A Different Sort of Courage

Whether we are focused on healing our bodies, healing our society or healing the planet, we are being asked for a different sort of courage. This courage is being ask of all of us, from child to elder, from laborer to manager, from humble to wealthy.

This courage differs from the courage of the lone fighter, the hero risking death to save loved ones, the individualist going it alone to the heights of success. The courage to give yourself in death for what you believe has changed the world yet it is an unsustainable courage and it paralyzes growth and healing. Only by developing a courage steeped in nurturing, love and openness can we hope to heal ourselves and our world.

This different courage is about looking inward, rather than outward; about facing the demons inside our heads that may not lead to individual death but definitely lead to the death of human potential; about finding solutions that include and support even those we disagree with; about creating rather than destroying.

It is a question of expanding a woman’s natural instinct

Women know this courage in the context of their personal communities because of their biological charter as generators and nurturers of the human species. Their first instinct is to save and protect life within the bounds of their “circle of caring”: family, tribe, culture, religion, nation. This instinct to save, to connect, to nurture is the source of a new way of seeing and solving problems and a new way of experiencing the world. In this nurturing instinct we have the building blocks to create a new humanity that can achieve its genius in harmony with nature and each other.

What we must do is expand this instinct beyond the “circle of caring” and develop its potential into tools, beliefs, patterns of engagement and unconscious governors of our actions. This uses a different kind of courage that is willing to open, to include, to love, to grow, to change, to look inward to make a difference outward.

Can we shift a primal instinct?

In order to expand the nurturing instinct beyond the circle of caring we must address what is most scary about reaching out to someone who is outside the circle and thus is categorized as “other”. When we go beyond the boundaries of “us” into “them” we automatically wonder: what if their success is a threat to my existence? If I include them can we both survive? The thoughts are so scary that we are generally unaware that we have thought them and we unconsciously make the decision to protect our existence by denying them theirs. For what is more frightening to the mind than non-existence?

When I am assured of my survival then I can easily reach out to help others. When my survival is in doubt then my response is to close, to protect, to create barriers between me and the “other”, to take a stance of “me first” and create reasons why my survival is more important than theirs.

The basic questions are:

1. Am I willing to develop the courage to hold my fear of non-existence at the same time I reach out to care beyond the circle?
2. Am I willing to develop my self-concept so that I can respond from a place of openness, love, inclusion, and growth?
3. Am I willing to use my new courage to open my eyes to the development of my potential and that of humanity’s?
4. Am I willing to use my courage in the service of mindful questioning–questioning everything, from the place of heart and soul?

Drop me a line if you are curious about how developing your courage could make a difference in your health, your life, your world.

The Lone Ranger was actually one of my favorite characters as a child. Single-handedly righting wrongs, doing good and riding a horse; you couldn’t get much cooler than that. I carried that image into college and adulthood. Unfortunately, as keen as I was to do it all by myself and to do it my way, those beliefs only served to make anything I attempted that much harder.

It took me decades to realize that women prefer a group approach to doing just about anything. We love cooking together, watching the kids together, doing projects together, eating together. We even go to restrooms together! It also took me decades to realize that working with group support was more fun, more creative, more powerful.

I now enjoy mastermind groups for my business, workout groups for my exercise, walking groups for my dog walks. To be sure, I spend a lot of time thinking, being and doing on my own. However, when I need a breakthrough, when I need the support that is going to carry me over the hump, when I want to celebrate my progress, I turn to another powerful woman or group of women and we all get on the horse together to ride into the sunset.

I’m not opposed to inviting men into these groups; I’ve just found that many more women than men are comfortable in that space of unconditional support, collaboration and win-win thinking. My hope is that women will make a bigger effort to create these powerful experiences for their sons so they have a chance to model a different way of interacting and experiencing community.

So where are you? Still on the horse by yourself? Think about how you can add powerful support to your endeavors, especially your business. Going it alone only serves to postpone creating the thriving business and life that you truly desire. Share your journey now; don’t wait until you reach your destination to find your community.

If Donald Trump lost his fortune, would he still be Donald Trump?

Most of us, I think, would say ‘yes.’ I expect Donald Trump would definitely say ‘yes!’

Yet it seems that so many women entrepreneurs make just the opposite assumption about themselves. If they were to become highly successful in their businesses they would no longer be themselves. And they might even start using their money and success for evil purposes. Think about it. Do you somewhere deep inside believe that your success, particularly financial, will be the undoing of your soul?

