Two professionals start their careers with comparable financial and social advantages and connections, and identical training and education.  One becomes highly successful.  The other doesn’t.  How do we account for this?

If we examined their careers more closely, we would see that the highly successful professional constantly takes action to get where he wants to go, while his less successful counterpart usually makes excuses for why he can’t get there.  Since the knowledge they each possess is evenly matched (as are their other assets), the maxim “Knowledge is Power” proves to be inaccurate.  Knowledge, by itself, is NOT Power.  Applied knowledge is power.

What, then, causes one of these men to apply his knowledge in action and the other to let that knowledge go to waste?

If we could look inside the minds of these two people, the critical differences we would find would fall into one or more of these three areas:

1)  How they are occurring to themselves,

2)  How other people are occurring to them, and

3)  How the world is occurring to them.

The more successful of the two pros is where he is because the way he occurs to himself is as an Action Hero—someone who deserves success, and someone who is achieving the success he deserves.  Maybe he sees himself as “pure loving service”. Maybe it’s as something else.  But how he occurs to himself is undoubtedly as someone who is and ought to be successful.  Perhaps, other people occur to him as his support network, as people worth serving, or as irrelevant to his success; regardless, the world occurs to him as a place where he can thrive.

The less successful of the two pros is where he is because the way he occurs to himself is as someone who has to struggle to be successful—someone for whom success is elusive and who needs to try hard for every rare gain.  Other people occur to him as having important opinions that help keep him from the success he wants, or as prospects who need to be sold, and his world occurs to him as a difficult place to navigate.

In each case, the outward manifestation—whether or not he’s successful—is perfectly matched to how the professional views himself, others, and his world.

An individual reveals his or her “inner stance” to a coach through the language he or she uses.  When I coach attorneys, financial advisors, and other professionals and business owners, I listen closely to how they speak about themselves; their friends, families, and co-workers; and their general lot in life.  The way they describe their situations tends to provide a good look inside their minds at what is occurring to them and how.

The successful professional doesn’t stop until he has what he wants.  He talks about all three areas of occurrence in a similarly positive way.  The other man talks about the things that keep him from getting what he wants and the people and conditions in the world that are in his way.

Most people in the position of the less successful professional throw themselves into learning even more, believing that they DON’T already know enough.

“If I had a better handle on this particular product or this aspect of the law, I’d have a better outcome, and income!” they think.  “If I had better training in my sales skills, I’d have more clients.”

But all the training and knowledge in the world cannot change the results the less successful man keeps getting until his foundation—his inner stance—changes.  As his “self-talk” reveals, his real issue is the barrier to action that his worldview creates.

If you’re not where you want to be in your business or career, it probably isn’t because you don’t know enough.  Rather, your “inner stance” is probably holding you back.  Listen closely to what you’re saying about yourself and those around you, and start shifting away from the negatives.  We tend to believe what we tell ourselves.  Tell yourself a different story about your world, and you’ll get different results.

Better still, talk with a coach who can help you change your stance.  If you’re ready to charge through your barriers and put the knowledge you already have into action, contact me now.  In the meantime, keep REACHING…