Raise the BAR (beliefs-actions-results)

Why is it that some succeed, while others with similar qualifications and abilities fail? The difference between those who succeed and those who do not often comes down to their thoughts and beliefs.

What you believe affects your actions. If you believe a certain action will deliver a negative result, you will avoid taking that action. If, on the other hand, you believe an action will be positive, it’s far easier to move forward with it.

Taking action (or not taking action), gives you results of one sort or another. If you evaluate your results and don’t like what you find, those results circle right back around to affect your beliefs.

At a recent training session on prospecting, one of the participants said that she struggled to know what to say to prospects. I asked her to tell me about her company, and I learned that she had achieved some amazing results for her customers. I suggested she give her prospects this information. She responded, “If I do that, I’ll feel smarmy, like I’m bragging.”

I asked her, “Are all the results that you shared with me true?” She said they were. “In that case,” I said, “you’re not smarmy or bragging. You’re simply telling the truth. These are the facts.”

Just because you hold a belief about something, doesn’t make it so. This participant felt “smarmy,” as though she were “bragging.”  These were her feelings, but those feelings did not necessarily reflect reality. And in this case, they were keeping her from being successful.