks how we learn to play small—by giving more power to past stories and outside opinions than to our own lived wisdom—and how that pattern quietly delays promotions, silences ideas, and keeps leaders circling the safe middle. Through a candid personal reset story and practical coaching, we map a path from cozy comfort to intentional stretch without glorifying burnout or bravado.

We break down the three Cs of leadership readiness—clarity, confidence, and courage—so they become usable tools instead of poster words. Clarity points the way even when you can’t see every step, helping you stop chasing everything and start focusing on what matters. Confidence grows through motion and repetition, and you can borrow it from any area where you’ve already proven yourself. Courage is acting before you feel ready, guided by a simple reframe: there’s no failure, only feedback. That loop—act, learn, adjust—turns uncertainty into data, deepens clarity, and compounds confidence.

Along the way, we talk about how to recognize the expiration date on your comfort zone, how to stop editing yourself in rooms that need your voice, and how leaders can set conditions for brave contributions without snapping the team. You’ll leave with one small step to test this cycle immediately: a stretch yes, a direct conversation, a meeting you’ve postponed, or a decision to trust that you’re more ready than you think. If this resonates, come hang out with Debbie for keynotes, leadership labs, and tools that cut through noise and get you moving with purpose.

If this conversation helps, subscribe, share it with a leader who’s ready to grow, and leave a quick review so more people can find these clarity-driven tools.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, hello, and welcome back. I am Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity, and this is another episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast. Your next clear move. I am out to share all the tips, tools, and techniques I can that you can get clarity on what your next clear move is in your career, your business, your leadership, perhaps even your life. And today I'm talking about something that I see all the time in my work with leaders: playing small. So stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Getting to Clarity Podcast.

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The place where busy leaders discover how to create more success in their leadership journey with less sacrifice in their life.

SPEAKER_01:

Here's your host, Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity.

