Building A Consultant Growth Mindset For Greater Success

The people that I see that struggle the most are those that say to themselves, “I want to see greater success. I want to see a greater result in my life and my business,” but yet, they’re not prepared to change anything that they’re currently doing. They’re just trying to do more of the same stuff. If the same stuff isn’t getting you to where you want to go, then doing more of it is not going to help. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? You might be doing the same things over and over again, but still aren’t working for you. Maybe it’s time to rebuild your consultant growth mindset.

If you want a bigger result, you have to play bigger! That’s why I’m sharing this with you because you’ve got it. You can be as successful as you want to be; whether that’s making your first six figures, having a $500,000 a year, $1 million a year, and going beyond that. Whatever it is. It doesn’t even have to be monetary. If you want to see greater success, you can achieve it; but you must be willing to take the actions required to get there. Don’t let fear of failure or a lack of confidence hold you back.

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I’m going to share something with you that I’ve never talked about before. This is a little solo cast where it’s just going to be me, not the typical interviews, but it’s an important lesson and one that I want to share with you because it’s had a pretty profound impact on our business over the years. For eighteen or nineteen years that I’ve been building consulting businesses and other ventures through selling to companies and building multiple companies, it’s one thing that keeps coming up. It’s something I think that will continue to come up. I’ve also learned to handle it in different ways.

What I’m talking about is the feeling that, I believe in my observation and experience, a lot of us have as business builders. We’re entrepreneurs. As consultants, we are running our own businesses. Whether you have just yourself, like a solo independent consultant, or you are building a team of contractors and you’re outsourcing aspects of your business, and even if you have a full-blown consulting firm with several staff and full-time employees, you are the leader. You are the leader. You are leading your business and leading your team or yourself. Sometimes, leadership of self is the most difficult type of leadership there is.

Leadership of self is the most difficult type of leadership there is. Click To Tweet

Have you ever felt and have you ever asked yourself, “Can I get to that next level of success or will everything that I’m doing right now come crashing down?” I’ve felt that way many times over this entrepreneurial journey. I still feel this way on a pretty regular basis. It’s something that I haven’t talked very much about or openly before, probably because my background comes from a place of sports. I grew up playing a lot of sports. I was very competitive. The competitive side of me is one where, typically, I don’t show weakness. I studied martial arts for many years. It’s a fighting sport. It’s about protecting. Other aspects of martial arts are from a respect side and a way of thinking; but everything I grew up always being very competitive in sports and martial arts.

For me, to share a weakness, to share a vulnerability, to share something that isn’t focused on the positive, I typically don’t like to think about things that are negative, yet they come up for all of us. I’ve faced this question and continue to face this question that pops up in my mind at different stages where I have this question that says to me, “Michael, can you really do this? Can you and Simon and the company, can you guys keep building?” Or, “Is this going to stop? Is this going to come crashing down? Can you make it to that next level? Or are you just fooling yourself?” That’s the talk that comes into my mind at times.

What’s interesting is that I’ve faced challenges and questions like this when the business was just getting off the ground. I remember making my first $100,000 as a consultant. I had that question, “Can I make it? Can I reach that level?” I remember making half a million dollars and the same question, “Can you get there?” I got there. Making a million and beyond and still the same question continue to pop up. It still pops up because even after building companies and working with clients all around the world and even after selling two different businesses, I still face challenges.

Those challenges create self-doubt and new questions because as I am trying to learn new things to accomplish greater goals, I run up against challenges and when I face them, my mind default to say, “Can you do this? Are you fooling yourself? Can you be successful at this?” One thing that I’ve gotten better and better at is saying to those thoughts that creep up into my mind, “Thank you for appearing and now go away so I can get back to what I need to do,” and what I need to do is figure out how to solve that challenge and overcome it. We’ve been able to do that consistently, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t face challenges any longer. It doesn’t mean that my mind is 100% positive at every single moment. The difference, however, between success and failure is how you deal with those questions when they pop up in your mind.

 

Often, at those times of challenge or question, many of us default to looking at where we are, and we compare where we’re currently at and the feelings that we have in that moment to where we want to be. By doing that, we are causing ourselves more hardship and more self-esteem issues because we look at where we are and we say, “This is where we want to go. We’re not there yet. We haven’t made the progress that we want.” That’s a negative. We feel like we lack accomplishment. We haven’t made the progress that we want because here’s where we are at this exact moment, but we’re not yet where we want to be. We don’t appreciate what we’ve already accomplished.

