Tony Robbins: You BECOME What You BELIEVE

Check out this video from Tony Robbins: You BECOME What You BELIEVE ( ft. Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Wayne Dyer)

HOW DO YOU HANDLE STRESS?

HOW DO YOU HANDLE STRESS?

Even with the best intentions, many of us believe that our emotions are out of our control, that they happen spontaneously, and that we handle them in a multitude of ways. But in fact, there are four basic ways in which people deal with emotion. Do you recognize any of these? Once you identify your primary strategy for dealing with emotions, you can shift to an approach that truly works for you.

Avoidance

The first defense against negative emotions is avoidance. We all want to avoid difficult or painful emotions. As a result, we tend to avoid any situation that could lead to the emotions we fear, or worse, try not to feel any emotions at all. While avoiding negative situations may protect us in the short term, it also keeps us from feeling the very emotions — connection, energy, excitement — that we desire most.

Denial

The second defense against stress is outright denial. When you experience an emotion and try to deny what you’re feeling, your emotions will simply intensify. The pressure will build and what you are trying to ignore will resurface – potentially at an inconvenient time.

Competition

The worst addiction facing people today is not drugs, it’s not alcohol, it’s problems. Often, after moving past avoidance and denial, we decide to stop fighting our painful emotions and decide to fully indulge in them. Rather than learn what our feelings are trying to tell us, we get our fix of significance by making our problem worse that everyone else’s. It becomes a “badge of courage,” and we begin to compete with others, saying, “You think you’ve got it bad? Let me tell you how bad I’ve got it!” Do yourself a favor and get your need for significance met for doing something positive rather than for your problems.

Learning and Using

Truth: Problems are gifts. Our biggest problem is we think we shouldn’t have problems. Albert Einstein put it this way, “Crisis is the greatest blessing for people and nations, because crisis brings on progress…He who blames his own failures and difficulties to crisis, rapes his own talent and gives more importance to problems than to solutions.” Leaders use their pain. Find a way to use stress and pain to serve you.

Is stress making you sick?

Stress isn’t just unpleasant mentally and emotionally — it also has the power to make your body sick. Stress weakens your immune systems, making it harder to fight off common cold viruses and other germs. Stress has also been shown to raise blood pressure by temporarily constricting blood vessels and speeding up heart rate. Coronary heart disease is also more common in those suffering from chronic stress.

Stress can prompt emotional eating and make it harder to resist other cravings for unhealthy foods. There is little wonder, then, that stress is also connected to weight gain; however, what may be news to you is the fact that the high cortisol levels linked to stress encourage fat storage, particularly in the lower abdomen area. This, in turn, increases insulin resistance in the body, which can lead to changes in blood sugar. Other symptoms may include heartburn, IBS, diarrhea and stomach cramping. For pregnant women, severe stress may affect the fetus’ brain development and increase chances of premature labor.

Chronic stress isn’t good for your brain, either. Stress causes tension headaches and sometimes even migraines. It reduces spatial memory, which helps you remember locations and relate objects, as well as impacts your ability to form new memories and regulate emotions and self-control. Acute stress has been shown to cause three different kinds of hair loss as well as premature aging.

How do you handle stress?

You can learn how to effectively handle stress and make yourself a better person. One way to do this is to find activities you enjoy, such as ways to strengthen your body, find a role model or help someone in need to put your life in perspective.

Feed your mind something good every day. Don’t let the weeds grow; cultivate great thoughts and sow the seeds of knowledge for tomorrow.

Strengthen your body. Fear, stagnation, rage, numbness, sadness: these are all emotional states that affect one’s physical well-being, and you need to be ready to grapple with and overcome these emotions. Science has shown us that when you participate in physical activities, you activate your body chemistry and unite your mind and body so they can work together effectively.

Find a mission greater than yourself. We all benefit by aspiring to something greater, something that is more than either our pain or even our joy. Get inspired by being part of something big.

Find a role model. This makes what you are hoping is possible real for you. Are you hoping to become a successful entrepreneur? Find a role model who did that. You need to feel how real that goal is, how attainable it is and how others achieved their success while overcoming challenges.

