Praise for You’ve Got This!

Margie is a unique combination of compassion and sophistication, giving her amazing insight and a unique ability to deliver it. Keep the messages of this book ever in your ear, and negative voices in your head will fall away.

— Marianne Williamson, Bestselling author and politician

You’ve Got This! is a high five to the human spirit. It’s a full throttle, rallying cry that inspires, entertains, and instructs. Margie’s compelling and personal stories reveal fundamental truths about what it takes to make extraordinary things happen in your life. This is a big-hearted, hope-raising, humor-filled book you’ll return to whenever you feel doubt, lose confidence, or hit a wall. Keep it handy. I certainly will.

— Jim Kouzes, Co-author of The Leadership Challenge and Executive Fellow, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

Margie Warrell has written a book so compelling that I already have a list of friends and colleagues — both women and men — with whom I can’t wait to share it. She challenges us to move from a fear-based paradigm to a faith-based one — faith in ourselves to overcome even the greatest hurdles and problems. Thank you, Margie, for all you’ve done to help me!

— Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, United Nations Foundation

You’ve got to get this book! Margie provides an accessible, evidence-based road map for flourishing in the midst of life’s challenges.

— Tal Ben-Shahar, New York Times Bestselling author of Happier and Cofounder of Happiness Studies Academy

You’ve Got This! will help you build confidence and slay self-doubt. I strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to rise stronger, lead better and grow their impact in today’s fast moving, ever-changing world.

— Maya Hari, Vice President, Twitter Asia Pacific

You’ve Got This! is packed with hard-won and heart-felt wisdom. If you’ve ever been afraid that you lack what you need to achieve your highest aspirations, this is the book for you.

— Ron Kaufman, New York Times Bestselling author of Uplifting Service

Throughout Margie Warrell’s adventurous life she’s had to reassure herself ‘I’ve got this!’ many times. And don’t we all need that too? Now we have a handbook of how to do just that.

— Jane Wurwand, Founder, Dermalogica

You’ve Got This! is a transformative book for today’s uncertain times. Inspiring, informative and deeply relevant to anyone who ever struggles to have faith in themselves, it will empower you to unleash your true genius and embrace your challenges with the courage to turn them into something truly magnificent that elevates not just your own life, but the lives of all around you.

— Dr John Demartini, Bestselling author of The Values Factor and creator of The Breakthrough Experience

You’ve Got This! will help you decide what you really want and discover within yourself all you need to take the next step.

— Claire Chiang, Co-Founder, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts

Margie Warrell did it again! This book is full of practical wisdom and profoundly motivating advice that you’ll come back to time and time again to be reminded: YOU’VE GOT THIS.

— Susan Brady, CEO, Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Margie Warrell is a shining light; just what this century needs. I found myself reading You’ve Got This! with tears and inspiration. There’s so much value packed in its pages, that reading it several times may be in order.

— David Wood, Coach, Speaker and CEO, PlayforReal

If you want to get out of your own way to evolve into your greatest self, then read this book.

— Rebecca Heino, PhD, Professor and Academic Director, Columbia University

Brimming with practical advice, proven strategies and heart-won wisdom, this book will give you the deep confidence and tools you need to stay grounded when the world around you feels shaky.

— Suzi Pomerantz, CEO, Innovative Leadership International

If you ever doubt yourself too much and back yourself too little, this book is for you. Written in Margie’s down-to-earth yet uplifting style, You’ve Got This! will help you find the courage you need in those moments when it matters most.

— Emma Isaacs, Founder and Global CEO, Business Chicks

This book will deepen your trust in your true voice and spirit so you can move past the fears that keep you from living your fullest potential and highest purpose.

— Warwick Fairfax, Founder, Crucible Leadership

You’ve Got This! is simply one of those books that will be read and re-read again. If you’re looking to find that bit of courage, Margie’s words will inspire you to take the next step.

— Tami Roos, PhD, Bestselling author of Presence to Power

You’ve Got This, makes true on its promise to be life-changing. Far more than a book, it’s an organic experience you’ll reach for again and again to reconnect you to your power. Spoiler alert — You’ve (already) got this!

— Theresa M. Robinson, Author of The WarriHER’s Playbook

Margie Warrell has done it again. Jammed with humour, stories and wisdom, You’ve Got This! will revolutionise your thinking, unleash your potential and transform your life. The question is, are you ready?

— Janine Garner, Entrepreneur and Author of It’s Who You Know

You’ve Got This! will help you conquer the negative thinking that prevents you from unleashing the champion within. Margie’s authenticity shines through, and her courage-building wisdom leaps off every page. It’s time to kick doubt and fear to the curb!

— Layne Beachley AO, World champion surfer, Chairperson, Surfing Australia

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes we have to be braver than we want to be.

And sometimes, when our challenges press in and our fears rise up, a little encouragement can make all the difference.

