Did you watch any of the Olympics this year in Beijing? It was very inspiring and a couple of things struck me after watching it above any beyond the amazing talent of the athletes.
First, many of the Olympians had persevered through adversity whether it be death of a close family member, injuries, or sickness of their coach to name a few. In our careers and businesses we need to break through our challenges and mental barriers to achieve a new level of success.
Second, the Olympians had worked for 4 years (since the last Olympics) to get to the Olympics and win a medal. Some, like Michael Phelps set a goal of winning 8 goal medals. Many doubted it could be done. We need to set short and long term goals and truly believe they can be achieved in order to know where we are headed and to make them a reality.
With the Olympics on TV, I’ve been blown away by the years of dedication they have put into making it to the Olympics. So I’ve been inspired to take things up a notch in my career.
When I’ve been teaching you about consulting, I’ve tried to explain that it is totally doable if you follow some of my techniques. To me it seems so simple to do. I often see people with no confidence in their ability to pull something like I’ve done off and it’s hard to understand why they give up so easily.
I’ve recently decided to try a start a larger company, one that will most likely require venture capital, other partners, and lots of help with IT (web design, programming, support). This is extremely scary to me and is totally out of my comfort zone. But it’s helped me to put myself back in your shoes, when you’re first conceiving of moving to the next level but haven’t quite made it yet.
The things I can suggest to you and that have helped me recently are:
- realize your weaknesses (be honest about them) and find people to help you in those areas
- believe in yourself, that you can do anything you put your mind to (getting help to get there)
- write your plans and goals down
- decide that you will persist to achieve your goals no matter what happens
- face your fears and keep persisting
- enjoy the experience and celebrate any small wins or realizations
When I get calls nowadays requesting help with an integration project, it’s pretty much business as usual. I know what rate I want, how much it will cost for travel, whether I’m qualified to do the project and so on. There’s no fear or insecurity.
During my downtime, I recently started work on a new business idea. To tell you the truth it is really scary for me to think about going from an independent consultant to running a full-fledged business. Some of you who haven’t incorporated or gone on your own probably have similar fears. Can I leave my current job and start consulting? “Do I have enough experience, what if I can’t do the project, or what if the project fails?”, are some questions you may ask.
During this phase of ‘contemplating change’, you need to remind yourself of times when you were afraid of change, but you came out successful. Or maybe it didn’t work out okay, but you learned a lot and were better for it. I have also been telling myself that if I don’t know something or don’t have experience in a certain area I will get help. I will form a great team of people who can support me. At one point, I considered paying another consultant to help me with a certain challenge during a project. While that may seem strange, spending a bit of your money to ensure success is worth it and something you may not have considered doing.
It’s best to ask empowering questions such as ‘How can I be successful with this change?’, or ‘Who can I get to help me be successful?’ instead of ‘What if I fail?’
