The task is sitting there waiting to be handed off. Maybe you've hired support. Maybe your team is capable. Maybe your partner keeps offering to help.

But somehow, it still feels easier to keep doing it yourself. Not because you don't want help. Because letting go feels uncomfortable.

In this journaling episode, we're taking the work from last week's conversation a step further. Together, we'll explore the belief underneath your resistance to delegating, what that belief is costing you, and whether it's actually as true as it feels.

Through a series of guided prompts, you'll question the story that's keeping you stuck, find evidence that a different reality is possible, and explore what could change if you no longer felt responsible for carrying everything on your own.

Journal Prompts

1. Think about the belief you uncovered in last week's episode. What is that belief costing you in time, energy, fulfillment, presence with your family, and anything else that comes up for you?
2. Is that belief actually true? The goal isn't to immediately discredit it. The goal is to create some wiggle room. Then find proof that the opposite could be true. When have you asked for help and it went well?
3. What would happen if you let this belief go? What are you afraid you would lose if you stopped believing it? What would you gain if you let it go? Think beyond work. Consider your relationships, your home life, your energy, and your sense of self.
4. Choose one task you'd like to delegate. What is the task? What would help your nervous system feel safe handing it off? What will you do while someone else is working on it so you're not hovering, checking in, or mentally carrying it anyway?

The goal isn't to force yourself to let go. It's to create enough space to question the story that's telling you that you can't.

Work with me:

1. The Leaders Table: https://www.samanthapenkoff.com/leaders-table
2. Breakthrough Intensive: You already know you should slow down, delegate more, stop overcommitting & be emotionally present. So why can't you? That's what we figure out in 90 minutes + integration call 1 week later. Book your Breakthrough
3. Exhale Private Coaching - For women ready to do this work until it sticks and you can't revert back. 3 open spots: Work with me

Connect with Sam: Instagram | Facebook

Welcome back to Beyond Awareness. Today we are taking the work that we did together on last Thursday's episode, episode number 253. And that was all about understanding why it's so hard for you specifically to not delegate and hand off work and honestly release some of your mental load, even though you're so exhausted and you're burnt out potentially, and you want other people to help. So we understand.

Why that is for you, why you're staying stuck there. And today we question it. We're starting to dismantle it. And it's not to dismiss it. Because I want to first point out before we start journaling that these beliefs served you. They got you the promotion. They started your business. They made you indispensable, which is a good feeling, right? But again, they're also exhausting you now.

We they got you to a certain point and they worked until they didn't. And so we have to create some wiggle room before we completely rewrite the script. And that's what today is about is creating that wiggle room. So let's grab your pen and paper or Google Docs, or again, you can pop in the show notes to see the actual prompts and come back to them later and start writing.

Prompt one.

Your actual belief from last week. This is the thing that not delegating and keeping a heavy workload or staying in the trenches means about you that's keeping you safe. So maybe those things mean that you're responsible, or you think it's what good bosses or good business owners do, or it just feels good, or maybe you believe it's truly the only option. Right. So

Whatever your belief was, and if you didn't do that episode, maybe go back and do that, those journal prompts real quick now, or just take a moment to think about that for you quickly now. What's your belief costing you in time, energy, fulfillment, presence with family, and anything that comes up for you?

Prompt two, keeping your main belief in mind, is that belief actually true? And the point here isn't to say no and to immediately discredit it and be like, nope, I actually do have tons of help when you really don't, right? But it's just to find that wiggle room. So for you, it very well might be yes, it might be no, it might be a combination of yes and no. So first answer the question of

Is this belief actually true? And then I want you to find proof that the opposite could be true. So prompt yourself with when have you asked for help and the other person or people actually did it correctly? Or maybe they even went above and beyond and submitted their work. And you were like, whoa, that's actually great. That's maybe better than I would have done it in some aspects.

When have you let go of a responsibility and things went smoother than planned? When have you done something different and it didn't impact how other people thought of you at all? Like the general public still thought of you as a great leader. Your employees or clients still thought that you were heart-led and actively involved, even if you were doing less. Your partner was actually excited to provide more and to help more.

Or honestly, maybe you did something different and nobody noticed at all. That's what happens a lot of times when I'm working privately with my clients. They're like, I did this thing or I said this thing and like their reactions were blank. They didn't care. Nothing happened. So maybe that's happened for you. Or lastly, when have you had to stop working as hard? Like maybe you got sick or injured. Maybe your kids were sick. Maybe you went out on vacation or had to take care of your parents or someone.

