WHAT IS GOING TO STOP YOU?

Look at what you have recorded on your Action Worksheet. You have an ambitious goal, Success Ingredients you are going to acquire or create, and a list of ten Daily Actions you are going to perform, all in the next twenty-eight days. If looking at this list makes you feel resistant, afraid, or overwhelmed, your reaction is completely normal.

If you have ever attempted a program before—dieting or regular exercise, for example—or taken a motivational seminar, or made some New Year’s resolutions, you have probably experienced the following familiar scenario. You make new commitments when you are feeling enthusiastic, re-energized, or just plain fed up with the way things are. But then something stops you from following through.

What is that something? Lack of time—and its frequent companion, not enough money—are easy excuses, but the fact is that most of us make choices every day about where to spend our time and money. We choose whether to make a cold call or chat with a friend; pay the admission price to a networking event or buy a movie ticket. And it’s not just choosing between work and play. Suddenly, deleting all the old e-mails in your inbox may seem more important than writing a marketing letter, or spending money on a new home entertainment system becomes more urgent than paying to have your website updated.

If you are really serious about making this time different, about following through on your commitments and getting the results you want, it’s time to look at what may get in your way. Are you worried or afraid? If so, of what? Are you resisting something? What is it? Is there some special permission that you need in order to be successful with this program?

Many people, if not most people, are routinely blocked in marketing and sales by self-sabotaging thinking or behavior. If you thought you were the only one suffering from terminal procrastination or struggling with negative messages from your own inner critic, know you’re in good company. Giving yourself permission to alter a longstanding habit can be a powerful step in the direction of lasting change. In the Get Clients Now! program, you will be consciously granting yourself a Special Permission every day. Here are some examples:

I have permission to ask for what I want.

I am able to do things I fear.

I deserve to be successful.

I can make a good living and still have time for family and fun.

The best way to design a Special Permission is to ask yourself what you routinely think or do that prevents you from being successful at marketing. For example, suppose you never seem to have time to make follow-up calls because you are busy working on client projects. You know this behavior backfires in the long run, because when you complete a project, there isn’t another one waiting for you. The permission you might design for yourself is, “It’s okay to put my marketing first.”

Or, suppose that you are stalling in completing your portfolio, because then you will actually have to show it to someone. And if you did so, he or she might not like your work. Of course, you also know that if you don’t show your portfolio to anyone, it’s unlikely that anyone will hire you. In this case, you might choose this Special Permission: “I believe in my talents and abilities.”

Are you wondering what is going to make you believe your Special Permission? After all, you just made it up. What will make it real for you? For one thing, there is the simple repetition of it. Repetition is one of the primary ways that we learn. You learned the alphabet by heart from saying or singing it over and over. If you look in the mirror each morning and say, “I believe in my talents and abilities,” you will begin to internalize that information in the same way that you know f comes before g without reciting the alphabet from the beginning.

The other reason your Special Permission will work is that it’s only for twenty-eight days. Whenever you find yourself questioning the validity of your permission, remind yourself it is only temporary. You can go back to your old way of operating at the end of the month (if you still want to). Just as Samuel T. Coleridge’s expression “the willing suspension of disbelief” can be the key to enjoying a novel or play, you can temporarily allow yourself to believe fully in your Special Permission. If you are skeptical, try it.

If you already know your Special Permission, write it on the last line of your Action Worksheet. If you’re still having trouble finding a permission that fits, just pick one of the examples above to start with. It’s almost a guarantee that some block or obstacle will appear within the first few days of starting the program. Then you can design a new Special Permission to address it. And if at any point during the twenty-eight days, your permission stops working for you, change it.