I’m leaving the Atlanta airport and waiting for the air conditioning to cool my rental car to a comfortable level. As I’m driving I’m thinking about the presentation I will give tomorrow when it seeps into my consciousness that google maps and the car navigation are competing with each other. They are sending me in two different directions! Each mile from the airport and every exit towards my hotel I am getting two different messages. Finally, I turn one down because I had to choose to listen to just one or continue to be confused.
How many times do you hear competing messages in your head and which one do you listen to?
Think about when you want to do something different in your business or career. When you’ve finally decided that you’re going to go outside of your comfort zone (because that’s where all good things wait), do you hear voices competing for your attention? Do you hear one voice that tells you that Yes! This goal is possible, and you’ve got this? It’s full of potential and promise, and you can almost see the result? But this voice is usually quickly followed by another voice, the one that says “What makes you think that you can do that?”
Anytime we attempt to do something BIG in our career, our logic, our common sense, our sense of self-preservation will rear up and tell us to play it safe. Enter the voice of “reason” which is designed to keep us out of harm’s way. But the days of being eaten by the saber tooth tiger are gone. We don’t need that sort of safety any longer, but the reaction to big ideas in our career and the fear that can surround such shift hasn’t changed much.
One voice is going to give you in a false sense of safety and keep you in place. It will tell you that this might be a mistake, you need to do some more research, it’s already being done, and you’re not qualified right now. It will do everything in its power to keep you firmly rooted where you are right now because that is “what is best for you.”
The other is the voice of your potential, the voice that knows that the goal you have is within your grasp if you put the work into it. It is the voice that encourages you to see beyond what you have right now. It’s the voice of your inner mentor that is excited to guide you and desperately wants you to give it a chance. But it is the voice of change which is scary and, therefore less used.
Amazing things can happen when you allow the voice of potential to have its say and decide to take action as a result. Start considering “What if I did?” Start imagining what can be possible and make choices that take you in that direction every day, no matter how small. Look for people to surround you with that have accomplished similar things. Every time you hear the voice that wants you to stay put, go in search of the voice that wants you to thrive and make a choice to let it have its say.
Because it IS a choice as to what voice you listen to and it’s yours to make. Choose wisely.
Until next time here’s wishing you the clarity you deserve.