You can also find someone who is in need and help them. There are countless ways to offer help, such as volunteering at a local homeless shelter or food bank or offering your services in underserved classrooms. The process of volunteering teaches you how to put your own life into perspective and reminds you that you are connected to everyone else. Your ability to give to others and help no matter how many mistakes you’ve made or losses you’ve suffered will inspire you to try again and move on.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mind-meaning/how-do-you-handle-stress/amp/

THE POWER OF DEEP LISTENING

Have you ever spoken to someone who made you feel like you were the only person in the world at that moment? Who seemed truly engaged and interested in every word that came out of your mouth? How did that make you feel? Important? Understood? 

This is the power of deep listening. Deep listening is more than a valuable social habit; it is a transformative communication tool. With deep listening, you are not only allowing yourself the time and space to fully absorb what your conversation partner is saying, you can actually encourage him or her to to feel heard and to speak more openly and honestly. And this is a key step in developing rapport with someone. 

To better understand how to interact and communicate more effectively with others, we spoke to body language expert Jan Hargrave, one of our Leadership Academy speakers, about the core tenets of deep listening:

EYE CONTACT

“By maintaining good eye contact, you are demonstrating to your conversation partner that you are fully engaged and interested in what he or she is saying. A good guideline to follow is the 80/20 rule, in which 80% of the time your eyes are meeting your speaking partner’s, and 20% of the time, your eyes are roaming as you gather information to say.”

PRESENCE

“The average person speaks between 135 and 160 words per minute, but the average person’s brain works between 400 and 600 words per minute. This means your mind is going a lot faster than your conversation partner’s mouth, which makes it easy for your mind to drift. It’s up to you to stop your mind from shifting away from the conversation and to be truly present. Not only will you be able to fully absorb what your partner says, you will be able to respond in kind, which makes them feel appreciated and understood.”

NONVERBAL FEEDBACK

“There’s nothing worse than speaking to someone who gives no verbal feedback. It’s like talking to a wall. Make the effort to give the occasional nod, smile, or other sign of recognition to your conversation partner. These nonverbal cues may seem trivial, but have tremendous impact by showing your interest, understanding and involvement in the conversation.”

CONNECTION

“When you are speaking one-on-one with someone, position your body in a way that creates a safe and welcoming space for him or her to speak openly. Lean slightly in, open up your chest, pull your shoulders back, and fold your hands gently in your lap or on the table in front of you. If you are standing, form a reversed hand steeple, in which the fingers come together to form a point. When someone steeples in the lap area, it means they are confident about what they are hearing.”

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mind-meaning/the-power-of-deep-listening/

WHO COMES FIRST – YOU OR OTHERS?

SEE HOW "SELF-SORTING" EMPLOYEES CAN MAKE OR BREAK A COMPANY

Posted by: Tony Robbins

If you’re involved in hiring people, wouldn’t you want to know where an applicant fits on this scale?Some people look at human interactions primarily in terms of what’s in it for them personally, some in terms of what they can do for themselves and others. Of course, people don’t always fall into one extreme or the other. If you sort only by self, you become a self-absorbed egotist.

Not long ago, a major airline found that 95% of its complaints involved 5% of its employees. These 5% sorted strongly by self; they were most interested in looking out for themselves, not others. Were they poor employees? Yes and no. They were obviously in the wrong jobs and obviously doing a poor job, though they might have been smart, hardworking and congenial.

It goes back to building a team that works. They may have been the right people, put in the wrong slots.

So what did the airline do? It replaced them with people who sorted by others. The company determined this through group interviews, in which prospective employees were asked why they wanted to work for the airline. Most of the individuals thought they were being judged by the answers they gave in front of the group, when in fact they were being judged by their behavior as members of the audience. That is, individuals who paid the most attention and gave the most eye contact, smiles or support to the person who was doing the speaking at the front of the room were given the highest rating, while those who paid little or no attention and were in their own world while others were talking were considered to be primarily self-sorting and were not hired.

