Becoming Indomable
The Mindset Needed for Taking on the World
By Virginia Lacayo, Ph.D.
We are living in an era where consciousness is no longer optional.
More and more people, especially young people and business leaders, are paying attention to and working on developing their level of consciousness and living more aligned with their values.
They are seeking therapy, they are hiring coaches, they are meditating, going to retreats, reading books, listening to podcasts, and getting mentors and spiritual guides. They are doing the work. And with consciousness comes the need to change.
Have you noticed this in yourself? Once you evolve, once you understand yourself and the world around you in a different way, you cannot stay the same. It becomes an itch. You start questioning your career, your job, your relationships, your habits, and even your thoughts and old beliefs. That’s the most powerful part: when you realize you are not your thoughts and emotions, you have far more control over your life than you realized you had. Then you feel the need to go further. You need to explore more. Learn more. Be more.
You might start by quitting bad habits and starting healthy ones. You might work on your relationships - maybe even letting go of some of them. You might change some of your old systems in your daily life or career. You might even change your job or career. What is clear is that since you are not the same, your life can not stay the same either. It has to be better. It has to match your new level of consciousness.
Personal, social, and systemic consciousness
Self-awareness is the first level of consciousness and fortunately, we have an increasing number of people achieving that level. But it doesn’t stop there.
After you become self-aware, and you work deeply to change yourself and your immediate surroundings, you start becoming aware of what happens in the systems that you are part of. Here, you have reached the second level of awareness: social consciousness. You start observing the patterns of interactions within your company, organization, and your community. Your eyes are open to different forms of oppression, discrimination, and exclusion in these various areas. It feels wrong. So you start either protesting against them or using your power and status to change them.
If you are the founder or CEO of your company, you already have the advantage to make those changes. But even if you are a mid-level leader within the organization, you will use whatever authority you have available to change the dynamics of power within your team, department, or organization.
If you keep growing, if you keep doing the work, if you keep asking questions, a third and higher level of consciousness will arise. This is what I call Systemic consciousness.
When you become aware of the System’s flaws, continuing to do “good things” within the System is no longer enough. You can’t ignore the strong calling to change the damn System.
And that is what we need now: we need high conscious leaders, who are using their power and status, to answer their calling to change the system in a way that directly benefits and advances humanity.
But to challenge a change in the System is easier said than done. You cannot approach systemic change with the same strategies, leadership skills, and mindset you use to change your personal life and organization. For those, you could use your consciousness, your skills, your power, and your status to make things happen. But if you fight the System, the System will fight back. And you need to be prepared.
For over 25 years I have worked with, led, and coached hundreds of women activists and social leaders in different countries across three continents. I have also been an activist and social entrepreneur myself. So I have learned a thing or two about what it takes to challenge the status quo. I will always coach activists and other leaders without power on how to fight the System for their rights. Yet with the launch of Massive last year, the mindset needed to take on the world took on additional significance as it applies to those with power. They need to learn what all history shapers have done: how to become Indomable.
An Indomable Mindset
Based on my studies on complexity, systemic change, individual and collective behavioral change, and my own experience as an advisor, consultant, and coach, I came to the conclusion that the only way to attempt to do something way bigger than oneself is by developing what I call an Indomable Mindset.
“Indomable” is a Spanish word (my native tongue) that loosely translates to “unable to be domesticated” or “untameable.”
Indomable is not about being a rebel, a contrarian, or an outlaw. And it’s certainly not a martyr mindset. Indomable isn’t about grit or the ability to grind. It is not about being unbreakable or some sort of emotional endurance athlete. It is not about traditional masculine mindsets or dominating in any way.
Indomable is none of these. Indomable is a type of consciousness. It is the mindset needed to take on the world; to tackle systemic change.
Besides having a strong calling to make a difference, resources, and influence, a conscious leader needs to develop the following Indomable skills:
1) Critical Mind
A true critical mind is not just about a healthy skepticism about information, news, and what other people say. It is mostly the ability to not blindly believe the stories you tell yourself. An Indomable mindset helps you transcend a witnessing mind (of your thoughts and feelings) to having a critical mind (examining where thoughts and feeling really come from).
The System is a propaganda machine that has conditioned us to believe that all its ideas are ours and are true. A critical mind equips you to challenge assumptions and identify the limiting beliefs created by a system in order to sustain itself.
A critical mind helps you see through the bullshit, especially your own. It frees you to have a healthy perspective of things and puts you in a state of ongoing curiosity where you perpetually seek opportunities hidden in the invisible and in the shadows.
2) Ego-Mastery
Emotional intelligence teaches how to manage your reactions but Indomable teaches you how to master your ego and the thoughts and emotions that drive your reactions. With an Indomable mindset, you go from a reacting mind to a mastered mind.
The ego uses our emotions to control our behavior. The ego’s role is to protect us from anything that it perceives as potentially risky or painful (it doesn’t distinguish the difference between real physical pain and emotional pain). Therefore, doing new things or difficult things, and especially things that will expose you to others, that will put you in the spotlight, will make you a target for criticism and attacks, your ego will sabotage at all costs.
If you don’t master your ego, it will produce emotions that will prevent you from taking any action aimed at changing the status quo.
The System cannot make you think or feel anything, but it will use your thoughts and emotions (your ego) against you, especially with feelings like self-doubt, despair, anger, hopelessness, confusion, and fear.
