By Sandy Schussel | September 08, 2020 at 09:42 PM
The world could turn upside down, again, in another way. Have
you prepared for that?
When you’re successful, you don’t have fewer challenges, you
have higher level challenges: Quality Problems.
Quality Problems are the kind that, if you try to tell most
people about them, they would reply, “I wish I had your problems…”
Examples might be: The Olympic athlete who wants to go from
silver to gold; the performer who has the opportunity to go on stage in front
of a crowd of thousands and is nervous; or the advisor who wants to take her
business from seven-figures to eight figures in gross revenue.
To prepare for these kinds of high-level challenges, you need to
train your mind to be ready for obstacles before they occur.
Your ability to anticipate what could go wrong and handle it before it occurs
is a high-level leadership skill that will differentiate you from the
competition.
Try “Inversion Thinking”
Centuries ago, stoic philosophers developed a powerful tool,
inversion thinking or negative visualization. Its goal was to have you imagine
ahead of time all of the negative things that could happen in life. Imagining
these worst-case scenarios would help to overcome fears and make better plans
to prevent the disasters.
Many of the most successful entrepreneurs today are not the
risk-takers we imagine. They are actually experts at mitigating risks.
Reflecting on how you will manage or prevent a particular failure is an
important mindset. Imagining what things would look like if everything went
wrong tomorrow helps you prepare to prevent or mitigate
it today.
“Everyone has a plan
until they get punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson
Great thinkers, leaders, and innovators aren’t afraid to turn
their thinking on its head. They simply keep asking, “What if […] goes the
other way?” If you use this tool, you’ll identify challenges and points of
possible failure so you can develop a plan to prevent or mitigate them ahead of
time.
Here are some Inversion Thinking questions:
1. Imagine your entire business has failed.
Every client has gone. What went wrong? What mistakes did you
make? How did you make it fail?
2. What if everything goes better than you
could imagine?
You have more clients than you dreamed you would, more assets
under management than you ever thought you would and you’re generating more
revenue than you could have imagined. But they keep coming and you have no more
capacity to service them. You’re getting NIGOs and application rejections by
the bushel. What went wrong? How could you have been better prepared?
3. Imagine the most important goal or project
you are working on right now has completely failed.
What went wrong? What mistakes did you make? How did it fail?
4. Your entire team quits on you.
What was wrong with your leadership? How did you fail them?
Where did you fail to innovate? Where did you fail to be prepared for massive
change in your field?
5. What could alienate your dream clients?
How could you scare away the community you’ve built? What would
cause you to go back to the days where you were constantly struggling to bring
in new business?
6. What could completely distract you every
day?
How could you create and encourage constant interruptions that
would lead to your failure? How could you constantly put urgent tasks ahead of
important ones? How could you let email and social media run your day?
Pick any one of these scenarios, grab a journal, and create
business nightmares. Then, create a plan that will prevent them. In the midst
of preparing for disaster are the seeds of an idea for your next level of success.
Sandy Schussel has
been a coach and practice development consultant for insurance and financial
professionals for the past 20 years. He is an approved MDRT coach and has
served as the national sales training director for First Investors and
Foresters. He is the author of two books, The High Diving
Board, about overcoming fear and Become A Client Magnet, about attracting and keeping
clients. Schussel‘s scheduling calendar is available.
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