Lobbyist Swagger & Staying in the Moment

Swagger. I just love that word! Words really are whatever we want them to be or mean. I’ve seen folks use “swagger” as not always a good thing, but I think it’s awesome. One day several years ago, I was walking around the Missouri State Capitol Building (the Mo Cap as I like to call it). I spent several days there, old school like in my contract lobbying days, yet that day I viewed it with different eyes.

As I walked around the building, I noticed how people walked. I noticed the swagger. We all have our own way of walking. And as a lobbyist or advocate, we spend a *lot* of time walking the halls there. Looking at our phones, twitching for our phone, waiting for the bells to go off, for something to happen, for somewhere else to run off to. Yet, we are in the moment, continuously observing all around us, everything and everyone around us.

A good lobbyist stays in the moment. That moment where all the possibilities are and where anything can happen next. Anything. The best lobbyists aren’t worried about what’s going to happen next. They think forward in strategy, but their mind is always on where they are and what they are doing. Reminds me of a Yoda quote from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It was one of Yoga’s lessons where he said to Luke that his mind was never on where he was or what he was doing, and that was Luke’s challenge in life. Yoda was training Luke to stay in the present moment where all things are possible. That’s true for a Jedi warrior and for a lobbyist. Yoda would have been a great lobbyist!

I talk in my blog post, Unconditional Love in Lobbying, about the Mo Cap being like a living organism. I think that lobbyists, or the really good ones, feel their way through the moments. There is lots of intuition in that building! Lobbyists going with their gut feelings and their knowings. 

This idea of the present moment is a key for our lives. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in or what you do in your personal life, the moment holds such power. That is where your intuition, knowing and power lies. That is the lesson that Yoda shared with Luke. It is the key to many spiritual paths. 

What is the swagger? It is the confidence. It is the presence. It is being completely and fully in one’s own power. Standing and walking in your own power.  Being centered in each moment, in the present moment. Swagger is how you hold your body and walk in your own power. It is body language.

Body language can tell us so much. Notice how others walk or stand around you. Notice their posture. What does it tell you about them? What you can read about them between the lines?

Then bring your attention to your own posture and body language. Are you standing straight? Are your shoulders slouched? Are you hunching over like a turtle, trying to crawl into your shell? You body can tell you so much about how you are feeling. Are you worrying about what others think of you? Are you scurrying around in fear? Or are you, to borrow a quote from a favorite old movie of mine, Stripes, “walking tall and standing proud,” comfortable in your own skin and standing in your own power? 

Have you found your swagger?

If you find yourself trying to crawl back into your shell, talk to your body. Thank your body for its message, and then change your posture. Even changing how we physically sit, stand or walk can change the way we feel about ourselves. It is honoring the body’s message to us, thanking the body for its message and recognizing the thoughts or emotions that the body just told us about. Then transforming those thoughts through work with our body. 

That’s something you can do wherever you are, whatever you are doing, in each moment. You can do more by working with those thoughts and limiting beliefs that are driving it, and that’s what much of life coaching is about. But even the simple act of noticing your physical body, being present with yourself and then through that, changing your body posture can make such a difference. Then follow up by recognizing your thoughts that ties into your body language.

From that place, then you can make a shift, a change. It’s the first step to embracing your swagger.