Who do you need to be to succeed with your business and take it where you want it to go a year from now?
Who do you need to be to write boldly, openly, and transparently on your blog? To put yourself out there in a bigger way so you can be of service and reach more people?
A couple of weeks ago I attended InfusionSoft’s Elite Forum as part of the team from The Marketing Mentors (I’m their Director of Marketing).
At the InfusionSoft Elite Forum: Adam Urbanski, Clate Mask, Bo Urbanski, Scott Martineau, Me
And I had one of those “light bulb” moments when Clate Mask, InfusionSoft’s CEO, shared (paraphrased) that he invests in coaching and focuses on personal growth because he realizes that who he is today isn’t who he wants to be in 12-18 months to lead his business forward and reach his goals.
Great thought, right? You’ve got to become the next, better version of you to be able to grow your business to where it’s going.
So how do you make that happen? What do you do to intentionally GROW?
Looking at who I am today and who I was a year ago, I’ve grown in a lot of ways. And I am very aware that to reach the goals I’ve set for myself I need to continue to improve myself.
It’s not about changing who I am but becoming more confident, more grounded, and more myself than I ever have been. It’s about continuing to learn and gain expertise and achieve mastery around the skills I need.
Here’s what I’m doing that’s working.
This isn’t a “do these 12 things every day” list — it’s more things to be aware of and focus on.
1. Work with a coach consistently (enough said here, right?)
2. Be active in a mastermind group and learn how to ask the right questions, ask for the type of support you need, and give that support for others
3. Have someone in your life as accountability who you are transparent with, who sees a bigger vision for you, and who has permission to be straight out honest in helping you grow — and have open conversations about goals and dreams and who you need to be to make those reality
4. Read the right books to expand your mind and challenge your preconceptions
5. Actively continue learning and be intentional about the skills you learn and areas you study to achieve expertise and mastery
6. Learn new skills to move out of your comfort zone — it will both challenge you and get your brain back into that creative “beginner” mode
7. Positive messages IN by being aware of what you hear and allow in your mind
8. Surround myself with the right people who you can model for success, and pay attention!
9. Choose to let go of or create stronger boundaries around the behaviors and situations which bring only drama and negativity
10. Actively seek to identify the blocks that you’ve put in my way or am allowing to stop you and find the tools you need to equip yourself to move past those as you become aware of them
11. Become aware of your own ego and learn how to separate yourself from those voices, tell them thanks for trying to protect you but they need to go sit in the corner, so you can make more conscious choices in how you behave, react, and respond
12. Create space, time, and permission to reflect on where you’ve come from and what you’re already improving, accept who and where you are right now, AND (maybe most importantly!) actively envision who you want to become
It’s less about checking these 12 things off on a daily basis thing and more about intentional continued awareness… “I’m working on this… this is changing… I am aware of this…” and some happen some days, some don’t but I’m working on all these areas and taking steps forward to grow as a person so my business can grow and I can be who I need to be to reach my goals.
How about you? Things will always change. So choose to grow through it all.
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Hi Michelle,
These are important ways. I think point no. 10 and 11 are the most overlooked one. These two are personal. Sometimes people can’t see what happen in the front of their eyes but catch a single dot across the ocean. Often times we are to busy to identify the blocks and too lazy to mind our own ego.
Thanks for this post
Be grateful for the little things every day. You & I have discussed this on one of our calls in the past and I think it probably relates to point #12.
Thanks.
:)
~Debra
Michelle,
Thank you for this inspired post, tho one I wish I had written! Look forward to your 30 day blog challenge.
Pat
Michelle, I appreciate your candid reflections!
There’s a great quote by someone “when you stop growing you start dying.” I choose to keep growing.
4 -12 are easy breezy for me. I’m working on 1-3.
Nice post Michelle, I love that quote that Adalia John brought to note. There’s truly never a point in your life where you’re static. It’s either you’re growing or you’re gradually shrinking.
Keep it up.
Regards, Daniel from http://danieluyi.com
Great post Michelle. I’d like to add that everyone should grab a copy of “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne, this book will change lives and certainly prompt growth in people.
Great points! #4 and #6 are my favorites. But the key is to pick up the right books – this is very important. Books also help us get new perspective on things! They refresh minds too.
Thanks so much for sharing Michelle!
Hello – I think #9 is so important – to keep one’s ego at bay – to let it go is very liberating and keeps your mind flowing freely and encourages creativity.
Surrounding yourself with the right people can really help becuase they inspire you to be the best you can be.
Nice post.
Nice choice of a topic. It actually drew my attention very quickly and the image made me interested on reading the post. I totally agree with your tips and they are applicable. I will apply them. Regards. ~Anetta
Love the positive tone of the article! So many inspiring words that help your readers to grow them as a person.Nicely done.
Great tips. The more value we add to others, the more abundance flows back to us. This works in business with customers, employees and the one who serves us morning coffee.
Thank you so much for this article. They might sound like common sense on the surface but when you dig deeper, they’re extremely powerful points. I caught myself thinking, “Oops, I need to do that!” with many of them.
Time for some self-reflection …
Hi Michelle,
This was a great article. I’m working on #11 & #12. We consistently need to “upgrade” ourselves so we can be the people we are meant to be. Why else would we be here?
Just my 2 cents!
Although I have always been addicted to learning new things, I have to say consistent intentional learning in a laser focused way has made a big difference for me over the past 12 months. When I look at what I have managed to achieve over the last year, I feel like I totally wasted the previous 15 to 20 years. It’s making frequent trips outside my comfort zone that has had the biggest impact.
Hanging out with the right people, who have made it in life and have experiences to share has also helped a lot. As Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” The trick is to choose wisely.
I also find helping other people who are struggling with similar problems a good means of consolidating my knowledge and building expertise. As Einstein rightly said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.” Combining this with reading the right books is the best recipe to become an expert in whatever one is learning.
Thanks for sharing these inspiring ideas.
Becoming more aware about the coach, accountability partner aspect of things because I always though i was smart enough to not need them.
Would love to read how someone could create their mastermind group, should they have more than one etc., how many people in a mastermind group, and how to set it up so that it is win win for everyone involved.
I love all of these advice. Being able to be open in learning different things and getting out of our comfort zone will surely make a lot of difference in our lives.
Yes. A business and a life coach are essential for success… If you can get them both in one person, much better.