So when I read a quote by Toni Morrison that said that ‘if there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it’, I took her words to heart.

This is that book.

It’s a book for anyone who needs a little encouragement to trust themselves more deeply and doubt themselves less often.

Whatever circumstances landed this book in your hands, whether by chance of fate or fortune, I’m glad it has. Maybe the title spoke to you or a friend gave it to you. Maybe you stumbled upon it some other way. All I know is that it’s no accident that you’re reading this now.

This book was inspired by my own life experience. In particular, by the many times I’ve needed someone to remind me, ‘You’ve got this!’ There’ve been a few in recent years.

Perhaps you’re currently deciding whether to take a leap of faith in yourself towards a new endeavour or long-held aspiration. One that excites you but also scares you.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a situation you didn’t see coming. One that totally blind-sided you, rocked your world and left you feeling ungrounded, anxious about your future and mired in misgivings.

Or perhaps you’ve ventured out onto that far limb despite your doubts, but now you’re unsure how to navigate the risks ahead, and you find yourself wrangling with fear that your best efforts will be inadequate … that you are inadequate.

I know the feeling. Oh boy, do I know the feeling.

In fact, as I begin this book right now, there is a little voice in the back of my head.

Margie, who do you think you are?

It’s a familiar voice, one I’ve heard countless times. One that has accompanied me on my journey through life. One that, if it had its way, would have kept me from doing pretty much every worthwhile thing I’ve ever done or might yet attempt.

Like write this book.

I’ve come to recognise this as the voice of fear. Of course, fear wears a varied wardrobe and appears in many guises. Only sometimes does it present as the acute paralysing fear that gripped my body the time I went to circus school and stood frozen on the high trapeze platform, unable to reach for the bar dangling in the air in front of me, despite intellectually knowing that falling to my death was impossible. Had it not been for my friends below, hands cupped around their mouths, yelling up to me the titles of my books — ‘Find your courage!’, ‘Stop playing safe!’, ‘Train the brave!’ — I might never have taken the leap. (The upside of this experience was confirmation I’d not missed my calling to run off and join Cirque du Soleil.)

No, more often fear creeps into our lives in far subtler and more insidious forms. As excuses. Judgements. Justifications. Procrastination. Distraction. Self-doubt. Pride. Shyness. Busyness. Sometimes even as arrogance, or righteous indignation. Or a sudden and pressing need to go shopping. Or drinking. Or both.

But the effect is the same.

Fear holds us back. In doing so, it shrinks down how we show up in the world. It narrows our thinking, confines our actions and keeps us from doing the very things that would help us discover how much more we could actually do.

Left unchecked, fear leaves us meandering cautiously through life, mired in inertia, polishing our excuses, justifying our inaction. Over time, it chips away at our confidence, clouds our judgement and fractures our faith — in ourselves and in the dreams we once had.

All the while it holds our happiness, our future and our potential hostage.

SELF-TRUST: A DEEP RELIANCE ON ONE’S INNATE
CAPACITY TO PURSUE A MEANINGFUL LIFE, MEET ITS
CHALLENGES AND GROW FROM THEM.

This book is not just about helping you overcome fear. It’s about helping you build faith. Faith in your unique talents and in your ability to pursue the aspirations that light you up, and to rise above the challenges that might otherwise pull you down.

It’s also about grounding you in your innate resourcefulness, resilience and capacity for life — for all of life, in all its wild, wondrous and messy glory. Emboldening you to trust in yourself so fully that you don’t flinch from pursuing the highest vision for your life because you know that the power within you is greater than any problem outside you.

This will take commitment on your part. Not just for the duration of this book, but for the duration of your life. (Sorry, if you were after a quick fix, this ain’t one!) After all, your fears aren’t something you can defeat once and be done with it … brave forevermore. Because that’s not how life works and that’s not what fear does.

Fear is wired into your psychological DNA to keep you safe from danger — or at least what your brain perceives as a potential threat to your sense of security, safety and status — and let’s face it … they aren’t hard to find.

In today’s climate of fear, we are perpetually bombarded with reasons to feel afraid. Criminal violence. Trade wars. Melting ice-caps. Rising waters. Child predators. Human trafficking. Extremist militants. Cyber attacks. AI domination. Pandemics. Overpopulation.

Those who peddle fear have no shortage of ammunition to fire up your doubts and undermine your confidence to handle what’s coming next. Turn on cable news and you’ll soon be reminded of the perils of today’s world and what happens to those who don’t play life super safe. Fear is the most primal and potent emotion which, left unchecked, can swiftly set up residence in our lives and leave us so anxious and cautious that we risk not living fully at all.

Since venturing out from the safety of my parents’ dairy farm at the age of eighteen, there have been many times I’ve second-guessed my ability to handle what might come next. I’ve had my fair share of heartaches and hardships, struggles and setbacks … a few of which I’ll share in these pages. All have left me, at some point, going nine rounds with my fears, complete with their endless urgings to lower my sights, retreat off that limb and stick closer to home, where it’s more cosy, less perilous.

