What if you consult yourself, what would you say? When you can learn how to be introspective, you can explore the things that hold you back. Be more honest with yourself and get on with the truth about your business. Sometimes, all we really need is to trust ourselves with decisions. Don’t fear tough questions when making tough decisions. Overcome the contradicting sides of you and go deep within.
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Consult Yourself
We’re going to title this one Consult Yourself. If you were a consultant, if you were a growth consultant, a business consultant, a management consultant, even if you’re the farthest thing from a consultant, pretend for a minute you were a consultant. If you were a consultant and you were brought in to consult you, what would you say? Here are some ideas. “You know that product is crap. You know this isn’t going to work and yet you’re still doing it. You know that’s only a short-term answer,” or how about, “You know you should not hire that person, why are you about to?” How about, “You know you should fire that person.” Cameron Herold says, “If you even think someone should be fired, they’re probably costing you fifteen times their salary.”
Ask yourself one of the toughest questions in the world, “What would you say to you?” Click To TweetIf you think you should fire someone, you’re probably right, and they’re probably already costing you fifteen times their salary. How about, “You should fire those two clients that are driving you nuts.” You might consult yourself and say, “You know you should pay that debt now. It’s been two years.” Here’s a question. Get deep for a minute. Get introspective for a minute. If you were consulting you, if you had to be completely transparent with yourself, nobody’s watching. Get out a piece of paper, get a fillet knife, and fillet yourself wide open. Ask yourself one of the toughest questions in the world. What would you say to you?
Brian Tracy in The Psychology Of Selling or Maximum Achievement, one of those two books, he talks about it. I’ve podcasted about this in the past that the first week of January every year he asks himself two questions. “If I were to start this business again today, would I be selling these products? If I was starting this business today,” and he goes one by one through all employees’ names, “Would I hire this person again? Would I hire Margaret again? Would I hire John again?” He gets honest. Every year he corrects the shipping product by product, person by person. When is the last time you had that type of transparency and vulnerability in yourself?
A lot of times we sometimes forget that one of the most painful things in life once we know it is the truth. We have these battles of the good guy on the left shoulder, the bad guy on the right shoulder. We allow ourselves to be blinded either because revenues are coming in, revenues are growing. We’re consistently doing something. We’re getting applause or adoration from the outside world because of something.
We sometimes forget that one of the most painful things in life, once we know it, is the truth. Click To TweetSometimes we’re afraid to make the tough decisions based on the tough questions. Ask yourself to ask yourself this one more time. If you were a consultant, just pretend, and you were brought in to consult you, what would you say to yourself? How about this? Let’s go deeper. If you had to scold yourself, if you had to spank yourself in three areas, where would you scold yourself? How about this one? If you had to make three changes, what three things would you be able to look back and say, “I knew I should have changed that years ago. I knew I should have changed that months ago.” How about consulting yourself for a second? Take care.
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