Jun 19, 2018
How to Have Your Next Big Breakthrough
5 Powerful Steps That Will Help Transition Your Life to the Next Level
Knowing how to have your next big breakthrough will help transition your life to the next level.
In conversations with people, when I ask them what they are working on, most say they are in some form of transition in their life.
Examples of transitions include:
- Starting a new job or career.
- Reconsidering their next steps after losing their job.
- Ending a relationship.
- Starting a new business.
- Assessing where they are in their lives.
Often, a simple breakthrough in one area can make all the difference as you transition to the next level in your life.
Why Have a Big Breakthrough?
Benefits of having a big breakthrough include:
- You will accelerate your progress not just in the area you’ve had the breakthrough, but also in other areas.
- You will feel better about yourself and where you are heading.
- You will know what to give your focus and energy to instead of being scattered, stressed and overwhelmed.
- You can assist others in achieving big breakthroughs too.
- You will let go of things that are not important anymore.
While I’ve had many failures in life including financial, business and health challenges, big breakthroughs I’ve had include:
- Leaving a “secure” corporate job to pursue my passions and live my purpose.
- Writing and publishing my first book after leaving my corporate career, then publishing a few more books.
- Becoming a #1 best-selling author.
- Starting my training, speaking and coaching business.
- Getting back to the fitness level I had when I was in my twenties.
When you have a big breakthrough, it makes any success you achieve more satisfying, especially if you’ve had struggles and failures along the way.
5 Common Mistakes That May Prevent You from Having Your Next Big Breakthrough
Here are five mistakes that can affect your progress and prevent you from achieving your next big breakthrough.
- Focusing on too many things at once.If you’re like me, you have many areas you’d like to improve. While it is tempting to change a lot of things in a short period, that can lead to scattered focus and not enough attention given to the one thing that can be a catalyst for a lot of improvements.
- Not giving enough attention to what is going on for you right now. Before you can achieve the breakthrough we want, it is important to know your starting point. It is like using any navigation system — you need to know where you want to go and where you are currently. Many people gloss over this part because it can be uncomfortable to look at how things are in your life currently.
- Not emotionally connected to the breakthrough you want. When you decide what breakthrough you want, it is usually an intellectual or rational decision. That is only good for a short period. It is the emotional connection to the breakthrough that will keep you going. If you’re not emotionally connected, you will slow down or give up when you face challenges.
- Not having a plan or system to follow. Deciding the breakthrough you want to have is only part of the process. To achieve it, you must know what to do, when to do and how to do it. You must have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you will get distracted, which will delay or prevent the breakthrough you want.
- Failing to set up the right environments around you. Life will continue as you strive to have our big breakthrough. If you don’t have supportive environments, you may get discouraged, feel unmotivated and not do what’s necessary to continue to move forward.
How Can You Have Your Next Big Breakthrough?
How to Have Your Next Big Breakthrough
Knowing what breakthrough you want will require you to reflect and contemplate on what’s important. Before you do that, there is a valuable thing you can do that will put you in a better frame of mind to be in a more receptive and open state.
A simple example why this is important is, say a mum with two young children, wants to think about a breakthrough she wants to have. However, she is currently dealing with a sick child and has to figure out when she can go to the chemist to buy some medicine, along a hundred other things running through her mind. Before she can think something of greater significance and importance to her life, she has to first address what’s front of mind now.
Before you can look at things from a 30,000-feet perspective, you have to acknowledge what is happening at ground level. There is a simple and quick exercise you can do to get yourself ready to look at bigger and more valuable things in your life. I’ve used this exercise at the start of coaching sessions, training programs and workshops, and it helps participants become more present and centred.
You can download this exercise for free right away, and I highly recommend you do it before continuing with any of the steps to have your next big breakthrough. It is the initial step before you go through the breakthrough process. The exercise is called Clearing Your Mental Desk and will take about ten to fifteen minutes to complete. Take action now and click here or on the image below to download the exercise.
Here are steps to that will lead you to your next big breakthrough. These steps will work regardless of which area you want to have your breakthrough. If you’re willing to do the work that’s required, you will get to the next your level.
These steps require you to consider a big picture question, then further evaluate in more detail through some follow-up questions. The more time you spend on each step, the better your chances of having the breakthrough you want.
1. Where do I want to be? This is about first being committed to having a breakthrough, then gaining clarity on what you want. You must be clear why having a breakthrough is important to you now. You also should be clear on what having a breakthrough means to you.
A few years ago, I wasn’t exercising as much as would have liked each week. My excuse was I was too busy, which meant I did not make my health and fitness a high priority. Initially, it was not noticeable. A 2- to 3-kilogram (4.5 to 6.5 pounds) weight gain was not a big issue. However, as a few years went by, those small weight gains added to be a lot. It added up to be 20 kilograms (44 pounds).
