Building Your New Year Momentum w/ Crystal Kadakia, Full Time CEO, Thought Leader, and Community Builder.
Crystal is an acclaimed speaker and Influencer, focused on helping others build relationships and build better versions of themselves. Crystal experienced growing up balancing two very different communities – her home life created from an Indian immigrant experience and her community life based in Austin, Texas. Those experiences shape her ability to successfully navigate understanding and collaboration in the world of training and development.
AIT was proud to welcome Influencer, Thought Leader, and AIT member Crystal Kadakia to speak on how to keep momentum going once you’ve gotten started on reaching your goals. Sometimes getting started is the tough part, but then how do you navigate keeping that energy up and going? It can be a tough challenge, but Crystal shared her secrets to success to overcome that challenge.
Setting realistic goals also includes creating that vision created from your own dreams and aspirations.
“The bottom line for me in my life is if you can’t dream it, you won’t do it. Everything I’ve done has been based on the size of my dream at any given time. And even if I don’t get all the way to the end, it’s way more than I would have gotten then if I hadn’t dreamed at all.”
– Crystal Kadakia
There are so many great points of view Crystal was able to share in the discussion.
First of which, and this may surprise some of you, is that Crystal did not start out with a vision for becoming a Thought Influencer. She started her professional path as a chemical engineer. This is a very different space than where she has creatively established herself now.
“My path has always been about dreaming really big. And so, I knew I needed to make some leaps.”
– Crystal Kadakia
As Crystal was getting her start with creating her own side hustle on top of keeping her traditional full-time role going, she looked to find ways to create a happier and healthier environment. One big hurdle she overcame was to create a remote-working option. Taking that first step by engaging with her boss to have an up-front discussion, not being afraid to ask for what she wanted, led to getting exactly that.
Creating the virtual work environment allowed Crystal to more actively pursue her other passions and ultimately leave her full-time job. One of those passions was to complete her first TEDx Talk. This was a big opportunity for Crystal to seize the moment and fulfill a challenging goal.
“I just thought, okay, I need a way to…get known in this new town. And that was the way I chose and that’s where I learned that paid speaking was a great value proposition for a full-time viable income.”
– Crystal Kadakia
Crystal continues talking about her journey and describes impossible possibilities:
“An impossible possibility is a future avenue, a change that you want, and can benefit from, but you don’t believe is possible…The Japanese concept of ikigai that is like a raison d’être…And in that, they talk about the difference between this impossible possibility and incremental improvements when you set your goals, and they are easily achievable objectives that you’re sure you can reach.”
– Crystal Kadakia
These incremental improvements aren’t the bigger important thing to focus on, though. What instead needs to have the focus of our attention and force of energy are instead the limiting thoughts or beliefs that stand between you and that impossible possibility. Thinking about past experiences, Crystal describes getting to a mental state where there are too many thoughts that become overwhelming and create a wall of blankness. That blank can feel impossible to move away from. The way she found she was able to work around it was by asking herself the tough questions.
“What’s really behind this? Do I have the energy and the will to change again?”
– Crystal Kadakia
Crystal advises asking yourself the following two questions to work through that wall:
- What doubt has been in the shadows of your mind?
- Is it possible to fill in the blank?
Being able to identify, name, call out that shadow means you can now work on it, and more importantly work through it. This is key to keeping momentum in achieving goals.
“If you leave those doubts in the background, they’re just kind of these invisible energy eaters. And so just take a moment at any moment, to just articulate that for yourself, bring it out of the shadows, put it on the surface, and then just ask yourself, what do I need to hear related to this?”
– Crystal Kadakia
Crystal’s closing valuable point related to energy and keeping momentum running is related to strategy. Strategy involves planning, but also being open to opportunities and experiences you may not be always certain of.
And her key discussion on strategy is looking for the amazing possibility in different. Being open to working with and learning from people who are very different from you serves to give you insight and experience you wouldn’t have access to if you keep in your known circles.
“Go talk to someone in a totally unrelated field, go talk to someone who’s doing door to door knocking, because you don’t know what mental beliefs that person has that could break through a block you might have been having.”
– Crystal Kadakia
AIT and the Competency Model™
AIT is an organization built to support and promote a community of Thought Leaders and Influencers. As Crystal commented, individual development is a key component of finding that bigger purpose and personal passion. AIT can help to ensure the development plan you craft for yourself includes actionable steps, with the right meaningful support to help you get there. AIT can help you get those impossible possibilities checked off!
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