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How To Think Big Without Becoming Overwhelmed
March 24, 2019 3:55 pm Leave your thoughts
Helen Keller was once reportedly asked, “Is there anything worse than being blind?” She replied, “Yes, a person with sight and no vision.”
In over 30 years of working with clients, I have found that a lack of vision is the major reason why many Advisors never reach their full potential. Advisors who think big tend to achieve big things, both in business and in life.
Many people in their teens and early twenties start out feeling invincible. But by the time a lot of people reach their forties they may feel fortunate just to get out of bed in the morning without too many aches and pains, perhaps barely able to pay the bills, no matter what their level of income.
Why Most People Don’t Think Big
While we all start out thinking big, several factors tend to constrict our vision over time:
First, we slowly become socialized through reward and punishment until we conform, thinking and acting like everybody else, which is usually smaller. And it starts very innocently.
Remember when you were little, jumping off the stairs because you were convinced you could fly? What happened? We got socialized with admonitions such as, “Get down from there. You’re going to hurt yourself!” Seems reasonable, right? But it’s very misleading, because this is when we got put in a box and they started building walls around us. The warnings continued…
“You can’t do that! Who do you think you are? Money doesn’t grow on trees. What do you think, I’m made out of money? You have to work hard, get a good education. Besides, you’re too tall/short, black/white, thin/fat. You’re not smart enough. You’re not qualified, you’re over qualified! Your territory is too small, there’s not enough money in it. Your territory’s too big, it’s too unwieldy and you’ll never be able to cover it all.”
Well, which one is right? If you’re waiting for just the right opportunity, just the right size territory, have just the proper amount of education, just the right clients, just the right situation, or waiting to get taller or shorter, you’re going to severely limit your success.
What If They’re Wrong?
What if you really CAN fly? What if you really CAN double your income over the next 12 months despite all the uncertainty, working only four days a week, be responsible to your clients and still be a good parent or grandparent? What if they’re wrong?
What if all their criticism is self-criticism? What if all their negativity is just a projection of their own fears? What if they just want to keep you down there with them, playing small? And what if you listen to “them” and you never get anywhere YOU want to go?
I mentor Financial Advisors who not only want to think outside the box, but who want to get rid of the box altogether and fly again, helping them define and achieve their highest goals.
Thinking Big Gives You Perspective
Einstein said we cannot solve problems using the same level of thinking that created them. When we come up against obstacles, very often we can’t see the solutions because we aren’t looking in the right places. We aren’t searching high enough. Our attention is stuck on the lower levels.
Thinking big gives you perspective, and having a broader perspective gives you direction, purpose and motivation to keep going during times when you get bogged down in details.
Practice Thinking Big
Create Space
Creating space enables you to gain perspective by taking time out from the incessant activity that can impede our long-term growth. Taking time out to think and develop our state of mind is not always an easy thing to do in the fast-paced world in which we live, but it’s an essential requirement. Even when we take vacations, many people are so busy doing, they never get any true down time to just “be”.
Did you ever notice you start to feel better about three days into a real vacation, especially someplace close to Nature? After a few long walks, looking out over the expansive ocean or mountains, with no computers or cell phones, what happens? You start to relax. Even better, you start to dream again.
Let’s Play
Let’s play a game. Write down your revenue goal for this year. Got it? Good…now, DOUBLE IT. (And let me know when you get over the shock!) You’ll immediately notice it can be both exciting and scary, liberating and terrifying, all at the same time. There’s most likely a little voice in your head that says, “But I have no idea what to do.” Now is a good time to practice just enough denial to start retraining your mind, change the way you think and upgrade to a more open, successful mindset.
Don’t Worry About “How”
“I have no idea what to do” is just a trick the mind uses to rationalize the fear of trying anything new, because you might fail. This fear creates stress and can paralyze us, resulting in inaction and the eventual feeling of hopelessness.
But if everyone believed that line of reasoning, no one would ever try anything new and nothing would ever have been invented throughout history. Read the biography of any great figure. Don’t you think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs faced many fears over the 40 years in which they changed the world?
Most people are afraid to think big, afraid to ask, afraid of failure, success, and rejection. But successful people act despite their fears. They realize that one should never act (or not act) out of fear, which is a position of weakness. They always come from a position of strength, which is empowering, even if they fail.
BTW: Successful Advisors don’t view it as failure, only feedback, “adjusting their sails” in order to fulfill their vision and comittment. The result is that they feel alive, engaged and empowered along their journey.
Only after you’re dreaming big and feeling unstoppable should you bring your vision back to reality so you can fill in the steps of how to accomplish.
