Are you thinking big enough?

Are you currently thinking BIG enough?   In your business and your life?   Do your current goals ‘stretch’ you and take you outside of your comfort zone, or are you pretty comfortable with them and know you can hit them.     Do you stop when you do hit them??  Or do you then challenge yourself and push yourself further?  

The map is not the territory

  We tend to be restricted by what we THINk is possible.     We constrain ourselves based on our own maps of the world.     What we’ve seen, heard, modelled, believe and are told is possible for us.     We see what’s possible for other people, but all too often we look at it and think ‘that’s for them, not me.’ and it’s utter rubbish.   It really is.  I know, I spent most of my life living that way and I know better now.   You’re restricting yourself by YOUR version of reality…not reality itself.   Really ponder on that one for a moment.  

It’s all possible…yes really!

  One of the presuppositions of NLP is ‘if it’s possible in the world, it’s possible for me.’      You just need to work out how you need to think and who you need to BE to make it possible for you.   By who you need to BE I mean, what do you need to believe?  What traits do you need to have? Patience? Tenacity? Confidence?  Whatever it is, you can learn it.  

Aim high

  To illustrate all this I love the quote by Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote ‘The Power of Positive Thinking, ‘Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll and among the stars’.   I loooove this quote and have it up on my wall as a reminder to think big, dream big and that even if I don’t get to exactly where I planned, it’s ok because I’ll be a LOT further along than I would have been if I was playing small and safe.     Think about it this way.     When you know that the subconscious mind doesn’t distinguish between good or bad, right or wrong, it goes by what you tell it.     Therefore if you’ve told it you want a 10% increase in revenue year on year…then it’s working to get you a 10% increase in revenue year on year. It’s working to filter out the opportunities for that, it’s driving your work ethic and your goal setting, everything!     It’s a very reasonable and achievable goal and you’re likely to hit it.  You may even surpass it.     But, what if your goal was for a 100% increase year on year?     How would that change your behaviour?    How would it change your focus?    How would it change your RESULTS?     Even if you DON’T hit 100% I’d be willing to bet that you’d be far further along than 10%!    So why not shoot for the moon?!  

Start small, aim big!

  There’s something to be said for starting small for sure. Niching down as much as you can.     Nurturing a smaller number of clients and potential clients to the absolute best of your ability so they become your biggest champions.   Setting up with minimal outlay.     HOWEVER, having the end goal (not that there ever really is an END goal…you just keep growing and evolving!) in mind can and will drive your success.     Where you COULD be in the future.  What you’re AIMING for. The BIG picture.    This is why it’s SO important to have a big reason behind doing what you’re doing, not some fluffy, wishy washy ‘Why’.     It helps you think bigger and changes your thoughts, beliefs, behaviours and actions to make sure you’re always taking steps forward.     Perhaps you want to start your own charity, or build schools in 3rd world countries, or help save endangered species or eradicate depression.     Whatever that big ‘legacy’ reason behind you doing what you’re doing is.    

Where are your prices?

  This can happen a lot with setting pricing too.     Sometimes we can assign a value to something based on our ideas of WHO we are, WHERE we are currently in our journey and also where we place our own worth.     However, it’s important to look at the size of the problem and put the worth on it being solved.     For some problems that’s priceless!  But pricing yourself too low can actually be off putting for people.   If you have a choice of 3 courses or services that solve your problem, one is £50, one is £300 and one is £1000.  Which one do you want?     Why?  Because of the perceived value of it.  We assume that the higher priced product is going to be the best one, right?   Also, if you haven’t looked at your pricing in comparison to your overall business goals, how are you ever going to know if you can hit them?  Work backwards, reverse engineer!  

Do you have plans for growth?

  You can also think of thinking big in terms of growth, expansion and scaling.     What’s phase 1…then phase 2, 3, 4 as you keep growing and get bigger and make sure you’re creating longevity for yourself as you go.   One of the ways I look at this is I will invest in systems at the best level I can afford. Future proofing for where I know I will get to.  I plan to ‘grow into’ some systems for sure.    For example, email systems.     Yes you can boot strap to begin with and I will keep my eye on things I don’t need to use just yet…however, I don’t want to ‘grow out of’ things as it’s extra time and money to migrate things across in the long run.      So, I would rather start with the system I know I want, at their lowest level and then the ‘upgrades’ are within the same system and FAR easier.    When you think bigger you won’t let comparisonitis get in your way, you’ll go for the opportunities that you might otherwise not because you’re not ‘big’ enough yet.  My opinion is if you don’t ask you don’t get.   

So how can you think bigger?

  Firstly, always try to challenge yourself, ‘If I was thinking bigger here, what would it look like?’  

Dare to dream

  Allow yourself time to dream.     Use meditation and journaling as a way to get those dreams out and into a do-able structure.     It’s ALL  doable when you’re actually looking for how to make it happen.     When you use what you already know about how to get your brain to work WITH you rather than against you (if you’re new to me then have a binge of some more of my content and you’ll be well on your way!)then you’ll be unstoppable.     Sometimes we stop when we can’t see the ‘next first step’.     Keep asking ‘how can/could I do this?’ ‘How could I make this a reality for me?’ the answers will soon come, believe it or not you probably already have all the answers you need.     Or you can short cut it and learn from someone who’s already doing it.  Magic!  

Surround yourself with A players

  Surround yourself with people who get where you’re going and will keep pushing you along for the ride and catch you in those moments when you’re thinking or playing small.     So much of it will be unconscious behaviour so it’s important to increase your own self awareness but also make it easy on yourself by being surrounded by other people who will see it a mile off and lovingly point out the potential patterns.  

Everyone’s version of ‘big’ is different

  Remember that everyone’s version of thinking big will be different.  So make sure you take the lead on what it looks like for you, but be honest and don’t allow yourself to get caught up in fear.     How big you’re prepared to go will change and evolve over time.  Taking that step will soon turn into a leap.     There’s definitely something to be said for ‘slow and steady wins the race’ and personally I think that builds great longevity because you’re always thinking in 1, 5, 10, 20 years time how you can grow and evolve.     But doing that with the big vision in mind…ooosh that’s powerful!   So what could you do today to think a little bigger?   If you got value from this and you know in your gut that now is the time to step up and start rewiring your thinking and changing things for yourself then book in a free discovery call so we can work out what needs to happen to get you from where you’re at right now, to the action taking success you know you can be!! If you want my eyes and ears on YOUR problems I work with people 1:1, through the Proactive Pants Programme and 1:1 full day intensives, stop waiting for if and when and decide to change things now! Fx Fran Excell, Subconscious Success Mentor – Helping Business Owners Overcome Self Sabotage & Get More Done In Less Time at www.franexcell.com RESOURCES: Check out The Positive Pants Podcast here Download your FREE Stressed To Success Meditation here Shop Printables & Meditations here Grab your 365 day ‘Attitude Of Gratitude’ Journal here Grab Your ‘Positive Pants Firmly On’ Notebook here Book In a Free 20 Minute Discovery Call here