April Fool's: What Tricks Do You Play On Yourself?

Posted on April 04, 2017 by David Kelly, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

April 1st. April Fool’s Day. The concept and tradition are fun, and the pranks that happen generally brighten our first day of April. But what about the “tricks” you’ve been playing on yourself? All day, every day. One of my favorite quotes is from Eric Hoffer: “We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves”. So what lies are you telling yourself? Take a moment and really think about areas where you’ve been deluding yourself.

Here are some common self lies we hear pretty regularly:

“I need to know more, research more, learn more before…”
“Our prices are too high”
“I just don’t have time for…”
“My employees just don’t understand… (or) are not motivated the same as…”
“Nobody else will do as well, or care as much as me”
“It’s quicker if I just do it myself”
“They (my prospects) are already happy doing business with…”
“I trained my employee well, but he/she just doesn’t get it”
“I can’t afford to…”

And on and on.

These sorts of lies are extremely damaging. When you tell yourself these lies, you are not just self deluding. You are closing off options. You are shutting your mind to possibility. You are eliminating progress in key areas. In short, you are putting a hard brake on your professional growth. A vitally important first step to change your mindset is to admit the truth. Face facts, face reality. See things as the really are.

What really holds you back? Do you need to “learn more before…” or should you be executing on your success? Are your “prices too high”, or is the problem linked to a lack of value illustrated by you? We consider these self lies to be limiting beliefs that you must address head on.

Here are the same statements (as above) – but turned around to achieve progress.

“I can continue to learn while executing on x, y, and z”
“I need to demonstrate a high value to command premium pricing”
“Because x is important, I must better prioritize my time to always include x”
“It is my role to provide ongoing encouragement, and accountability to my team”
“Because my time is worth x, I must delegate”
“To win business from the competition I must demonstrate significantly higher value”
“I need to make a habit of ongoing training prior to expecting mastery”
“Given my budget, what are some strategies to complete x”

Examine your thoughts and beliefs. Who would you be without limiting mindsets? When you have limiting thoughts, what happens? Take charge. Turn around your beliefs and fears to achieve success.