Possibility Thinking the Fuel for Self-Improvement
Are you where you want to be? The answer to that question can be found in the thousands of books and articles on self-improvement. Human beings by their nature are wired for self-improvement.
What separates those who are more successful from those who are not is possibility thinking. Being able to think outside of the box helps to look at the same situation with a different lens or filter. Marcel Proust once wrote that the True voyage of discovery is not seeking new landscapes, but seeing with new eyes.
Bottom line is that To see differently, we must think differently.
During the last three decades, I have observed that people will embrace misery over joy and scarcity over abundance. Within my practice as a business coach, these beliefs that are reflected through attitudes demonstrated through behaviors and create limitability thinking.
Children are conditioned to this type of thinking because possibility thinkers take too much time away from the already overloaded public education daily schedule. As these individuals transition into their post secondary experiences, limitability thinking is encouraged because to disagree with the "knowledgeable" professors may result in poor grades. Now as adults, they are fully conditioned to think inside the box.
Possibility thinking involves risk, reflection and resolve. Thinking outside of the box is risky because you might fail. However, most agree from educational psychologists to successful entrepreneurs that we learn more from our failures than never trying at all. John Maxwell wrote an entire book about the benefits of failure in Failing Forward.
Possibility thinking demands reflection and specifically self-reflection. This skill set is within the realm of what some call critical thinking skills. Again, reflection takes time and does include some specific skill sets including the ability for self-reflection by asking questions from an internal perspective.
Finally, possibility thinking includes resolve. Taking the easy road of doing the same old thing hoping for different results is far easier than looking for a new road, a new direction. Also, years of conditioning make it much easier to fall back into the old habit of not taking risks and not taking the time for reflection. Possibility thinkers are committed in their resolve to continually think about the what ifs as they travel through life.
Recently when doing some car sales training, I asked a participant who had a belief that was keeping him from incredible success to imagine the following:
"Yes, your current belief allows you to sell at the national average of 10 cars per month. But, imagine if you could remove the limitations associated with the belief that selling cars was differently than selling anything else, how many cars could you possibly sell?"
This is the essence of possibility thinking – achieving what you have achieved by doing what you never have done.
Do you want to learn more about how to get to where you want to be? I have just completed a FREE 7 lesson online email course. Sign up here and now for Building Your M.A.P. (My Action Plan) to Success.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S., is a speaker and Indianapolis business coach & Chicago business coach who has written hundreds of articles with a focus on improving individual and organizational performance through leadership to executable strategic plans.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