#1 Secret to Creating and Enjoying a Successful 6- or 7-figure business
Believing you will be, at your core, somebody different than you are now is a limiting belief of huge proportions. This belief, in all its forms, leads to people playing small with their gifts, denying they have something powerful to share with the world and a refusal to receive anything in return for the gifts, sometimes even compliments.

The flip side is also limiting: that you can believe the same things and behave the same way as you do now and get to the vision you have for yourself.

So the secret is: intentional, guided growth of yourself. What I’m talking about is the intentional and guided growth of the internal you. Are you effectively getting more of what you want in the world (is your business growing in the way and at the pace you want)? Is your personal evolution going in the direction you want (do you sabotage your success or do you hesitate to take action to get what you want)? These things can all be directed to the outcome you want by the intentional, guided growth of yourself.

If you’d like to try some intentional, guided growth, check out the exercise below.

Exercise:
Find a place that is quiet and where you’ll be undisturbed. Put yourself in a calm, relaxed state by doing some slow, relaxed deep breathing, letting all the tension and stress flow out of your body. Do this for a few minutes until you feel very relaxed.

Next, think of a specific goal you have for yourself: landing a new contract, 5 new clients, a successful talk or workshop. Something that is concrete and that will happen in the near future. Imagine reaching that goal in just the way you want. Put in imagery, sounds, feelings, colors. Make it a motion picture (there is action instead of everyone being frozen as in a picture) and make sure you are seeing everything from your eyes (rather than seeing yourself in the motion picture). Get into the feelings of having successfully completed that goal in just the way you want.

Now, notice how you have improved by reaching that goal. Notice your increase in confidence and competence. Hear people complimenting your on your accomplishment of the goal. Notice that you have learned things that will make accomplishing your next goals, easier. Notice how you were up for the challenge of this goal.

Practice this visualization regularly as you work towards your goal. You’ll find yourself being drawn to the goal and more creative in addressing the challenges you encounter on your way to the goal. And you will be intentionally guiding your internal growth towards your authentic self.

I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge (in fact you can too: Ultimate Blog Challenge) as a way to practice disciplined blogging, get the word out about my business, connect with other business people who are doing the same and have a whole lot fun writing!

This month you’ll get 31 posts on the topics of limiting beliefs (their cause, effect, and what to do about them), change, human excellence, and how all of that determines your success with your business (or anything else in your life). Stick around if you would like to learn the secrets to creating a thriving 6- or 7-figure business.

You’ll also get quick tips about dealing with limiting beliefs and resources if you want to pursue something in more depth.

I’m really looking forward to this challenge and I hope you’ll come with me for the ride.

Tip #1:
Language is the fastest point of entry into learning about your limiting beliefs. When we use phrases like: I can’t, I shouldn’t, what would people think, … always happens, … never happens; we are displaying the results of some of our limiting beliefs.

Try on some of these constructions instead:

I can’t => You are making a choice here. State what you are choosing to do instead of what you “can’t do.” Notice that at this moment in this context you are making this choice. At some other time, in some other context you may or could make a different choice.

I shouldn’t, what would people think => These are a case for examining what values are being violated and whether they are your values or someone else’s. If they are your values, be clear and make the choice. If they are someone else’s values either make them yours and make your choice from there or let them go and make your choice from your values.

Always, never => These words shut down your brain to choice. They make a black and white world for you that prevents you from experiencing and expressing the true richness of our world. Recognizing you have Choice is the key to creating what you want.

Try out these language changes and watch for the changes in you. Leave a comment letting me know the shift you experienced.

One of the biggest mistakes made by solo-entrepreneurs is thinking that an alter-ego is needed to successfully market their business. They buy into the notion that marketing and selling is about shading the truth, tricking people to part with their hard-earned cash and misrepresenting the benefits of their services or products.

From this belief comes the idea that to market their business, they must be someone who is capable subterfuge and deception. BAMM! The personality that is suppose to do marketing collides with who they really are and they decide they will create a successful business without marketing or selling.

Well it is impossible to create a successful business without marketing and selling and anyone who tells you differently is lying to you. Whether you are directly connecting with people who want what you have or your clientele is doing that connection for you, you are marketing and when someone gives you money in exchange for your services or products you are selling.

So what do you do about the belief that marketing and selling are dirty?

First, realize that marketing and selling are processes that allow you to make your dream come true, i.e., impact in the world the way you want through your business. They are tools for the realization of something that is very important to you.

Second, realize that you can go about these processes in any way you please that also gets you the results you want.

