Mi Hamba Blog

For many, goal setting is a way of life.  For many more others, it doesn’t even enter onto their radar.  Regardless if this is because they haven’t learned the powerful impact goal setting can have on their lives, or they just couldn’t be bothered, we’re going to talk to the 3%-5% of people that DO set goals.

There are many tips, tools and strategies that you can use to be successful in reaching your goals.  Many of those can be found right here.  But there is one specific thing you can do that will ensure your belief in yourself while venturing into new and exciting territory.

FOCUS ON YOUR STRENGTHS

Doubt and fear will rear their ugly heads on the road to success.  By focusing on your strengths, you’re telling your subconscious mind that you’ve been successful before and now isn’t any different.  You’re more likely to push through adversity and be successful when you constantly remind yourself of your past successes and areas of strength. 

This works even when you’re doing something new.  Many skills are transferable to different occupations, relationships and projects.  You likely won’t have to dig too deep to recognize what your strengths are.

Success breeds success.

You feel it creeping up on you like a bad dream. With one small thought, it starts in the pit of your stomach as a flutter and quickly builds momentum to debilitating fear.  You can’t move.  You can’t breathe.  You’re caught in a trap, held hostage from your life …

Why do we worry?  Why do we spend so much time thinking about the worst possible outcome of a situation, only to realize that our fears were completely unfounded?  Why do we entertain those cursed “what ifs”?

- What if I get into a car accident?
- What if I lose my job?
- What if I lose my house?
- What if I get sick and can’t pay the bills?
- What if my husband/wife leaves me?
- What if I fail?

Less than 5% of what we worry about are things that we have control over.  We certainly have no control over the “what ifs”.  How could we - they haven’t happened yet!

Since we can choose to think and believe anything we want, why not choose to believe a “what if” outcome that makes you happy instead of worried?  If this is a new concept to you, empower yourself by learning more about how your thoughts become things.  There are many law of attraction, self-help and personal growth books that can help you form a new positive thinking habit.
 

Tip Number five about how to use stress in a positive way relates to stress caused by fear.  Prolonged fear can be incredibly stessful. 

Often times if we know that there is something that we need to do which we are nervous or frightened about, we are consumed with anxiety about it.  The quickest and easiest way to eliminate these negative feelings is to just face your fear head on.  Whatever it is that you are scared to do, just do it and get it over with.  Why torment yourself with negative feelings of stress and fear any longer than you have to? 

The reality is that once you complete the feared task, you will most likely be filled with an incredible feeling of empowerment.  The sooner you get it done, the sooner you get to stop feeling bad and start feeling like the powerful person that you are.

If whatever is causing the fear is something that is coming up in your future that cannot be taken care of now, you can still eliminate the stress now by simply living in the present.  Let the future take care of itself.  Many times we look at the road ahead of us and question our ability to handle what may lie ahead.  The truth is we are more powerful than we sometimes realize, we can always handle our current circumstances.  When we get to the dreaded future task, we will be ready for it.

Stay tuned next week for the final two tips on how to use stress to further your personal growth.  

If we allow it, fear can stop us dead in our tracks.  Every successful person has experienced just as much fear as an unsuccesful person, the difference is that they have learned to overcome their fear.  They know their personal growth depends on it.  How do they do it?

1. Acknowledge your fear and face it anyway:

Successful people realize the fastest way to overcome their fear is to face it head on.  Whatever they are afraid of doing, they know that the sooner they do it, the sooner their fear will disappear.  The unsuccessful people allow their fear to torcher them by not attempting to overcome it.  They leave themselves in a position of constantly living in that fear because they don’t take the steps to move past it.  Successful people know that they are more powerful than any circumstances in their lives including their fear.

2. Live in the Moment: 

If you know there is a challenge coming up in your life, don’t let the thought of it consume you.  You will never hear a successful person say, “I don’t think I will be able to handle that.”  They know that when the time comes, they will be able to handle whatever is going on in their lives.  They don’t allow the fear of the future to halt their progress in the present.

3. Let the positive feelings that follow conquering your fears to motivate you: 

Think back to a time in your past when you faced a fear and overcame it.  Do you remember how powerful and invinsible you felt at that moment.  Successful people love to relive that feeling and use it to motivate them to conquer more of their fears.

The only difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is that the successful person is willing to do what the unsuccessful person isn’t.  They don’t allow their fear to stop them .  Do you?    

Success requires effort and real, absolute success requires focused energy.  Most of the time, for many many people, focused energy is very difficult because of the level of fear involved.

The Fear of failure, the Fear of success, the Fear of rejection, the Fear of not knowing how, the Fear of feeling like it just can’t happen for you are only some of the fears we hear about and experience on a daily basis. 

The most common definition of Fear that we have heard, most people define it as “False Evidence Appearing Real”.  What I have found is that anything that lies outside of your comfort zone is usually considered to be false evidence that appears real.  Therefore it stands to reason that your comfort zone is a mirror image of your success zone right?  Think about that — your comfort zone is a mirror image of your success zone.

How about we take the definition and both consciously and subconsciously change it to Focused Energy Achieves Results.  Now this is not to suggest that we go blindly forward without performing due diligence into the possible tools that we may use to expand our comfort zone, just to perform the due diligence. 

Think again about your comfort zone being a mirror image of your success zone.  Change that around and look at it like this:  Your success zone is a mirror image of your comfort zone.

Do what it takes to expand your comfort zone.  A life coach has the ability to direct you in the expansion.