Only a handful of people actually do what they know to do. Take the best seller Think and Grow Rich. Since 2011 70 million copies of the classic have been sold worldwide. The book synthesizes what successful people do that the unsuccessful people do not … and have done for 200+ generations.
Hill was a reporter who kept up with some 500 citizens that were healthy, happy and wealthy, to find out their secrets. It was Andrew Carnegie that offered the 20-year ‘job’ to Hill.
Today’s most successful people use this plan, whether they have read the book or not. Men have much of this knowledge inherently — that is it is in their DNA. You only need to watch a man step up to the plate on inner confidence and desire, even though he knows he is not qualified. Women don’t do this.
If then, more than 70m copies have been sold and it contains the most concrete plan for expedient success, you must ask yourself this question:
Why aren’t there 70 million millionaires? Every person that can read can be a millionaire or a billionaire.
Because we “don’t do what we already know to do!” And we continue to add more and more information to what we do know — still not applying what we know.
It’s not having knowledge that is power. It is the consistent application of the knowledge over time until it becomes habilitualized. That is the POWER.
Take a quick inventory of your books and programs in which you have invested financially and never used. You are not alone. We are invigorated with new information, yet acting on it isn’t as invigorating — it actually takes something.
The difference between knowing and doing is often called the performance gap.
Why don’t we do what we already know to do?
We have a slew of beliefs, paradigms, or clusters of ‘ways of being’ that are automatic. We’ve believed them as true for so long they’ve taken hold and we don’t even notice them.
The beliefs are based primarily on the beliefs of others … those we love and admire and whom we want to please. Unfortunately, most beliefs of others are of lack and limitation rather than abundance and opportunity. These beliefs have been ‘engineered’ by default in our subconscious mind or what the Ancient Greeks referred to as our ‘heart of hearts.’ I will cover how to ‘engineer a belief’ later.
As children when we ‘stubbed our toe’ we became more and more careful where we put our toes. It didn’t take long to learn that by noon the sand at the beach is so hot you must run to give your feet a chance to cool between strides. We run faster or we wear shoes to protect our tender feet.
Likewise, when we are embarrassed or ashamed as children as a result of our behavior, we tend to shy away from repeating that behavior. It’s a protection of sorts … when we are children.
Perhaps your first time in front of the class in early elementary school, sharing a report you wrote, you misunderstood the instructions, reported on the wrong book, and classmates began to laugh and chide you. Fighting back the tears, we plant this truth to protect ourselves, “I’ll never get up in front of a group of people to speak again.” Maybe that’s why some people say that public speaking is a fate worse than death for most!
This protection works well as a child, yet those habits and inner dialogue are ‘still running your life.’ And as adults, this does not serve us very well. We allow ourselves to be stopped from acting on ideas that light us up … mostly because we don’t know how. And the fear of crossing the gap of performance is greater than our desire to have what we want. And we have a host of beliefs that say “it’s selfish to want more,” or “there simply isn’t enough money to go around.”
These beliefs keep us playing small and taking no risk. The level of our reward is always the perfect reflection of how much risk we are willing to take.
The process of developing the beliefs of others follows us into adulthood, adding more opinions of others, including television and news reporters. Negativity sells, so by default, we are ‘filled with’ the negative points of view of others. When you harness the “power of pause” as you step from ‘knowing to doing,’ you will see that you always have a minimum of two perspectives or answers to every question.
So it makes perfect sense that when we go to ‘step’ from knowing to doing, there is a great Fear of the unknown between the two. You want it and you start out, yet when things get dark and you can’t see how you can do it, you step back to safety.
Not only are you hearing your own inner dialogue such as “I’ve tried before and I’ve failed,” or “I’m not smart enough or deserving,” or “Someone else is better at this than I am,” if you share this with others you will also hear “are you crazy, you’ve never done that before,” or “who do you think you are,” or “go get a regular job” (one of my favorites).
