Why Certainty is Key to Personal Success – And How to Get It

You just graduated from college.

You’re excited and ready to start your professional career but there’s also some uncertainty about how it’s all going to play out.

Fast forward…

It has now been a year and you notice that the excitement you had when you started out is fading away.  Yet the uncertainty about your current job and thus your future, keeps building.

At this point you’re struggling to produce for your company while you see a few of your peers beginning to excel.

Why is this?

Is it because they’re more talented?  Have better connections?  More advantages? 

Maybe…

Yet it has been proven time and time again that this isn’t always the case.

Just take a look at all the people who had little talent starting out, with no connections or advantages, who seemed to face bigger challenges than everyone else.

Did this stop them?

Absolutely not.

So how were they able to defy the odds and achieve remarkable results?

It came down to one word…

CERTAINTY

This story will explain the significance of this word and the impact it plays in our future.

Parker and Tyler are recent college graduates and the newest brokers of the top commercial real estate firm in Colorado.

Since both had internships within the real estate industry throughout college along with at the firm where they’re now employed, they’re starting out on a level playing field.

Over the next seven months both go through the challenges of being rookie producers however Tyler is starting to bring in his first few clients while Parker shows little signs of progress.

Before we move on, take a moment to review this diagram.

As shown above, the starting point of any great achievement begins with an idea, dream, purpose, goal…

Once we have figured out what this is, it’s our level certainty in achieving that goal which ultimately determines whether we succeed or fail.

Let’s get back into the story to see why.

Having been an analyst in the real estate industry for two years in college, Parker was convinced that he would have immediate success as a broker.

During the first couple months of the job things were going great.  He was working for an outstanding company while being mentored by the top brokers in the country.

However he faced one significant issue: He lacked confidence in his sales abilities.

Anytime he would make a call or meet with prospects his body language and the way he communicated made it clear to prospects that he doubted his abilities. 

It was this lack of confidence that destroyed Parker’s certainty about his future.

Thus the negative process of uncertainty began:

• The more times Parker “failed” the more he began to doubt his abilities.  
• Because Parker doubted his abilities he began to take less action.  
• By taking less action, Parker achieved minimal results.  
• When Parker was not seeing the results he expected, the certainty he once had of becoming a successful broker was no longer there resulting in him questioning his future.

Unfortunately for Parker this was a never ending process.  It would keep spinning him out of control until he could create the one thing which led to Tyler’s incredible success as a young broker - CERTAINTY.

Similar to Parker, Tyler looked up to and aspired to achieve the level of success of the top brokers in the firm.  

However the difference between Parker and Tyler was that Tyler knew he could achieve that level of success but it would not happen “overnight”.  He had to think long-term.  He knew that if he modeled the same actions of the top brokers, that he to could eventually reach his goals and produce at high levels.

Tyler also did not let the rejections destroy his level of certainty about his future as a broker. Instead he viewed rejections as stepping stones to getting to a “yes”.

Here’s where Tyler let the process of certainty work to his advantage:

• Having certainty that he would achieve his goal, Tyler ended up taking massive action never letting failures destroy his confidence.
• Over time, the massive action that Tyler was taking created big results.
• When Tyler started achieving big results the certainty in his abilities caused him to take on bigger goals.
• Within a year Tyler was producing at levels that few other brokers his age had ever achieved before.

This was all caused by the certainty Tyler created in achieving his goal.

Have You Had Similar Experiences?

Think back to a time in your life where you were absolutely certain that you could do something.

What was the first thing you did?

It’s likely that you immediately took action!

You never questioned your actions or second guessed yourself because there was no point in doing this.  You had a goal in mind, you knew how to achieve it and you took massive action until you got what you wanted.

Now think back to a time in your life where you were uncertain about something.

What happened?

You started questioning your abilities causing you to hesitate and put things off. Having doubts about the final outcome, little action was taken because when you have uncertainty, why should you spend your time on something that might not work out the way you want it to in the end.

Why Have I Beaten Down The Importance of This One Word?

Because Parker’s story was my story during the first couple years of my professional career.

By not having certainty I was destroying my abilities to produce.  The most frustrating part about this was that I could not figure out why I was struggling.

It wasn’t until this past December when I realized the importance of this one word. Once this happened my abilities to produce took off to another level – In the first two months of 2014, I’ve brought in more revenue than my salary of last year.

Based on my experiences, certainty isn’t something that we are either born with or without.  Instead certainty is created.  It is created by the “states” we put ourselves in each day.

How To Develop A State of CERTAINTY

Anytime something happens in our lives most of us respond to it unconsciously by going into a specific state.  Whether this is a resourceful or unresourceful state determines our behaviors and it is our behaviors that ultimately determine the outcomes.

It’s critical to become conscious of this fact.

The reason being that if we are going to make representations of every event we experience, why not represent these events in a way that creates a state of certainty while pursuing the things that are most important to us.

I’ve found that the most effective way to create a state of certainty is by consciously taking control of and directing my beliefs.

The Exercise That Produces Results 

In the morning, during lunch and in the evening I will take 10 minutes and incant messages of the type of person I need to be in order to achieve my goals.

Some of the messages are:

“Thank you God for providing me with the abilities and drive to help as many people as possible today by giving me the energy, passion, focus, enthusiasm, influence, persistence, humility and everything else it takes to immediately improve the lives of every person I meet.”

“Day by day in every way I’m perfecting my abilities to sell myself and my products in a way that positively impacts the lives of others.”

“My prospects and clients need what I sell.  If I don’t meet with them and share what I have to offer then I’m committing a crime and doing them a disservice.  I’m here to help them personally and professionally, solve their problems and make their lives better.  What I have to offer delivers massive results and they deserve to work with the best.”

By incanting these over and over again with absolute conviction of them being true, I’ve been able to condition my mind to accept them as truth.

Then to reassure that that these beliefs are anchored in place, I listen to specific songs where I envision the type of person I need to be and the actions I need to take in order to accomplish the things that matter to me most.

The songs that top the playlist right now are:

• Maino – All The Above
• The Script – Hall of Fame
• Aloe Blacc – The Man

Now, whether I’m incanting the messages above or anytime I hear these songs I immediately go into a state of certainty.

Closing

The difference between young professionals who fail and those who succeed comes down to one thing:

Their ability to put themselves in a state of certainty.

Take a moment and think about the most challenging aspects of your career right now.

What if you had the ability to immediately put yourself in a state of certainty in overcoming these challenges?  How would this change your attitudes and beliefs? How would this positively affect your future?

The exercise I shared above is not for everyone.

However for those that commit to it everyday for the next three weeks, you’ll be stoked you did…

How are you going to put this exercise into practice – or have you already?

Read more from Blake at Intellectual Innovations