I learned an important lesson about clarity the other day.
It’s simply this:
“You’re success in business comes down to a few key decisions that you will make (who you hire, what customers you focus on, what you charge, etc…)
What will have the greatest impact on those decisions is the degree of clarity you have about the situation you are in and the choices you have.”
Word for word, that’s what my boy Rich Schefren said.
I couldn’t say it any better.
So what does it mean to me and you?
It means SEE THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE.
Let’s face it. We lie. We lie to others and we lie to ourselves.
If you don’t agree with that, I’ve made my point.
No doubt, one of the HARDEST things in business is clarity.
We all THINK we have clarity, but most of us don’t have a clue.
Because in order to gain clarity, we need to accept vulnerability.
We need to own up – to admit we were wrong – to accept what’s gotten us here.
But most – (scratch that) ALL of the clients I’ve worked with resist this part of the process (at first).
Because getting to the truth about how you feel and what you’re really in business for uncovers some truth(s) you’ve buried.
Vulnerability is about understanding & setting your boundaries.
It’s about knowing WHAT you’re saying “yes” to…because it also means you’re saying “no” to something else.
Blaming the world and everyone in it was an easy thing for me to do
I happily wore the “badge of honor” for knowing how to “dig my way out of any situation.”
That was failure. Plain and simple. It was running away from responsibility.
It hurts to say , but it’s true.
It took me about 40 years (YEA, that’s four with a zero) to accept vulnerability.
My wish for you is that it takes you LESS time to step into this zone.
Do you know what else I want to help you stop right now?
SACRIFICING.
Please don’t confuse “sacrifice” with “commitment”.
Commitment is NOT severing yourself from the things you love. Your family, friends, time and so on. (go ahead, ask me how I know that)
Commitment means that you have strategically set boundaries within your business and your life. It means you are flexible but disciplined.
The worse mistake I see with clients is confusing the two.
So that’s why clarity is so important.
With clarity & vulnerability,
you become more aware of decisions
that need to be made NOW.
You’ll realize whether you should use or put away for another day, everything you learn on a daily basis.
This “strategy” is exactly what I do. It’s what I teach my clients to do.
When you are clear about the precise problem you have today, you can gather the right information to help you solve it. Nothing more, nothing less.
And, it gives you BACK everything you’re sacrificing.
This is HUGE shift for the people I’m in a coaching relationship with because they’ve NEVER been trained how to properly run a business.
They have been told (or somehow believe) the more information they gather the better.
That’s the furthest from the truth.
I know that because when people come to me, they are FILLED with information they don’t know what to do with.
In other words, they need me to help with CLARITY.