You have to BE it before you have it. This is something I've seen to be true at every level of business.
But, so many entrepreneurs have this backwards and think, “Once I have that next-level result, THEN I’ll show up differently. THEN, I’ll BE different. ”Sorry not sorry, but that’s not how it works.
This is essential to understand for your future business results, like that income and impact, because the brain loves patterns and repeating them. It’s a little like a time machine that way, and relives past memories through new situations all day, everyday. This is why so many entrepreneurs feel stuck in what feels like Groundhog’s Day in their business.
But, as they say, what got you here won’t get you where you want to go next. If you want to reach a new level of success, you have to first create a higher level of thinking that looks past, well, your past.
Aka, you gotta break those thought patterns and BE that new thought, and next-level version of yourself in advance of those money-making results.
Let me give you an example outside of business. Let’s say you want to get in shape and become a runner.
Right now, you don’t get enough sleep, eat junk food, feed your mind a diet of negative stories about your body and capabilities, and have never actually gone running before. Would you keep repeating those patterns, BEING the same and expect to wake up one day as a fit, fast, runner?
No, of course not, because that would be absurd.
You’d start to BE a runner first...you’d change the way you’re thinking and showing up….you’d embody BEING a runner, and ya know, start running. You might not outwardly resemble a runner and might wheeze around the block and stop at first, but you’d BE a runner again and again, and then, inevitably, the results take care of themselves and you’d be that fit, fast runner on the outside.
So, let’s apply this to business. Let’s say you want to make those $10k cash months or scale to a million dollars.
Instead of expecting those results to precede who you’re being, what if you stepped into BEING that $10k a month entrepreneur or million dollar business owner first?
What if you embodied the thoughts, habits, and way of showing up before the results came rolling in?
What if you started BEING it before you have it? It would make those income results pretty inevitable wouldn’t it?!
One way to shift your thinking so you can BE it to get those next-level business results? Ask yourself future-pacing questions. Because your brain also loves to answer a good Q, and future-pacing questions ask your brain to think further than your repetitive thoughts.
Some of my favorite questions that get the brain’s time machine looking forward:
Who do you need to BE to get those next-level results in your business?
If you already had the results you wanted, what would you think or believe?
How would you show up?
What would you say to yourself?
What actions would you take?
When you ask yourself forward-pacing questions, it challenges you to shift your thinking from repeating memories of what you already know to something new. It challenges you to think outside of your current patterns, so you can create a higher level of thinking.
And, new levels of thinking help you to break old patterns so you can show up differently, BE different, to get different results. After all, thought precedes action and results!
Who do you need to step into BEING first to have the results you want in your business? What’s one action step you can take today being that version of yourself?
Wishing you your version of success,