Break through your comfort zone
A wise mentor once told me, Paulina if you want success then you’ve got to be comfortable being uncomfortable, have a crack and experience pain. Because with pain comes great gain.
And as much as it pained me to hear it, he was right.
When I think about all the things I have achieved in my life, it’s because I have put myself in uncomfortable situations to make it happen. And even more so, when I have needed to change my career, improve my health, relationships and finances, it’s because I had created so much pain for myself that I had no-where else to go.
As the character Red said in the movie Shawshank Redemption, “you can get busy living or get busy dying”….and I guess that’s the truth. We have choice about how we want to live, how we want our life to be and the type of person we want to be in our life.
Why start up businesses fail within 5 years
A couple of years ago when I started up my business and entered the life of an entrepreneur, a bit of trepidation came with it because the success rate of a small business surviving past five years wasn’t great. A recent report on smallbiztrends.com stated that of small businesses that started in 2014 (USA):
- 80% made it to the second year (2015)
- 70% made it to the third year (2016)
- 62% made it to the fourth year (2017)
- 56% made it to the fifth year (2018).
And the main reason for failure was no market need (42%) which makes sense that the next reason was ran out of cash (42%) and not the right team (23%). Not surprising, poor marketing, poor customer service and poor product came in the last top ten causes, which again makes sense if you don’t work out the market need in the first place and spend money trying to pushing out a product or service, no matter how great your marketing is, if no one wants what you have to offer then nothing else is going to work.
What I do know, is that consumers buy what they want not what they need. This is a common mistake I see my clients make and why they reach out for coaching. Taking a big idea to market that they believe people need without establishing the desire in the first place.
And sadly, from this study more than 49% respondents started their own business because they were ready to work for themselves and wanted to pursue their passion. They had a dream….and that’s where it pretty much stopped.
Let’s ponder
So in my ponder today, which you can also listen to as a podcast I am questioning why our default behaviours tend to lean us to pain first before we get pleasure? Why do people who have a dream to run a business more often fail than succeed? Why do people endure pain in their business rather than get help to succeed? Why do they do it alone?
Personally, I believe it’s lack of confidence and fears are main reasons why new business owners start to back away.
Let me dive into fear and what I believe.
Fear is naturally occurring in all humans, either triggered by a chemical response or an emotional response. Fear can be good in the sense that when we sense danger our fight, flight or freeze mechanism kicks in to protect us from harm. However, fear can also be triggered when we feel stressed and emotions like anxiety, frustration, overwhelm or sadness can lead us to procrastinate, be distracted or avoid doing stuff that matters.
The thing is, our thoughts control our actions and our energy is determined on what we focus on. Fear is not permanent. Not having confidence is not permanent. We can change these two things by changing our thoughts and our actions. When I coach, I get my clients to do three essential actions – change their story (to be one with empowering beliefs), change their state (to be of high energy and peak momentum) and change their strategy (take a new direction and focus on what you want not what you don’t have). These three actions alone help my clients overcome fear and gain confidence instantly.
I do believe that even with all the capability and competence you may have, if you don’t have confidence to execute all that you know and all that you have learnt, your business will not thrive. If you don’t have courage to ask for help, if you are not willing to learn from mistakes or if you do not believe you can have success in the first place, then yes the likelihood of not surviving past five years could be real.
You are your resource. You don’t have to wait for something to happen. You can go get it and make it happen. And the beauty of giving things a go is that you will learn from it, from what you gain or what you don’t. There is a golden lesson in everything.
I love this quote from Tony Robbins, “If I can imagine it, I can achieve it”.
And achieving “it” will only come when you take action. But action alone isn’t enough. You have to have empowering beliefs that enable you to take the right actions, you have to change your story. Tony has designed a framework that is embedded in my brain because it works.
Take rapid action
He says optimal performance and success can be achieved if you follow this sequence:
Beliefs>Potential>Results>Action.
What I love about this framework is:
- Beliefs are things we hold to be true. Limiting beliefs hold us back and put us in a negative state because we focus on all the things we can’t have, waste time blaming others and deploy actions that lead us down the wrong path. For example, if you want wealth but believe you are not worthy of having wealth, then you may take unresourceful actions to waste your money instead of managing it wisely.
- Everybody has Potential. There has always been a time in our life when we once couldn’t do something and then did it, getting through my first job interview comes to mind when I think about this! I believe in the first year of business, 80% of people in the com study made it to their second year because they had nothing to loose and they believed they are going to give it a good go. But as times got tough and too hard, this belief started to change to something like, it’s too hard to run a business, I don’t have the money to sustain it and I no longer enjoy it. When the brain triggers stress, the hormone cortisol releases emotions like anger, frustration and overwhelm. And when we are in this state it’s very difficult to see the trees through the woods and actions like procrastination and avoidance can kick in. It makes sense that anyone on this journey gives up by year five and decides their dream is not worth it. On the flip side, when we change our beliefs to be ones that lift us and change our state by taking rapid actions, our brain will release the hormone adrenalin, which you may know enables us to be motivated. When we are motivated and calm our brain also opens up our potential to have perspective and when we have perspective we make better decisions. Even as a coach, I get coaching. I 100% I will have a successful business that will lead me to have financial freedom and with this belief I consistently work on my business, work hard to bring epic value to my clients and I get coached so I have personal support, ongoing development and I align myself with other people sharing the same dreams. Potential is inside of us, it’s just a matter of accessing it by having empowering beliefs.
- Results – I am a big fan of starting with the end in mind. If you want results then you must know what it is you want and articulate what the end result actually is. And write it down so you can see it every day – have focus because when you focus on what you want you will have it (ie Law of Attraction states this). The road ahead is much clearer when you know where you are heading. We are our own GPS – start with your end destination then drive towards this. And more importantly, behave like you have achieved your results. Have standards that guide your behaviour, behave congruently with your values (or establish these if they are not aligned with your business goals), have expectations on yourself and others and decide what your personal attributes are that represent the person you are WANT to be…
- Action – once you have your result nice and clear, only take actions that will get you there. Start with clearing out the decks on all the stuff you waster time on. Having a not to do list is way better than a to do list. Simply track all that you do in one week from the time you wake to the time you sleep and highlight all the things in your business you can delegate, automate and stop doing. With this knowledge then decide every week the top 5 actions that will get you closer to your goal and only focus on these. An exhaustive to do list and just a mask for telling others you are “really busy”. Be busy doing things that matter and stop wasting time on shit that adds no value to your business. This maybe your get comfortable being uncomfortable moment!
And look lastly, I want to add, start focusing more on others than yourself. Stop over analysing yourself, over thinking or justifying everything before you do something. When we help others and contribute in ways that bring value, our confidence will improve. When we have confidence, we are calmer and able to have perspective, enabling us to think better and own our decisions. When we have confidence, our capability and competency will grow.
Knowledge is power with action, so take this, and together with confidence start to notice how easier it is to live and work outside your comfort zone. Over the other side of your comfort zone is where you will experience growth and have more certainty with your business.
Break through your comfort zone now
If you want support in working beyond your comfort zone and having confidence then book now for a free 45-minute Strategy Call. A good way to start your rapid action now.
And remember you can also jump in and listen to the podcast.
