Are you being reasonable?
I had a very interesting conversation with a client recently. When asked what the year ahead would look like for him, he replied that he figured it would look pretty much the same as last year, but with some incremental improvements in turnover.
His plan, he explained to me, was to keep doing pretty much the same thing as he had been doing all of this year, and he therefore would expect similarly positive results.
A pretty reasonable position to take right? WRONG!
You see, what my client had failed to consider is that right now we are living in truly exponential times. The amount of information available to people every day is growing at a rate our grandparents couldn’t have dreamed about, and our children are growing up into a future that is impossible to even conceive of if the current rate of technological and social change continues.
New trends, popular opinions, technologies, innovations and fashions that used to take a decade to catch on across the world can now become global in a matter of weeks, days or even hours.
The only constant we can count on would seem to be… change.
In short, what worked for us this year has absolutely no guarantee of working for us in the year ahead, and by taking a “reasonable” view of our business plans for the future we run a very real risk of being shunted out by unforeseen competition, left behind, made redundant or unnecessary, or simply overlooked.
So what’s the alternative to being reasonable about our plans and our future? It is simply to follow in the footsteps of every great innovator, leader, inventor or achiever and decide now that you will refuse to buy into “reasonable” popular opinions, refuse to accept “reasonable” limitations on your business growth or personal achievements, ignore “reasonable” excuses as to why you shouldn’t (or can’t do something), and choose instead to explore the world of what is possible.
In short, it is my contention that your job for 2010 is to become unreasonable! Take another client of mine, Monica Brauer from Coffs Harbour. Monica is a recently qualified naturopath who has for some time been eager to commence seeing patients privately, but has lacked the funds, mentoring and knowledge to go out and start up on her own.
She approached me in August asking to join our Mastermind Inner Circle coaching program, explaining that although she wasn’t making any money out of practising yet, she felt that being part of the group would be exactly what she needed to get started.
Now, if you know me you would know I’m not in the business of taking coaching fees from a client who either can’t afford them, but nor am I in the business of discounting either. So taking Monica on as a client was a tricky one for me and I allowed her into the group only on the strict condition that with my help she would create the program as “cost neutral” within two months of commencement.
And yes, both Monica and myself knew at that time that in her financial situation this was a highly unreasonable request to make of her. Three months later, and I’m very happy to report that not only has Monica created a private flow of patients and a steady income stream for herself that is not only covering her coaching fees but showing a growing return on investment, she has become a confident and valued member of the Mastermind Inner Circle, arguably the most dynamic and successful group of private health practitioners in the country.
As a coach, I get excited about where someone like Monica can go in her career in health, and particularly about the contribution she will make to the health of our society and the thousands of people she is destined to touch in the course of her newly founded career.
And it is a sobering thought for me that had I taken a reasonable line with her in our first conversation, and had she taken “reasonable” advice from friends and family and waited until she had the money to invest in coaching and mentoring, she might still yet be working full time in retail and her contribution and her passion for her true calling could have stayed on hold.
It is my wish for you that your thoughts, plans and goals for 2010 are created from “unreasonableness” and your focus remains on what is possible for yourself, your life, your business and your contribution.
Yours in health and possibility,
Adam
For more information, check out our website here:
www.lifestylepractitioneracademy.com
I think we are!!!!! but only us..