The company’s complaint ratio dropped over 80% as a result of this move. That’s why metaprograms are so important in the business world. How can you evaluate a person if you don’t know what motivates him? How can you match the job you have available with the correct person in terms of required skills, ability to learn, and internal makeup? A lot of very smart people spend their career totally frustrated because they’re doing jobs that don’t make the best use of their inherent capabilities. A liability in one context can be a valuable asset in another.

In a service business, like an airline, you obviously need people who sort by others. If you’re hiring an auditor, you might want someone who would sort by self. How many times have you dealt with someone who left you in a confused state because he did his job well intellectually but poorly emotionally? It’s like a doctor who sorts strongly by self. He may be a brilliant diagnostician, but unless you feel he cares about you, he won’t be totally effective. In fact, someone like that would probably be better off as a researcher than as a clinician.

Putting the right person in the right job remains one of the biggest problems in American business. But it’s a problem that could be dealt with if people knew how to evaluate the ways that job applicants processed information.

At this point, it’s worth noting that not all metaprograms are created equal. Are people better off moving toward things rather than away from them? Perhaps. Would the world be a better place if people sorted more by others and less by self? Probably. But we have to deal with life the way it is, not the way we wish it were.

You may wish your son moved towards things rather than away. If you want to effectively communicate with him, you have to do it in a way that works, not in a way that plays to your idea of how it should work. The key is to observe a person as carefully as possible, listen to what he says, what sort of metaphors he uses, what his physiology reveals, when he’s attentive and when he’s bored.

People reveal their metaprograms on a consistent, ongoing basis. It doesn’t take much concentrated study to figure out what people’s tendencies are or how they are sorting at the moment. To determine if people sort by self or others, see how much attention they pay to other people. Do they lean toward people and have facial expressions that reflect concern for what others are saying, or do they lean back and remain bored and unresponsive?

Everyone sorts by self some of the time, and it’s important to do so sometimes. They key is what you do consistently and whether your sorting procedure enables you to produce the results you desire.

Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, philanthropist and the nation’s #1 Life and Business Strategist. Author of five internationally bestselling books, including the recent New York Times #1 best-seller UNSHAKEABLE, Mr. Robbins has empowered more than 50 million people from 100 countries through his audio, video and life training programs. He created the #1 personal and professional development program of all time, and more than 4 million people have attended his live seminars.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/leadership-impact/comes-first-others/

WHO IS IN CHARGE OF YOUR EMOTIONS?

Everyone wants to enhance their quality of life. Everyone wants to be more fulfilled. But almost all of us get stuck at times in our limiting beliefs and emotional patterns. We make habits out of feeling frustrated, worried, sad or overwhelmed. But it is these disempowering habits that prevent us from doing what we are really capable of – even if that something is just being happy.

While we cannot control the events that happen in our lives, we can master how we experience these events. People are always going to encounter stressful times. It could be losing a job, losing your health or even losing a loved one. Something happens that is outside our control, and it knocks us down. But stress, anger, sadness – these feelings don’t come from the facts, they come from the meaning that we give the facts. Of course, the terrible things that happen are real. But the question is, how are you going to allow that to shape your life? Are you going to let it tear you down, or are you going to use it to empower and enlighten the way you go through life?

It’s all about the meaning that you give the events and experiences of your life. Because when you come up with a new meaning, you can get a new perspective, and, ultimately, a new life.

THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES

We unconsciously decide what events and experiences in our life mean; we do it all the time, but may not be aware of it.

Take a downturn in the economy, for example. One person could interpret that as, “I’m going to be broke.” Another person, though, might say, “This means I’m going to work harder and I’m going to be more creative about saving.”

What do you think the outcome of this thought pattern will be for each of these individuals? Pretty different, right? Is it apparent why each will have very different approaches to life, and why each will experience very different emotions? That all comes from the meaning each person assigned to the event.

Now, let’s move to something a little more personal. Consider a woman who had been adopted as a baby. One path she could take is to devalue herself, to believe that because she was adopted, that she wasn’t good enough to be loved. She could also take the opposite approach, and consider the fact that someone chose her and chose to love her. What’s the significance of her decisions over what story to choose? How will this impact her decisions in her daily life? How will it affect her bigger decisions?

