Being Kind is your business super-power.
How do you Be Kind in Business? By applying the MAGIC formula:
Moving
Attuning
Giving
Inspiring
Connecting
It applies to:
Yourself
Your clients
Your team
Your prospects
Self-Inspiration
How do you inspire yourself?
It’s all about asking questions.
Questions about:
– your dreams,
– people you admire, and
– the situation or the task at hand.
Dream on, Dreamer
Give yourself space and time to ask yourself, “What if?”
Do you have a dream? What do you want to do? What do you love doing?
What would you love to do if you could?
Why can’t you do it? Is there a reason why not?
Think about what you love doing. Could you do that as a business? Would you want to? If you can, talk to people who do it as a business already. Find out if it is as much fun doing it for a job as it is in your spare time. Maybe you just want to keep it as a hobby?
But if you wanted to take it further, what would have to be true to make that happen? Could it work? What would have to change to make it possible?
Interrogate the Pedestal
I’m sure that you have people that you look up to, role models. People you look at and think, “I wish I could be like them.”
Maybe you know them personally? Perhaps they are famous? Ask yourself, “How are they different to me?” And, “How are they the same as me?”
“Could I do what they’re doing?”
“What would I have to do so that I could do what they are doing?” Maybe the answer is just some training, a bit more experience and/ or a bit more self-confidence.
If you know them, talk to them. Ask how they got there. How did they get to do what they’re doing now? If they’ve written one, read their autobiography. Ask yourself, “Could that be me?”
Everybody’s story will be different, but you may find inspiration for your own journey. Would you really like to have the life that they are having, or your own version of it?
What Is and What Could be
Asking ourselves about possibilities for our work situations can inspire and motivate us.
In leadership, ask, “What could the future look like, what might be possible? What would have to change to make that possible?”
In sales, ask, “What would be made possible by closing this sale? What improvements will be made for my company, or my life?” “What difference will this make to my prospect, how will their life be better as a result?”
If you work with clients, ask, “What difference will my action make?” Picture your clients’ lives being better as a result of your involvement.
Allow yourself to imagine these things, and it will inspire you.
Goal setting
Once you are inspired, you have the emotional fuel to allow you to achieve your goals, but first, you have to set your goals.
Michael Hyatt is insightful on this. He observes that we could set goals in
– our comfort zone,
– our discomfort zone, or
– our delusional zone
Goals in our comfort zone are too easy. They don’t stretch us, we won’t make progress. Goals in our delusional zone are unachievable. We will never achieve them, and we will get frustrated and discouraged if we try.
He advises setting goals in our discomfort zone.
Stretching ourselves slightly, going slightly beyond what we’ve done before. Achievable, but not easy. Set goals in the discomfort zone, and you will grow.
Once we achieve them, we will feel great.
How will you inspire yourself today?
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Download my free eBook “Be Kind to Yourself” and learn how to:
- Adapt to new ways of working
- Harness the power of habits
- Optimise the use of space in your home
- Use clothes to boost productivity
- Focus on what matters
- Plan for the future amidst uncertainty