The Power Of Growth: Five Steps To Rewrite Self-Limiting Beliefs
Your outside success can only grow as large as your inside allows. I learned that truth the day I stepped off a flight with a duffel bag, a one-way ticket and $400—and barely enough English to order coffee.
The setbacks came fast. My accent triggered giggles whenever I pronounced "deductible." A friend told me, "Your English will scare clients. Find a real job." He was echoing the chorus of good-hearted relatives who urged me to "play it safe." That advice collided with my dream of entering financial services. The fear was real: What if they were right?
Today, as regional director of Bankers Life, founder of Top Leaders Inc., a John Maxwell Leadership coach and an Amazon bestselling author of four books, I've coached thousands of professionals across four continents. The turnaround wasn't luck; it was the result of five daily practices that converted doubt into momentum. If you're a new entrepreneur, salesperson or emerging leader, use these same principles to expand the ceiling of your success.
While it's hard to nail down an exact figure, I've seen estimates that from 50% to 80% of all available jobs are never publicly advertised. This is one reason we rise—or stall—to the level of the company we keep.
My first network consisted of kind friends with modest dreams. Their caution was sincere, but it shrank my vision. My breakthrough occurred when I joined a leadership mastermind group, where I found myself surrounded by quota-crushing leaders who aspired for greatness. Proximity rewrote my story.
Daily Action: Map your 10 closest contacts; color-code who stretches you and who slows you down. Within the next 72 hours, book a 15-minute coffee (virtual or in person) with one high-growth connection.
Think of this as curating your personal leadership team: Boston Consulting Group found that companies with culturally and gender-diverse leadership teams generate 19% greater innovation revenue—proof that surrounding yourself with varied perspectives sparks better ideas and opportunities. 2. Invest in yourself every day.
Confidence grows in proportion to competence, and "bite-size" learning, or microlearning, pays off. A Software Advice survey found that 58% of employees said they were more likely to use their company's online training if lessons were broken into 5- to 7-minute segments.
In my early years, I devoured tapes by Zig Ziglar, read 10 pages of a leadership book at lunch and spent weekends at sales seminars even when I understood only 70% of the content. Those reps rewired my brain faster than any paycheck.
Daily Action: Block 15 minutes on your calendar for learning: an audiobook in traffic, an article during lunch, a course module before bed.
Discomfort is the tuition you pay for growth. 3. Journal to learn from failure.
The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you record them. In Writing to Heal , James Pennebaker shares studies on expressive writing that show how journaling lowers stress and increases cognitive processing.
Rejection letters became raw material for my 5 a.m. writing sessions. Over time, those pages formed the backbone of four books.
My "Rule Of 5" Morning Routine: Reflect, write, read, pray and inspire—every day at 5 a.m.
Daily Action: Before you check your phone, jot down one lesson from yesterday and one intentional action for today. The habit is more than feel-good: A 2018 randomized controlled trial in JMIR Mental Health found that a 12-week, 15-minute "positive affect journaling" practice significantly boosted participants' resilience compared with usual care. 4. Think like an entrepreneur.
Even when you're on someone else's payroll, you don't have to act like a renter of your own job. When I began treating my territory like a startup—tracking P&L, innovating client-education webinars and branding myself as a retirement-readiness advocate—my commissions tripled and my role evolved into regional director.
Daily Action: Ask, "What would the CEO of my life decide here?" Break one strategic goal into three executable steps this week.
McKinsey's global survey of agile transformations found that organizations with highly successful, enterprise-wide agility programs achieved "around 30% gains in efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and operational performance." 5. Embrace a no-excuses mentality.
Talent is a gift; grit is a choice. Angela Duckworth's research in Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance shows that perseverance predicts achievement better than IQ. Every language barrier, no-show appointment or declined policy could have validated my critics. Instead, I adopted a rule: knock again. That bias for action carried me to stages in several different countries.
Daily Action: Attack one task you've been avoiding: make the cold call, send the bold proposal, ask for feedback. Momentum compounds. The Invitation
Your outside world expands only as far as your inside world will allow. Surround yourself with uplifters, feed your mind, document your lessons, own your career and refuse excuses. Millions measure success in square footage, followers or stock price; lasting growth is measured in the size of your mindset.
Start the journey today: Schedule that first coffee chat, crack open a book and set your 5 a.m. alarm. When your inside grows, I promise your outside will outgrow even your imagination.
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