You are making your dream come true by being your authentic self and connecting with people who believe your products and services are the solution to their problems. Then for a fair exchange of money you are providing them with that solution. There is NO deception here.

In fact, the only way this version of marketing really works is if you are willing to boldly stand in who you truly are and connect with people from there. The sincerity, honesty, and willingness to be of service whether that benefits you monetarily or not, is what will get you the results you want from your marketing efforts.

Make your marketing your mirror
Reflect who you are and what you value and all those who align with your values and like what they see, will connect with you. Of those, the ones who need their problem solved in your fashion will buy from you. By being your authentic self and connecting with others in joy and integrity you are creating the world you want to be a part of => another definition for marketing.

Do you suffer from

• procrastination,
• inability to focus,
• racing from one “how-to-market” course to another in search of the magic bullet,
• letting every little breeze distract you from your marketing?

May I ask how you do that? If I were to be you, how would I know how to start procrastinating? How would I know that it was time to distract myself with something (say, a breeze)? This is a very serious question.

From the inside it looks like things are happening to you. All of a sudden you have to check your email or do a little web research starting with FaceBook, make a post on Twitter, read a post on Twitter. Then you notice the time. OMG, I need to get dinner ready!

From the outside it looks like a person who has difficulty focusing and staying on task. The outsider doesn’t see any of the urgency you feel. Yet those feelings are real, right? You have a thought, a feeling and you go with the flow. Sometimes you go with the flow before you even know you’ve had a thought.

You’ve got sole control of your mind. You are the one who lets ideas and beliefs in and the one who is in charge of getting rid of those that no longer serve you.

Anonymous quote I like: Others can stop you temporarily, only you can do it permanently.

So, how do you stop yourself from taking action?

If I were to be you for a day, how would I know how and when to distract myself from marketing? Is it a voice, an image, a feeling, words? What would I have to call to mind so that I could keep myself from taking action and moving forward?

Try out this exercise. When you notice you’ve distracted yourself, stop and think about what you were doing, thinking and feeling before the distraction. Listen for voices, look for images, see or hear the words, locate the feeling in your body. Now, actually describe out loud what someone else would have to do to get the feelings and thoughts that distracted you.

Next, ask yourself these questions:

• What would happen if I stopped that loop of thinking? What would be possible?
• What could I think about instead that would move me forward?
• What is the thought I must think that will move me towards what I want?

This exercise may take a little practice to find the answers. You may become aware that you’ve distracted yourself hours or days later. Keep practicing.

If you follow through you will learn what has been going on in your mind behind your back, so to speak. You will identify the cues that send you scurrying for a distraction, a way to put yourself to “sleep” so you don’t have to feel what you were on the verge of feeling before you distracted yourself.

This is powerful medicine. You are recognizing your beliefs that are sabotaging your creation of the business you want and the expression of yourself in the world. Awareness is the first step to a breakthrough.

Let me know the ‘aha’ you get from doing this exercise. Email me at drlik@beliefbreakthrough.com

You hide and your clients are suppose to seek you?

There are so many ways I see solo-entrepreneurs hiding out and wishing and hoping that clients will magically show up.

The first tenet of healing marketing phobia is: You Matter. You must be willing to embrace your authentic self and share yourself with your potential ideal clients. The frame you put around this picture really matters. If you are seeing yourself as a floozy in the Bowry hustling sleazy clients you won’t get anywhere. If you are graciously inviting people you like and who interest you to your dinner party then you’ve got the start of a powerful motivator for you to market your business. I thought if I whispered the words they wouldn’t scare you.

Here are 4 ways solo-entrepreneurs hide out and how you can breakthrough your lack of confidence so you can seek out those people who truly want and need your services:

1. Wondering what your message is and working on crafting it just right before you say a word.
   As long as you are busily crafting something, you have no time to talk to anyone. It is what your subconscious mind has secretly hoped: that clients will show up and beg to work with you and you never have to truly connect, engage or share your self and your business.

   Here’s the shift: You are not looking for any clients. You are not trying to convince someone to work with you. All you are doing is talking about something you believe to be true, sharing something that is important to you: massages can help with stress and enhance physical therapy; eating fresh produce from the farmers’ market is an excellent way to get great tasting food and support your local farmers; exercising builds resiliency in the body. The more you talk about what you know and believe the faster you will become clear on your message and at the same time connect with people.

