When I coach entrepreneurs or CEOs, there are two main areas we work on improving.
The first is their actions.
(Where they focus, their strategies, delegation, team building, productivity, etc.)
The second is equally important but rarely addressed:
Their self-identity
.Successful people have profoundly different self-images, compared with average people.
They may look similar on the outside, but inside they see themselves very differently.
Average people let their circumstances dictate how they see themselves.
For example, if they are having trouble increasing their income, they often see themselves as poor, or struggling.
Highly successful people are far less likely to let their current circumstances lower how they see themselves.
Even if their business is not going well, they tend to see themselves as highly successful, but just with temporary bad results.
It’s a really important difference, as over time having a successful self-image affects a lot of the actions they end up taking.
People with strong self-identities tend to be bolder, more confident, and more persistent.
They will keep trying until they get it right because they believe they will ultimately succeed.
In a way their belief in themselves becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Another way to look at it is that successful people are like thermostats, and unsuccessful people are like thermometers.
The thermostat stays at a particular temperature, and the air heating unit attached to it keeps working until the room matches its aim.
While a thermometer observes the temperature around it, and says that ‘This is how things are’.
Are you a thermostat or a thermometer?
Have you chosen an ideal self-identity, or do you merely react to your results and choose a self-image in accordance with that?
In my experience as a high-performance coach for business people, almost nobody has consciously designed a self-image that really supports them and helps them become someone wonderful.
It is actually not that hard to create an excellent self-image.
There are 4 simple steps.
- Choose a self-image that you like- someone you would like to become. Write it down in a paragraph or two.
- Write a list of valid reasons why you are (or could become) that person.
- Read these two daily, at least, so you become very conscious of them. This ideal self-image should be front of mind most of the day.
- Attempt to act and think like you are that person already, as best you can.
It may feel strange at first, but eventually, you will become very comfortable with that vision of yourself, and then you will start behaving like that kind of person, most of the time.
In prominent business schools, they don’t talk about stuff like this. But I can assure you, having mentored many highly successful business people, developing a strong self identity is one of the most effective moves you can make.
Take control of your self image and you will take control of your life.
