I finish every coaching call by asking my client, “What is a takeaway from today’s session?”
During one particular session, a client responded, “Jokes can become a reality.” He was referring back to something that he had shared with me in one of our first conversations. In that initial discussion, he observed that one of his organization’s primary service areas was an overnight stay away from their headquarters and it would be a lot easier and more profitable to have a satellite office located in the Mid-Atlantic. Fast forward nine months, and a Mid-Atlantic office is currently under serious consideration. The only reason it isn’t already happening is because they are launching a Midwest location which hadn’t even been thought of nine months ago.
I think this story illustrates a powerful reality that I have observed not only as a coach but as a human being. Sometimes we mask our true desires in the form of a joke because to say it without a hint of humor may make us sound crazy. So adding a bit of humor seems to prevent those crazy looks. To protect ourselves from becoming too invested in the big dream, we laugh. To prevent disappointment, we shield ourselves with a chuckle at the end to make it clear that this isn’t too serious. And yet deep down, our soul wonders if that ever could be possible. We imagine what that type of achievement would feel like.
I recently was speaking with a woman I met a few months ago. She had expressed some preliminary interest in the Bethesda Sales Academy (BSA), a course I am launching this fall. During one of our early conversations she explained that she had spoken with other coaches in the past and knew what their fees were. She then said, “I don’t know what you charge but that is way out of my price range.”
Fast forward a few weeks and she joined a one hour group coaching session I offered for anyone interested in the BSA. I sent her a text afterward and told her how excited I was that she was interested because I thought she would be a great fit for the program. We had some back and forth and she eventually asked what the Academy cost, immediately followed by “the hands over the eyes” emoji, as if she were bracing herself to find out.
I invited her into a phone call which we had the next day. We went over the program, what she would hope to get out of it, and why she and I thought it was a good fit. I shared the extraordinary potential that I see in her. It’s as if she is sitting on thrusters and the skills, community, and accountability that the BSA provides will propel that potential. After I shared the pricing information with her, she shared with me that she “put her sales skills on” and began introducing the idea to her husband. She went on to explain how she approached it. She asked her husband what items were on his bucket list and how some extra income could make those possible. What a beautiful act of love and service! She brought her husband into the decision-making process by inviting him to consider how they could partner on her enrollment in BSA and make it something that helped them to co-create their future together. She emailed me Monday with the decision to enroll, and I’m more excited to have her in the Academy now than I ever have been. Oh, and by the way, the investment she is making is exactly the same amount she had told me before was out of her price range with the other coach. What seemed like a silly amount to spend now seems like a small price to pay to check items off of the bucket list.
A question I love to ask people is “What is something you want that you are afraid to say out loud?” Fear, procrastination, doubt, and scarcity thinking prevent us from speaking those things audibly and sharing them with others. It’s safer to keep them inside of us. Despite that perceived safety, however, we rarely stop thinking about them. We spend our time wondering what could be as opposed to creating the future we imagine. We believe the well-intentioned friend who says that now isn’t the right time. We adopt the anxiety of a loving parent who worries about the economy. We allow our hopes and dreams to be determined by the fear-mongering of the national news media. The truth is that our success has more to do with what we focus on than who the president is, what the economy is like, and what our competition is doing. The ability to speak our highest hopes aloud, create a plan, and execute it will determine our success more than anything else. This isn’t mere positive thinking. It’s something much deeper than that. It’s facing our fears and putting flesh and bones on our hope.
Last week I was in a quarterly planning session with a client. We were reflecting on our past nine months of working together. I was curious what had been most valuable in our partnership so far, so I asked him. He paused for a brief moment and then immediately said, “All things are possible.” He went on to explain that with clear vision, an intentional plan, and disciplined execution, we can push the limits of what can be. What he was describing was the difference between working on the business versus in the business. The results become predictable. It’s not a surprise when we achieve something. The real surprise is that we achieved more than we ever dared to imagine.
There is more noise and distractions going on now than at any other point in human history. We have social media, artificial intelligence, and, simultaneously, we are drowning in more information than we know what to do with. However, it’s still the long-standing practice of having a destination, focusing on deliberate thinking, and the simple action of putting one foot in front of the other that cuts through the noise and creates progress. When we take action, we are dealing with empirical data and real events as opposed to the fantastical stories we create in our minds—the ones that we latch onto and turn our desires into jokes. I find that the jokes are even funnier when we get to laugh at the fact that we once thought they were impossible!