2. Refusing to accept and use your personal power.
   This is a biggey for women and it really shows up when they become entrepreneurs. The act of becoming an entrepreneur is stating to the world (and yourself) that you want to create something that is a bigger expression of you. You make that declaration and then you proceed to undermine it by refusing to take responsibility for the creation, make decisions as the creator, take charge of how you think and behave so you can create what you want.

   The Shift: Decide if you are running a business or a hobby. If it is a hobby then stop worrying about marketing and just enjoy doing your hobby. If you are running a business, then you must start acting like a business person. With one restriction you can define “business person” in almost anyway you want. The restriction is that the thing you call your business generates revenue and a profit. Let your creativity and values define how you are as a business person.

3. Regularly trading your services for the services of others.
   It is not that trading is bad it is the hiding it allows you to do, that is bad. If you trade you don’t have to talk about money. You can pretend you are running a business without touching money. You never have to ask for the person’s business. You can avoid standing in your power, expressing your authentic self and behaving like a business person.

   The Shift: If you want the person’s services, then pay for them. This is an act of respecting yourself and the person/business from whom you are buying. If you think the only way you can afford their services is to trade then you cannot afford their services. Save your money or find yourself a client so you can pay. This act will give you and them legitimacy as business people in your mind. The more you believe you are the real owner of a business the more seriously you will take yourself and the work required to build a thriving business.

4. Carrying the fear of rejection into every conversation you have.
   If you start out thinking someone doesn’t want what you are offering, or even worse doesn’t want you, you will automatically put yourself on the defensive. Being on the defensive means you’ll miss everything this person is telling you they want help with and most likely you will never share anything about your true self that would allow this person to connect with you.

   The Shift: Engaging and sharing with someone who might be interested in your business means you must be open and curious about them. It is all about them and all about connection. Your only focus is to take an interest in them, ask them questions, learn about their problems in your area of expertise. Get comfortable with expressing your beliefs and opinions and let the person respond however they will respond. When someone vigorously disagrees with you or isn’t interested in your opinions, you can silently say: “Phew! I’m glad I didn’t invite that person to my dinner party.”

I know hiding is comfortable. I did it for years. This is your choice: continue hiding, continue to pretend that you own and run a business and decide that you and your dreams aren’t worth the effort of changing OR decide you are worth the effort of becoming who you want to be and commit to the journey of growth taking it one concrete step at a time.

As you come out of hiding you’ll be rewarded with a delicious feeling of gratitude and high energy for being authentic and confident.

Are you part of the segment of entrepreneurs that have marketing phobia or have experienced marketing trauma? This is not a small minority of the entrepreneurial population. I’ve seen it mostly with women and mostly in the heart-centered, helping professions: healing, teaching, coaching, serving, supporting. The professions where people with very big passions for changing and healing the world congregate.

Marketing phobia has these symptoms:

• procrastination,
• wild swings of motivation (super excited and moving forward only to crash and burn a little later),
• fear of rejection,
• fear of criticism and judgment,
• fear of not meeting expectations,
• fear of showing who you really are at your core,
• fear taking action or hiding in a flurry of activity
• severe doubt about capability of handling change and challenge

Some of you may be saying, I have all these symptoms at one time or another am I really marketing phobic? Only if these symptoms can stop you dead in your tracks and it takes you days, weeks, months (or even years) to get back on track, do you truly have marketing phobia. If your business is failing or stagnant (and you want it to grow) you may be suffering from marketing phobia.

Another marketing phobia indicator

Most often people with marketing phobia race to another “how-to” course in marketing or in their profession specialty as a way of coping with the phobia. They believe that if they truly knew enough or the right things then marketing would be easy. After all, it is easy for all the people they are learning from, i.e., those people are filling their classes and making money, right?

The real problem

Have you ever wondered why successful marketing coaches are successful? Or even better, how they are successful? Probably. And you probably came to the conclusion that what they are doing, the system they use, the knowledge of marketing that is in their head is what makes them successful. You would be only partly right and unfortunately not the most important part.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dissing marketing or the people who teach it. It is a very important concept and structure that helps us create systems for creating connection with those who need and want our services most. However, if that was all there was to it then we would all just pick a system that works best for us and our tribe, do what the system dictates and be done with it. We probably wouldn’t need oodles of systems and we certainly wouldn’t need oodles of people to teach us how to market using these systems.

The missing piece

But we have oodles of systems because we are trying to teach something that is not teachable through learning a system for connecting; creating trust, visibility, likability; and offering our wares.

