Part #6. How I found my passion…
Step #6.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Enstein.
Quite often I can hear people say: “I’d like to start a business but I don’t know what exactly I can do, I simply don’t have this great idea”.
Thinking that a “great idea” is a reason that holds you back is a mistake.
What hold you back is a fear of the unknown and low self-esteem that tells you that you are not good enough to make it happen.
My passion is personal development and growth.
I am a big fan of the growth mindset.
I believe that nothing in my life served me more than self-awareness and the ability to observe my emotions and thoughts and understand what triggered them.
I could have put up with the status quo endless amount of time and given up on my dreams. I could have stayed in my home town in Ukraine following my parents’ advice and never move to a bigger city looking for a better life.
I could have stayed at one company for 20+ years growing my career in a “safe” and “stable” environment.
I could have lived in one country and never move anywhere else compromising my willingness to see the world.
I could have…
But I didn’t. I never could understand why so many people around me can stay in a comfort zone for so long without trying to go for something bigger.
Fear? Unknown? Uncertainty?
All of these feelings have almost become my best friends over time, so many times I pushed myself out of my comfort zone.
Want to change jobs? – Face all of these “friends” that will try to hold you back.
Want to move to another country? – Hello fear, uncertainty and self-doubts.
Want to make a quantum leap in your career and move from a specialist level to a senior management role? – Here we go again.
How about changing the industry? – Easy! Hello, dairy farm!
They have become so familiar that I almost ended up giving them names. They couldn’t stop me anymore.
Yes, they are still with me no matter what my new venture is, but I recognise them and do not give them more attention than they deserve.
They are here for a reason – to protect me, but nothing more.
I appreciate the primitive part of my brain amygdala when it triggers the emotions of fear and… keep doing what I have to.
Throughout my career, I noticed that many people are not aware that the emotions of fear, triggered by the primitive parts of our brain, are holding them back from achieving their goals and making a progress.
And not only that. Lack of self-awareness is another reason why people are not taking an opportunity to go for the next level of career, relationship, life…
A “victim game” that many of us play following a role model that did work for us back in our childhood when we were “saved” from a problem by someone, still can trigger the same behavioural pattern and hold us back from following our dreams.
And we end up broken living a mediocre life but persuading ourselves that it is ok.
Everyone does!
Be like everyone. Follow majority. Don’t try to be smarter than others.
There are many different models and roles that we play, and many different masks that we are wearing.
What rarely happened is when we are authentic and don’t play games.
But this is where our true power is! Be ourselves and do what we love, believe in and are passionate about!
Throughout my management career, I’ve coached many people and helped them to achieve great results. Many of them moved up the corporate ladder after I worked with them to improve their performance. It was amazing to see what progress some of these people made going from almost being fired to a bigger role with more responsibilities.
Nothing is giving me more satisfaction in my management career than coaching and helping people to unleash their potential and grow.
All these thoughts that I’m sharing with you in my blog are the same thoughts that I was sharing with my best friend – my wife for many, many years.
She always believed in me more than I did.
She told me that I must start my own workshop or create training about self-awareness, emotional intelligence, personal development or so and make it the business that I always wanted.
But guess what?
I thought that I’m not good enough.
Who am I in a world where so many gurus like Tony Robbins exist? They have already achieved the results I can’t even dream about!
So, I didn’t.
I didn’t know how to start. What to do. Didn’t have this great idea.
Until I decided that this year, I will start my online business and at the same time someone called me a coach.
It was scary. It was very uncomfortable. Even more than ever. I didn’t believe that I’m worth it… Good enough to do it… Can offer a value…
So, as soon as I saw all these “signs” I’ve already known – my “friends” are here which means this is the right direction to go!
So, I called myself a coach and offered free coaching sessions to those who were struggling to find a job.
Why? Because I know the job searching process is upside down. It’s all about your mindset. It’s all that you focus on.
I can take a person who is prepared to do what it takes and almost guarantee that they will get the result they want to achieve in their career in a timeframe of 2 months.
How do I know?
I’ve done it myself many times and I’ve seen others doing the same with my help and guidance.
Not once or twice.
These coaching sessions went extremely well and proved to me that I can give value.
After that, many other things happened that somehow opened a path to affiliate marketing for me.
I started to learn digital marketing skills. The most cutting-edge marketing technology opened a whole different world for me and I didn’t even know how powerful and scalable it is.
I’m not coaching actively now, because I’m not advertising myself at the moment as a coach.
I decided to focus on the first minimum viable product that will help me to generate my first income stream.
This is an affiliate marketing model where I promote the same training programme I’m going through.
The reason I decided to make it my first minimum viable product online is that I’ve done it myself and it helped me to learn a lot of skills to get started.
Also, they provide me with the support I need to launch my first marketing system online.
I have heaps of plans and ideas now.
The ideas will come to you after you start moving towards them, towards your dreams. Not the other way.
Once you do your first steps, you will have more ideas than ever.
Something will open up inside you. You will get access to a creative part of your brain that will start to generate ideas.
But first, you need to pass the amygdala guards.
So, if you want to find your passion, have a look at something that you always knew you were good at or you think you would be good at.
Something that you can talk about for half an hour none stop not losing interest or words to keep talking.
The next step is to find people who are already making a living from it.
Talk to them, do your research, find out if this is really what you want to do, and what are the pros and cons. If you are ok with it…
The next most important step is to let other people know that you are an expert in this area.
This will be the most terrifying step. You will experience fear, uncertainty, and self-doubts which will almost paralyse you.
But if you experience this, know – this is where your potential is and this is where you need to go.
Now, once the way is clear, all you need to do is to follow it…
…And, yes… It is not as scary as your mind tells you.
Once you start taking action, you will see how all of these “gigantic” obstacles that only exist in your mind will disappear.
And you will see when you do what your love, it is not hard either…
Good luck and follow your dream!
P.S.
If you need a free coaching session with me, to help you to get started, get in touch with me.