Why Your Will Power Won’t Work

Living Life Out Loud

Have you left your shore in search of growth and contribution?

If you’re reading this I’m betting you have and you’re on the journey.

For many, they haven’t yet.

Why?

They are fearful of what others may think of them, fear of criticism, fear of looking foolish, lack self confidence etc. etc. etc…

Here’s a question you’re going to want to write down and answer if you think that’s you:

Who would you need to see yourself as in order to make the move towards your dreams?

What does your self image need to consist of?

Go ahead and write out your wish list of amazing traits.

It’s not that you’re not capable of your inspirations, it’s that you don’t see yourself as the person who can accomplish them.

This is why one would lack or lose faith in their dreams ever materializing.

They see lack within themselves:

“I would add that you may say you want to have more talent, yet for your own reasons you began to believe in your absence of talent rather than the talent you have. When you begin to know rather than doubt your talent, you will discover the necessary physical abilities to carry out your purpose.” –Wayne Dyer, Real Magic

So again I ask:

• Who would you need to see yourself as in order to make the move towards your dreams and desires?
• What traits would you need to acknowledge you already have?
  
• What would be possible when you acknowledge these traits
• How would they serve you in moving forward?

Why Will Power Won’t Work

I love what Dan Kennedy says about the “snap back” theory.

If you take a rubber band and stretch it with your thumb and pointer finger, then continue to stretch it past the point of what’s comfortable, that represents your will power.

Shear will power to accomplish our goals is ironically the same reason so many people fail to follow through on their goals. It’s because they aren’t congruent with how they really see themselves and the will power is impossible to sustain over long periods of time. It’s taxing I tell you.

I know, I’ve done it!

Eventually you snap back to how you really see yourself and fall back into your previous routines and habits. Your will power fails you because it’s not something sustainable.

I know I’ve failed to acknowledge how I really saw myself, what really inspired me and when I ignored both, things sucked.

The crazy thing is until I got this, I would beat up my self image up because I felt I had failed. I felt that experience magnified the totally of who I was when In fact it had nothing to do with how awesome I really am, it just had to do with how I saw myself.

“There is a difference in distinguishing between you and your mistakes (failures). Too many people destroy their self image by merging the two.”- Charleston Heston

I’ve always known that if you’re not “failing” you’re not growing (or growing your business). Failure is how we get real world feedback and gain valuable insights, wisdom and experience. There is happiness to be found failure.

However the key difference between those who can make mistakes and not tie them into their self image in a negative way and those who can’t, is consciously acknowledging our self worth is determined by how we see ourselves, not our outcomes.

Guess what that means?

You can get after whatever it is you want and not worry that your results have anything to do with just how truly awesome you are. 😉

What are your thoughts?

Share them in the comments below!