Always act from PERSONAL POWER. Personal Power means having the ability to take action. What keeps people from their personal power or taking action?
The main obstacle is FEAR. The biggest fear is the "Fear of Failure". We have to challenge ourselves to have a new way of thinking, create a new process to work through those fears. Take on a new mantra, "I realize there are no failures, there are only results". "I can have no fear of failure because it is just an outcome".
Think about this. You will always have an outcome when you take action. You may not like the outcome or the results but you will have an outcome. Looking at your action as failure can stop you in your tracks. Knowing that failure is only a result or outcome gives you the power to learn from and make new outcomes or results. If you poll the people around you and asked, "How many of you achieve ALL of your goals?" What do you think they would say? Not many would say they do. Let's ask the same people then, "How many of you always achieve a result?" Everyone. It may not be the result you wanted but it is a result. Tony Robbins says, "You never fail in life, you always succeed in producing a result". If you learn from the result, make a subtle change you can produce the outcome you were looking for. or a new result to work from.
When you look at your PERSONAL POWER, you have to ask yourself if you want to take action boldly or just be average? What’s the main difference between people who achieve and people who are average?
Some people have the ability to achieve incredible things in spite of tremendous difficulties. I love the story about Betsy Coleman. She was the first African-American female and Native American to receive her pilot’s license. She grew up on a shareholders farm in Texas, picking cotton as a young girl. She dreamed of becoming a pilot. She could have stayed in the cotton fields, her birthright could have been her limit, she could have decided that it was all life could give her. Instead she pushes herself saving enough money to get herself to Chicago and from there fly to France to take pilots training. In her time in America, African American, Native Americans Females were not allowed a pilot’s license. She found the way. Not only did she get her license, but she became a high-profile pilot in a notoriously dangerous air show. Her plans didn’t stop there, where she could have been satisfied with her success. She was known as Queen Bess or Brave Bessie. Her dream was to open a flight school that did allow women and men of all race. Unfortunately, she died in a plane crash in 1926. She was unable to fulfill her dreams before she died, but she never gave up hope not the will to take the action to make things happen. She had several stumbling blocks, and failures before she reached her first dream. She definitely failed forward.
Sometimes we say people are just lucky or blessed, they stumbled into a big win. We also have resigned ourselves to being just average. Who wants to be just average? Sometimes it's the NO's that we hear over and over that stop us. How many NO's could you work through? 20? 50? 100? 1000? How many rejections would it take before you gave up, believed the self-doubt conversations you have with yourself or listen to what others believe instead of listening to your gut?
You have probably all heard of Kernel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken right? Do you think he just was lucky with his chicken recipe? Did you know that he didn't even start until he was 65? He had just received his first retirement check of $99. He had that, an idea and his grandmother's famous secret recipe. He went to several restaurants, and business owners trying to prove he had the best chicken recipe. Do you think he walked into the first place in his white suit and white beard, recipe in hand and they said, "You have a great marketing strategy we want to partner with you!" NO! He actually was rejected, most people wouldn't even try his chicken he brought in for sampling. He was rejected 1009 times before he got his first yes. I don't know if I could truly take that much rejection. Yet, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed the food industry and succeeded in franchising.
Jamie Kern Lima, founder of IT Cosmetics started her company in her living room. Her income can from being a waitress at Denny's. She had the dream to change the beauty industry from the models that had that unattainable look, to real people, real skin challenges and empower all women to feel beautiful. She faced self-doubt, many times she struggled just to make her bills and would still invest some into her makeup products that she believed in. She was body shamed, not only for her weight and not being a typical model size that no one would want to by from, also shamed because of a skin condition she had called rosacea, redness and bumps on the skin. She even had God-doubt, Lord are you sure this is what I'm suppose to do? I don't know how much more I can take! She had to fight the Fear of Failure, she had to fight against letting the NO's that were delivered cruelly stop her. She had to learn to trust herself and go from underestimated to unstoppable. Jamie challenges you to think, She asks do you have big goals, hopes and dreams but let rejection get in the way? Do you struggle with feeling like you're not enough and like success is only something that happens to other people, but have a hard time believing it's possible for you? Do you let your past mistakes, circumstances and failures hold you back? Do you know deep down inside that you were created for more, but somehow still doubt yourself? In her book, Believe IT, she helps you discover how to fight the Fear of Failure, how to quiet the self-doubt, how to handle the rejection and how to fail forward. Jamie tells how she sold her cosmetic company to Loreal for 1.2 billion dollars, became the first woman CEO of Loreal and conquered the Nay-sayers. I don't know about you, but rejection along with cruelty that crushes your self-esteem and hurts your pride is the biggest reason most people Fear Failure!
There are no failures, you succeed by learning. Your experience will guide you if you use it in the correct mindset. What did I learn today? What worked? What needs to be improved? Ask these questions every evening as part of your nightly routine. If you didn't receive the result or outcome you desired, you have to recognize it, then immediately change your approach.
Get a new definition of failure and success. "The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake"—Nelson Boswell
Most achievers are given ample reasons to believe they are a failure, but in spite of that, they persevere. That's PERSONAL POWER and PURPOSE.
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