The former story creates a sense of loss, while the latter celebrates her life and her worth. And the story she chooses will impact her whole life – because the decisions that control us are the decisions about meaning, and meaning equals emotion.

TRADE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR APPRECIATION

If choosing the disempowering story sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. We all tell ourselves stories that make us miserable when we could be feeling joy. We make ourselves feel sad, worried, anxious, shameful, guilty, fearful and enraged on a consistent basis. Why? Because we are wired that way.

The human mind is always looking for what you could lose, what you could have less of or what you could never have. It might seem counterintuitive, but it’s a matter of survival and of protection. You are biologically wired to prepare yourself for the worst at all times. That is why it is up to you to take conscious control over the stories you tell yourself and the resulting emotions you experience.

The secret to doing this is to trade your expectations for appreciation. If you do this, your whole life will change in that moment. And if you keep doing it, your life will change forever.

Go back to the woman who was adopted. She had an expectation that her biological mother and father should have kept her. And that expectation could have tainted her entire life. But if she shifted her expectations to appreciation that somebody picked her consciously and loved her, without the obligation or the biological imperative to do so, her entire life would change. This is the power of trading expectations for appreciation.

TAKING BACK CONTROL

The choice is yours. What are you going to focus on? What story are you going to let guide your life? You get to choose what meaning to assign. This is the one power that you have right now in this moment that can change everything.

The only thing keeping you from getting what you want is yourself. The only thing keeping you from the joy you deserve is the disempowering story you keep telling yourself. But what if you decided right now to offer yourself a new core of belief? What if everything in your life, including the most painful and traumatic events, was happening for you, not to you? What if everything was designed for you to actually have a greater life and have more to give and more to enjoy?

If you want real freedom in your life, you must make a decision to stop allowing external events to shape your happiness. And that is only done by becoming the master of meaning and finding the empowering meaning in anything and everything that comes your way.

Team Tony

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mind-meaning/who-is-in-charge-of-your-emotions/

THE HEALTH COACH REVOLUTION

TO CHANGE BEHAVIORS THAT LEAD TO CHRONIC DISEASE, DOCTORS AREN’T ENOUGH

Posted by: Team Tony

This article was contributed by special guest Chris Kresser – see full bio below.

Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year? How did it turn out?

If you’re like most people, you didn’t get very far. In fact, a commonly cited statistic suggests that only 8% of people keep their resolutions.

There are many reasons for this, but they can be summed up this way: changing our behavior is hard, and most people don’t know how to do it successfully.

This is a huge problem, because it is now clear that that the number one cause of the chronic disease epidemic is not genetic, but behavioral – people making the wrong choices about diet, physical activity, sleep and other lifestyle factors.

In fact, a recent study found that 85% of the risk of chronic disease is due to these environmental factors. Another study found that fewer than 5% of adults engage in the top health behaviors, and only 20% of adults are thriving.

The consequences are severe:

• One in two Americans has a chronic disease; one in four has multiple chronic diseases.
• Seven of ten deaths in the United States are caused by chronic disease.
• 27% of children now have a chronic disease (up from 13% in 1994).
• Chronic disease will account for $47 trillion in healthcare expenditure by 2030 if the epidemic is unchecked. That’s more than the annual GDP of the six largest economies in the world.

Given these statistics, it should be clear that 1) chronic disease is the biggest threat to our health that we face, and 2) changing our behavior is the most important step we can take to prevent and reverse chronic disease.

WE DON’T NEED MORE INFORMATION – OR MORE DOCTORS – TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM

It’s tempting to think that we can solve this problem simply by better educating people about the changes they need to make. But it is now well-established that knowledge is not enough to support lasting behavior change. If it was, we wouldn’t have divorced marriage counselors, crazy shrinks, or doctors that smoke cigarettes!

Most people know that eating poorly, not exercising, not getting enough sleep and engaging in other unhealthy lifestyle habits is not good for them. Yet they continue these behaviors anyway, or they chase quick fixes that don’t last for more than a few weeks.