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Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt like you were made for more? I know at one point in my life this was a big question for me. Um, and I really wasn't sure what more meant, and you might not know either. So you're in good company. Um, when I was much, much younger in my teens, after my dad died, I I learned to play it safe. You know, my mom was going through a horrendous time um being a widow and having two young children. Um my goal was to be the good girl. I wanted to uh and told myself that I needed to follow the rules, I needed to keep the peace, I don't want to make waves, you know, and that worked for a while until it didn't. You know, I was really good at staying in my lane and making sure that I colored inside the lines, and I got really, really good at playing small. And then one day this little whisper showed up and it said, You are capable of more. Now, let me just tell you, you may think that's encouraging, but it really wasn't helpful for me because it didn't tell me what more meant, and it didn't tell me how to get there. So for me, that just turned into me chasing everything because anything could potentially be the answer. I mean, I said yes to everything that moved, and I thought it was action that was going to get me where I wanted to go. It was going to bring me clarity, but all it got me was exhaustion, a whole lot of stress, and eventually what I call my cosmic two by four moment. I mean, it I just right uh upside the head. And that was the day that I hit the wall hard. And that right there was a reset that I didn't even know that I needed. Because when everything stopped, I had no choice but to finally listen. And that changed everything. It changed how I saw myself, uh, how I showed up, not right away, but eventually, how I used my voice. And it led to me having the courage to say yes to things that scared me, like speaking on a stage in front of hundreds or thousands of people. That is not anything I saw coming. I have done things I never thought I could do, and you have that inside of you as well. So here's what I want to share: playing small isn't always about lacking confidence. Sometimes it's about giving someone else's voice more power than your own. And let me just say that voice can be your own voice from the past, stories that you are clinging to, um, stories about your identity and who you think you are. This is who you've always been, so it's always who you have to be, and that is absolutely not true. So, how does this show up? Well, it means that you stay quiet when you have something to say that is playing small. You know, it's not putting yourself out there, that's playing small. It's not applying for the promotion because you think you're not ready. You are, you can figure it out. It's editing yourself because somewhere in your past, someone told you, you know, hey, just hold on there, you know, or they told you you're too much, or they told you you're not enough, or they told you you're not what they're looking for or what's needed. And and here's the hook you believe them. You took that on as truth. Man, if I could go back and take back all of the times that I listened to someone else instead of myself, like if I had a dollar for every time that I did that, um, one, I'd be rich. Two, I would have gotten to where I wanted to go a whole lot faster. And even when I started my business, I saw myself falling into that trap, listening to people that I perceived had more wisdom than me. But we discount our own wisdom. And that, my friends, is one of the sneakiest forms of playing small. So I want to talk a little bit about the comfort zone. Oh, the comfort zone. You know, it's like that warm, cozy bed on a really cold morning. It feels good. You are so comfortable, you're so toasty, you don't want to get out. You know, your comfort zone was designed to protect you. It was uh designed to, you know, help you be in a place where you were comfortable. Maybe you could rest and reset there, but you stay there too long and it stops helping. You know, at some point you got to get out of the bed and keep moving. Um, and it's the same thing with your comfort zone. When you stay there too long, it stops helping, it starts holding you back. Now, your comfort zone is not evil, it just has an expiration date, you know, and that date is expired. Growth doesn't happen in the cozy. And the trick is to notice that when something has helped you in the past, it has now started to limit you. Can you discern when that happens? And that is a gift. So we outgrow, things expire, and then we are meant to move on. So where do we go from there? And I call it the three C's of leadership readiness: clarity, confidence, and courage. So clarity. Clarity gives you direction. It may not give you all of the steps, but it it gives you direction. It gives you a place to look to to start. And when you get clear, even generally, on where you're going, you stop chasing everything and you start focusing on what matters. Now, confidence grows with movement, with action, and with repetition. So it's about that consistency. So you you take a small step in the direction you want to go, and then you take another, and then you take another, and that repetition and that movement helps to grow your confidence. And here's the other thing. Um, and I learned this when I studied NLP is that confidence, if you have built it in one area of your life, you already know how to do it somewhere else. So think of the areas of your life where you are confident. Maybe you have a gift for learning languages, maybe you have a gift for entertaining or throwing things together that are nutritious and delightful for your family and your friends. Maybe you are uh really confident in your workout and what you put in your body. Like there are areas of our life where we are confident. So if you've done it before, you can do it again. Confidence is contextual. We're not going to be confident when we're looking to do something we've never done before. But if we're willing to put in the action and the reps, we will get there. We will build it. And then finally, let's talk about courage. Well, courage is the readiness to act even before you feel ready. So in NLP, there's a saying that I love. Um, and that is there's no failure, only feedback. So whenever you try something new, every step that you take gives you information. That's the goal. You act, you learn, you adjust. That is how confidence grows and clarity deepens. So here's the thing about readiness: it's not something that you wait for, it's something that you create. It's already within you. You don't have to know everything, you just have to trust yourself to figure it out. So take one small step. Get some feedback. That feedback gives you more clarity. That clarity builds confidence. That confidence fuels courage. That's the cycle. That is how readiness grows. And it all starts when you stop waiting to be ready. So, leaders, this one's for you. Help your people stretch without snapping. Share your stories, create space where your team feels safe enough to speak up, even when they're unsure. You know, because when people feel safe to grow, the whole organization grows with them. So here's your next clear move. Think about where you might be playing small in your perhaps leadership in your career. Where have you let someone else's voice override your own, even if it's a past voice of yours? And then take one small step toward clarity this week. Maybe it's saying yes to something that scares you. Um, maybe it's having a conversation that you've been avoiding. Maybe it's setting up a meeting that seems like it's a little bit outside your comfort zone. Or maybe it is just trusting that you are more ready than you think. And if this message hit home, I would be delighted if you would come and hang out with me at www.debipetersonspeaks.com. It is uh my website where I share uh my keynotes and my programming, my readiness leadership labs, tools, resources, things to help you as a leader to cut through the noise, focus on what matters most, and take your next clear step forward. Because readiness begins when you stop waiting to be ready. So until the next time, be good to yourself and bye-bye for now.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast with Debbie Peterson.

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If you enjoyed this jump, please rate and recommend it on iTunes or wherever you enjoy your podcast.

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To learn more about how you can bring Debbie and her transformational clarity leadership strategies to your organization, visit Debbie Petersonspeaks.com.

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Debbie Peterson, CSP

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