The Missing Key to Unlock Your Dream
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I used to have possible dreams. Now I live with inevitable outcomes.
What’s the difference?
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. — Wayne Gretsky
Possibility starts a dream but it doesn’t complete it.
Hope and desire are critical to begin the process but they are not engines that move things from process to destination. Only a strong belief in the inevitability of the achievement of your goal will do that.
So it’s time to look at where you stand in the possibility-inevitability spectrum.
What’s your biggest goal or dream?
When you think about that dream, do you believe that achieving your goal is:
Possible? Probable? Or inevitable?
What you choose to believe makes all the difference in the world.
It will determine what you focus on, what you take action on and the extent to which you apply power and purpose to those actions.
For a goal we’ve never achieved before, we begin in the realm of possibility. Even the decision to pursue the dream comes from a belief that the achievement is possible. Possibility is the beginning but, in order to achieve your dream, you can’t stay in possibility.
You’ve got to progress to an unshakable, unwavering belief that your achievement is INEVITABLE. Only then can you hold big space for a big dream, take the massive daily action necessary to bring the dream to pass and enjoy the fruition of the dream without waiting for the other shoe to drop.
So how do you get there?
How do you get from choosing a possible goal to achieving an inevitable outcome?
The decision cascade….
What is the decision cascade?
It’s a 3-part framework that I use to help aspiring entrepreneurs better understand how their inner critic is sabotaging their ability to start a business. When I first started the Fire Your Inner Critic, Find Your Inner Badass and Finally Build Your Business private Facebook community, I wanted a community that would offer training, support and accountability to aspiring entrepreneurs, a place where they could get clear on what’s holding them back, what needs to change and, in a community built on holding each other accountable, do the work of turning things around… and here’s what I’ve learned so far:
Aspiring entrepreneurs, far too often, believe that choosing to start a business is the same as staying consistent and committed in the business… and the second they lose commitment or consistency, they allow their inner critics to talk them out of building the business and, before you know it, self-sabotage kicks in and the start-stop see saw continues.
Here’s the thing: when you use the decision cascade properly, you’re ready for the self-doubt, fear, and uncertainty. You’re ready for the inner critic’s raging. Why? Because you know how to respond when each variable sets in.
So what is the decision cascade?
It’s comprised of three steps: Decide and Know → Trust and Act → Stay consistent and committed
It doesn’t matter whether your dream is to build a business or meet the love of your life. The decision cascade works when you work it.
1 Decide and know
Unequivocal decisions backed by a deep level of self-trust and self-belief come to fruition EVERY time. Why?
Because you’re making a congruent, committed decision that you are willing to weather life storms for because you KNOW that you can and will achieve it, because you KNOW that you have what it takes and because you KNOW that this is meant for you. That level of trust in self and trust in the process of life will help you overcome and transform EVERY obstacle. Those two things (self-trust and self-belief) are priceless. If you’re going to work on developing anything, develop those two first.
2 Trust and act
Once you have self-belief in place, you have to create a plan and commit to it. That means no second guessing. That means no taking six months to develop the plan. That means no looking back wondering if you made a mistake. When you trust and act, you expect the dynamics to change. You expect that the plan will change. You don’t look back and wonder, “Is this really for me?” Trust makes any action you take grounded and grounded action produces results.
3 Stay consistent and committed
If you’re tired of giving up, you have to stop starting over. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve restarted a diet on a Monday… only to restart on the following Monday. I finally had to stop the madness and say “I’m going to restart in this moment, right here and right now!”
That’s the power of commitment. Commitment says “I may backslide but I’m not falling off!” Add consistency to your commitment and what you have is a habit and way of being that, after three to six months, becomes your way of life.
You no longer need to ask yourself “What should I do next?” You already know. You no longer have to say to yourself, “Is that really want I want to do?” You’ve decided, it’s done and there’s no need to question the action. The compounded power of commitment and consistency can never be understated. No dream gets accomplished and sustained without those two.
And here’s the thing:
The decision cascade isn’t the ending; it’s only the beginning.
It’s not enough to decide. You have to commit.
It’s not enough to plan. You have to execute.
Yes, you’re always one decision away from a totally different life but it’s not making the decision that changes the game; it’s living congruently for every day after the decision is made that matters.
And that is the gauntlet thrown down by the Universe. That’s your life challenge.
Once you make the decision, will you do enough to get stuck… or everything it takes to break free?
The decision cascade will get you to the goal but only your own unwavering belief in the inevitability of your dream will keep you there.
At the end of the day, every moment is showing you who you really are. The question: Is that who you want to be?
No need to answer. How you live day in and day out will answer that question for you…
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