On today’s show, James and Phoebe share five things that you can do in order to step out of your comfort zone and take the action that's needed right now!
Phoebe recently hosted her first live event, and found that the more she thought about it while planning, the more she compared it to other events she’s attended in the past. She found herself getting a block around hosting it this year, as she had planned, and the fear crept in.
James says Phoebe had all the logical reasons as to why she should postpone it to next year, such has giving herself more time to plan if it was held in 2017, but what about all the people that were waiting for her to do this and would want to take part?
Her turning point was when she started making it about other people and not herself. The more she let go of it and knew, trusted, and expected it to be the right event for the right people, that’s when everything opened up for her. She took action despite her belief or story of it having to be perfect.
James believes that people often wait for things to be perfect first to do it, and they really need to make it perfect in the doing of it, which is backwards to how most of us think.
Five things you can do now to take action:
1) Soften perfection
A lot of people have a great idea for a launch or product and want it to be an instant success. James let go of doing this a long time ago and attributes this for why their business has kept growing. He’s never looking for the “home run”, but rather consistent base hits.
2) Create a deadline
We often throw deadlines out in life and don’t follow them, but having a firm date is really key to following though on what you plan on doing.
3) Put some “skin in the game”!
In Phoebe’s case, she had the platforms of a podcast and social media to declare her intentions of hosting the event by the end of 2016.
4) Remove all reasons or excuses
Start by at least identifying the reasons or excuses for not taking action, and remember that you can still produce the results you want despite of them.
5) Make it about the customer or end user
By making it about being of service to others and not just about yourself, you make it easier to take actions towards your goals.
Throughout the two days of Phoebe’s event, a common theme that kept coming up was that she was doing the best she could. She realized that she needed to appreciate the present moment and be proud of all that she had accomplished.
To James, the most effective way to serve is to show up and be the person that your customers aspire to be.
If we delay and try to take action that is “perfect”, we’ll always be doing things that are safe and in our comfort zone so that we won’t face potential rejection. However, the real magic happens just outside of our comfort zones.
Scheduling the event and recording the podcast commercial announcing the event was really Phoebe’s first steps outside of her comfort zone in this experience.
For the launch of James’ signature program, the message is similar to that of this podcast in that we always have to start with mindset first.
Business by Design was an idea that he had since 2013, and he finally was able to get around a block he had around the name when he started creating the outline for the beta version. James feels the right name came to him at the right time because he took the inspired, or right action.
Success doesn’t have to do with a high level of energy expenditure, but rather a high level of courage and faith. Getting the right feedback was important for James and has helped his team almost beat the numbers of their last launch in less than two days of the cart being open.
If there’s a commitment to excellence and to your customers’ success, then the rest will follow. Perfectionism is just another form of procrastination!
