“You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills”– Jim Rohn

This inspiration for this post comes from the amazing Jim Rohn. If you’re unfamiliar with Jim’s work, I highly recommend listening to some of his talks on Youtube or tracking down some of his books. He speaks a lot on personal responsibility and doing what you can with what you’ve got. His wisdom is truly timeless.

If you aren’t getting what you want in your business, or things don’t look how you wish they did, it’s probably because that point is beyond what your current knowledge, skill set or mindset allow. If something wasn’t in the way, you would have already have the things you are dreaming of.

Rohn gives two options to get where you want to be – either modify your dreams, or magnify your skills.

It’s pretty easy to understand what he means by modifying your dreams. But what exactly does it mean to magnify your skills? The dictionary definition of magnify is “make something appear larger than it is, especially with a lens or microscope.”.  It’s synonyms are words like enlarge, boost, enhance, maximise, increase, augment, extend, expand, amplify, intensify, heighten, deepen and broaden.

To me there are two components to magnifying your skills: firstly, understanding and maximising the impact of our strengths and natural abilities, and, secondly, working to enhance and deepen our learning, expertise and abilities as we move forward.

At Next Level You we call it upleveling!

In order to get to where you want to be (or become who you want to be!) you can either amplify and expand on the strengths, knowledge and talents you already have, or alternatively, settle for a life – or business – that is smaller than your true desires.

Which one sounds more appealing?

Downgrading your dreams may seem like a quick and easy way to get what you want. Suddenly you don’t have to work toward something more – something that could be unattainable – you just have to be content. It sounds good in theory.. but..

Living a smaller life than we are capable of is like taking a shortcut to nowhere. It might be easier, it might take a lot less hard work and we probably won’t encounter much resistance, but ultimately the destination will never be satisfying. Do you want to be the same person with the same life or business that you have today in 10 years from now? I doubt you would be here reading this if that were the case.

And really, why would we have our dreams if we weren’t meant to pursue them? Why would ideas be planted in our hearts and minds if they weren’t meant to expand and grow us into the people we are meant to be?

So, perhaps the only real option is to find ways to magnify your skills, or level up.

But, how do we do that?

You’re probably already a pro in your field of expertise. You’ve grown your business by learning as much as you can so you can do the best job for your clients and continually add value. Your knowledge and skills in your field are right up there and growing them further has never been a question, it’s just something you do without thinking. But there are other areas we have to grow as business owners to keep up with our own success and to ultimately build a sustainable company.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions on how to uplevel your skills:

– think mindset: our mindset governs almost everything to do with how we experience life and others as well as how we think about things – and it can be changed. To get where you want to be will likely take a mindset that is positive, growth inclined and believes that success is possible.

– think ahead: consider the “next level you”, the you of the future who is living your dream life and enjoying the fruits of your labour. How are they different to the current you? What skills and knowledge do they have? How do they communicate? Make decisions? Approach problems? Write down what they do differently, how they think differently etc and work toward making those things your reality now.

– think habits: small daily habits can make huge differences over the long term. If you have to learn something new or grow your knowledge in a particular area, commit to taking small daily action toward your goal. For most of my clients establishing some solid self-care habits is one of the first hurdles we work on, consider what would have the most impact for you. James Clear has some excellent advice on developing strong habits in his book Atomic Habits.

– think wiring: we each have a unique energetic wiring that can determine a lot about how we naturally think, behave and communicate. Deeply understanding our inherent strengths allows us to capitalise on them, as well as learning how to resourcefully access behaviour styles that may not come naturally but might still be necessary to get the results we want. Our Extended DISC Behavioural Profile is a great place to start when it comes to this!

It can be helpful to work through some of these things with an expert to help further your understanding and create manageable targets. Next Level Conversations provide a safe, non judgemental space and the opportunity for developing your skills as well as your CEO mindset. To find out more, book your no obligation Intro Call today.

Until next time,

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