7. Who is in Your Corner?
Note: This is the seventh article in a series on Big Growth for Young Professionals. Miss the first few articles? Each are numbered in the Featured section of my profile on LinkedIn, or you can catch them on my blog at karisaylor.com!
Today I’m going to pull up a chair next to you and ask about your support system for achieving your Big Growth Goals. We are going to talk about the “WHOs” of your Big Growth aspirations, which will set you up for success in a bigger way than almost anything.
Obviously, the key player in YOUR goals is YOU, however, there are lots of ways that you can invite others on the journey with you, which will take you further, faster!
Don’t Go Alone; Find Fellow Journeyers
When you think of a highly successful team – maybe your favorite basketball team – you know that not just one individual player won that game. It took a team. Even Michael Jordan needed other high performers on the team to realize success.
You do not need to work towards these goals in a vacuum. Invite others on the journey with you. It will be more fun, I promise!
One way to do this is to find others that are “fellow journeyers”, or those that are on a similar path. Maybe they are working towards the same exam – pair up and have study dates. Find someone in a travel Facebook group that has a goal to travel to the same destination, and you can plan and save together. Or maybe you are on the journey to financial freedom, and you find an online or in-person group that is also traveling that road. Set similar goals, share your wins, brainstorm your challenges, and go together.
Who, Not How
There is a book out there called Who Not How; The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. In it, Sullivan and Hardy share countless examples of people who have engaged others (the WHO) to help them accomplish big goals rather than figure out HOW they were going to do it themselves.
“That’s the power of having a Who – you instantly get access to knowledge, insights, resources, and capabilities that are not currently available to you.” – Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
In earlier steps, you mapped out the “how” to accomplish your first Big Growth goal. Now I would like you to pull out that plan and look for places where you can replace the HOW step with a WHO step. What are the things that only you can do? Where do you have limitations where you could enroll others to help you?
?Your WHO might be a teacher who can help you get further, faster. Your WHO might be someone with a system or template that would speed things up for you. Your WHO might be someone that you hire out part of the goal to, or that you hire to work on something you are normally responsible for so you can use that time to focus on your goal.
Seek out Accountability
Almost a year ago, I purchased a course to teach me best practices, tips, and tricks on how to build out online courses. While I was not quite ready to launch into it, I purchased knowing that it was on the horizon, and I wanted to surround myself with others in the space to learn from.
Through this course, I connected with another person in North Carolina, and while neither of us was ready to go all-in on building the online course, we wanted to have an accountability partner as we were gathering our thoughts on our budding businesses and making strides on setting up the foundations.
领英推荐
John and I have met over the phone this whole time, usually every Wednesday for 20 minutes to check-in. Here is the typical flow of our call:
That’s it! And we are still meeting, celebrating wins, encouraging each other, bouncing ideas off each other. John has been such a helpful connection in my life!
Who is speaking into your life?
We get to look at our community. If you think of a typical day, week, or month, who are the people that you regularly engage with? Jot down a list. And it is not just those you SEE in person, but also those you TALK to.
Whether you like it or not, these people currently have a seat at your table. Things they say whether big or small, have an influence. As you think through your close connections, are they supporting and encouraging? Or always pointing out the negative? Where you might get to make some adjustments in the seating lineup at your table is when someone tries to hold you back to where you were – the past, and not to the new you and where you are going.
One of my favorite mentors shared something once that I took a note on that I am still thinking back to all these years later. She shared that you get to decide if your connections are strong enough, internally, to be able to make the jump and grow with you. Or will they only be able to maintain a relationship with the level that you both have been at previously? Because, this Big Growth thing, its momentum, and you will be growing for life! Your relationships, they get to be additive!
Seek the Coaching, Take the Coaching
A way to go further, faster, is to have a coach. Remember when we discussed Michael Jordan earlier? Even Michael sought out a private coach to help him work on all aspects of the game, and Tim Grover was that to him for many years.
Really achieving YOUR Big Growth aspirations can take having someone in your corner, to help you dream, plan, get started, keep going, stay accountable, overcome your mental and physical roadblocks, and so much more. You know yourself best. What could you accomplish with a coach?
What I have learned from having a coach is that is not enough to just have a coach. You must lean in. Take their coaching. Apply it and run through those walls that are holding you back!
I am currently launching my one-on-one and group coaching programs around Big Growth for Young Professionals. Think you might be interested in learning more? Send me a message either through LinkedIn or my website (karisaylor.com) and I will share more with you!
In Conclusion
In the game of Big Growth, you need others pushing you to sharpen your skills, to up your game, and to not play small.
Who is in your corner?