Are your limiting thoughts and beliefs about marketing holding you back from the success that you seek?

Photo taken by M'reen

Are your limiting thoughts and beliefs about marketing

holding you back from the success that you seek?
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Limiting Thoughts?
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I spent the last four days in a workshop learning how to let go of my limiting thoughts, beliefs 

and attitudes. The workshop, called "The Mental Cleanse" with Byron Katie

is appropriately named. I've flushed out a whole host of thoughts that have

been holding me back one way or another.

Do you have limiting thoughts that are holding you back?
The insidious thing about limiting thoughts is that we don't really think them.

They think us.

That is, we identify with them so completely that they become the gospel truth to us - 

even as they undermine our best intentions in life and in work.

M’reen: Years ago I seeded for myself, “whenever I think a negative thought

about myself, I immediately think of a truer more balanced thought.”

Now, I always automatically balance negative thoughts, no matter how small.

I even balance the thoughts of others. A sad face turned into a brilliant smile

when I said, “but, you have helped me, you’ve given me the first step on the way.”
Working with thousands of Independent Professionals over the past twenty years,

I've noticed many repeating themes of these kinds of limiting thoughts.
Are any of them familiar to you?

"I'm not the marketing type."
 Can you really know that? What is "the marketing type" anyway? 

Think of all the negative stereotypes you have about marketing types.

Who says you have to fit a stereotype?
In my experience, the marketing type is someone, just like you or me,

who learned some marketing ideas and tried them out and got some results

and kept working at it. Does that sound so awful?

"It's hard for me to talk about my business."
 Often a thought like this will have an underlying belief such as "people aren't interested

in my services." What's your proof? How do you really know at this early stage?

We tend to get a rejection or two and conclude that people will never understand us.
Isn't it really a matter of trial and error? You try a message and gauge the interest

and then try something new until it resonates with the marketplace.

Pretty soon it gets easy.

"I'm just not a good writer."
By what criteria? Who are you comparing yourself to?

Marketing writing isn't fine literature.

It's simply a narrative about how your services can help your clients:

"Here's the problem as I see it. Here's the desired solution you're looking for.

And here's what I can do for you to get that solution."
If your writing style feels awkward, don't worry; it will improve with practice.

And if you need help along the way, you can always hire an editor.

"Public speaking scares me to death"
You'll die if you speak in public? Is that really true? Haven't seen it once, yet.

What's really the worst that could happen? Your presentation might bore some people.

Could you handle that? With a little practice don't you think you'd improve? Of course.
Many of the world's greatest speakers still experience some nervousness before a talk.

But it doesn't stop them. And the more they speak the better they get.

"All this technology intimidates me"
Really? Does it hold a gun to your head? Doesn't it just sit there passively

until you do something with it? The systems out there to help you market online,

for instance, are getting easier and easier to use.

In a couple hours you can set up an eZine with a tool like AWeber

Why let this thought hold you back? Like all limiting thoughts, try to see the other side

of the equation and notice if the upside benefit isn't a lot more powerful. 

If technology could transform your marketing (it can), wouldn't you be a little less intimidated?

"I just don't have the time to market myself."
This is a big one for a lot of people. What always puzzles me is that the people

who have the fewest clients seem to have no time to market.

Successful people always find the time to fit it in by making it a priority.

It's not time, it's the thought.
Start noticing all the time-wasters you let creep into your day.

If you could eliminate just a few of them, you'd have more than enough time

for marketing activities.

"But it's so easy for you"
Are you sure? How do you know that?

And what do I have to do with your marketing efforts?

Why are you comparing? Wouldn't it make more sense to ask,

"What do you do to make it easy for yourself?"

You might discover several strategies that could make it easy for you as well.
Every limiting thought becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's true because you say it's true.

And if you don't question your thoughts, they will continue to control your destiny.

The technique called "The Work" that I learned from Byron Katie 

and have used with surprising (and almost immediate) results works as follows:

First, write down a limiting thought like the ones I've listed above.

Then ask the following four questions, writing down your answers.

Do it slowly, really pondering before you give an answer:

1. Is this thought true? (Or is it just a thought you've attached to?)
2. (If yes, or not sure) Can I absolutely know that it's true?
3. How do I react when I think that thought?

    Make a long list of your actions, behaviour, feelings

    and other thoughts that arise in the wake of the original thought.
4. Who would I be without that thought? If you were facing a marketing challenge,

    such as writing an article, and you simply could not have the thought,

   "I'm not a good marketing writer" how would things be different?
   Finally, turn the thought around. That is, state the limiting thought in reverse:

  "I am a good marketing writer." And then ask yourself if that new statement

  is just as true or truer than the original. You may be surprised by your answer.

This year, your marketing results will be determined not by your circumstances

but by your thinking. If you think limiting thoughts you have no right to expect 

anything beyond those limiting thoughts.

If you start to question your limiting thoughts and beliefs,

I guarantee that new and exciting possibilities will open up to you.

You might even start to think of yourself as a marketing type!

One of the keys to letting go of limiting thoughts is recognizing them in the first place.

Here are some things to notice:

* Limiting thoughts become like the water we swim in:

"Limiting thoughts? What limiting thoughts? The stronger the identification

or attachment to particular thoughts or beliefs,

the more likely that they become limiting.

We do not become attached to expansive, unlimited thoughts.

(And if we do, such as turning them into rules, they ultimately become limiting.)
* Limiting thoughts are stressful in nature. That is, it doesn't feel great thinking them.

You tend to feel constricted and diminished when you think them.

The funny thing is, you hope they will make you feel better and they never do.
* Limiting thoughts are angry and fearful in nature. They are often accusing, blaming

and criticizing. "He did" and "She did" are limiting thoughts.

They are putting the fault on something outside of yourself.
* Limiting thoughts are often attached to the following words:

can't, hard, difficult, impossible.

They can also be attached to words like want, need, should, shouldn't, always and never.
Limiting words equal limiting thoughts.
* Limiting thoughts are often about your own identity

of what you can and cannot be, do or have.

"I think of myself as...." is almost always a limiting thought even if it sounds positive!

Who you are is unlimited. There's no identity to that. Just freedom. 

all the best, Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketinghttp://www.actionplan.com

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com            gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.turbochargedreading.blogspot.com       describes the steps to reading in the way your mind prefers

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com          just for fun

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”