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You think you can do that … but you can’t!

How would you feel if someone said that to you? Hmmm.

And they continued …

Come on. Get real. You’re overlooking several obvious deficiencies. You’re not experienced enough or savvy enough. You’re not really prepared. You’re too old. You don’t have enough money to pull this off. You’ve failed at several other things. You’re kind of a loser.

Coming from someone else, those could well be fightin’ words.

The killer is you say them to yourself!

Here’s how it goes.

You have an idea. A spark of possibility is generated in your brain. It’s exciting.

You contemplate it a while. It means taking on something big, trying something new and audacious, something that requires you to stretch beyond your comfort zone and put yourself at risk.

No sooner does the idea start to crystallize than the voices from your subconscious start chattering … the ones who want to protect you. But they do it by saying NO! to anything and everything, like overprotective parents.

When we say, Nothing ventured, nothing gained, they say, Whoa … nothing ventured, nothing LOST.

Their favorite phrase?

Yeah, but …

You say, I’d love to do ____________. And they say, Yeah, but ___________.

And what follows is the same old expressions of self-doubt … the same old concerns and uncertainties that have stopped you so many times from doing so many things.

Not that there aren’t valid doubts and concerns. There are. It’s silly to blindly ignore the challenges you face when you take on something big. That said, most yeah butting doesn’t feature logical, analytical thinking. I’ll prove it below.

It’s fear talking.

What if we could have more of what we wanted if we just made a shift in the way we talked to ourselves. Instead of getting caught up in saying, Yeah, but, and poisoning the possibility, what if we trained ourselves to concentrate on fully imagining that possibility by asking, What if …?

I’ll tell you, it made all the difference for me and for my clients.

At age 45, I wanted to make a change. I wanted to do something meaningful and rewarding with my life. I wanted to become a coach. Immediately, it started.

Yeah, but … you’re too old to make a career change. You know how old you’ll be by the time you get done with coach training in 2 years? 47.

Yeah, but … you have a secure job that pays well now. And, the benefits are excellent! How do you know you can even cover your living expenses as a coach? And coaches don’t get pensions, let alone medical insurance!

Yeah, but … where do you plan to find the time, as busy as you are now, to learn something new and start a business from scratch while working full time?

Now watch the shift as I actively, consciously started pondering what if …?

What if this is what I was put on earth to do? What if people need me and I can help them? What if I can impact thousands of lives? What if I can be really happy and well compensated doing what I feel called to do for the next 20 years or more?

You wouldn’t be reading this today if I hadn’t asked, what if…?

Yeah, but is a protective reflex. Understand it for what it is, then move beyond its power to limit by asking what if …?

That’s where your mojo comes from … an exciting vision. And no amount of yeah, buts can stand in the way of someone who is really clear on what they want and really intent on getting it.

You know the proof I was talking about?

Guess how old I would have been in 2 years if I hadn’t done the coach training? 47.

That shows you what BS most of those Yeah, buts are.

So … my advice? Shift the “conversation” to what if and watch the magic happen.

Love,
Denise

Meet Denise: Denise Hedges is a Business Development Coach and Speaker Coach for small business owners who want to be more comfortable, confident, and successful with their sales and marketing efforts. She specializes in helping them use speaking as a way to dramatically improve their results!

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