What about doctors? Shouldn’t they be the ones to lead this change? We simply don’t have enough of them to address the problem. The most recent statistics suggest that we’ll have a shortage of 52,000 primary care physicians by the year 2025.

But even if we didn’t have a shortage of doctors, most of them have neither the training nor the time necessary to support people in making lasting behavioral changes. The same is true for most other healthcare professionals, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

We could start training doctors and other healthcare providers in this area, but that still wouldn’t solve the problem. Our “sickcare” system is not set up to deliver this type of care. The average visit with a primary care provider in the Unites States is ten to twelve minutes, with newer doctors spending as little as eight minutes per visit with patients. That’s barely enough time to say hello, review the patient’s current medications, and possibly prescribe a new one. It’s not even remotely enough time to assess what behavior and lifestyle changes would be most effective for the patient and provide the support necessary for sustaining them for a lifetime.

What’s more, doctors are trained in the “expert” approach of simply telling people what to do and expecting them to do it. That might work well when someone is facing a serious, acute health crisis (like an appendicitis), but it fails miserably when it comes to long-term behavior changes like losing weight, managing stress, or adopting an exercise routine. Doctors aren’t trained to work collaboratively with their patients. This is painfully reflected by the fact that patients get to speak for only 12 seconds on average before being interrupted with advice from their physician.

HEALTH COACHES ARE THE SOLUTION

If more information and more doctors won’t solve the problem, what will?

Health coaches.

People want to feel good, avoid chronic disease and live a long life. They want to see their children and grandchildren grow up and have the energy to play with them. They want to perform better at work, enjoy their relationships, and be well enough to get the most out of life. But there’s a big difference between wanting the benefits of being healthy and consistently engaging in the behaviors that lead to health.

That’s where health coaches come in. Coaches are trained in a number of disciplines that support people in making lasting change. These include (but aren’t limited to):

• Positive psychology, which leverages people’s strengths (rather than focusing on their weaknesses) to make changes
• Motivational interviewing, which helps people to link behavior changes to their deepest needs and goals (e.g., “I will change my diet because I want to live to see my grandchildren graduate from college.”)
• Habit formation and reversal, which supports patients in making positive habits, or breaking negative ones

Coaches are also trained to work with patients in a more collaborative way, rather than with the expert approach that is common in medicine. In the expert approach, the “authority” assesses the problem, delivers advice, recommends solutions, and in some cases, teaches new skills. In the collaborative approach, the coach acts as a partner or ally, encourages clients to discover their own solutions and become their own advocate and supports them in developing the skills they need to embrace new behaviors.

This collaborative approach empowers the client to become the primary driver of change. It also builds confidence, self-awareness, and self-actuation – all of which are crucial for long-term change, since the client will likely not work with the coach for the duration of his or her lifetime. To use the old analogy, the doctor gives the patient a fish so she can eat for a day, whereas the coach teaches the client to fish so she can eat for a lifetime.

Not surprisingly, studies have consistently shown that coaching interventions improve health outcomes for several chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. This is not a small effect. In fact, some research has shown that applying evidence-based principles of behavior change can increase the chances of success by over 1,000%!

A visit with a health coach is often more affordable than a visit with a doctor, whether the client is paying directly or the insurance company is covering it. This is critical, because more frequent visits are required to support effective behavioral change.

Along the same lines, the barriers to entry to become a health coach are significantly lower than to become a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant. This is also important, because we’ll need at least ten times the number of health coaches than doctors in order to make a significant dent in preventing and reversing chronic disease.

COACHES AND DOCTORS WORKING TOGETHER: THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS

I’m not arguing that health coaches will replace doctors. Doctors and other licensed clinicians will always be required to order lab tests, analyze those results, diagnose disease, prescribe treatment and coordinate care. Health coaches aren’t trained to do those things, just as doctors aren’t trained to support behavior change.

I’m advocating for an approach that utilizes the professional that is best trained and suited for each particular need: health coaches to support diet, lifestyle, and behavior change, and doctors to practice medicine.