Be A Contrarian
Here’s another tip successful Advisors use: They are Contrarians. When everyone goes left, they go right. When everyone zigs, they zag. When everyone buys, they sell. Sir John Templeton, the legendary money manager and Dean of Global Investing, taught that, “Everyone can’t beat the market because everyone is the market. You must be willing to do something different if you want superior results.” You must be a Contrarian.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Doubling your goal (Thinking Big) immediately stretches your boundaries and shines a light on those areas of your business that need shoring up. Do you need more focus? More discipline or better time management? Will you have to formalize and systematize your operations, sales or marketing efforts? Working on those areas you identify will enable your business to explode. Soon you’ll be asking yourself, How much success can you stand?
After all, anyone can double their revenue if they’re willing to work twice as many hours, but that’s usually not the goal. Another way you can double your goal is to get clients who are worth twice the revenue to you. Doubling your average revenue per client is just one example of working smarter, not harder.
Paradox Planning
Paradox Planning enables you to make a plan (IE: to double your goal) even when you haven’t the slightest idea how. Let’s say you want to increase your gross revenue from $250k to $500k.
First, create a projected Profit & Loss Spread Sheet listing where your newly doubled $500k revenue will be spent. Then, “Show me the money!” Allocate your expenses to include increased staffing, vacations, toys, retirement contributions, etc. Do you have funds left over? Keep allocating until you’ve accounted for it all. What you put your attention on grows, so be specific about where the money will go.
Next, let’s reduce the number of clients to a manageable number, perhaps around 100. Of course, you’ll now have an increased revenue per client with no idea how to attract them, but at this stage that’s OK. At least we have a plan: 100 clients @ $5,000 target revenue per client gives us our $500k gross. If each Client had $500k of investable assets and you placed the entire amount in AUM @ 1.00%…Voila! And we have not accounted for any planning fees, insurance or other solutions you may provide. All of a sudden your plan starts to look doable.
Of course, where to find these clients and how to get them to hire you are entirely different subjects. For now, just observe. (Contact me if you’d like to explore my Million Dollar Marketing Program & Superior Sales System. We’re averaging a 20% closing rate with a 10x ROI. Let us do your marketing for you.)
We All Have Selective Perception
We all have selective perception. Dogs hear high pitched sounds we can’t. Bats feel things through sonar that we can’t, etc. It all comes down to the power of our attention within the limits of our capability.
The Universal Principle at work here is what you put your attention on grows stronger. It’s impossible to take in the billions of pieces of information that we’re bombarded with every day, so we carve out our own little slice of reality.
For example, you go buy a new car. Let’s say you purchase a Toyota Camry because you really like the car and the blue color you picked out. And to top it all off, you got a bargain because it was on sale. Now, for the next few weeks, what do you notice on the highway? A lot of Toyota Camrys, especially the blue ones! And here’s the interesting part; They were always there, driving along side of you…and they were always on sale! You just didn’t notice it because you had no reason to. It wasn’t part of your world. Perception is everything. It’s a state of mind.
If you don’t smoke, you’re probably not looking for an ashtray, and therefore, don’t see one even if it’s in the same room. It’s not part of your awareness, not part of your consciousness. Just like the radio waves that bombard the room you’re in right now, most people are not aware of them. But while there are a multitude of stations playing, you can only hear the one you’re tuned into. And your radio must be working properly!
Achieve The Impossible
When we come up against obstacles, often we can’t see the solutions because we aren’t looking in the right places. We aren’t searching high enough. Our attention is stuck on lower levels. Opening our minds to seemingly “impossible” goals allows the filters of our perception to pick up the ideas, meet the people, go places, and do things we would not otherwise do, leading to success beyond our wildest dreams. But to succeed beyond your wildest expectations, you’ve got to start with some pretty wild expectations.
Looking back over the years, you’ve probably already accomplished things in your business and life that, back then, you thought were most certainly impossible. Try thinking big, opening up to the possibilities and doing something you’ve never done before. It can be an exhilarating experience, and it could very well change your business and your life.
Max Bolka is a 30+ year veteran of the financial services industry built a nationwide planning and investment clientele. For over 25 years he’s also been “Building First-Class Financial Advisors” of all kinds through his industry speaking, mentoring and online programs. He partners with Advisors to provide Income Tax Reduction Planning, Comprehensive Legacy Planing and Master Planning for Business Owners and HNW families. For more information visit his website: www.maxbolka.com, call (828) 713-4116 or email: info@maxbolka.com
