I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again and I’ll definitely keep saying it: Change is hard. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it ALL. THE. TIME. But they’re not, and the reason for that is because creating a change in your life or in your business requires alignment and action on multiple levels. Yes, I’m talking strategy + action + mindset.
Strategy
Of course, when it comes to creating change in your business, your strategy is essential. You absolutely need to know what you’re going to change and how you’ll go about doing it. In fact, most change efforts focus primarily on this one area. And that’s why they usually fail. Because focusing just on strategy doesn’t help you implement and stick with the change. For that, you need mindset and action.
But, before we move onto mindset and action, let’s examine the importance of strategy. Strategy work results in making a decision on where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there. It creates clarity around your vision and the pathway to get you there. Strategy is a very essential component of change. It’s just not the only component.
Action
Having decided where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, you’ll now need to take action on those initiatives or steps. This is where the resistance starts to come up. When you’re working on your strategy, everything is still theoretical, so it’s a lot easier to accept and move through. But when you start creating the change, that’s when your subconscious kicks in to “protect” you.
Your brain is designed to keep you safe. If it senses danger, it will initiate thoughts and actions that it considers to be “for your safety”. Of course, these things are not necessarily what we would consciously consider to be things to be kept safe from, but since they are new – and with new territory comes an element of the unknown, which then leads to the possibility of danger – your brain believes otherwise.
Mindset
Supporting all your strategy and action initiatives is your mindset. This is where your efforts are either amplified or chopped down. Going through the motions without necessarily being 100% in will not get you the results you’re hoping for.
Your mindset supports you in carrying out your actions from your strategy in a way that produces results. This can be frequency, it can be ideas, it can be the language you use, the energy you bring to conversations. Mindset can literally affect anything and everything. So getting this right is also key.
5 steps to make change happen
Now that you know how the three business elements – strategy, action and mindset – affect your ability to create that change you’ve been wanting, let’s look at the 5 steps to make it happen.
- Understand the reason for change
Before embarking on any change at any level, you need to prep yourself and your mind with why this change is needed. Look at the parts of your life or your business that are not making you feel good. Really feel the pain that it’s causing you. And then think about what you’d like to have in the future and create that picture in your mind. Feel what you’d be feeling if that were true for you right now.
And then write it all down. Write down all your reasons why you need to create this change in your life or in your business. Ideally, put this list somewhere you can easily access every day so you can read it and remind yourself why you need to do the things you’ve got planned out.
- Find the right support system
Never underestimate the power of being supported. When I talk about support, I like to categorize it into two buckets – the support that comes from family and friends and the support that comes from peers. The former is great in giving you the space (and if you like to use the word, the permission) to create the change you seek. The latter, however, is the one that gives you the perspective and the stories of their experience.
When creating change in your life, having someone who has been through, is going through or has helped other people through the same change is invaluable. It’s like having your own personal guide or team of guides. The right support system can help you figure out what path to take, how to overcome obstacles, what issues to look out for and what to do when you’re ready to give up.
- Create your vision (and communicate it to your team, if you have one)
So by this point you’ve got your reason for change and you have a support system. Next, you’ll have to create your vision. You will have certainly started this process when you were understanding your reason for change, but now is the time to work out all the details. What exactly is this future you want to create? How will you get there? What are all the steps and actions you need to plan and work through?
The key here is clarity. The more clear the vision, the more likely you’ll be to get there. This is especially true if you have a team. Can each person on your team articulate the vision? And when they do, are they all saying the same thing?
- Start generating small wins, and then move onto bigger changes
To ensure that your mind and body feel safe (because, don’t forget that change is something your brain categorizes as a potential threat), create small wins at first. These are the little things that push you a little, but still produce a desired outcome that nudges you a little closer to your end goal.
After a few small wins, start working on some larger tasks. You might find that you face some internal resistance. If you do, it’s time to work through it. There are many things you can do here. My favorite is journalling. Write down everything you’ve accomplished so far, then move onto the things that are causing you to feel worried, or feel difficult. As you list these down, look for evidence that disproves each one of them. You can wrap up with some affirmations or future pacing (where you write about the future scenario in the present tense).
- Celebrate your wins
Celebrate every single win, no matter how small! In fact, I like to tell my clients to celebrate everything at every stage. For example, if you were on a sales call and the person you were talking to said they wanted to sign up for your program, celebrate! And then when the payment comes through, celebrate again!
The energy around celebrating is one of pure gratitude. And we all know gratitude is so incredibly important. It cultivates the energy and the frequency within you to create more gratitude through more wins and more of the actions that got you there in the first place. So celebrate as much as you can!
Final words on creating lasting change
In short, any change requires you to create the right strategy, take the right actions and have the right mindset to support it all. These three things are embedded across the five steps that I’ve found to work in creating any change in your life and in your business:
- Understand the reason for change.
- Find the right support system
- Create your vision (and communicate it to your team, if you have one)
- Start generating small wins, and then move onto bigger changes
- Celebrate your wins
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