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September 08, 2020 at 09:42 PM
When you’re successful, you don’t have fewer challenges, you have higher level challenges: Quality Problems.
Quality Problems are the kind that, if you try to tell most people about them, they would reply, “I wish I had your problems…”
(Related: Procrastination Isn’t the Real Problem)
Examples might be: The Olympic athlete who wants to go from silver to gold; the performer who has the opportunity to go on stage in front of a crowd of thousands and is nervous; or the advisor who wants to take her business from seven-figures to eight figures in gross revenue.
To prepare for these kinds of high-level challenges, you need to train your mind to be ready for obstacles before they occur.
Your ability to anticipate what could go wrong and handle it before it occurs is a high-level leadership skill that will differentiate you from the competition.
Try “Inversion Thinking”
Centuries ago, stoic philosophers developed a powerful tool, inversion thinking or negative visualization. Its goal was to have you imagine ahead of time all of the negative things that could happen in life. Imagining these worst-case scenarios would help to overcome fears and make better plans to prevent the disasters.
Many of the most successful entrepreneurs today are not the risk-takers we imagine. They are actually experts at mitigating risks. Reflecting on how you will manage or prevent a particular failure is an important mindset. Imagining what things would look like if everything went wrong tomorrow helps you prepare to prevent or mitigate it today.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson
Great thinkers, leaders, and innovators aren’t afraid to turn their thinking on its head. They simply keep asking, “What if […] goes the other way?” If you use this tool, you’ll identify challenges and points of possible failure so you can develop a plan to prevent or mitigate them ahead of time.