What would this look like in practice? Imagine the healthcare population as a pyramid:

The top 5% of the pyramid – those experiencing acute or emergency problems that require intensive care, often in a hospital or specialized setting – are best served by conventional medical intervention.

The 25% of patients in the middle of the pyramid – those dealing with fairly significant chronic health challenges – will likely require the ongoing support of a licensed clinician (ideally practicing Functional Medicine) but would also benefit from working with a health coach to implement the recommendations of the licensed provider.

The 70% of patients at the bottom of the pyramid – those with less severe chronic health problems, or those who are generally healthy – might be best served by working primarily with a health coach, with occasional visits with a doctor for labs, check-ups, etc.

This approach would not only be more effective for preventing and reversing chronic disease, but it would also save us an enormous amount of money. Given that we spend nearly $4 trillion on healthcare each year, if utilizing health coaches could reduce that by even 25% (which is entirely reasonable) that would save us a trillion dollars a year. That’s no small thing, since some estimates suggest that the United States will be bankrupt by the year 2035 if healthcare spending continues to increase at its current pace. And since medical expenses are the number one cause of individual bankruptcy, using health coaches in this way could have a significant impact on each American’s pocketbook as well.

The writing is on the wall: chronic disease is destroying our quality of life, shortening our lifespan, bankrupting our country and threatening the health of future generations. It’s clearer than ever that our “disease management” system, which was designed to address medical emergencies and other acute conditions, is not prepared for the challenge of chronic disease. We desperately need a new solution – one that is affordable, timely and suitable for the task at hand. In short, we need a health coach revolution!

ABOUT CHRIS KRESSER

Chris Kresser is the author of Unconventional Medicine: Join the Revolution to Reinvent Healthcare, Reverse Chronic Disease, and Create a Practice You Love, a book for healthcare practitioners and the general public that proposes a bold solution to the chronic disease epidemic. He is also the founder of Kresser Institute, an organization that trains healthcare practitioners in applying Functional Medicine and an ancestral diet and lifestyle in their practices; the creator of ChrisKresser.com (one of the top natural health websites in the world); and the New York Times best-selling author of The Paleo Cure. His new book Unconventional Medicine will be released on November 7th.

Team Tony

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/health-vitality/health-coach-revolution/

WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?

WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?

Posted by: Team Tony

As a leader, you have the power to create breakthroughs. You can step into any situation, create a vision, set goals and guide others to achievement. But if you want to be your most effective as a leader, then you must understand your leadership style.

The advantage of understanding your leadership style is that you will have more awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. And you will know how your style shapes your values and perspective. This understanding will allow you to strategically leverage your talents in the workplace, communicate better with employees and colleagues, and recognize what types of environments in which you can truly thrive.

So what kind of leader are you? Take our leadership identity quiz now to find out which natural style you bring to your business.

Team Tony

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/what-kind-of-leader-are-you/

MINDFUL SCALING

HOW TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS SO IT GROWS QUICKLY – BUT IS ALSO SUSTAINABLE

Posted by: Kerry Song

When we think about successful startups or small businesses, we think about companies that create massive growth in a short period of time. In fact, we think of “hockey stick growth” – where there is an initial period of linear growth, but once the business hits an inflection point, revenue shoots up sharply towards the sky.

But while that kind of growth may be the long-term goal for any startup, too often, founders place their focus on achieving it right away – some will even seek outside investment just to jumpstart that turning point. The problem with that sort of tunnel vision is that it diminishes the importance of the period of linear growth that comes before the rising handle of the hockey stick – that is, the blade.

The blade typically lasts about three to four years, and it is where the most important work is being done. It’s where you, as a founder, will be doing all the heavy-lifting – juggling sales, marketing, operations, production all while revenue barely trickles in. And it will also be where you are establishing the very foundation of your business.

The blade period is where you establish your core values, your company culture and your brand identity. It’s where you will develop the client experience you want to provide and create the initial business model when you take your product or service to market. And it’s where you will establish standards and guidelines that you believe are strong enough to help you endure the emotional, psychological, tactical and even physical turbulence that is inherent in starting a business of any kind. In short, it’s the make-or-break period of any business.

