Episode 272: Planting the Seeds of Success

Thursday, February 29th, Live NYC Seminar Planting seeds for success. I call this a Foundation skill, and this is a skill I believe that you can use not only for yourself but also for other friends who need support. Who needs to be planting some seeds for success for themselves as well the idea is when you “plant a seed,” you are setting out an expectation that you can do it or that your friend can do it. And more often than not, when you plant that seed of success, and you say, “Hey, you can do it. Hey, no, I can do this.” You actually do it.  That's why it's so important and why this is such a brilliant and useful foundation skill.  You can think of it as almost the germination of an affirmation.  So in other words, you plant that seed starts to germinate, and as you feed it with positive affirmations, it begins to grow.  Then, as you add those action steps that support those thoughts and, of course, that ultimate goal, that's when the success happens.  When you plant a seed with yourself or with someone else, you are expressing your confidence in yourself or for that other person to come up with something. And that can be either a thought or an action that will then linger and percolate in their mind, in their consciousness.  The idea of what if I could run that marathon? All of a sudden, your mind starts to percolate and build up thoughts that make you think, oh, wait a minute, maybe you could. And with that could become the possibility of you can.  So could becomes can.  Now, whether you or that other person are consciously thinking about it or not, a part of you, like I just said, will be working on a solution.  That's why planting the seed, allowing it to germinate, and then again, letting it grow into an affirmation, which then hopefully will grow into actions, those two things will support that goal. Now, this foundation skill of planting a seed can be used in many situations.  I'm going to give you an example. Remember, or someone asks you a question, and you say I don't know. I don't know.  This is when you plant the seed of “what would it be like if you did know?”  That already is planting a seed of maybe you do know.  So you're saying you don't, but maybe you do. What would it be like if you did?  It also is an incredible way of empowering yourself.  It empowers yourself or your friend to come up with their solutions alone. In other words, by planting that seed, we are empowering ourselves and our friends to fix it for ourselves or themselves.  Planting a seed can sound something like this. “I'm gonna ask you in a little while because I have complete faith that you'll come up with something.”  Now, if you're saying this to yourself, you can write down those exact words. Say, you know what, I'm putting down my pen and my paper right now, and I'm gonna journal about it in 24 hours because I have faith that I will be able to come up with that solution.  I will be able to come up with that.  Another wonderful planting the seed question or empowering question is “when you figure that out, what would be different for you?” I love to ask my private clients this question. If you didn't have fear, what would your life be like?  How would [00:07:00] you operate if you didn't have fear?  And it's always so interesting to hear their answers.  And if they say they don't know, I go, “okay I'll ask you in a few minutes because I know you're going to be able to come up with something.” See, that is how I, as a coach, plant in you, the client, the potential solution.  Also, ask yourself this or your friend, “if I figured this out, what would be different for me?”  Or “if you figured this out, what would be different for you?”  And this is what is so incredible about this tool. It is really saying to ourselves we know what we want.  We know what to do.  We just need to ask ourselves the right questions.  It is so incredibly empowering. It is self-empowering. It's like what I talk about in life coaching. I call myself a chiropractor for the mind is I teach you to become emotionally intelligent. And while listening to this podcast, you are becoming more emotionally intelligent.  Why? Because I am teaching you to be emotionally self-sufficient.  You learn emotional intelligence by learning how to become emotionally self-sufficient and teaching yourself how to plant a seed for success.  It's a big step in the right direction. Because planting a seed for success helps bring out a positive result or change.  It helps bring out a positive result or change.  And again, it empowers you or your friend or another person to figure it out on their own.  Instead of looking outside of yourself to find the answer.  Because the answers are always right within.