"Influence and Intention"
by Robert Middleton
Do you sometimes hear yourself saying this?
"Why does that other InfoGuru get so many appointments and get
her prospects to pay her more? Why does she make more money and
have a more successful business? Why does she have more energy
and seem more fulfilled?"
But if you brush this off as just luck, experience, timing or
connections, etc, then you're not not looking deeply enough.
Last week I talked about the fact that you'll have little chance
to influence if you get upset when you get rejected. If you
can't get past that, you'll never influence.
The next lesson on influence is just as important:
To influence you must have intention. But few very people
actually know what intention is. It's extraordinarily powerful
and it's a tool you can learn, master, and apply to your whole
career.
But first, you need to know what lack of intention looks like.
You're trying to make something happen. You're trying to
influence someone or trying to accomplish something you haven't
done before. You'd like to get a result.
You put some time in, some work, but the results just don't
come. Ultimately you quit in frustration or you just let it go
gradually with some excuse such as, "It wasn't the right time."
Bull Crap.
You didn't get results because you did not apply real intention
to getting those results.
- Big Intention = Impressive Results
- Low Intention = Average Results
- No intention = No Results
We all think we have intention. But we don't. We are unfocused,
weak willed, unclear, and are willing to settle for the reasons
why we didn't get the results instead of getting the actual
results.
This is called being reasonable. It's not very fulfilling.
Intention is completely unreasonable.
I sometimes have this conversation with clients who are
struggling to get something done. They say they want to get a
new client in a certain period of time. I ask them if they are
willing to "bet their car" they'll get a new client.
It's hard for them to understand. Sure, they'll work hard and
try the best they can, but, heck, how can you promise results?
No, they will not bet their car.
Real intention is the willingness to bet your car because you
absolutely know you can be counted on to produce a result, no
matter what the conditions are.
Now I'm not talking about insanity here. "OK, I have the
unreasonable intention to fly to the moon tomorrow." No, that's
just nuts. And you know it. It's just a smokescreen.
Unreasonable intentions are not impossible. They are simply
commitments made beyond our comfort zone. Instead, we keep
setting reasonable goals within our comfort zone. Not a lot of
intention needed there.
OK, so how do you create an intention?
- Get crystal clear about something that you want in your
business. Also know the reason why you want it. If it's to make
a certain amount of money every month, you need to have a
reason. No reason or desired reward, no intention.
- Get very clear about the cost of not achieving that goal.
Look the fear and the pain and the loss right in the face. If
you don't get this goal, there are consequences. Know what they
are.
- Now imagine it actually happening. You can visualize it or
write it down or do a mind map or talk to a friend about it. Or
anything else that makes it real. If it's not absolutely real to
you, if you can't see it happening, it's not a real intention.
- Create a plan. This can start with a quick sketch or some
ideas written down. Perhaps you need some help with this - some
coaching or consulting. You need to come up with a real, doable
plan here. No hoping. Intentions are real, not imaginary.
- Commit. This is where you make your bet, take your risk. This
is when you forsake any alternative to success. You are "all in"
and ready to move. Your intention is like a white-hot laser beam
and you are ready to do whatever it takes.
- Take action - any action in your plan that's going in the
direction you want to go. No excuses, no reasons, no hesitation.
You are now riding on the extraordinary energy of intention. You
are unstoppable.
Know why most intentions just end up as good ideas that didn't
work out for you? You did a little bit of number 1 and tried a
little bit of number 6. You got an idea, took some steps and
then gave it up as a bad job. Too hard, too difficult, too time
consuming.
A perfect formula for a mediocre life - and business.
On the other hand, is there something you really, really want?
Then follow the above six steps and expect miracles.
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Written by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please
visit Robert's web site at www.actionplan.com
for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing
for professional service businesses.
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