That had a major effect on my overall physical, emotional and mental well-being, and it also affected my self-confidence. It was obvious I had to get back in shape by paying more attention to my health. That would be my next breakthrough. But before I could do that, I had to define why was it important for me to improve my health and overall wellness.
That led to me contemplate on additional questions like, “If I imagined I was at the end of my life, what must I have done, achieved or created to feel good about the life I lived?” This question also emphasises the importance of being clear on my “why.”
Once you have your big why, you can identify the areas important to you. Unless you know where you could have a breakthrough, chances are it won’t happen for you. Most people have between five and twelve areas they consider important. Examples of areas include:
- Health and Wellness
- Finances
- Relationship or Love Life
- Children
- Family and Friends
- Career (or Business)
- Fun or Hobbies
- Personal Growth (also called Spiritual Development)
- Church or Faith (also called Relationship with God)
- Making a Difference (also called Community or Charity Work)
After you have identified the areas important to you, challenge yourself to identify why those areas are important and what will be the consequences if you are not doing the best you can in each area.
As you gain more clarity, you should describe what your ideal future is for each area. This is about envisioning the future you desire, which will help clarify where you can have your next big breakthrough.
2. Where am I now in relation to where I want to be? This is about assessing your current reality. This step requires courage and honesty. This is just like any process improvement methodology — before you can improve something, you must first establish a baseline of how things are at present.
For each area, based on what you described as your ideal future, there will be a gap between where you are and where you want to be. This is not about being hard on yourself because you are not where you want to be. This is about developing the awareness that you have an opportunity to have a big breakthrough soon.
The next part of assessing where you are is to identify the reasons you are where you are. What stories or excuses have you told yourself? What fears or beliefs are holding you back? You need to know why you are getting the results you are getting, which will lay the platform to make the necessary changes to have the breakthrough you want.
Another part of assessing where you are is knowing what you are giving attention and energy to.
- What takes up your time each day, each week or each month?
- What are things you are only giving a little focus to when you know you should pay more attention to them?
- What are the things you are putting up with or things you haven’t completed that is using up valuable mental energy and focus?
A comprehensive review of your current reality will set you up to have that big breakthrough you want.
3. What will get me there? This is about defining the big breakthrough we want to have. After assessing where you are in each area you’ve identified as important, define what your most important breakthrough will be right now. The temptation will be to focus on many areas at once, but that will lead to scattered focus, distractions and slow progress. You want to have your next big breakthrough soon.
Decide what will give you the greatest benefit, in the shortest period, if we achieve it. You will have a hunch or an inkling what that should be and it’s important you listen to it. Another valuable thing is being emotionally connected to the breakthrough you decide. If you are not emotionally connected to it, you won’t sustain energy and enthusiasm for going all the way with it.
Once you’ve decided on your breakthrough, it’s all about giving everything you have to make it happen. You can conduct an assessment of your current strengths and abilities that can assist you to achieve your breakthrough. This assessment will also help identify what additional strengths, skills or abilities you need to develop to achieve your breakthrough.
To get to a new destination will require you to do things you have not done before. You need to draw out things from within that you may not have utilised before.
This may include developing new beliefs about what is possible for you, and learning specific strategies and techniques for dealing with challenges or problems you may encounter. Your external results almost always reflect what is going on internally, so the more inner work you do, the greater your chances of achieving your breakthrough.
4. How will I get there? This is about creating your breakthrough plan. You must have a plan! Any worthwhile goal or project of importance always has a plan because it is the roadmap that will get you to where you want to go.
The plan should identify where your current weakness are and strategies to overcome them. It should also include potential risks or challenges you may face and how to overcome them. An effective plan should also address where you may trip yourself up, which can include your fears or beliefs, and describe how to deal with them.
The plan should also detail the next action steps you must take and how you can stay on track. Who could help you get to where you want to be? Then it’s about planning your week in relation to the breakthrough you want to achieve and how that translates into a daily plan. This is about knowing specific strategies, techniques and tactics to stay focused on what needs to be done each day.
5. What will keep me going? This is about building consistent momentum. There are additional things you can do to achieve success. Look at your habits and routines and evaluate whether they will support you as you work towards achieving your big breakthrough.
You should also set up the environments around you to support you in achieving the breakthrough you want. If you don’t have supportive environments, you will constantly rely on your willpower to do the things you have identified in your plan. Willpower will only get you so far. An effective strategy is to set up support systems or environments to help you get to where you want to be.
Another important aspect of generating momentum is checking in and reviewing your progress. As the saying goes, “What gets measured gets improved.” Conducting a daily and weekly review will be critical to your success. You must also ask for feedback and make any necessary adjustments.
Summary
Anyone can have their next big breakthrough if they know the steps and the right order to execute them. The five steps outlined above will be your guide as you take action to transition your life to the next level.
Action Step: Download the Clearing Your Mental Desk exercise and take the first step towards having your next big breakthrough.
Question: What are you committed to doing today to have your next big breakthrough?
You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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