OnTheBeach: The Worst Excuse for Not Moving Forward With Your Big Dream

If you listen to my Dreams to Reality Podcast, you’ll know that I’ve done a lot of podcasts this year about the things that hold you back from getting your Big Dream. There’s one podcast I haven’t done (yet) though…but it is something that holds many of us back.

I haven’t done it before. (with the implication that therefore I cannot do it now)

But just because you haven’t done something before does not mean in any way that you cannot do it at all.

I’ve never been to the top of Teide (pictured) – this photo is the closest I’ve been. Before I took this photo, I’d never been this close to Teide, despite having been to Tenerife about 15 times.

I’ve never run a marathon. It doesn’t mean I can’t run one. Although to be honest, I don’t want to, so it’s unlikely that I will. But I probably could. If I wanted to.

I’ve never been to Paris. It doesn’t mean I cannot go to Paris, or that I will not go to Paris.

I haven’t (yet) sold 100,000 copies of my ebook. That doesn’t mean that I can’t, or that I won’t. It just means I haven’t (yet).

When I started working with my coach in August, one of the first things she said was that we would have to erase the ‘years of experience’ I had – after 9+ years in business, I have quite a bit of baggage about how biz works, how client-getting works, how sales work etc. Not all of it positive, because I’ve had a fair few ” failures” in those 9+ years!

Because those years of experience tell me that I cannot sell 100,000 copies of my ebook, that I cannot make a 9-figure income, that I cannot rule the world (bwah ha ha!).

But just because I never have, does not mean I never will. I talk to clients a lot about this phenomena – that we box ourselves in with beliefs that we can’t do things because we never have – so I know that it is something lots of people struggle with.

Never having done something before is not a good predictor of whether you will do it in the future. I used to smoke. For 15 years. For 10 of them, I tried to give up. I failed for 9 years to give up smoking…but with each and every failure I learned something new that would help me give up for good. It would have been easy to say (and I’m sure I did say) that having failed to give up 9 times, the 10th time would be no different…but that 10th time was the charm, and I’ve now been a ‘non-smoker’ (except for special occasions when I’m really stressed) for over 10 years.

If I’d listened to my doubts, if I’d allowed my past experience to cloud my judgement, I might still be smoking now.

Don’t be boxed in by the past. Learn from it. And have a go at doing something you’ve never done before…and if that first go doesn’t work, have another go.