In this motivational monologue aimed at women—whether entrepreneurs, corporate professionals, or mothers—Alexandra Niel asks listeners to consider whether they are willing to "bet on themselves," meaning to trust their ability to shape their own lives. She outlines five critical self‑reflection questions: (1) Do I know who I am and where I want to be? (2) Do I have the stamina and energy to get there? (3) Do I have the courage to do the hard things? (4) What specific hard steps must I plan and execute? (5) Whose help do I need to succeed? For each question she explains why it matters, offers personal examples (e.g., needing to get on camera to attract clients), and suggests practical habits such as mindful eating, exercise, meditation, methodical planning, and building a support network. The talk emphasizes that while external circumstances may be beyond control, personal agency, habit formation, and intentional support can stack the odds in one’s favor. She closes with an upbeat weekend wish.
Chapters
Are you willing to bet on yourself? And I'm asking this to all you ladies, whether you're business owners or you're working in corporate or you're rocking being a mom. But the question is, are you willing to bet on yourself? Meaning, do you trust yourself to get things done and to take your life where you want it to go? Because at the end of the day, things happened all around us, and we may think that we don't have any control over that, and to some degree it's true, but we do have control over ourselves. We do have control over where we want to go. We may not always know how we're going to get there, but when we know where we want to go, then it makes a huge difference. So I think there are 5 questions that I would like you guys to ask yourself, or you ladies to ask yourself, and the first one is this: Do I know who I am and where I want to be? Because that's going to drive your starting point, right? When you take stock of who you are and you think about this is the next level for me? Do you know what that gap is between who you are today versus who you need to be in order to reach your goals, right? So think about, um, if— I'll give you an example in my own life. If I want to engage with new clients, I know I have to get on camera, but if I'm afraid to get on camera and I hide behind the written word, then it's not quite, you know, it's not going to quite get me there. So who do I need to become in order to be able to do that? That means I need to have more courage, that means I need to trust myself more. And all of that takes learning about ourselves, understanding where we are, and then putting in place things that may be uncomfortable but that are going to get us where we need to get. The second question is this: do you have the stamina to get there? Because it's one thing to know who you are and where you want to go. It's another entirely to have the energy and the drive to get there. And I'm really talking more about the energy piece. So, you know, waking up tired in the morning or going to sleep early, which is something I happen to be suffering from right now. But, you know, are you eating the right things? Are you exercising? Are you spending time with yourself, you know, going within, meditating, being mindful? Are you living in the present moment instead of worrying about things that have happened in the past and worrying about things that may never happen? Because both of those extremes are going to sap your energy. So, you know, what are the habits that you have in place to make sure that when you go for it, you have what you need to get there. The third one is, do you have the courage to do the hard things? Because getting out of your comfort zone isn't easy. Doing the things that you don't want to do isn't easy. So when you hear yourself saying, "I don't feel like it," or "I don't want to do this right now," that's exactly exactly the moment where you need to lean in and do it and push past it, because that's what's going to give you— first of all, you're going to feel great that you ended up doing what you didn't feel like doing, but it's also going to build your confidence. It's going to continue to build your courage, right? Because the more you do something, the better at it you get, and the more you feel confident about, about doing it. So having the courage to do the hard things. And I heard somebody say recently, you know, being healthy is hard. You know, it's not easy to always eat the right things and always do the right things. But being sick is even harder, right? Because if you don't take care of yourself, you run the risk of getting sick, of, you know, coming to some illness. So Pick your hard. Which hard do you want? Do you want to be healthy even though that's hard, or do you want to be sick because that's hard? So it's just something else to keep in mind. The fourth thing is what are those hard things that you need to do and how do you plan for those? Because leaving things up to chance, chances are it's not going to happen, right? You have to plan, you have to be methodical, you have to know what steps you're going to take. And sometimes you don't need to see the whole entire journey, but maybe all you need to see is 5 steps ahead, 3 steps ahead. So you know when you take one step, XYZ happens, then you know what your next step is, or you've already planned for your next step. And if what happens isn't what you had in your mind's eye, then you can, you can readjust, right? But when you leave things up to chance, then it's going to you may eventually get there, but the journey is going to be that much harder. You're going to need that much more energy, and you don't have— you have less chances to succeed. Let's just put it that way. And then the fifth question is, whose help do you need to get there? Because seldom, you know, do we get to a place that is worthwhile without the help of anyone, doing it ourselves, we're going to get there fast, right? Or there's a, there's a certain speed element because we, we control everything, we know what we're doing, we do the things that need to get done. But especially when you get stuck, bringing people in from the outside, enlisting people in your vision, in what you desire, is critical to help to keep you moving forward. Because what in those moments You know, you're going to need a push, you're going to need a cheerleader, you're going to need somebody who's going to point you in the right direction if you're, if you're stuck. Whether it's somebody who loves you, who is just there to support you, or somebody who understands your journey and is willing to share their journey with you so that you can take example from some of the things maybe that they've done to help you get back on the right track. So when you're able to look at all these things, when you're able to ask yourself these questions, you know, I think it's much, much easier to trust yourself and to be willing to bet on yourself, right? So we're not talking about a gamble here, we're talking about stacking the odds on your side to make sure that you succeed. So that's what I wanted to share with you today. It's Friday. I'm excited for the weekend. I hope you all have wonderful plans, and I will see you on Monday. Take care. Bye.