Scaling a business is not easy to do, which is why it should be done as thoughtfully and meticulously as possible. Because in the long run, when you do hit that surging growth curve, you will want as solid of a foundation as possible to hold you up. So rather than focusing solely on the massive growth numbers you need to hit, strategize and execute the things you must do to build a business that will last. Here are four places for you to consider:

PERFECT YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE

With their focus on massive growth, many founders forget to ensure that their product or service is devoid of problems or errors. They often figure that they will just fix it after getting more users or more distribution. This “just ship it” approach has worked well for many tech companies, because in many cases, all it takes is one tweak to some back-end code that with one press of a button is applied across a number of touch points – hence, a scaled fix. But for many businesses, the “fix” is not as easy. So, if you don’t work out the kinks and get rid of the bugs now, they will only be exacerbated when you scale.

Founders also become fixated on creating a product or service that is scalable, rather than one that is of excellent quality. But that order should be reversed. It doesn’t matter if it’s scalable if it isn’t a great market fit. In fact, it’s wise to do things that don’t scale early on. That way, you can use the feedback to find the issues, then to go back to the drawing board – following the learning curve to perfecting your product.

Working on the issues in your first version also helps you assume more control over the scaling process, because you will have a deeper understanding of what you want and what you need your product or service to be. Plus, each iteration builds upon the last. And if that base model has not been perfected, you risk going down the wrong path entirely.

CREATE THOUGHTFUL PROCESSES AND OPERATIONS

Scaling doesn’t just involve growing upward and outward, it also means ensuring that your internal processes and operations are functioning seamlessly. The last thing you want is to start losing customers you’ve worked so hard to acquire because some part of your infrastructure is weak. Granted, some of the systems and processes that work when your company is in its nascent stages won’t work on a massive scale. So as growth ensues, you will have to adapt and implement new systems. However, by establishing thoughtful processes and operations, you will be able to really establish your company’s narrative – that is, who you are and how you want your company to run.

For example, consider the way you take orders. Perhaps in the earliest stages, you are using a simple e-commerce solution. And that may work when you are only receiving 20 or so orders a day. But as you scale, the system may become overwhelmed and many of the orders will get lost in the shuffle – so you will need to recruit new solutions.

The point, though, is that in the blade period, you are establishing key tenets of your business that you will want to keep no matter how big you grow. You will have certain pieces on lockdown – when the customer receives notification that the order has been processed, how long before the order ships, what types of communication lines must be set up between the order and production, how long it take for the order to ship. You will also know that you want to maintain a high quality of customer service and experience – so that the customer has complete transparency on their order and can always expect delivery at a certain time and in a certain capacity.

By doing things that don’t scale, you can really establish who you are as a company and how you want to fit into your customers’ lives. And that starts with running through your internal processes and operations. Because even if those systems change as you grow, you will want to uphold the standards and expectations you have established – because that’s what preserves your company’s character and integrity.

ESTABLISH YOUR TEAM

It may seem obvious that you have to establish a strong team if you want to scale. After all, the quality of leadership can make or break your company. And each new hire can be seen as an asset you acquired to help further your company’s growth. It’s also clear that the management structures that will work well with a company of 15 will not work with a company of 150, so you must focus on building a flexible team that can readily adapt as your business grows.

But what might not be as apparent is that your team also consists of the external relationships you have built. What suppliers do you use? What about partnerships with other companies? How are your relationships with other entities in your industry? And perhaps most importantly, how are the relationships you have established with your customer base?

One of the best things about a small business is the ability to establish intimate relationships with your customers. You get to give them the experience that you want, from beginning to end. And the goal should always be to create a raving fan – someone who will be a staunch advocate for your brand, who helps spread the word and your message.

Remember, the community that you create around your business can bolster your foundation so that you have even more strength and leverage as you grow. So take the time to really build the “team” that will propel you into the future.

BUILD YOUR BRAND

Last, and certainly not least, spend this time building your brand: Learn who you are as a company and what you offer your customers. How do you compare to the competition? What do you have that no one else does? What are your biggest weaknesses? What makes you so powerful? What is your message? How do you disrupt your industry?

