CONNECT with Sheila Botelho Podcast

Permission to Dream Bigger - Trusting Yourself Beyond the Fear of Disappointment | EP 483

• Sheila Botelho

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🔗 Mentioned on this Episode: Show Notes 👈


In today’s solo chat, I'm inviting you to rethink something you’ve probably been taught for years: the idea that you should always temper your expectations. As we move into Q2, it's the perfect time to reflect on how this mindset might be quietly capping your potential — and what a healthier, more empowering approach could look like.


We’ll talk about why so many of us learned to brace for disappointment, the hidden cost of constantly "managing" our dreams, and what it really means to hold bold visions while staying grounded. I’m sharing personal stories, real-world reflections, and a simple way to reconnect with your ability to hope fully — without losing your discernment or your edge.


If you're craving a deeper sense of trust in your path, this conversation will help you recalibrate your energy and remind you that true resilience isn’t about shrinking your dreams — it’s about expanding your capacity. You’ll walk away with a powerful reflection prompt to support your next season of growth.

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Sheila:

Most of the biggest wins I've experienced personally and professionally came when I didn't temper my expectations. Today, I'm sharing how allowing yourself to hope fully, without clinging to a specific outcome, will put you at an advantage that most people miss. We'll unpack why guarding your dreams isn't protecting you. What healthy hope looks like and a reflection practice that you can use today hope looks like and a reflection practice that you can use today. Imagine leading your next big idea full of energy, without feeling like you have to dim your excitement just to be realistic. Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botelho podcast. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your wellbeing and build your version of a happy, successful life. Your wellbeing and build your version of a happy, successful life. It's so good to be with you here today, and today's episode is a real-time reflection as we step into Q2 of 2025. Now, on the episode prior to this one, the mini-sode, we talked about checking in with where you're at and honoring your inner seasons, so if you missed it, definitely go back and listen after this one. It'll add an extra layer of grounding to what we're talking about today. Because here I want to gently challenge something that many of us, especially seasoned, successful people business owners, entrepreneurs have internalized without even realizing it, and that is the idea that we, more often than not, need to lower our expectations or brace ourselves before dreaming too big.

Sheila:

I remember one of the first times I got really excited about a new opportunity. It was early in my entrepreneurial journey and it was the kind of thing where every cell in your body lights up and almost immediately someone close to me said that sounds really great, but just be realistic, you don't want to get your hopes up. And it came from love it almost comes from love right In a place where people want us to feel safe. However, I didn't really appreciate hearing that, because it kind of took the wind out of my sails. I mean, it's true that the people around us don't want to see us hurt or disappointed, but what I didn't realize at the time is how moments like that start weaving into the fabric of how we move through the world. Over time, I noticed I would get less and less animated about opportunities. I'd catch myself saying things like oh, we'll see what happens instead of I'm so excited about this and I'm going to work on moving this forward. It was a quiet, slow contraction and for many of us, especially those of us who are the people who are running after things in certain directions in our circles, it became the way we protected ourselves.

Sheila:

So here's the thing when we learn to temper our expectations as a way of life, we don't just avoid disappointment, we also avoid fully living, and I believe that dreaming is the thing that comes first before we actually step into something new. Dreaming of the possibilities is often the place where really cool ideas come from, and advancements and really having everybody's imaginations working at full capacity. It needs to start with a dream, and so what I started noticing was when I dimmed my excitement in advance. I also dimmed my energy, my magnetism and my belief in what's possible. And the things that require boldness, like launching new things, creating something from scratch in your brain, pitching a collaboration, making a big move. They need your full energy behind them, not the half-hearted oh let's not get our hopes up type of version, and one time I allowed myself to throw that rule out the window. Specifically, I remember I had a project in my mind and this vision, I mean. It definitely felt out of reach, but instead of pre-bracing for it not to work out, I leaned into full hope that this or something better was going to advance. It wasn't fake positivity, it was genuine excitement paired with real action. Right, we can live in our minds in the excitement too. Right, action is the key to moving things forward. And guess what happened? The opportunity that came from it was bigger and better than anything I could have planned, not because I manifested it perfectly, but because I stayed available to the full experience and I showed up with energy that people could feel. You may have experienced this where you have an idea or you have an event that you're going to be spending time at, and you can walk into a room and you're like in any kind of different energy. But something happens when you are in the energy of possibility, it's like something inside of you lights up, that attracts people to want to connect with you that otherwise would not happen. And this is kind of like what happened for me, and it tends to happen a lot for me.