It’s a battle for the one conscious thought over which you have control over. Why wouldn’t you back down if your inner self doesn’t believe you can do it and others don’t either?
These beliefs are held by both men and women, and for women it is critical that we overcome them. While men automatically step up to the plate in business, women do not. It doesn’t matter initially if the man is not competent … he’s first at bat. It’s not too long before you realize that just because they ‘stepped up’ does not mean ‘they’ will necessarily navigate the gap.
After 45 years in corporate America, my experience is that I more often than not — and my female counterparts — ended up more often than not ‘finishing up’ what they had started!
Why? Because we have been finishing up and cleaning up after our families for more than 200 generations! We’re good at it, yet we don’t have time to finish up after others and still grow our own businesses.
Here’s an example. Ready to start, a dozen thoroughbreds are at the starting gate ready for the first race of the season. Behind the row of gates, one woman is in charge to get all the horses down the track and cross the finish line.
Three, two, one, and the starting gun is fired. As the horses leave the gates, the woman is behind them. Watch her running sideways behind the horses slapping each one as she runs by, saying, “come on boy, you can do it!” Back and forth she runs, egging all the horses on, and finally, they all cross the finish line at the same time. We bring everyone across the finish line but no clear star or winner.
Now put a man behind the gates. Three, two, one, and the starting gun is fired. As the horses leave the gate, the man is behind them. See him pick out the middle horse and run behind only him, slapping and chiding him to go faster. Finally, that one horse crosses the line first and wins the race. He is the star.
Women must learn to practice laser focus on one idea … and bring it home, to the exclusion of all else. Men already do this naturally. It’s not our way. We are the nurturers and peacemakers. Women make sure everyone is a winner. That doesn’t work in business.
Navigating the performance gap
When we must step into the gap to apply knowledge and move toward what we want, it is a given that we are afraid. Afraid because we do not know HOW we’ll get across. Our experiences have us automatically stop short. If we do not cross the gap we are destined to going to the edge on one idea, shrinking back; going to the edge on another, and shrinking back again.
To solve this problem, I wedged a large coin with a thick edge in the gap. Now you may cross the divide on the edge of the coin.
What value does ‘crossing above the gap’ provide?
- You are physically higher than you were before so you have vast vision of both sides of the gap. You see all sides of your obstacle or issue. You see why you shouldn’t cross over and why you should cross it, and the best way to do it. You get to make an objective and responsive decision.
- You have a high level of awareness of your current potential. You can see once you have chosen to proceed the precise steps to the ‘doing’ side.
- Even if you ‘slip’ the edge is wide enough for you to pull yourself back up. Your ‘muscle of Faith’ is developed enough so that it ‘lifts you’ back to the coin’s edge for a clear view.
- Decisions that take you from knowing to doing as quickly as possible allow you to grow your business with consistency, momentum and results.
- Once you are practiced at hopping across whenever you have something new to tackle, you become the Champion for other women who have not found their own ‘sea legs’ and are inspired by what you are doing and the results you are getting.
- You can use this image whenever you know what you want to do and need to do to forward your business yet are afraid. Every time you lift yourself to the coin’s edge, your intellect grows, and soon it becomes a habit.
The Champion has developed Faith … Faith in herself and Faith in our Universe and how it works.
She lives by the following values from which she avidly seeks their wisdom. These values and laws operate all the time, whether we are aware of them and how they work, or not. Take for example the physical law of gravity. The result of taking a jump off a cliff is well-known to all of us. Down we go with an impact that matches the depth of fall and our physical condition. So you don’t jump off cliffs.
What if all the principles below also worked all the time and you not only were aware of them, you also studied and applied them in growing your business. You would have an extraordinary advantage and step into the realm of ‘the few’ who are not only wealthy — they are healthy and happy. These principles in action spike business growth and momentum and keep it consistent when applied over time. The idea is to have these values become part of you — automatic, or habitualized.
