The Four Secrets to My Failures

Four sure fire ways to stay stuck and sleep on your potential
And how to break out

I offer you something very real in today’s blog. For the first time ever I will share inside information on my journey. Specifically my failures along my journey. I’m not looking for sympathy, or any bravery points for opening up and sharing my imperfections. (The fact is we all have them and they’re really not all that special.)

My interest in sharing this information is that you glean insights that help you to get unstuck and move your projects and your life forward in a big way. So here goes.

14 years ago I had an idea that I could help people reach their potential and lead happier more productive lives. I held on to this dream for years, until finally I decided to go for it. I signed up for a boot camp to learn how to perfect my skills and build a business. I received an incredible amount of support and encouragement from some very high paid speaking and training professionals.

I launched Break Out Seminars, Inc. in the summer of 2004 and the online community “The No Rut Zone”. After about nine months of developing product and not generating revenue I had to make a decision. I closed the business and went back to work for someone else. Another dream deferred.

As I look back on the painful lessons learned this is what I found. I had a vision and a plan, but I was spinning my wheels and therefore was not very productive. Below are the four reason why.

The four big secrets to my failures were

1. In the beginning I got stuck on "start".
2. Once I got started I got stuck on "stall".
3. After I restarted I got stuck on "lack".
4. Once I got pass lack I got stuck in "motion" and could not finish

Over the next week I am going to cover each one of these. For today let’s start with number one…

Stuck on start

In my case I had the vision and a plan, but for years I was content with just dreaming and not doing. If you have a dream or an idea that you have been putting off for more than a year, there is a good chance you may be stuck on start. How do you get unstuck?

Simple. Face your fear. Fear is the primary reason why we hesitate to do something new. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of rejection. Fear of wasting our time. Fear of other people. Counter your fear of doing by creating a healthy fear of not taking action. Ask yourself:

What would happen if I never took action?

If your initial answer is nothing, then that’s why you have not started. We are compelled by our internal scripting to take action, however, if you don’t have any skin in the game, you have no reason to play. Go deep into the negative consequences of not taking action.

For example the following are just a couple of the consequences of not taking action I came up with;

• If I don’t help people reach their potential and lead happier more productive lives, I die just a little. Why, because helping others is my reason for being here. I notice that when I am not doing the thing that I was meant to do, I get cranky, a little narrow minded and self-centered. I become overly concerned with my own self-preservation and I lose sight of the fact that if I am not sharing my gifts with others. The result is that my gifts lose value.

I once heard a very wise man say that we are all like a UPS or FEDEX driver. You have a truckload full of gifts or packages that were given to you to deliver to other people. That's your job. Wouldn't it be silly if you just drove around all day and never took a single package out of the truck. Those gifts are not really yours. You have been entrusted with the task of delivering them to someone who needs them. That being the case I must take action consistently to help people or I misuse the gifts I have received.

• Another item on my list of what will happen if I don’t do my part to help people to reach their potential is that as a result of my inaction someone goes to bed with an unmet need, in a state of quit desperation, and I can help as others have help me.

When I finished writing my list I had 50 reasons why I should start and fifty negative consequences for if I did nothing. In the end, I took actions. Now if every I get stuck I sit down with a piece of paper, make my list, and build my courage to act.

Now you can do same.

Next let's talk about what it means to be Stuck on Stall...