Ego-mastery, therefore, is having power over your mind; which makes you capable of handling the gaslighting that comes with agitating a system. By controlling your mind, you overcome self-sabotage and paralyzing thoughts and emotions. When you are not afraid of feeling fear, you fear nothing.
3) Elite Decision-making
Basic consciousness helps us to accept and witness our thoughts and feelings. Indomable takes it up a notch to where you are deciding your thoughts and feelings even before your reactions. This leads to elite decision-making and the ability to identify and take action on pressure points that will shake the system.
When you are operating at this level of decision-making, you are choosing intentionally the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that best serve you in any situation. It is the difference between an accepting and reacting mind to a deciding and intentional mind so that you trust yourself to always do the right thing - especially under pressure.
4) Humble Confidence
You have reached the level of achieving mind when you can set your mind to something and accomplish it. The achiever mind acquires confidence from a sense of competence. Indomable is a deeper level of humble confidence where you trust your capacity to deal with anything and face adversity and obstacles - even if they are not in areas of competency.
Humble confidence transcends competency to a deeper trust that carries you through adversity, unpredictability, and obstructions. Trusting yourself is the unshakeable belief in your vision, mission, and your capacity to overcome any obstacle and figure things out.
5) Systemic Consciousness
The controlling mind is learning how to work within existing systems to maintain a level of control and influence. This is how most people define “power”. Indomable introduces the next level of systemic consciousness. This is the ability to identify patterns, connections and data points - then leverage these to put pressure on a system to change and ultimately become self-regulating and growth-oriented.
Systemic consciousness is understanding how things really work and identifying patterns and connections that others miss - which gives you a significant strategic advantage to take on systemic change from within.
6) Creative Muscle
High achievers tend to over-emphasize the logical/rational side of the brain and don’t give enough space or credibility to creativity and intuition. Indomable is not about leaving behind the logical mind. It is learning how to have the logical mind work in service to the creative mind. This allows you to cede control, tap into the collective intelligence and be open to more solutions.
Creative muscle is then, the ability to utilize your imagination and skills to create value that didn’t exist before. Creativity is a skill that must be developed. Once you’ve trained the creative part of the mind, you can build new ways of interacting with each other, invent systems no one has thought of before, and lead the designing of a new and more equitable future.
7) Infinite Growth
Business leaders are often motivated by checking things off their lists and getting shit done. Of course, there will also be a time and place for that kind of achievement but Indomable is moving into a state of growth mindset where you allow for new ideas and possibilities; creating a perpetual sense of optimism, moving from a finishing mind to an infinite mind.
Having an infinite mind allows you deeply enjoy personal growth. It is realizing there are endless opportunities to grow, challenge your own limits and imagine what’s possible. This is the fun part that most leaders never reach!
Indomable: A mindset for change and a framework of consciousness
I refer to Indomable as a framework of consciousness because it is on a spectrum and there is no finish line. If you are someone who has done your own inner work (hired a coach, have a mindfulness and/or spiritual practice), you probably notice that your relationship with your mind and with the world has changed - hopefully for the better!
However, I would encourage you to ask yourself two questions: 1) what is next for my relationship with my mind? And 2) How is my level of consciousness reflected in my commitment to systemic change?
As I said earlier, if you fight System, the System will fight back.
Think of any great leader who has shaped history. They all acquired or developed at some point, the following: 1) A strong calling, 2) a strong thought leadership brand, 3) power and influence (the capacity to make things happen), and 4) an Indomable mindset.
Most people believe that having a lot of money, influence, connections, and strong leadership to shift public opinion in favor of your ideas is enough to tackle systemic change. I would like to challenge that assumption.
Many great leaders started with a strong calling and an Indomable mindset. Power and influence came after. Think of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and other great activist leaders. Even if Mandela had all the money in the world and a strong brand, without an Indomable mindset he would not have been able to survive decades of imprisonment and isolation he was submitted to by a System that didn’t want to change. And he would not have been able to lead a new society based on compassion, justice, equity, and humbleness.
When your idea is threatening to the System, it means you are on the right path. The System will allow you, even encourage you to do some “good deeds” and tweak the rules a little because it knows that those little exceptions keep people content, make them believe they are doing something, there is progress, and therefore, keep the system in place.
But when you start working outside the System’s boundaries and that work could lead to a massive systemic change, the System will use all its forces to ostracize, gaslight, diminish and even destroy the threat (and its promoter).
You will need all the power and influence you can get, you will need a strong thought leadership brand to get the support of the market and public opinion, and you will need your own support system to keep you going. But nothing replaces the need for an Indomable mindset.
Start with Your Calling
Where does someone start? Well, hiring me to coach you is a good start! I have a 2-year coaching experience that covers all of the above.
But even if you are not certain you want to change the world right now, you can still improve your relationship with your mind, take your consciousness to the next level, significantly improve your life and make a bigger impact in your organization or community.
If you do any of those, you will be joining a growing community of conscious leaders who are proving that:
Addressing social issues is a good business model.
Embracing diversity, and showing that tapping into collective intelligence and creativity unlocks innovation.
The next generation of leaders will have better role models to follow.
The starting point is your calling. And I believe we all have a calling. Go inward. Listen for it. Then listen to it.
As John Lewis said: “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble”
So….what good trouble are you going to get in next?