If you wanted to become healthier, fitter, have more energy, release a few pounds – you know what you could do to make that happen right? You could make different food choices, exercise more, drink more water. You know the deal. If you made these choices, you would probably achieve your goal in a few weeks/months.
Do you currently feel 100% on top of your health, fitness, nutrition?
If not, you know what to do.
Yet you won’t really do it for the length of time needed right?
The alarm will go off at 5am and you’ll press it to off justifying the action with ‘It’s too cold’; the popcorn and chocolate will come on movie night <insert whatever weakness resonates with you here> and you’ll say ‘Ohhh I’m going to let myself! You only live once!’
Yes, yes, these things are so true – there’s a ‘lack of time’, you have a busy life, you have things that have to get done. But you and I both know that if your life depended on it, you would make these choices so that you could achieve the desired results, if someone told you to get up at 5am every day for 6 months and they’d give you $1million, you’d get out of that warm bed like a shot.
So when you say I don’t have time, it’s too cold, I’ll let myself off the hook etc, what you actually mean is that your desire just isn’t strong enough.
That’s it, in a nutshell.
Let’s move this over to your business.
There are certain things that you know you could do – right now – to take you closer to the results you want.
But you’re not doing them are you?
Again, here comes that inner chatter… “It’s not that easy… I need more capital…. I need more time…. I need more staff….”
But if you’re 100% honest with yourself again – there are things you could do that could move the needle, that you’re not doing.
It’s a ‘Knowing:Doing’ gap – and it’s costing you results.
I remember a very wise mentor of mine saying to me many years ago “I could show you how to double your income…. and you wouldn’t even have to learn anything new!”
Because we all have this ‘Knowing – Doing’ Gap.
And we’re not closing it because we’re too busy letting ourselves off the hook with excuses. Oh yes, they are very justified, we even convince ourselves that they’re factual. But there are always things that we could do to move the needle if we’re not a slave to our own inner chatter.
So how do you close that gap? Not just for a week, but permanently.
You decide to.
You decide that you’re the type of person who gives yourself a command and follows it.
This is who I am now – I do what I tell myself I’m going to do. I take action that feels very uncomfortable if I know it will take me one step closer towards what I want to achieve. I choose to. I get to do what I need to do to get to where I’m going. That’s who I AM.
In a matter of a few short weeks it will become so habitual that you won’t even realise that you feel uncomfortable any more.
It’s like when you have your first baby and you’re up at night doing feeds – after a while you become so used to feeling exhausted that it becomes your new norm. You adapt to it because your baby needs you.
Same here – your business needs you – and you’ll quickly adapt to taking serious action in spite of extreme discomfort once you make it a habit.
Because if you want what you say you want, you have to start by closing that knowing – doing gap before you even think about learning new things.
Don’t make this a ‘new year’s resolution’ – start now, today, right where you are reading this post.
Become someone who is driven by pleasing results instead of someone who is driven by pleasing methods.
Nobody is coming to close that gap for you.
Repeat after me: “If it is to be, it’s up to me”
And then go and do it.
Guinevere