Ready to Raise the Bar?

Written by Deb and Brad Warren on Jan 6, 2009 10:43 am

Read More: Mindset | Personal Development

Here we are one week into the new year. How are you doing with those resolutions? By the end of this month, most people will have already given up, forgiven themselves, and moved on...just like every other year. Why is that?

No clearly defined goals? Nope.

Lack of willpower? Nope.

Crazy Economy? Nope.

Here it is: Most people don't really want what they say they want. In fact, they prefer the opposite and work diligently to get it and keep it. This seemingly contradictory statement was explained to me several years ago by two colleagues from Harvard University, Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey.

Here's a timely example of this plays out in our lives: Ann states that she wants to lose weight and get in shape. When she imagines this actually coming true, she realizes that people will see her and treat her differently. In fact, she fears, they will probably expect more from her. Friends and co-workers will expect her to have more energy, enthusiasm, and ideas. Strangers will notice her and want to strike up conversations and relationships. She fears she'll be revealed as someone without enough great ideas or personality. Suddenly, Ann's old world of baggy clothes and low expectations sounds really good to her. She hops off the treadmill and grabs a bag of Oreos.

Are you keeping the bar lower than you should because you like how easy it is to walk over?

Take some time this week and really get in touch with your feelings about your potentially remarkable success. You most definitely have the power to transform your life and subsequently the lives of those team members in your network marketing business. That can be both exhilarating and terrifying.

When you picture yourself actually achieving your business goals, are you aware of your own competing thoughts that often breed doubt or even fear? As you reach new milestones in your network marketing business, do you become uncomfortable with new expectations of leadership? Arriving at these pivotal growth stages, you either break through and move forward or pull back and vacillate at your current level of performance.

You may be convincing yourself that your success will bring you more income but also reveal you as not an expert to be emulated, rather just an ordinary person, or worse...a fraud. You may also hold the popular yet misguided belief that the super successful leaders in this industry possess some innate secret ability. Not true. Those leaders are simply the former students who decided they wanted success more than comfort.

Here's the take-away message for today: It's time to challenge those assumptions regarding your success. Yes, it will be different. And yes, you are ready to raise the bar.

Keep Leading Forward!

Deb and Brad

P.S. You can delve deeper into this phenomena and develop a plan of self awareness and action by reading Kegan and Lahey's book, Seven Languages for Transformation - How the way we talk can change the way we work.