Our beliefs have the power to limit us or to inspire us. "Belief" is the mental acceptance that something is true even though absolute certainty may be absent. A limiting belief will keep you from stepping out and going for it. An inspiring belief will push you to go all out – to put your heart and soul into the effort.
Do you really put your all into something you do not believe in? Think about it. After you found out your parents were Santa Claus, it was not really matter if you were naughty or nice, did it?
You need to believe in what you want and imagine for yourself. Only then will you achieve. You must have convictions about your vision of success. You have to trust it. Belief is not wishful thinking. It's not just hopping. It's more concrete. You must have faith and confidence that what you believe is true.
Let's face it, belief is not always easy. Believing in yourself is a lifelong process. Even for me, after 25 years in business believing still takes daily effort. I have found 8 strategies that I use to bolster my belief in anything I imagine. Use these 8 strategies for creating your CLNC success with zero limits.
Strategy # 1. Look to your past successes.
You're a nurse. If you have not gotten your first CLNC case yet, remember the things in nursing you did not believe you'd be able to do and then you did them – like starting IVs, resuscitating patients, kicking a doctor off your unit.
Remember your success as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. If you've succeeded in getting just one case from one attorney, you can get dozens of cases from dozens of attorneys. If you've made $ 3,000 consulting with one attorney, you can make $ 300,000 consulting with ten. Any time your belief falters – in yourself, in your business or in what you want to achieve – review your past successes to reaffirm what you already know. You're a nurse and you can do anything.
Strategy # 2. Expand what you're willing to believe.
Belief is a choice. You can challenge any limitations that are placed on your belief.
During the era of the telegraph, people believed that's all that was needed. But then someone believed there could be so much more and invented the telephone. Surely the telephone was all that was needed until someone believed there could be so much more and invented the cell phone.
As a CLNC consultant you must believe that you can reach beyond the limits of your past achievements. One of those limits may be your attorney-client's past expectations of you.
Strategy # 3. Surround yourself with supportive people who expand your imagination.
I have a staff member, Evie, who sees everything from a totally different perspective than I do. Every time I ask her to review something for me, I think, "I'm a glutton for punishment." Before I know it, instead of sitting, I find myself standing up, defending my ideas … but also refining those ideas. Evie gets my imagination going and I get to where I need to be. When you're around stimulating people, people who challenge you and who think differently, you may resist at first, but quite your mind will go in new directions and gather new ideas.
Strategy # 4. Write down your ideas.
Have you ever made a to-do list? Until you've done everything on that list, is it easy or hard to throw away that piece of paper? That's right. It's hard.
Once we write it down, we've created a covenant with ourselves and increased our belief that we can achieve what we've written.
Sometimes the first thought you write is pure gold. Other times it's only a sieve through which you mine the gold. And sometimes it's nothing more than "fool's gold" – but what have you lost attached a piece of paper?
Strategy # 5. Embellish your imagination with sensory details.
Sensory details solidify your belief. As an example, here's a secret vision I have. It's my first appearance on Oprah. I imagine walking out on stage. I hear the audience applauding wildly. I imagine actually making it to the couch without faining or falling. I visualize feeling happy, confident, poised, totally comfortable just being me. The show is going great.
Okay, now for the next part … I can not believe I'm sharing this … I'm not just a guest on Oprah's show. I'm a great friend, visiting her at her home in Hawaii. We're on her porch enjoying cups of healthy green tea, cucumber sandwiches and girl talk. Then we go shopping together – it's just me and my friend Oprah.
Here, my husband, says, "What does that have to do with being on her TV show?" Well, I'll tell you. This little embellishment is important because visualizing Oprah as a friend will give me the ease of a friend when I do get on her show. And that's what will make the appearance great. Embellish your imagination with sensory details to bring your vision to life.
Strategy # 6. See it to believe it.
Faith is a powerful thing, but seeing is believing. I personally know someone who's been on Oprah, and if she can do it, I know I can do it.
When Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile, the previous world record had stood for ten years. Bannister believed he could break it, and he did, at 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. But what's really interesting is that a month-and-a-half later another runner broke Bannister's record. And in the next 40 years over 700 more runners cracked that 4-minute barrier. They achieved that milestone because knowing someone else had done it helped them believe they could do it too.
Strategy # 7. Believe you'll find a way despite any obstacles.
If you believe in the income, you must believe in your ability to achieve that income, no matter who or what gets in your way.
On Halloween when I was eight, I approached a house with ten tall cement steps and I could see nothing but the perils of climbing those steps. So I stayed at the bottom, focused on the obstacle created by my fear, instead of on the prize … unable to move while Cinderella and Batman walked past me with bags of Hershey bars and Skittles.
That same fear of stepping out took me along the safe, no-risk route through high school, nursing school and into a secure hospital job – until I woke up to a different kind of fear – the fear of becoming like so many other nurses – tired, burned out and old before my time. I faced a decision: Step out and start the business I imagined or spend the rest of my life at the bottom of those steps, wearing scrubs and coveting the Skittles. So, with only $ 100 in my savings account, I called my first attorney and the rest is history.
Everybody has obstacles. Everybody. Obstacles can become crutches, if you let them. For some nurses, having children is the crutch for not succeeding. I've got two children. I do not have time to succeed. One of the CLNC consultants who cracked the million-dollar barrier has sole custody of her three children. She's thinking, I do not have time NOT to succeed. For one nurse the obstacle is a crutch. For the other the obstacle is the motivation and the opportunity.
Strategy # 8. Repeat your vision over and over and over again.
Athletes and performers are the proof that this technique works. Winning athletes practice what they want to achieve in their minds over and over again. They believe and achieve because they've performed perfectly so often in their minds.
At age 19 the Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso was diagnosed with a detached retina and confined to bed for a year. Despite this incredible obstacle, during that time, Alicia danced over and over in her mind to keep her feet, memory and passion alive. Because she believed she could realize what no ballerina had ever done before, she did not just return to the stage, she danced perfectly – even with her limited vision. So perfectly she was always honored with ballet's highest design, prima ballerina assoluta.
Mentally walk through the steps that will make your CLNC business successful. This will imprint its reality onto your imagination, making it more believable and achievable.
Use these 8 strategies to bolster your belief for zero-limit CLNC success. Believe and you will achieve.
Success Is Yours!