I’ve seen many people over the years who at this stage who compare where they are to where they want to be and who face challenges. In those moments, a wave of self-doubt and a lack of confidence pushes them over and drags them out into the ocean and they give up because they can’t see past where they are. They’re comparing their current state to where they want to be and they forget to look at what they’ve already accomplished. That’s what I want to offer you as the lesson that when you encounter those challenging moments, those times of self-doubt, lack of confidence, self-esteem, question, “Can I do this? Can I be successful? Am I cut out for this? Will this work?” Don’t just compare your current location to where you want to go. Instead, take a moment to appreciate what you’ve already accomplished in your life.

Take a moment to appreciate what you've already accomplished in your life. Click To Tweet

If you are a consultant that has been in business for many years, then look at what you’ve accomplished in your business to get to where you are now. Look at the progress you’ve made, and that progress doesn’t only need to be monetary progress. It can be the expertise that you’ve developed. It can be the clients that you’ve worked with and the experiences that come with that. It can be the number of people, companies, employees, and their families that you have impacted in a positive way by making change. It can come from many things. Take a moment to look at what you have already accomplished, what has been good, and appreciate that. If you’re brand-new to consulting, look at what you’ve accomplished in your career. Look at the bravery and the faith that you have put in yourself to become a consultant and to go out on your own. Appreciate and respect that because that takes courage.

Regardless where you are in the cycle of your business and your career, when challenge creeps, it’s way into your mind. Don’t only look at where you want to go and feel bad about that there’s still a big gap between where you are and where you want to go. Appreciate what you’ve already accomplished and recognize that as long as you stay committed that you will continue to make progress. Progress is never a straight line. If there are ups and downs throughout.

Each challenge you face and each moment or period of hardship, it’s an opportunity. It can lead to your next surge forward. As long as you don’t give up and as long as you stay committed, you will always succeed. Yes, it will require you to do what you need to do. That might be to invest in your business, to get a coach, to get a mentor, or to learn from books and from seminars. It might require you to reach out to people that you’re currently not reaching out to. It might require you and often does to do things that are uncomfortable to push you beyond what you’re currently doing, but that’s where growth comes from.

 

The people that I see that struggle the most are those that say to themselves, “I want to see greater success. I want to see a greater result in my life and my business,” but yet, they’re not prepared to change anything that they’re currently doing. They’re just trying to do more of the same stuff. If the same stuff isn’t getting you to where you want to go, then doing more of it is not going to help. Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Someone said that a long time ago. I don’t remember who it was. I know it’s often quoted and that it makes a lot of sense. Doing the same things over and over again that aren’t working for you is essentially the definition of insanity. Instead, recognize that if you want to see greater results in your life and your business, then you must change what you’re currently doing. You must figure out what you should stop doing and what you need to be doing more of.

Doing the same things over and over again that aren't working for you is essentially the definition of insanity. Click To Tweet

You may need to reach out to someone for help who you haven’t reached out to before. You may need to invest into yourself and into your business in a more significant way than you ever have before. If you don’t, if you continue to play small, if you continue to be conservative, if you continue to be worried about everything that could possibly go wrong, you will never allow yourself the opportunity to see what can be right and to actually reach the success that is in your grasp if you take the right actions to get there. There are things that will help you to get what you want, but you must be open to them. Most likely, what you are most scared of right now doing is holding you back from getting to the next level.

If you want a bigger result, you have to play bigger. That’s why I’m sharing this with you because you’ve got it. You can be as successful as you want to be; whether that’s making your first six figures, having a $500,000 a year, $1 million a year, and going beyond that. Whatever it is. It doesn’t even have to be monetary. It can be a lot of different things. Whatever is meaningful for you. If you want to see greater success, you can achieve it; but you must stay committed and you must be willing to take the actions that are required to get there.

Don’t let a wave of doubt, of fear, and a lack of confidence hold you back. Challenges will come up. Recognize that. It doesn’t matter how successful you are and what level you are at, you will always have challenges. The challenges will simply be different. As long as you are open and embrace them as opportunities to continue learning, and if you implement and stay committed to your path, you will be as successful as you want to be. That is truth for all of us. You must not only understand it, but you must act on it, believe it, and live it.

I wish you incredible success. I hope this lesson has been helpful. If it has, reach out to us at ConsultingSuccess.com. Head over to iTunes. I’d love to have you share your thoughts by leaving a review. Of course, a rating would be very much appreciated.

 

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