Success Leaves Clues

There are so many people out there that have done it before. Why are we afraid to approach them ask for their guidance? Instead we struggle figuring it all out ourselves!

Success Leaves Clues – read those words a few times and think about it for a while.

This is something I read recently in my favourite book The Success Principles (Jack Canfield). This chapter was talking about why people don't put themselves out there and ask others that have already succeeded for help or guidance.

The example used was that Jack was at a hairdresser and asked the stylist ‘what is your big goal in life’. The stylist said, ‘I want to own my own salon’. He asked, ‘what have you done about that’? And the stylist said, ‘nothing because I don’t know where to start’. Jack looked around and suggested that a good start would be to ask someone who already owned their own salon!

As I’ve navigated through the world and been involved in many businesses, consulted and audited hundreds I have realised that this is quite common. Some people do NOT ask, they do NOT follow those clues.

Do you really want to be one of those people? NO!

I thought I'd share with you some of the reasons or excuses why people don't take action. So, to explain – this is when you have an idea, however you don’t take action to fulfill that idea, to fulfill that dream. So why? That's what we want to know.

What are the reasons or excuses that people use?

1. They can ask someone. Fair enough. We don't see others using these resources. So, we don't do it either. Our parents didn't do it. Our friends aren't doing it. Nobody where we work is doing it. So, we're surrounding ourselves with people that aren't leading the way, and therefore we think that's just not the done thing.

2. It's inconvenient. We'd have to drive across town to a meeting. We'd have to take time away from the TV or family or friends. When I read that, I think, well, you mustn’t want it bad enough.

3. Asking others for advice or information puts us up against our fear of rejection. We're afraid to take the risk. Okay. I think I can see that. I can see that this could be a valid point and quite common. It IS scary isn't it? I can accept that however we won't know until we ask, will we?

4. Connecting the dots in a new way would mean change and change even when it's in our best interest. Is uncomfortable. Absolutely agree that it can be scary. Change can be scary and it’s easy for us to slip back into what's comfortable. Pushing yourself outside of those boundaries is change and it is uncomfortable. But again, as I said before if you want something bad enough, you will do it.

Time for some story telling so bear with me while I might go off-track a bit! I want to share something that really made me uncomfortable about 15-20 years ago. I’d always had the dream to facilitate training two or three days a week (my retirement plan), helping people with training in business – back then I didn’t know what exactly but that was my dream. I followed that path even if it was scary. I still remember the first course that I facilitated. I had the owner of the business that I was contracting to in the classroom with me and he was observing and supporting during the training. On the way to that job, I felt physically sick. You know, anxious, scared and so uncomfortable. Even though I had practiced and practiced, and I knew what I had to do back-to-front, it was the unknown that was scary. But you know what? I survived! I persevered because I knew that this was something that I wanted to do, so I pushed through that fear. I pushed through anxiety. Obviously, if I didn't want it bad enough, I wouldn’t have pushed myself so hard. I would have said “I'm not doing that. I feel sick. I can't do it. It makes me feel sick”. But I knew this is where I wanted to go. And now when I’m training in the classroom or working with people on their own businesses or ideas, there is always still a little bit of uncertainly until you get to understand the personality types there and what works best. Over these years, I've learned to deal with all types of different personalities. Once I get that all sorted then I love it - I have a ball. If you want it bad enough, you'll push through that uncomfortableness.

Now I’ll get back on track with the final WHY?

5. Connecting the dots means hard work and frankly, most people don't want to work that hard. And that sort of goes in line with what I've been saying doesn’t it? I agree that it is hard work, but you know what, when I read that, I thought, well that's good for us! It's good for us, for those of us that DO want to push forward because we do want it bad enough. We are able to push through that fear and we’re able to push through that uncomfortableness and continue to challenge ourselves and find out what we need to do to move towards where we want to head.

Remember, there are people out there that have already done it before. If you're going up the path of making your idea a reality, becoming a consultant in your area of expertise, getting your knowledge online, implementing a new system, there's a network of people out there that have already done it! I'm in contact with people I've known for 30 plus years, and we all help each other.

If you want to reach out to someone that may have some clues for you, please comment below or contact me. I’d love to chat with you to guide you through getting your idea, system or knowledge out there and launched.