Stretch your comfort zone to create bigger results

By Carlene Ashby

“To get something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”  ~Unknown

Do you want more clients, less stress, more fun and more money?  Of course you do!

Well then, my friend, you have got to stop doing what you always do and do something different.  That simple!

If there is a gap between what you want to create in your business and what you currently have, you need to bridge the gap by doing things you’ve never done before.

That can mean different things for different people.  For instance, if you want to attract many clients locally, and you know that public speaking would help you do that, but you are terrified of that, try other types of performing.  Take a dance class, join a choir, go to an acting workshop or something else that stretches your comfort zone without pushing you over the edge.

If you want to build your business by attracting clients via article marketing but article writing is not your strong suit, take a class at a community college or join a creative writing group who can help you flex your imagination muscles.

Stretching may not always directly relate to the area you are trying to improve upon either.  For instance, I have a client who has almost tripled her income since she started sticking to a strict diet that eliminates sugar and flour.  She swears that by showing herself that she had the discipline to commit to such a restrictive diet, she gained the faith in herself she needed to move forward with her business.

Whatever the stretch is, the key is to commit to it and follow through.  Keeping those agreements with yourself will lead to higher self-esteem, confidence and the ability to make quantum leaps in both your business and your personal life.

Your Prosperity Assignment:

1.      Write out 3 goals you have and beside each, write down why you do not currently have it.

Be honest with yourself.  Too often, my clients tell me they do not have any idea why they don’t have their goals yet, or worse, they say it is because of some person, circumstance or event outside of themselves.

Let me assure you that any reason that you come up with that is “out of your control” is total bullshit.  You are in control of your thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions, therefore, you are in charge of your life.  If you do not have what you want, it is because either your thoughts, your beliefs, your emotions, your actions or some mixture of those is out of harmony with what you want.

2.      Identify a stretch that can help you bridge the gap.

For instance, if you decide that in order to get the success you want, you need to be more disciplined with your time, commit to a stretch of getting up one hour early to exercise or be in nature.  Committing to that on a daily basis is difficult, but very rewarding.

Your next stretch may be eliminating emails and phone calls during certain hours and allowing technology like voicemail to solve that problem.  Many of my clients’ biggest gap is that they do not see themselves as highly successful people subconsciously and to bridge that gap they must set up challenges and show themselves success.  This can be anything from losing weight, eliminating sugar or caffeine, finishing a non-fiction book a week, or whatever would best serve you at this time.

3.      Scare yourself DAILY!

Once a day, do something that is a stretch that scares you but is moving you in a forward direction.  This can be emailing someone you would like to joint venture with, hiring a Virtual Assistant or a Coach, trying a new food, asking someone to go for coffee or committing to a networking group.  Just find one thing everyday to do that scares you.  You’ll be surprised how much flow will come into your life when you start to do this.

4.      Set up an accountability structure.

Without accountability, nothing happens.  The resolve wanes, the passion fades and your goals slowly move to the back burner while you relax back into a comfortable pattern.  Does that sound familiar?  It does for most people, myself included.  Without my coaches, I’d be 20 lbs heavier, I’d have no clients because I wouldn’t have taken any of the steps I needed to, I’d have been too shy to talk to the man of my dreams (my partner, Andrew) and you certainly wouldn’t be reading this article because I’d still be thinking “Who cares what I have to say? Who am I, anyway?”  Pretty sad picture.   The fact is, we all need encouragement and accountability from someone who won’t take any of our BS or let us slide.  There are coaches for everything from quitting smoking to healing breast cancer to public speaking, so hire a coach, it works!

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

Share

Tagged with: • • • • • • •

Filed under: Achievement • Client Attraction • confidence • goal setting • Law of Attraction • Marketing Funnel

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!