It could take years to answer these questions. It’s not enough to speculate; you must be able to answer from experience. The beautiful part about this is that it also affords you the opportunity to make changes where necessary. Smaller businesses have the benefit of being able to shift gears more readily than larger corporations. So if your answers signal a need for a new approach, use that as an opportunity to innovate and adapt.

Remember, your brand will also set the tone for your company’s culture. It will set the standard for how you make your hires. It will help you establish the kind of client experience you want. It will impact marketing, sales and design efforts, and it will influence the kind of company you ultimately become.

So take the time and do it right. Scale thoughtfully. Embrace the growth mindset, but be mindful as you do so. Because massive growth is one thing, but it’s sustainable growth that makes for a lasting company.

Kerry Song

Kerry Song is a writer and producer with a background in economics and finance. Her passion is to create meaningful content that engages and empowers the audience to become more mindful and more compassionate with themselves and with others.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/mindful-scaling/

WHY WE ALL NEED PAIN

HOW UTTER HEARTBREAK CAN LEAD TO A GREATER LIFE

Posted by: Team Tony

Pain is part of life. And while it is seen by most as something to be avoided, pain can actually be a good thing. It opens a well and presents you with a valuable opportunity to grow. But it’s your job to decide what you are going to fill it up with — love or fear. And it’s this choice that can take you to an entirely new realm of possibilities, because even if you do not understand why you lost love, you know that there is something beautiful that can come from it. There’s something more inside of you because of it.There isn’t much in the world that is more painful than a broken heart. And most will say that there’s no salve but time to take that pain away. But why are we so quick to speed through and even negate the pain? Why do we distract ourselves from feeling emotions that can actually help us find more closure on the love that has been lost?

REALIZATION

While it can be scary to acknowledge change, you can find strength by commanding it. Tell yourself that things will never be the same. That you will never be the same. But this is an opportunity to realize new levels of opportunity and growth. And this doesn’t just mean in the long run.

Realize that you may not be able to have control over what is happening, there are certain things you can control. For example: your body. When you take control of your body, the mind and emotions will respond. Become emotionally strong by first getting physically fit. Put your body first, get into a peak state, and you will be able to change your perspective on pain.

Realize that you also have the power to feed your mind. You can dwell in memories of your relationship and replay the breakup over and over. Or you can feed your mind information, poetry, spirituality. You can use the pain to discover more about yourself and what you want in life.

Realize that pain is a signal to turn inward. And taking control of your physicality and your emotional state is the first step towards a higher level of self-discovery and evolution.

CONNECTION

Sadness allows us to connect with ourselves. As bad as it feels, we connect. We connect with our emotions, we connect with our memories and we connect with our thoughts. This is why it is comfortable to stay in sadness and difficult to transcend — we are meeting our need for connection.

The only way out of this is to have something else you want to connect with more. You have to ask yourself, what do you value more than your pain? Do you value helping other people more? Perhaps you value helping animals? Ask yourself: “What is the reason I am here?”

By shifting the focus from yourself to something else, you’ll learn how to gradually let go of your pain and move on. This is the power of contribution.

Understanding how to find meaning out of your pain is a way to take a broken heart and turn it into something that will help you grow and expand your ability to love. We have to go through the emotions of shock, denial, hurt and anger. But eventually there is acceptance. And the best way to reach peace is to find a higher meaning out of our need to serve others.

UTILIZATION

If you can use your heartache to find a more empowering meaning, then you can take that same experience and say: “I’m going to take control of my life. I’m going to make a change.” Rather than sitting and becoming a reaction — making yourself the effect of the event — you are realizing that you have the power to determine what things mean and how you will approach life from this point forward.

One of the keys to utilization is envisioning a compelling future. What does your new vision look like? What are you going to be doing differently in the future? And what are you going to do differently today?

Remember, if you don’t take control and make the necessary changes, weeds are going to grow automatically. But if you learn and adapt, you can achieve a new level of living that would have never been possible had you not gone through the heartache you did.

Team Tony

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/love-relationships/why-we-all-need-pain/