Beliefs are a funny thing, aren’t they?
Many experts state that beliefs are a state of mind in which you regard a thing to be true. It makes sense, then, that if you regard a thing to be true, you are more likely to take action consistent with that belief.
Some beliefs will support you to open and grow while other beliefs will keep you stuck in mediocrity. At times, you may wonder why you’re not getting the results you want even though you are taking action. This can be a frustrating place to be and it often stems from an unconscious belief.
Even the most seasoned and successful entrepreneurs can have a belief that they don’t realize is holding them back or no longer serving them. They just know something is off.
If you know that something is off, the key is to become aware of what that belief is serving. A belief is usually designed to protect you, keep you “right” or avoid pain. To get different results, sometimes it’s a matter of gently shifting that belief so that you make progress.
For example, one of my clients had a long and successful career working for a large company as an employee. She successfully climbed the corporate ladder and recently got an itch to start her own business. As an employee, she was conditioned to churn out projects in a certain way. The process she followed involved having her projects reviewed by several levels, having it changed multiple times, and re-working it and then finally launching her work product.
Over time, she developed a belief that this is how you launch projects. When the time came for her to launch her eBook for her own business, she kept getting stopped before she even got started. She immediately got overwhelmed with the project saying, “it’s going to take a long time” to write this eBook. Underneath that notion, was her employee belief that her eBook needed to be “perfect” before launching it. She tried to apply a belief that worked in a corporate structure in her entrepreneurial pursuits.
As an entrepreneur, if you wait until your work product is “perfect” you may ever launch at all. While you want to make sure your product is a good one, too many revisions will slow you down and stop you before you even get started. I asked her what is possible if you launched your eBook then improved it after you received from feedback from the people who downloaded it. There was silence, then a breakthrough.
With this new found awareness, she decided to keep the format of her first eBook simple. Instead of launching that “perfect” edition, she decided to get feedback from those early adopters and invite feedback through her launch process.
While her employee-minded belief worked to navigate the corporate environment, it didn’t work for her business. She now had access to a new entrepreneurial belief to empower her to accelerate her results. Instead of waiting to create perfection, she’s creating an eBook that invites feedback and engages her prospects.
While she’s building a following, she’s simultaneously building a better product and filling her prospect pipeline. Beliefs are a funny thing, aren’t they?
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