"You're as successful as you want to be." Just try and throw this statement out at your next networking function or family gathering and watch sparks fly. Emotions may flare up, yet it will not discount validity of this statement.
To prove this point and show you how we may limit ourselves by choices we make, thereby giving you freedom to make choice to succeed in your business and life, I'll give you three, very simple examples.
1. The Three-Letter Word That Can Cost You Millions
One of ways my clients “go out of bounds” in their coaching calls with me is when they use word "but." Consistently using this three-letter word will cost you relationships, sales, and moneymaking growth opportunities.
The word “but" shuts down communication, turns off your creativity, and turns you into a victim.
Ask yourself honestly if you've ever been guilty of saying or thinking any of following limiting beliefs:
But that won't work. But I've always done it this way. But I've tried everything. But I don't have a college education. But I don't want to do that.
Repeating any one of these statements will limit your future success. Stopping use of this dirty, three-letter word is under your control.
2. The Four-Letter Word For "Victim"
When you use word "can't," you are training your brain to shut down by focusing on how something won't work — before you ever have chance to consider possibilities of how it might work.
Countless business owners have become enormously successful because they saw how something could be done, while everyone else saw all reasons why it couldn't. (Can you say "FedEx"?)
Expressing ill-thought-out phrase, “You can't do that in my industry," is merely a poor excuse for poor performance and a cry of victimhood. Make conscious choice to banish word "can't" from your vocabulary and watch growth opportunities begin to appear in your business and life.
Consider this statement issued in 1899 by Charles H. Duell, Director of U.S. Patent Office: “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
That sure sounds like he was telling business owners that they “can’t” create anything new, because it “can’t” be done in their industry, doesn’t it?
Just think how many people believed that statement, and gave up trying to invent anything more advanced than what already existed. Sure, in hindsight, it’s pretty silly.
Thank God there were entrepreneurial creators who refused to listen to “experts” and went ahead and created anyway.
Did you know that currently there is such a backlog of inventions waiting for approval in U.S. Patent Office, that many cures for ailments that people are suffering from are being held up for almost a year? There are so many NEW things ahead of them that need to be reviewed and approved!
Amazing, but true.
3. The Green Giant
The easiest way for you to continue to struggle in your current financial situation is to pass judgment on people who are more financially successful than you.
Judgment is easy way for people to feel better about themselves and cover up fact that they're simply green with envy. Rather that asking "how others did it," they'd rather point their finger and condemn others for succeeding.