It is so effin’ hard to move some times.
Oh, I know, we are always in motion…I get that on a fundamental level we are always moving and evolving. I get that. And much of that movement happens beneath our conscious awareness — we breathe without thinking of it, we grow, cells expand and shrink, we do move. Always.
But what I want to talk to you about today is the CONSCIOUS movements we CHOOSE to make and the absolute freakin’ hell that we can experience when we make the biggest shift of all: From Good to Great.
Because let me tell you, it isn’t easy. Not. One. Bit.
I am a person who strives for Great. And once you taste Great, once you smell it, touch it, roll around in it, wallow in it, eat it, and otherwise Take Great Into Your Being, it is impossible to fully forget it. Ever. Because it is now a part of you.
Great will wave at you from the corner of your mind as you make your way home to Good.
Great will seep into your dreams at night.
Great will tickle at the edges of your sight, teasing you, tempting you to look at it squarely in the eye as you attempt to ignore it in your desire to stay in Good.
Great is that amazing opportunity you had to support that client who just opened up her first salon. She was a dream to work with. Coachable. Excited. Smart. Dedicated to her work, her clients, and her goals. She was a Great client…and you loved every moment of your interaction with her. She becomes the Golden Client: One of the Greats.
Great is that potential business partner who stumbled quite unwittingly into your life in line at Starbucks. It is the shared values, the ways in which you both look at life, the commonalities in the ways in which you serve and what drives you. It is the feeling you get when you ponder what the future would look like if you partnered — the feeling of freedom, and infinite possibility that lifts you up through your chest and causes you to smile from within. He becomes the Dream Business Partner: One of the Greats.
Great is bringing all of Who You Are to your client interactions.
Great is filling your brand-new program (designed based on everything you’ve always wanted to share) with Golden Clients.
Great is the creation of a website that makes your heart sing and speaks to your soul in it’s beauty and evokes, with every nuance, the value that you bring to the world.
Great is the juice, the deliciousness, the decadence, THE Goal for all of us who are driven to attain it (as I am guessing you are…as I am.)
And nothing else could possibly compare. We couldn’t possibly consider not reaching for it…not throwing everything we’ve got into accomplishing it.
Or could we?
“I think the hardest part of life for a person who strives for Great, is in the process of giving up Good to get it.”
(I may have paraphrased her a little bit but my friend, Jennifer, pretty much sums this whole thing up nicely here.)
Good is comfortable. Good is safe. Good is secure. Good is GOOD!
You know how to operate in Good. You know what is expected. What to expect in return.
You worked hard to achieve Good. Compromised. Made choices (some of them very difficult). You earned Good.
We begin to feel a bit like that Princess we were scorned for being as a child: “That kid is never satisfied. It’s never enough for Our Little Princess!” (As if wanting “better” was “too much to ask.”)
And we may get angry at ourselves for not feeling like Good is “enough.” (What’s wrong with us? Millions of people would give their left arms for all the Good we have! Why can’t we just accept Good and be happy?)
Or we may begin to feel guilty for leaving Good behind (because that move means there are clients we can no longer serve, people with whom we cannot enter into business relationships…and we may end up causing some pain for those who’ve counted on us Being There with them in what truly is Good.)
Or we may end up feeling, quite simply, terrified. Terrified to risk what we know to be Good for the Chance of achieving Great. Why pass up what works for what may only appear to be better? I mean, appearances can be deceiving! You could just be fooling yourself! You just don’t want to stick with what you have…do the work…you’re always just chasing the next Pipe Dream. (insert scornfull eye roll)
I would love to tell you that Choosing Great is easy.
(Perhaps it is for some…I envy them.)
It takes a certain blend of strength, conviction, desire, cockiness, and bat-shit-craziness to make the move from Good to Great.
It takes time. You will have doubts. You will mourn Good and will reach for it repeatedly in your fear / anger / guilt / grief because Good is really GOOD…surely you are crazy for leaving it behind?!?
But no. You are not crazy. Not really, anyways. You’ve simply been touched by Great. It’s been tattooed upon your soul. And nothing has ever been the same since.
When you choose to move from Good to Great, when you decide now is the time to launch that program for your Golden Clients, when you make a decision that may impact your finances harshly so that you can create time for your new business partner to join your team, when you reach out to your web team and request to make some changes to your online presence such that it is even more clear who you wish to work with and how you’ll do that…when you make those moves it will be challenging. There will be tests along the way. You will have doubts. Fears. And a total mish-mash of emotions. But here’s the really cool part:
When you make the decision to move from Good to Great, and you stay in that decision as best as you possibly can, you will find that Everything MOVES right along with you.
The Universe responds ten-fold to your conscious decision to move to Great, and supports you in every way. The stars align, the new clients begin to call, the stalemate that was your profit-loss statement pops like a cork and money begins to flow towards you, the circumstances that were keeping that new partner from joining the company “suddenly” fall away...once you’ve made the choice, and move consistently in the direction of that choice, EVERYTHING conspires to make it happen.
Even when you’ve doubts.
Even when you’ve fears.
Even when you wonder what the hell is wrong with you for leaving Good behind.
Even then, there will be signs that you’re on the right path. Moments of distinct clarity. Feelings of peace (even in the chaos that is Transition).
And there will be that deep, deep knowing within you that you are moving towards the Great that is Yours to Taste, To Feel, To Wallow In…and To Live.
Stay the course, my loves…Great awaits.
Fully completely,
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Rebecca Liston helps her clients predict, pivot, and compete in an increasingly complex global marketplace. Her clients quickly uncover the root of their challenges and know the actions to take to overcome them. A six-time nominee for the RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Award, Rebecca combines business strategy with intuition, giving her clients the edge on forward-thinking, elegant answers to their most complicated problems. Her clients are entrepreneurs with CEO-mindsets and executives with entrepreneurial instincts. She is based in London, Ontario. What if you could get the answer to your biggest business challenge, in one sitting? Visit rebeccaliston.com to find out more.
