Happy New Year, this is my first video of the New Year and I want to talk to you about how to beat the number one barrier to success in business. I’ve done a lot of reading over the holidays and something stood out for me. One author wrote,

That sounds like an over-simplification, but it’s true. To succeed in business or in your job or as an entrepreneur, or whatever it is, you have to do what others are not willing to do. For example, make the calls, put in the hours, develop the product, and go to the pitch. Those actions are what have to happen to be a success. But the challenge is, when you start doing what others are unwilling to do, fear shows up. Specifically, fear, doubt, and worry, that killer cocktail. That killer cocktail leads to pressure and under pressure, our ability goes down as we’ve covered before.

So, why am I telling you this? How do you beat that today? How do you start doing what others are unwilling to do when those actions often lead to fear, doubt and worry?

I shared with you in a previous blog that under pressure we all experience a decline in our abilities. In the previous blog I talked about basketball players, specifically the NBA, the National Basketball Association, and a five-year study on foul shots. The study showed that under pressure, with the game on the line, everybody’s foul shooting percentage dropped by 10%. Meaning, they missed.

What I’m trying to say is no one gets a pass in this area. But as I was reading over the holidays, I realized that’s not necessarily true. I found some people who actually do get better under pressure, and they’re the ones who can beat the number one barrier to success in business. What’s great about this discovey is, it’s a learnable skill.

I found research on some bomb technicians, some talented individuals who have the unique responsibility of diffusing a bombs. Obviously, a very high-pressure situation. So, in the study, they put heart rate monitors on these bomb techs, and they looked at two groups. One group was a group of people who were good. The other group was super decorated. They had received medals and rewards for being bomb techs. The researchers wanted to know what’s the difference between these two bomb technicians? During the study, the bomb techs would go into an actual situation, high pressure, tense moment, with their heart rate monitors on. The researchers observed the heart rates, to see what the difference was between the groups. So, in the group that was not decorated, they noticed that, their heart rate was actually stable, everything was under control, all good, which is good. Right?

On the other side of the study, the individuals who were decorated would enter into the high pressure, crazy scenario to diffuse the bomb. What do you think at happened to their heart rate? In the study, what they found was, under pressure, their heart rate dropped.

So, imagine this, you’re in a high-stakes pitch moment, you have to close this deal, or you have to give this presentation, and rather than getting jittery and excited, all of a sudden you can actually calm down. That’s what these bomb technicians were doing. And so, the researchers went a little further, and asked, “What’s going on? How are they able to do this?”

In short, the results showed that they were changing their state. The researchers wrote, “They entered a meditative state when they’re on those high pressure assignments, and they had higher confidence as well.”

So, how do you beat the number one barrier to success? Answer, go into a meditative state and increase your confidence.

We’ve covered meditation in previous blogs. Very quickly lets explore what we’ve been seen in the research about confidence. It is possible and realistic that you can increase your confidence by using your state.

What is state? State is a combination of how you think and how you feel. For example, if you are in a bored state or a tired state, you will have a certain body posture; a certain thought pattern, and a certain vocabulary. When you’re in a confident state, you will have a very different body posture, facial expression, gesture, thought pattern.

In other words, if you’re trying to get to a “confident state”, you have to start to stand confident. You have to start to think confident, and speak confident. The research shows as you talk with more confidence; it generates confidence in you, on a hormonal level. Also, as you stand with more confidence, the research suggests that you will feel more certain about taking risks.

So, the number one barrier to success is fear. If you want to do better in your pitches and your closes and get more business and start doing what others are unwilling to do: you have to start standing confident, you have to start talking confident, and you have to start gesturing with confidence. As you do that, you’ll beat the pressure and you will find a way to win.