'Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.’ - Coco Chanel

How’s your internal negative voice today? You know the one. The one that tells you things like ‘that’ll never work’, ‘that’s a stupid idea’, ‘who on Earth would want to buy this stuff from you?’, ‘you really think you can run your own business—who are you kidding?’, ‘there are so many other businesses like yours out there, being run by better people with more experience and knowledge—you haven’t got a chance’, ‘that’s a ridiculous goal, it’s too big—you’ve got no hope of ever reaching it.’

The good news is it’s not just you, most of us have got those voices. And what do we do about it? Unfortunately we tend to listen, and even worse—believe them!

The great news is that you can do something about it!

Think of a project you’ve been mulling over. You think it’s a great idea and could be a fantastic success but you’ve been holding back on it. What’s stopping you? Is that that voice inside your head telling you that failure is inevitable?

There are some powerful questions you can ask yourself which will help you to silence that voice. Make sure you can remain undisturbed for a few minutes so that you can truly let your mind concentrate and open up to new thoughts. You may find a pen and paper useful to jot down any ideas that come to you. Then ask yourself the following questions. Really take your time in answering them, ensure you explore every possibility.

• What’s stopping me?<LI class=bodytext>If there were no obstacles in the way, what would I do? <LI class=bodytext>If the voice is wrong, what would that mean? What effect would that have? <LI class=bodytext>What evidence do I have, based on past occurrences, that the voice could be wrong about this? <LI class=bodytext>The part of me that this voice represents is trying to protect me. And I thank it for that. How would that part of me react if I, having taken everything into consideration, gave this project a go?
• Does that part of me agree that it’s worth trying?
• If I knew I could not fail, what would I do?

When we try something new it is often the case that it doesn’t work perfectly first time. The people to whom Coco Chanel was referring either don’t have that negative internal voice telling them it won’t work or they have learnt to control it. The result is that they go ahead. And if it fails they still don’t hear the voice, so they make some changes and try again. And so on until, inevitably, they succeed.


© Emma Wortt of Em-powering U, April 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Emma Wortt is a qualified Professional Coach and NLP Practitioner. She runs her business Em-powering U to coach and support those who have started or who want to start their own small business. If that’s you and you would like to read more articles like this one you can sign up for the Em-powering U FREE newsletter at http://www.em-powering-u.co.uk


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