As a counselor for a large university specializing in business training for adults with full-time jobs, all students are busy with work, life, family, and other commitments. Many of them are afraid to accomplish their educational dreams and even hesitate to make it through their first course.
My job is to help them find their inner motivation to complete this mission and guide them through the process towards graduation.
One of the most empowering questions I would ask students is: “If you could wave a magic wand and be anything you wanted to be, what would you be?” or “what big goal would you set for yourself if you knew you couldn’t fail to achieve it?”
This is very effective because it allows students to think honestly, and free from their own negative thoughts. It allows them to think without disturbing their minds with fears and doubts.
So today I ask you: If you could build the business of your dreams, and knew you would not fail, where would you be five years from now? What’s the one good thing you dared to dream of if you knew that nothing would stop you from living that dream? Take a minute and ask yourself this question.
The old adage that “we are our own worst enemy” is so true! In most cases students undergo ups and downs, but we at all times stay focused on their ultimate goal of graduating by keeping the positive wins visible, and their negative thoughts invisible and unthinkable. Words are powerful because we use these letter groups to form fear, doubt, and confidence in our minds. Before something can become an action, it must first become a thought, right?
You see, everybody has a different story. Some people do well, we all – maybe not so much. Many of us did not grow up taught to focus on positive outcomes, and to imagine what our success would look like if we let go of doubt and fear. So thinking this way feels unnatural or even unrealistic at first. However, the fact remains; we are what we think. Shifting the paradigm of our thought process to consider what our life would be like if we knew we couldn’t fail to give us a clean interpretation of our true desires and goals.
So this is not a gimmick for long until you get him talking; it’s a learning reality to consider our choices from a strength-based perspective. In order to accomplish success in our business, our life or our career, we must use our power to get ahead. Our weaknesses never help us love our families, enjoy our free time, or make this world a better place. It is our strength that enables us to open our hearts and offer in words our talents, wisdom and other gifts.
So it is obvious that our actions in life and business are successful because of our strengths and that’s the reason we need to match our thinking based on strengths too. Approaching it any other way would be unbalanced and cause us to have less control over the outcome of our thinking than we otherwise would. Wouldn’t you agree that the only person responsible for what you think should be you (besides God, obviously)?
Remember this thought: If you could build the business of your dreams, and knew you could not fail, where would you be five years from now?
Remember that just like top athletes must invest in working on their skills and pushing themselves. Think of Mohammed Ali’s consistent self-affirmation “I am the greatest” so in the same way we as leaders in life, career or business we too must invest in practicing our new skills in considering our future from a position based on our strengths. and using positive mental self-talk to combat self-doubt and fear. Practice makes perfect!
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The author is currently working on a TED Talk, “The Politics of Personal Empowerment: Four Words for Influencing and Influencing Others,” to be presented next month. If you want more info about it, please enter your e-mail Here to stay connected and receive advanced information.
About the author: Rich Valdes is the CEO of RichValdeS.com offering concrete skills and training in communications, sales & marketing, and political strategy to help successful people in business and life to influence and influence others for good.
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