Experiencing self-doubt is all part of the journey. Learn how to manage it, and succeed sooner.
My weight training coach used to tell me he’d far rather compete against a lifter with twice his ability who thought he didn’t have a chance than someone with half his ability who thought he was in with a shot. He told me these were the dangerous people — the people who just believed they could do anything.It’s like that with advisors. Often I meet financial advisors who have incredible ability, incredible talent, who just don’t believe enough in themselves or they’ll let these little thoughts of self-doubt sabotage them in their efforts. And upon further analysis and digging in a little deeper, often times they’ve become daunted with looking at their longer-term aspiration and then reflecting on where they are today and getting discouraged by looking at all the steps in between.I want to encourage you to look closely, yes, at that longer-term objective, but then come back to doing what needs to be done today.It was just like that when I was training for the Olympics — sure you’d look at the world ranking list, sure you’re aware of world records being broken, but nevertheless, we still had to face each other at that time in the Olympics for that particular event. So, let’s just take care of what we can control today. I can’t control what other athletes are doing. I can’t control the conditions that we are going to be racing in. But I can control how much I apply myself to what I need to get done today. So, for instance, if you’re looking to lose twenty pounds in eight months time, what are you going to eat today?
If you’re looking to grow your A clients by twenty percent, pick a number (so let’s say you want to add twenty-five new A clients), what can you do today to enhance the chances of doing that? Connecting with a COI, or connecting with another business owner who you’ve just met informally somewhere — maybe that’s a step you take today.Building out your capabilities folder looks fantastic when it’s done, but what do you need to do today to move that forward one step? Maybe it’s just getting a template of what a great capabilities folder looks like, and then break that down into incremental steps.So, Yes, look at where you want to get to down the track, at your longer-term objectives, but don’t stay there and get paralyzed and daunted by that. Look at what you can do today. Pick one of those steps and start doing that today. Don’t get discouraged if it takes longer; you’re making progress every single day.Break the big picture down into daily increments, and you’ll achieve that longer-term objective far sooner than you ever thought.
