On Becoming Successful
By Pat Rigsby
I get to spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs.
On a daily basis I’m on calls, video conferences or in face-to-face meetings with wonderful people who are taking control of their lives to have more impact and reap the rewards of taking on the responsibility of being a business owner.
But honestly, a lot of them struggle with the ‘inner’ workings of becoming successful…and it is a bigger obstacle than any of the other stuff like marketing or operations.
See, I don’t think you can be successful until you believe you can be successful.
Until then, you may have spikes of progress, but you’ll regress back to where you were.
You have to upgrade your ‘internal software’ if you want that progress to stick.
Let’s face it…success isn’t normal.
Normal is average…and that’s where most people sit.
How many times has someone told you that pursuing your dreams was crazy?
That you should get a real job?
I know I heard that 10X more than I heard people telling me they believed in me and that I should push forward in pursuit of my goals.
But that wasn’t about me…it was about them and their beliefs that success is something for other people…not us.
Though I can think back to the times someone did say they believed in me and recall how it just lit me up with energy, enthusiasm and confidence…I know how infrequently that sort of belief comes from the outside, and if we want to achieve our goals…
…The belief that we can be successful is an inside job.
But to reap the rewards of that belief, we have to let go of all the excuses that get in our way.
I know that when I became a head college baseball coach at age 23, I had a list of reasons why I couldn’t be successful:
- I was too young
- I didn’t have enough experience
- I hadn’t been an incredibly successful player
- I didn’t have scholarships to offer
- I had really limited resources
And I had people reminding me of those on a daily basis.
To be able to succeed as a coach, I first had to succeed in conquering these excuses.
And here are just a few of the excuses I’ve heard regularly from fitness business owners…
- I am not good at selling.
- I am not a good marketer.
- My town is not a good market.
- My location is bad.
- I’m not a ‘business guy’.
- There is too much competition.
- The people here don’t spend money on things like this.
- I don’t have enough time.
- I tried that once and it didn’t work.
- I can’t pay for coaching or marketing.
- My staff isn’t doing a good job.
- I don’t have the credentials that more successful owners have.
- I don’t have any special talent.
To reach our goals…we have to let go of all of those.
You have to understand that success isn’t built on what you don’t think you can do…
…it’s built on what you believe you can…and what you actually do.
Every successful person I’ve known has had their share of doubts, just like the ones I just listed…but they acknowledged them and found ways to get past them.
See, they knew that nothing magically fixes itself.
You have to assess where you are and be honest about it.
Then you get clear about where you want to go.
Finally…once you’ve done both of those…you start taking small steps from where you are to where you want to be.
It all starts with belief that you can get there.
That you do deserve success and that it’s not just for other, special people.
And that you let go of those things internally that are holding you back and start building behaviors and habits that line up with where you want to be.
Look…I’ve doubted myself so many times, it’s kind of depressing in hindsight.
But in every instance that I found a way to get past all the excuses and actually believe I could succeed, I not only was able to achieve my goals…I exceeded them.
So start there.
Accept that success is first an inside job.
