The Success Secret Nobody Is Telling You
…that Real Success Needs You to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone. Here’s How:
This is a guest post by James I. Bond
Here’s a success secret few online mentors are willing to tell you.
All the formulas in the world won’t help you when your internal programming is working against you.
As one of America’s leading behavioral management specialists, I’ve been working with business coaches and consultants for decades. What I’ve discovered over the years is that most of us are closer than we realize to a better life and greater success.
And yet, we won’t take the one or two steps needed to cross the threshold, especially if they are slightly outside our comfort zone.
The Greatest Rewards Are Sitting Just Outside Our Comfort Zone
We all know Einstein’s quote: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. There’s a greater truth to this than most of us realize.
We tend to live in a fantasy world, where theory is often mistaken for reality.
We take a few classes and suddenly, we feel like an expert.
In more cases than we’d like to admit, this is “verisimilitude” as we call it — the “perception” of reality — and it embeds deep into our psyche, leading us to ridiculous conclusions and actions at some of the most critical junctures of our lives.
I took tons of Internet marketing classes. Yet, when I tried it for myself, YIKES! No one told me how hard it would be. After six months of struggling, I finally hired a coach and my income skyrocketed, past seven figures. But up to that point, I fooled myself into believing I was an expert.
How Easily We’re Programmed…
Here’s an example of how easily our mind can be led astray.
Read this aloud, and say the answer as quickly as you can…
ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE
TWENTY AND ONE IS TWENTY________.
If you answered twenty-two, you are like most people, and you are wrong. Twenty and One equals Twenty-One!
Without most of us realizing it, habit patterns quickly embed into our mind, and influence just about everything we do, especially our decision-making and problem-solving.
In the famous OJ Simpson trial, attorney Johnny Cochran didn’t use the epic phrase, “If the glove don’t fit you must acquit,” by accident. He knew that a simple rhyme could sway the decision-making of twelve jurors, beyond the impact of much of the evidence.
Especially when people are unsure of what decision to make, a strategically embedded rhyme in the mind of a person could have an incredible impact.
What Does This Have to Do With Our Ability to Achieve Success or Find Happiness…
But what does this have to do with success being about stepping outside our comfort zone?
Everything!
We learn to communicate, to prioritize certain parts of our life over others, to share certain types of information but not others, and more… and it gets embedded into our behaviors. We learn to be comfortable doing certain things, and to be uncomfortable doing others.
They become “habits.”
Even attitudes are habits… habits of thought.
Take public speaking.
I HATED even the idea of being asked to speak in public. Just the thought could give me sleepless nights, and cold sweats.
And yet, after years of Dale Carnegie and Toastmasters, not only am I comfortable speaking, I look forward to the opportunities I’m given.
But it took plenty of work for me to learn, what on paper is a seemingly simple behavior. Actually, it was never about the behavior. It was about the “thinking” about the behavior that affected me, that limited me.
Thinking Paralyzes Us From Doing Simple Things
The same applies to you, and to all of us. There’s so much we could do, but the thinking about it often paralyzes us.
How about cold calling or having to sell, especially to people who are resistant, or perhaps even hostile.
If you had to do that, having to talk to hostile angry people every day, would you be comfortable?
For most of us, the answer is a resounding NO!
And yet, simple activities outside our comfort zone, can feel just as repulsive to us.
Simply trying something new, something different, is often enough to cripple us into inaction.
Think about it.
How often would you rather play with Facebook than pick up the phone and call someone?
Is Personal Coaching an Answer…
This is the reason personal coaching has taken off. Like an athletic coach, a personal coach can get us to do things we cannot do on our own.
Not hard things, but new ones.
With someone kneeling next to us, egging us on, it’s much easier to do an extra eight push-ups or sit-ups. The same exists in business. With someone holding us accountable, it’s easier to do what we know we must do, but will be procrastinated into eternity without someone pushing us.
It’s human nature.
That’s why I believe, as a coach or consultant, our most important role is pushing our clients to do things, even when they resist emotionally. Getting our clients to cross this invisible barrier will deliver such extraordinary results, they will never want us to go away.
It’s incredible!
Helping our clients cross over and do something they would naturally procrastinate, is one of the easiest ways to deliver outstanding success.
Take My Challenge…
This doesn’t just apply to our clients. It applies to all of us.
As with our clients, when we have someone coaching us with the right knowledge, and then pushing us beyond our comfort zone to action, the results we achieve can multiply.
Don’t believe me? Check it out yourself.
In January, I’ll be co-hosting with the International Association of Professional Life Coaches®, a coaching program that will show you how to comfortably get yourself out of your own comfort zone — to accomplish even bigger goals than you are now.
Not just business goals, although that’s important. But life goals… personal goals that will make a profound difference in your life.
I saw someone with a tee shirt that said, “Life sucks and then you die!”
I don’t ever want you to get that tee shirt. I want to show you how to have an even better life, easier than you may have thought possible.
And, I want you to be able to help your clients do the same.
This program has helped hundreds of coaches reach beyond, while increasing the results their clients are achieving in their lives.
(Watch for the announcement.)
But for now, I challenge you to step outside your own comfort zone and join us, and see what happens!