Sheila:

I also know those times where we just we put out those vibes. We all have our days right when we just we have to go out and do something. Let's say, we're in our community and we have to run into the store quickly and we just we're in one of those moods where we need to be to ourselves. We have to get back. We're really feeling like laying low that day. We don't want to bump into anyone, we know, so we don't get pulled into a conversation. We don't get pulled into a conversation, and so you kind of walk in and you have that vibe like, okay, like I'm focused, nobody talked to me, like it's not that you're unkind, but you have that vibe right. And you just know there's certain people, okay, I think they want to be on their own and have their own space. Right now, we have the ability to direct our energy any which way, and so I want to remind you of that. We do have some power in this area.

Sheila:

And now what I've noticed is there is a nuance to all of this, like everything right and I'm not talking about a naive hope, right, I'm thinking about a healthy hope versus detached dreams. I'm not just saying just be positive and expect everything to go your way. You're way too experienced for that advice. What I'm talking about is allowing yourself to want what you want, while also trusting yourself enough to handle whatever comes next. It's hope rooted in self-leadership.

Sheila:

There are those times where we say I really want this thing and we get those feelings inside of us of what's possible and it almost feels too big. Can we hold this? Can we be trusted with moving forward with this? That's why I say we need to trust ourself to handle whatever comes next. Sometimes that might be the piece that's missing. We want the thing, we're ready to take the action, we're completely capable, but we don't trust ourselves. Maybe for this unknown of what it could mean in our lives. Will I be able to fulfill on what I say I'm gonna do? Am I gonna let people down? I don't know. And fulfill on what I say I'm going to do? Am I going to let people down? I don't know. And guess what? The only way we can actually know if we can trust ourself is by taking a step into it. It can feel scary.

Sheila:

One of my favorite examples of this was a time when something I really wanted a big speaking opportunity didn't pan out. At first it stung a bit, as these things sometimes do, but because I didn't make it mean anything about my worth or my future, I stayed open and within a month, an even better opportunity landed in my lap, one that was far more aligned with the direction I wanted to take, my brand, and it's not that I let go of hoping for what I wanted, it's just I stayed flexible in how I could show up. And when we move in this way, we realize that we are the safety net. Right, you are the safety net, you are the strategy, you are the momentum.

Sheila:

It's all about you, in this sense, with your dreams. And what about them, those dreams of yours? They are not a liability, they are a portal into your next evolution. It's like taking steps forward in this idea of possibility, allowing yourself to get excited about it. It's a whole other level of growth. That is very different, I will say, than where I started out in the business world, where let's set our concrete goals and there's a pathway, and it felt very locked in and linear. And I realize even business plans will change over time. But when you add that energetic layer to it of your hopes and your dreams and having a little bit of playful action in there as well, it does help you be more flexible and creative and open to other possibilities. In fact, you start to see other possibilities more readily when you have that openness.

Sheila:

So here is the reflection that I want to leave you with today? Where have you been dampening your excitement out of fear of disappointment? What would it feel like to allow yourself to get your hopes up again, trusting that you'll have your own back no matter what happens? Because here is what I have found, and I believe this could be some kind of a law of life, right? Energy naturally rises and falls. Energy naturally rises and falls. We are seasonal beings living in a cyclical world. You can't stay guarded forever and expect full growth.

Sheila:

Hope really isn't reckless. It is vital. It's what keeps your life, your creativity, your life force expanding and everything else that you do your relationships, your business, your wellbeing Hope. Hope is the thing that gets us out of bed in the morning. Hope is the thing that lets us start again, try again, pick up the phone and make another call, send another email. That is hope.

Sheila:

And so, to wrap this up, hope is not something that we outgrow, it's not something just for children. It's something we grow into, actually, and as we age. It's about deeper, wiser and stronger hope. It is like building your faith muscle. I think faith and hope are so interconnected and the only way they get stronger is when we practice them. We need to practice faith. We need to practice hope. It needs to be something every single day that we're working on.

Sheila:

And if today's conversation about this resonated with you and you want to reconnect with that energy of dreaming boldly and feeling grounded, be sure to grab your access to the embodied success method, meditation. It is a beautiful, easy starting point to start anchoring back into your next season of success, and doing it from a really authentic place inside of yourself, tuning out all of the noise and all of the other ways of doing things, and allows you to get playful and creative with yourself. The link for it is in the show notes, so go check it out. Thank you so much for being here with me. I can't wait to hear what opens up for you after today's episode and after practicing some of these things and having this reflection that I shared with you today. So thank you for listening, have a beautiful rest of your week and I'll see you on another episode. Big blessings.