'Success is often achieved by those who don't know that
failure is inevitable.' - Coco Chanel.
How's your internal negative voice today? You know the
one. The one that tells you things like 'that'll never
work', 'that's a stupid idea', 'who on Earth would want to
buy this stuff from you?', 'you really think you can run
your own business—who are you kidding?', 'there are
so many other businesses like yours out there, being run by
better people with more experience and knowledge—you
haven't got a chance', 'that's a ridiculous goal, it's too
big—you've got no hope of ever reaching it.'
The good news is it's not just you, most of us have got
those voices. And what do we do about it? Unfortunately
we tend to listen, and even worse—believe them!
The great news is that you can do something about it! Think
of a project you've been mulling over. You think it's a
great idea and could be a fantastic success but you've been
holding back on it.
What's stopping you? Is that that voice inside your head
telling you that failure is inevitable?
There are some powerful questions you can ask yourself
which will help you to silence that voice.
Make sure you can remain undisturbed for a few minutes so
that you can truly let your mind concentrate and open up to
new thoughts. You may find a pen and paper useful to jot
down any ideas that come to you. Then ask yourself the
following questions. Really take your time in answering
them, ensure you explore every possibility.
- What's stopping me from moving forward with this
idea/project?
- If there were no obstacles in the way, what would I do?
- If the voice is wrong, what would that mean? What effect
would that have?
- What evidence do I have, based on past occurrences, that
the voice could be wrong about this?
- The part of me that this voice represents is trying to
protect me. And I thank it for that. How would that part
of me react if I, having taken everything into
consideration, gave this project a go?
- Does that part of me agree that it's worth trying?
- If I knew I could not fail, what would I do?
When we try something new it is often the case that it
doesn't work perfectly first time. The people to whom Coco
Chanel was referring either don't have that negative
internal voice telling them it won't work or, more likely,
they have learnt to control it. The result is that they go
ahead. And if it doesn't quite work they still don't
listen to the voice. What they do instead is make some
changes and try again. Making changes is essential. After
all 'if you always do what you always did, you will always
get what you always got.' And if it still doesn't quite
work, they make some more changes and try again. And so on
until, inevitably, they succeed.
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© Emma Wortt of Em-powering U, April 2008. All Rights
Reserved.
Emma Wortt is a qualified Professional Coach and NLP
Practitioner. She runs her business Em-powering U to coach
and support those who have started or who want to start
their own small business. If that's you and you would like
to read more articles like this one you can sign up for the
Em-powering U FREE newsletter at
http://www.em-powering-u.co.uk
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