Want to sell up and sail off into the sunset? Here’s how!
I’m sure that many of you have a similar dream, whether it’s building a business, selling it and retiring early – or just building a business up for you and your family to own forever. The likelihood is; if you’re reading this blog, you don’t have much interest in the ‘nine-to-five’.
I teach all kinds of practices and modalities to my clients, some verging on the ‘woo woo’ but I am also a pragmatist. I know that you know: building a business up from scratch, to the point that you can sell it and retire in the lap of luxury, is no small feat.
We have to be able to actually take action, in the real world, in order to be able to achieve our goals!
Meditation and visualisation have their place. They are very powerful tools in fact, but they are not all you need. Sitting around meditating in front of your mood board all day, ain’t gonna get the job done!
So…what practical steps can you take to ensure that you hit your target, sell your business for the sum needed and secure its future for all of the employees who helped you to get there?
You need to figure out your why!
This may seem obvious on the face of it. “Why do I want to build a business, sell it and retire? Well…because then I’d be rich in time and money!” Yeah but why do you want those? “So I can buy all of the luxury items I’ve always wanted, a bigger house and travel the world stupid!”
I would wager that, if you’re pursuing the outcome of selling a business in five years (or less), you don’t actually want any of the material things that would be open to you in that eventuality. You want the emotional payoff associated with them!
If you want a Ferrari, you probably want the emotional satisfaction of thumbing your nose at everyone in high school who said that you wouldn’t amount to anything. Or maybe you simply crave that warm sense of satisfaction, looking at your driveway and feeling that swell of pride. Either way; the shiny red car in and of itself isn’t doing much besides providing a VERY expensive way to get from A to B!
Do I walk the walk?!
I’ve been doing a bit of work on this recently, as I’ve been wanting a bigger house. My wife and I have a baby on the way, which will make four of us, so I’m thinking I’d really like some more space!
Does a baby necessitate a mansion? No of course not! So I had to get very clear with myself (and my wife) about why I wanted it. What emotional payoff was I looking for?
I’m a very family/extended-family orientated person. I have a bunch of lovely brothers and sisters who also have kids, plus I have a load of friends whom I consider part of my extended family. I get a huge kick out of seeing them and spending time with them, so I want a bigger place to be able to entertain and have people over. That’s what I actually want!
Now this is not about judging your motivation, let me be clear. If you want to stick it to all your old school friends when you turn up to your next reunion in your Ferrari, ok! I mean: it may not be the most expansive thing for you to be motivated by, but as long as you’re clear on it – you can make it happen!
Whatever the scenario though, identify the emotional state that you will be in, when you achieve your goal. What will you feel as you cross the finish line?
Why is the feeling so important?
Because it’s what you can start doing now! You can imagine your dream coming true, make it real for yourself internally and then feel those emotions in the present. You should rehearse your victory over and over. Why? Because when times get tough (which they will) you will still have that clear, deliberate vision that will carry you through. You will also be able to paint a picture of the mental and emotional ‘stretching’ that you will need to do, in order to get there.
In my case, with the bigger house: it’s feeling love for my family, being at peace, feeling expansive and feeling like I have space. These are all the ways in which I can cognitively and emotionally connect to the outcome.
Generally speaking: desired outcomes happen because of a person’s ability to consistently hold the associated emotional frequency/signature. When people start to unravel and get knocked off track, it’s because of an inability to do this. When success starts to come, the anxiety and unworthiness kick in and before you know it; you have started to self-sabotage because the feelings are alien to your subconscious, and it doesn’t feel safe!
If you’ve been rehearsing those feelings ahead of the outcome though, you’ll be prepared and able to step into it with greater ease.
The other benefit of mental rehearsal is that you’ll open your mind up to new possibilities and ways of achieving your goal. If you’re visualising your goal and all of its emotional payoffs in the morning, you are resourcing yourself emotionally and mentally in order to do what you need to that day, in pursuit of the wider goal.
If you can do this consistently, on a day-to-day basis, then you can be pretty assured that you’ll hit your five year target and probably beat it too!
Why? Because all of your actions and thoughts are supporting you in creating it now!
This mental support is also vital for when you do achieve your goal. We know that 90% of all lottery winners lose all of their money within five years. This is because of the power of their subconscious; they don’t know how to feel worthy of their wealth, so they continuously sabotage it (by giving money away, spending on frivolous items and sycophantic ‘fair-weather’ friends etc…).
If your subconscious is already comfortable with the emotional signature of what success looks like to you, then there will be none of that by the time you get there!
Remember: mind follows emotions, actions follow mind. If we want to experience our goal in our physical, ‘present moment’ world: we need to get clear on the emotional signature of our end goal. That emotional state will concentrate our mind and guide our physical actions to creating it for us.
I hope that resonated with you! This blog was inspired by a guest spot I did recently on the Business Mastermind Podcast with Gavin Preston. You can listen to the full episode here:
That’s all from me. Much love and if you enjoyed this, I produce regular Do It With Dan blogs, podcasts and videos. I have three books published now: Stepping Beyond Intention, The Dreamer’s Manifesto and From Time-to-Time (a really great book on time mastery). All of these are here to serve you and make you part of the journey as well.
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