Having decided to follow my dream I look to see how I measure up with AIM.
AIM stands for Aspiration, Inspiration and Motivation which are three key ingredients needed for success.
In terms of Aspiration it’s my dream to move into Leadership Writing, Speaking and Consulting. Leadership is a passion of mine, and I love to share my expertise in order to help others reach their full potential or to help them over come large challenges and achieve their goals.
So Aspiration – check!
In terms of Inspiration, there are many people who are being successful in this area and there is clearly a strong demand for Leadership expertise and this demand seems to be increasing, so there is clearly a market. Having written a book on Leadership, and having a blog and fan following of over 220,000 its clear that I have some expertise which people seem to like and enjoy. So it looks like I have the Inspiration, I have many examples of others doing it, and have experience of my own Leadership thoughts being well received.
So Inspiration – check!
In terms of Motivation, I get a lot of positive feedback, many people are encouraging me to move into this direction, and I am getting great feedback on what I do.
So Motivation – check!
Yet in spite of all that I sit here, wondering whether this is the right thing to do, or should I take a safer option of just moving into another Leadership role and continue to do this as a hobby.
These are crazy thoughts!
Ever since I decided it was what I wanted to do I have had some very good luck, doors have opened to me that I didn’t even know existed. The universe has heard my dream and has given me additional opportunities, in order to encourage me to go in this direction.
When I decided to move into speaking the very next day I had an offer to speak, I have also had a couple more possibilites that have come up, but they still need to be confirmed.
Yet still here I sit with doubt beating me up, eating away at my confidence.
Maybe the recipe is missing another ingredient, but i don’t think so.
Maybe my inspiration, my self belief isn’t strong enough, in spite of all the successes and encouragements along the way.
Or maybe I need this feeling to ensure that I don’t just assume that success will happen. Success still needs to be earned, created, it doesn’t just fall from the heavens.
For sure opportunities might, but we still need to grab them, and do the hard work.
Genius in 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, maybe now is the time for the perspiration. I’m not afraid of hard work, so it can’t be that which is holding me back surely.
Fear of failure is definitely something that I think about, maybe it’s that.
I do know that, if you don’t try, then you can’t fail. So maybe I am just putting off trying.
What I need to do is to harness that fear and use it to ensure that I complete the 99% of perspiration that is needed to ensure the success.
If hard work is all that stands between success and ourselves, then we should have nothing to fear, and we should be looking to harness the fear, and leverage it to ensure success.
Fear isn’t something that should be feared, it’s something that we should embrace and utilise.
If we can AIM for success and harness the fear then we will do just fine.
Gordon Tredgold