How to Operate From Your Vision, Not to It
Have you ever found yourself struggling to following through on your goals? For some reason you can’t seem to get yourself to the finish line? Maybe it is waking up earlier in the morning or not drinking that extra cup of coffee in the afternoon.
Often times (including myself) we think that in order to achieve something the first thing we need to do is take action. If you want to wake up earlier in the morning, you would then set your alarm earlier.
This my friend, is a doing behavior. One thing about me is that I love to take action. I’m really good at taking something that appears to be overwhelming whether it is for myself or those that I coach and breaking it down into bite-sizable, actionable chunks. Where I can help you can go from stalling to starting.
Taking action for the sake of taking action though doesn’t promise that you’ll get exactly where you want to go or achieve the goals that you want. The problem might be is that you’re taking action from an identity that doesn’t actually achieve those outcomes that you want.
Now stick with me.
Most people operate from what Jim Fortin calls a
HAVE-DO-BE model.
Where once they HAVE something, they’ll then DO something to then therefore BE something.
Here are a few examples:
A lot of people think that once they HAVE a certain level of money they’l be able to DO what they want and then BECOME that person. Let’s assume this person is an over spender and can’t seem to hang on to their money…regardless of them having more money, they’ll always do the same thing (which is spend) and be an over spender.
If someone wanted to sign up for a coaching program but thought “Oh if only I had the money, then I could join your program and then be that person on the other side."
Last one, time. Majority of people wish they had more time. More time to workout, spend with their family, work on their side-hustle, you name it. The fallacy is that “Oh, if I only had more time, then I could work (which is a doing behavior) on my business while working full-time to then eventually become a full-time business owner.” This is a closed loop. Because, regardless of how much more time someone gets, they’ll always need (which is have) more in order DO what you want to do in order to achieve your goals (to become that person).
Instead, you want to work from a place of
BE-DO-HAVE model.
The question is, “Who do you need to first BE, in order DO and therefore HAVE (achieve)?
Who or how do you need to be in order to take the action that leads you to having what is that you want.
Every quarter in Her Way Society we do a 90 day planning session and part of the exercise is writing goals with a massive action list in order to achieve those goals.
Then we always follow up with the question, “Who do I need to be in order to achieve those goals?”
I want you to think about this.
What is one goal of yours, does’t have to be business related, it could be personal, but what is ONE goal that you have.
Now ask yourself, “Who do I need to be in order to reach that goal?
Let’s take the example of time and say you are determined to quit your corporate job and run your business full-time. Who and how do you need to be in this moment in order to have the realization of being your own boss?
The first way of being could be you need to be committed, committed to your schedule, committed to goals. Because if you’re committed, you’re getting results and you are being motivated, you are able to fuel the entire process to have the body you want.
You have to operate FROM your vision not TO your vision.
Because when you operate from (a way of being) you will show up differently, make different decisions, handle your business differently.
If you are side-hustling right now, how can you operate from a place of a full-time business owner?
What decisions would you make?
How would you behave?
What would you say no to or yes to?
This all comes down to your identity.
One of the models that I share often is from “Think and Grow Rich” and it is that your…
Thoughts create an emotion the drives an action that produces a result. There is so much to be said on how important our thoughts are and the impact that they have on our life.
THOUGHTS -> EMOTION -> ACTION -> RESULT
To take it one step further, in NLP, neuro-inguistic programing, they take it about 1-2 steps deeper, prior to the thoughts which often are from our belief system filled with constructs that we learned early, early on in our life.
It starts with the Spirit/source (based on your religious views you might call this something else) > Identity -> Beliefs -> Skills -> Behavior -> Environment.
When you operate from a certain identity you have different beliefs, skills, you make different decisions and take different actions to create a different environment.
When most people want to create change, they do so from changing behaviors (a doing activity).
If you take massive action from a place of scarcity, lack of confidence, uncertainty, you’ll never be able to sustain it.
But if you take massive action from a place and identity of someone who is self integral, committed, responsible, focused, driven you can keep going because that is who you are.
That is your character.
What you do, is only as effective as the being that you are. Your massive action, working out, lead generation, is only as effective as who you are.
Studies show that by the age of 8 we have learned majority of the constructs and beliefs, and an identity that shapes the rest of our life (that is assuming you do nothing to change that).
When I was growing up the conversation (and majority of arguments) were always money related.
Never having enough, money doesn’t grow on tress, you have to work hard in order to even just maintain in life.
While it helped create a sense of independence within me to know that if I want something, I needed to pay for it, it also created this identity of lack when it came to money.
I know I’m not the only one who has experienced this.
Take a moment and think about the constructs you learned early early on in your life whether that is about money, relationships, religion, how to behave.
Most likely this was learned before you were 8 years old.
The good news is is that you can change this by shifting your identity.
And asking yourself WHO or HOW to I need to be in order to achieve my vision?
As we wrap up I want to leave you with this…
Know your vision and know who and how you need to be to start operating from that vision, instead of to it.
What decisions do you need to make?
What are you committed to?
What are you letting go of?
What do you no longer say yes to?
Until next time, go out and do it your way!