How To Add Rocket Fuel To Your Vision

There are FOUR main strategies that the most successful people I have worked with employ for building a compelling vision:
• Firstly, they think about what they do want, not what they don’t want
• Secondly, they mentally rehearse having it already
• Thirdly, they think about the consequences of getting it, positive and negative, for themselves and those around them
• Fourthly, they make sure that they can take action themselves, and that someone else is not responsible for the action.

Now these are powerful strategies but on their own they are not enough. They have to be ‘powered’ by strong and congruent beliefs, because it is these beliefs that are the rocket fuel you need to help you through the tough times that inevitably come to greet you on the road to success.

Some of you might well question my use of the word ‘inevitable’. People have.
‘Why should tough times be inevitable?’

Let me clarify

When I talk about tough times, I mean the failures, challenges and mistakes that are an inevitable part of the pursuit of excellence. And they are inevitable because you cannot go out beyond the boundaries of mediocrity and familiarity without taking risks. And risks sometimes lead to failure. The key to your success then is how you deal with that failure.
I realise I have made a huge assumption here. I have made the assumption that you want to succeed. And not just to succeed, but to be the very best you can be and to have a business that others look at with admiration and maybe even envy.

You see, if you want to have a business that’s just like everyone else’s, then that’s easy enough. Simply look around you and copy what they are doing. But why would you want that? Why would you want to spend the hours and hours it takes to build a business just to build a replica what is already there? That seems to me to make no sense at all.
So I’m going to presuppose that you’re with me on this one and that you want to create something special. And, on that basis, I want to explore with you the power of beliefs and give you some rocket fuel strategies.

The Power Of Beliefs
What are beliefs?
Beliefs are thoughts that form our reality. They are thoughts which we consider to be true. Beliefs are filters. Every experience we have is filtered through our beliefs and, as filters, they influence our thoughts, our physiology, our state and our behaviour.

Our beliefs have a major impact on our life because we are constantly, but unconsciously, looking for evidence that they are true for us. Every piece of evidence we find that reinforces this belief is proof that we are right to believe it. It reinforces our sense of self. Hence the reason that we find so much resistance when circumstances conspire to challenge one of our core beliefs.
The Belief Cycle below illustrates how our beliefs impact on us:

A belief about something, someone or yourself causes you to think certain thoughts which in turn affect your feelings (your state) which cause you to behave in a certain way. This behaviour affects the outcome in the situation and the subsequent consequences confirm your belief.

For example:
I have worked with a lot of people who believe that they are no good at public speaking or making business presentations.

Imagine what happens when they are asked to make a presentation:
Belief: ‘I am no good at presenting.’

Thoughts: ‘Oh no. I wish someone else could do this for me. I hate it. It’s going to be awful.’
State: Nervous, anxious and butterflies in stomach.
Behaviour: If you are nervous while presenting, you are likely to avoid eye contact, speak quickly and haltingly, breathe rapidly, and display a lack of engagement with your audience and lack of confidence in your message.
Consequences: The audience will be disengaged and there will be a perception of you as lacking in confidence and lacking conviction in your message. The feedback is likely to be less than positive and your belief that you are no good at presenting will be reinforced.
Result: The consequences of your behaviour are in line with your beliefs, proving to you that you were right to have that belief in the first place.
In summary:
You get what you focus on
So, in order to ensure that we keep on track, that we keep our vision clearly in sight, that we view failures as ‘bumps in the road’ and nothing more, we need to become consciously aware of our beliefs, of the things that we are focussing on.
Over 50,000 thoughts cross our minds every day. We can’t stop that from happening. But we can help what thoughts we grab hold of and breathe energy into, thereby making them come to life and creating our reality.
What am I believing?***
***Please note that I have used the phrase ‘what am I believing?’, rather than ‘what are my beliefs?’ I do this for a reason.
You see, our beliefs are learnt. We weren’t born believing certain things. We had to have a series of experiences that led us to the beliefs that we now hold. And we are, as I pointed out above, always on the look out for evidence that our beliefs are true. In other words, we are engaged in the activity of believing.
Now, if beliefs are learnt, which they are, that means they can be ‘unlearnt’ and replaced with others if they are not serving us well. All of us will have examples of beliefs that we used to have which have changed – Father Christmas, The Tooth Fairy! ; more proof that we can indeed change them.
If we are to realise our dreams, to have the truly successful business and life that we want, we need to do three things:
• Identify whether what we currently believe is likely to help or hinder us in the pursuit of our vision
• Decide what it would be more useful to believe
• Implement a set of proven strategies for installing these more useful beliefs

Exercise 1: How To Find Out If Your Beliefs Support Your Vision
Really focus on your vision for your business and notice the thoughts that come to your mind when you think about achieving that vision.
Write down these thoughts as they come to you without paying too much attention to them.
Now look at your list, take each statement in turn and ask yourself this question: ’What impact will this thought/belief have on me achieving my vision?’
Use the belief cycle to work each one through and mark down beside each one whether it is useful or not useful to you.

Exercise 2: Aligning Beliefs With Vision
For each of the ‘not useful’ thoughts, rewrite them in a way that is useful. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it – make it up.
All of these new statements should support your vision.
Add any others that would be useful for you to believe in order to achieve your vision.

Exercise 3: Making it happen
Here are some ways to change your beliefs. You can try some or all of these.
1 Decide to let them go. Notice the thought and let it pass through.
2 Put the limiting thoughts behind you and the ones you want out in front of you.
3 Look for evidence of the new belief. Notice each time you do something that will support the belief. ‘I know I can do everything I need to do to get 100 new customers because I identified 5 potential business partners today.’
4 Act as if it is true. Behave as if you already believe it, taking actions that will take you towards the goal. ‘As I already know that it is possible for me to get 100 customers, what do I need to do to get there?’ Make a list of all the actions you need to take to get you to your goal.

These, then, are more strategies of the most successful people. Try them out, practise them regularly, and notice the difference they make!