And you came back to work and you didn't lose your edge at all. So kind of think through, is your belief actually true? And then find proof that the opposite of your belief could be true, or at least some elements of it. When have you had that proof?

Prompt three. What would happen if you let this belief go? And we're gonna break this into two parts. The first, what are you afraid that you would lose if you completely stopped believing this? Might be your identity, your value, your team's respect. And again, this points back to that safety, right? And we're slowly dismantling that and choosing to feel safe in a new belief. So then the second

part of this is what would you gain if you let this belief go? Not just at work, but also at home with friendships, personally, and anything else that comes up for you. What would you lose and what would you gain?

Amazing. The next steps include creating a new belief to swap this with and to start embodying it instead of just using a new belief as a mantra, which is what we'll do together on a breakthrough intensive. And we would also talk about what else could pop in when you create that new space so that you don't just fill it with different work. So link in the show notes to book an intensive. Today, though, we're going to keep building proof.

That you can embody the version of you that lets go of work and creates more time for herself and has this lighter energy as you move about your day and your relationships. So our final prompt for is actually a design delegation experiment. It's again three parts, not two, it's three parts. This will be helpful to save the episode and go back to the show notes, but we're going to pick a task.

That you actually want to delegate or a portion of a task, if a full task still feels too big for you. And then write out the specifics of how you're going to release this task so that your nervous system feels safe handing it off. It's really hard to just say, I'm gonna give this person this task. Done. Right? Because then your nervous system inside, your heart's gonna start to flutter or your stomach's gonna drop them. Your mind is gonna say,

I hope they do it well, or I hope nobody notices, or I know that I could be doing it better. Right. You immediately default back to the beliefs. So let's break it down. Number one, write down what is the task that you're going to be handing off to someone. You can even jot down who you want to hand it off to.

And then write off how you're going to release this task so that your nervous system, so that you feel good about it. These are things like will you request check-ins? Ask that that employee or client or whoever check in with you. Will you set deadlines? Will you do the first part with them? There's this common framework of I do, we do, you do. So I do the first part and then we do it together.

And then you do it fully on your own. Or the me we, same thing. So what would help you feel better about delegating? And then the third part, write out what you will do while someone else is tackling this so that you're not sitting at your desk twirling your thumbs thinking, I hope that she's doing it right. I hope I don't have to redo that work, right? So will you be focusing on other projects? Will you be listening to music?

Maybe both of those at the same time. Will you leave work early and create that physical space, that physical distance? And maybe you'll even get a massage. Although you might have to work through some beliefs on you deserving to leave work at 2 p.m. to go do that. So what is the task? What will you be doing to help you feel better about that? And then what will you actually be doing while someone else is working on the task so that you're not hovering and twirling your thumbs?

Amazing job, truly. Now you know the thing, the reason why you specifically have it have such a hard time with handing things off, with delegating, with outsourcing. And even though you have probably on your list, hire someone, right? I can't tell you how many people I work with where.

Hiring someone new is on their list of things to do because they know that they can't delegate. They know that they have a hard time with that. Yet even when they hire someone new, they still can't delegate. It's it's still the same exact problem. And this is why. So now you know the why, and you started to question it and find proof that the opposite is true. And what you did today alone is so powerful because it creates that space mentally.

And room for more proof to fill in, which makes that space bigger and bigger. And you also created a task for yourself to try it and to see what happens, like real actual proof to continue to happen that will reinforce that you can delegate and the world won't end. You can outsource without guilt or shame. And then use that as proof of what happens as.

That proof that you can keep doing it. So this was really powerful work. If you did want to take it one next step and create a different belief to start embodying it and just speak one-on-one to talk about the different emotions that come up as you do these things, different emotions that come up as you apply this to your relationships or different people that are in, you know, your world in particular.

Then that is what my breakthrough intensive is for. And that also is really great because we talk about integrating it into your life, not just, you know, this one specific example, although that's what we'll start with. Then how can we continue to make this a habit? Again, not just a mantra, but truly what you live by and what comes up for you around that. And then we dig into that. So link for all of the prompts and breakthrough intensive is in the show notes.

Thank you for doing this work with me. I'm so proud of you, and I will see you next week.