What is this mysterious something that everyone is having difficulty teaching? Before I describe it (because we don’t yet have a name for it), I want to give you a few ideas to try on. First according to Steve Andreas, co-founder of NLP Comprehensive: “…self-esteem is a natural and automatic result of a self-concept that is aligned with your values.” According to Caroline Myss self-esteem is something much greater than self-confidence; it is your core power and that your potential for success in life is determined by how greatly you “esteem” or value who you truly are.

I believe what marketers and marketing coaches are having difficulty teaching is how to become internally congruent when doing the actions that create connection, trust, visibility, likability and also offer our wares. This congruency rests on our self-concepts and our Self-esteem (in the Myss sense).

These three things are simultaneously building blocks with any two being the foundation for the third and also a network that has each one influencing the other two. In other words they are complex system whose interactions register in our internal world as beliefs and in the external world as our behaviors.

How it works

People who are highly successful with their marketing for their business are highly internally congruent when doing their marketing. They have beliefs about what they are capable of, who they are, the meaning of their business to them and to the world that fully support them being their authentic selves while marketing.

Whatever doubts or concerns they have, have been handled with their beliefs about themselves and the world. This is all internal to their mind. What we see on the outside is someone who acts with conviction and decisively, is motivated and gets results. They already have, in the way their minds operate, the most powerful part of their success. When the client also has the internal congruency and then is taught “the system,” they experience the profound success of their mentor/coach.

With internal congruency, supporting self-concepts and Self-esteem you can have success with or without a system because if you don’t have a system you will automatically make one up that works for you. If you have a system but not the internal structure that aligns with the system, you’ll never have success.

Change can happen rapidly and easily

Changing beliefs, behaviors, self-concepts, or self-esteem can happen as a result of simply doing different behaviors, however that kind of change was already in the offing. When a person is seriously stuck, as in marketing phobia, the more a person tries to change by changing behavior, the harder it becomes to do the new behavior and the more intense the symptoms of the problem become.

That is when a belief change specialist, like me, is required. Someone who can align the person’s self-concepts with their values, heal wounds that undermine self-esteem, create congruency, and reframe limiting views in order to create flexible responses and increase choices. When this is done appropriately, the person gains an internal sense of capacity, clarity and lightness that propels them forward enabling them to act with commitment and consistency in achieving the results they want.

These changes can happen rapidly and easily. They can also drag on depending on the person’s openness to change and exploring themselves. The changes should not be viewed as ‘fixing’ someone. We are not broken. The changes are part of a journey we are always on to congruency and authentic self expression. You might also term the destination of this journey as Whole Life Health.

So a person with market phobia can completely and congruently remove the phobia by restructuring their beliefs, aligning their perceptions and framing of the outside world with their self-concepts and their values, and developing their Self-esteem.

What you can do about it

If you’ve experienced inertia, procrastination, crippling fears and doubts, inability to act or stay in action with your marketing there is a way for you to completely change your experience with and reaction to marketing so that you can marry the creative authentic you to the financially successful you for a whole you that operates with integrity and grace; easily claiming your expertise and sharing your gifts with those who need and want you most.

• Are you ready to take all that knowledge and learning you’ve accumulated and put it to work for you?
• Are you ready to empower yourself so you can improve your life and the lives of others?
• Would it be OK with you if marketing your business became easy and fun?

Then contact me for your free “Breakthrough Marketing Phobia” Session at drlik@beliefbreakthrough.com

Or even worse…stopping you from building your business?
Do you

• think of yourself as “lazy” when it comes to marketing?
• really want your business to thrive but can’t be that pushy person that gets sales?
• think that what you do (your creative gift to the world) can’t possibly share the same body as the person you ‘know’ you’d have to be to market (and sell) your business?
• think that marketing your business is hard work?
• think that there are more important places to put your time like creating your next “sure to sell” product/course, getting your website up, or taking care of your family?

Well you are very much not alone. The above list are signs that what is really stopping you is the fear of someone saying no to what you are offering. In my business, I see so many women solo-entrepreneurs that are not creating the thriving businesses they want because, and I’m going to be very blunt here, they are terrified to show up as who they truly are because what if someone (i.e., a prospective client) does not like who they truly are? They would be crushed.

There was a time when I too, felt this way. I wanted so much to be liked by everyone and especially anyone I thought could benefit from my services. I saw every interaction as a ‘yes or no’ vote on my likability and therefore my worth in the world. Phew! Just visiting that place again in my mind is exhausting.

