This is the fourth of a five-part series where I’m walking you through the five steps of transformation and why each step is essential when you’re ready to make a huge shift and uplevel your business and/or life.
Step 1 is to pause. Step 2 is to make a decision. Step 3 is to take action — the opposite action you normally would take.
So, what’s the fourth step? Feel the emotion.
How does that work? Well, what happens when you start taking the opposite action you normally take?
You start feeling all sorts of emotions you would rather not feel.
For instance, let’s go back to that example of working on a new program for your business. You know your new program is far more aligned with your current branding and message than what you’ve been currently offering. Maybe it’s also a group program, which means it’s more leveraged than what you currently do, which is one-on-one.
Your inner wisdom and intuition is telling you this program is the next step you’re supposed to take to grow your business.
So, what happens when you sit down to work on it?
You get lost in Facebook. Or maybe you have a sudden urge to do the laundry.
But, you now you know this about yourself. So, the next time you sit down to work on the program, you close Facebook and tell yourself the laundry doesn’t need to be done and you’re going to sit here and work.
And, what happens? All these feelings come up. Maybe it’s fear. Or second guessing yourself. Or maybe something deeper comes up. Like fraud syndrome. Who are you to be creating this program? Do you really have any value to share with the world?
And, guess what?
Those feelings? They’re the reason why you’ve distracted yourself in Facebook or the laundry.
The key to your biggest growth and transformation is to take the opposite action you normally take, and simultaneously feel the feelings that come up.
This is also likely one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do.
But, there IS good news. Once you’ve felt the feelings, they WILL move through you. In other words, the first time you sit down to work on that program and refuse to let yourself mess around in Facebook will be really rough. However, if you stick with it and don’t let yourself get distracted, you will eventually get to the place where those feelings no longer come up for you.
The bad news is there’s no way to know how long it will take. So, you have to be patient and compassionate to yourself during this process.
This is why I mentioned having a mantra, something to remind yourself during these dark moments that there is a reason why you’re doing this. You’re doing this because your bigger dream or mission is worth being momentarily uncomfortable.
In the case of my blog, the last six months of 2017 were brutal. I soooo wanted to stop working on my blog. I soooo wanted to give up. It wasn’t working the way I thought it would. I was discouraged. Frustrated. I felt like I had just wasted six months of my life on something that wouldn’t work.
So, what did I do? I felt those feelings …. as I kept working on my blog. I faithfully continued to create content for my blog and I continued moving forward with my blog, even though I felt like nothing was working.
It took a few months, but eventually I broke through to the other side. And, when that happened, I started to finally see the success I always knew was possible with my blog.
