People who engage in successful activity share a common trait — their action is consistent with their message. People buy from emotion — they buy the messenger before they believe the message. People feel conviction — they feed from your confidence. They buy both message and messenger when your confidence is compelling, and confidence is compelling when it is the residue of competence.
The cost of success is perseverance, resilience and habit. Each trait is subject to the strength of your willpower, the clarity of your vision and the awareness of the cost that is demanded in your quest to move forward. Self-knowledge carries with it an obligation to act upon that which we have learned.
Fear can make you a victim — a victim of self-defeating thought, unwilling to think or express your inner most dreams, needs or “must-haves.”
Fear told Richard Branson not to start Virgin Airlines; he didn’t listen to the voice. Fear told George Washington he wouldn’t survive the winter, he got on that boat at Valley Forge, and we’re living today from the courage of that historical move forward. The more we believe our fears, the stronger they become. Fear prefers to isolate you, casting shadows of uncertainty from the well of your imagination.
We can sustain forward motion if:
- We are accountable to the process, but not the outcome. We influence the outcome by remaining accountable to the process.
- We remain cautious not to assign self-worth to an opinion of another to the external events that are outside of your span of influence. If your self-worth is attached to the opinion of others or to external events, your confidence and self-esteem will fluctuate and take the roller coaster ride on the tracks of that which you cannot control.
- We realize that safe doesn’t wake up our survival instinct; it slumbers in the zone of comfort. Increase happens when we wake up, feel the twinge of fear, the scream of the lizard and move forward.
- We understand that fear of personal responsibility creates helplessness. We must be the authors of our story; personal accountability is the essential nutrition of personal growth. If it is to be, it will be up to you to make it happen. Find a way or make a way!
- Change the flow of the business dynamic by acting now! Know the difference between destination and distraction. The former is a product of clarity, the latter, the residue of resistance.
Move forward — everything involves the next step. Think forward, and move in the direction of your compelling pull. The sweetness of the reward is found on the edge — the place where self-doubt is overcome by confident competence, mastery and resolve. Have self-belief and conviction, prepare for your success, and forge the habits that make those dreams come alive from the recesses and shadows of doubt, worry and insecurity.
Bill Wooditch, author of “Always Forward! Discover the 7 Secrets of Sales Success” (www.Wooditch.com), is the founder, CEO and president of The Wooditch Group, a privately held risk management and insurance services firm. He is also the founder of Think Next, Act Now!, a learning forum that trains tomorrow’s entrepreneurs today.