Countless times while raising my four children, I’ve felt anxious about an uncertain future as my husband Andrew’s work moved us around the world. While I tried to find security from sources outside of myself, in the end, the only effective antidote to my anxiety has come from turning inward. From becoming grounded in my own certainty and cultivating a deeper trust in my own abilities to figure life out as it unfolds.

THE POWER WITHIN YOU IS GREATER THAN ANY
PROBLEM OUTSIDE YOU.

It’s why I embarked on writing this book.

Twice.

The first draft was just for women. Not only because I am one, but because I’ve had a front row seat in the lives of many women and witnessed how much they struggle with (and are stymied by) self-doubt, false beliefs, mother’s guilt and unconscious biases, largely shaped by gendered cultural norms and social conditioning. This draft was going to include much more of my doctoral research into the intersection of gender norms, power and leadership.

But then serendipity intervened. It came in the form of a series of ‘up close and personal’ experiences with men that challenged my thinking. Outwardly, these highly accomplished men embodied self-assuredness, as though coated with psychological Teflon that I (wrongly) assumed rendered them immune to self-doubt. Yet beyond their masculine ‘I’ve got this’ armour, I found a far more vulnerable and less secure side. It brought home to me how much the social norms that hem women in can also stifle men, limiting their emotional freedom and authentic self-expression. Men simply process and react to them differently: less talk, more toughness. And so I returned to first base and began again — this time writing a book for any person who ever struggles to trust fully in themselves, including those whose public persona may radiate self-assurance. I have dedicated a chapter to just men and another to just women, to address the gendered manifestations of self-doubt and vulnerability. (Though whatever your gender, I suspect something in each chapter will resonate.)

So, as I write this now, in a little cabin atop a small hill in a little-known place called Nungurner, I am starting anew on a book for all courage-seekers. (In case you’re wondering ‘Where on earth is Nungurner?’, it’s in the south-east corner of Australia, where I spent the first eighteen years of my life, and where I’m currently visiting my parents.) The reality is that male or female, extravert or introvert, wealthy or working class, each of us has the capacity to forge a deeply meaningful life and to evolve into who we are as human beings … or, as I’ll expand on in the pages to come, as ‘human becomings’.

It begins with daring to ‘trust in our wings’ and believe that we can.

However daunting your challenges, audacious your dreams or entrenched your doubts, within you lie the resources to accomplish more than you may have told yourself is possible. Most of all, starting from today, you have the ability to make fresh choices — to stop selling yourself short and to start living more boldly, deeply grounded in the truth of who you are. Someone who has within them everything they need to deal with every situation outside them.

The inner determines the outer.

Psychologist William James once said that most people live in a restricted circle of their full potential. Certainly, many people never experience the full breadth of their own capabilities or realise their full potential. Fear keeps them living inside the lines, going to their grave with a large gap between the life they did live and what could have been … if only they’d trusted themselves more and been braver.

My intention for this book is to close that gap, or at least to narrow it — to help you build the self-trust required to challenge the beliefs that have hemmed you in (at least until now!); to embolden you to think bigger about what is possible for you, and, when life’s storms blow in, to trust in your ability to ride them through with more grace, less angst.

What I’ve learnt from my fifty years on this planet is that when we dare to step back from the beliefs we’ve been buying into — to question our assumptions and lean into our vulnerability — a whole new realm of possibilities opens up. Possibilities that can transform our very experience of being alive.

Your future is unwritten. You are the author. If the pages in this book become well-worn and well-read, then I’ll be deeply honoured. If not, I will content myself knowing that it found its way into your hands for a short while and trust that it made some impression, however humble.

And in the end, isn’t that what matters most? That we do the best we can with what we’ve been given — to find peace in ourselves and to leave a positive imprint on the canvas of others’ lives?

At least I think so.

Learning to trust fully in ourselves is the work of a lifetime. My hope is that this book can help to open your heart and strengthen your spirit along your journey to living a braver, more whole-hearted life.

So here’s to rekindling the relationship you have with the highest and deepest parts of yourself.

Here’s to you living each day grounded firmly in a foundation of faith — trusting that you are here for a purpose, that every challenge holds a silent invitation to infuse a deeper dimension into your life, and that, no matter what happens, you can handle it.

Most of all, here’s to you being braver than you want to be, finding the courage to move towards a future that inspires you, however unnerving, and looking at your reflection in the mirror and fully embodying the words that come out of your mouth when you say, ‘You’ve got this.’

Because you know what? You do.

Let’s journey together.

After all, we can be far braver together than we ever can alone.

Praise for You’ve Got This!

you’ve got this!

THE LIFE-CHANGING POWER OF TRUSTING YOURSELF

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

the daring