And it is exhausting for you, too. Equating a person wanting or not wanting your services or products with your value, likability or worthiness sets you up for constantly being in a mode of protection which generates the flight or fight response. You are constantly looking for threats and how to deal with them when interacting with prospective clients. Do you think if you are looking for the ways this person might harm you that, at the same time, you can also look for opportunities where you could help this person? It is impossible to do that. You must change the belief that people are voting for or against you, the person, when they say yes or no to your services or products.

Here are three things you can do to change the fear of rejection into curiosity (the most powerful antidote to fear. In fact curiosity is the opposite of fear, not courage)

The antidote to rejection

1) Get a different perspective. In your mind, step outside the interaction. View the conversation as if you were a third party watching. Notice what you are doing and what the prospective client is doing. Ask yourself, how can I connect with this person? How do I show them that I am really interested in their problem? What is it that they really want?

2) Know it’s about them. Whatever the prospect is saying and doing is always coming from their world view where they are the center of all action. It is how all of us operate, especially when we are asked questions about our problems. Whether they want your services or not actually says nothing about what your services are worth in an absolute sense (and there is no point in even thinking about that topic because there is nothing absolute about marketing it is all relative to a particular person’s particular world view). Saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to you is always about them, their perspective of themselves in the world and how you might fit into that perspective.

3) Stop your story-telling. Stop making up stories that have you at the center: my prices are too high; they don’t like my work; they don’t like me; I’m not good enough; I don’t have enough experience. Start making up stories that have them at the center: they have concerns that need to be addressed; they are wondering if what I am offering will really work for them; they are scared to take that next step; they really want to do this and are uncertain how to make the finances work; they really want to do this and are wondering about the time commitment.

Use these 3 ways of changing how you interact with a prospective client and watch how easy it is to connect, share and show you care. Then hear them say ‘yes!’ to working with you.

If fear is stopping you from getting the most out of your marketing (and by the way, getting the most out of your business) then contact me at drlik@beliefbreakthrough.com for a free, private Clarity, Focus, Action Breakthrough Session. Send me an email, now.

When I was around 8, I use to watch Mission Impossible with my father and brother. I think that’s when I became addicted to mysteries, spy stories and thrillers. At the time I thought accepting any of Mr. Phelps’ missions would be so much more interesting than my 8-year old life so who wouldn’t say yes? And besides it all worked out right in the end, yes?

Mission Impossible was all about getting the ‘bad guys’ to think they were in some situation that they weren’t and then tripping themselves up and giving away the MacGuffin, as Alfred Hitchcock called it. This show must of had a bigger impact on me than I thought because it is the premise of my work, only in reverse, sort of.

I get the ‘good guys’ to ‘untrip’ themselves and keep the MacGuffin; actually they get to do something that is far more important: they get to create internal congruence which creates a powerful clarity and focus that drives the expression of their authentic selves and the sharing of their gifts through their business. And as a result they attain their financial desires.

When I asked if you were turning your business building into Mission Impossible, I really meant it. Is the reality you’ve created for yourself in your business tripping you up and keeping you playing small? Do you find yourself resisting connecting with clients or prospects or resist offering your services for a fair exchange of money (aka, selling)?

Just like in Mission Impossible you are responding to what you think is true in your world and what you think is true has everything to do with what you believe and the judgments you make as a result of those beliefs. Opening up space to see, hear and feel your world differently is one of the first steps to restructuring your beliefs into ones that support and empower you.

Try this short exercise and see how it opens your perspective and how that shifts how you feel and think.

Think of a particular issue you are currently having in your business. Something specific, a relationship that needs attention or a task or decision you’ve been putting off. Think of three mentors that could help you with this issue. The mentors can be human or non-human, imaginary or real, current with you in time or from some other time.

Place them around you in an imaginary circle. Tell the first mentor what the issue is, out loud. Ask for the assistance you want. Now step into the space the  first mentor occupies and turn to face where you were standing. Assume the identity of the mentor by standing as they would stand, observing as they would observe, listening as they would listen. Hear the statement of the issue and respond as the mentor would.

Then return to the physical position that represents you and listen to the mentor’s response. If you want to clarify something or ask another question, repeat the process. When you are done with this mentor, repeat the process for each of the other two mentors.

Now you have four perspectives on your issue. Four suggestions about how to go about resolving the issue (and probably even more information). Choose an approach or mix and match and decide what your next action will be and by when you will act.

Let me know how it goes at drlik@beliefbreakthrough.com

If you are ready for your free “Breakthrough Marketing Phobia” Session then contact me at drlik@beliefbreakthrough.com