I spent the last week at the Art of Success Summit with one of my favorite podcasters, coaches and entrepreneurs, David Neagle.

 

It was amazing to see David live, meet some fellow entrepreneurs, and get tons of fresh business ideas. I’m so grateful to have attended and wanted to share my top five takeaways from the content we covered over those three days.

5- You’re not supposed to know how to get to a goal

 

One of the biggest reasons people stay stuck in their income, their goals, and life, in general, is because they get too caught up in mapping out how to reach that next level goal. If they don’t know how to get to that goal, they often don’t move forward.

 

David Neagle showed up a simple chart that demonstrated the steps to a new, big goal. For example, imagine there are ten steps between where you are now and where you want to be (where your goal is). It’s easy to want to see all ten steps you’ll need to take to get to the goal. But really, you only need to see how to get to step #2 to move forward. So often, we stop ourselves from going to the top because we can’t see the whole big picture, but we aren’t supposed to. Do one step at a time and trust that the tools you need to get to #3- #10 are there waiting for you. (See #1 on this list to understand why!)

 

4- The price of something is not a good indicator of whether you should purchase something or not

 

When we make decisions about whether to buy something based on price, whether because it’s a “good” price or “too expensive”, at the core, we’re making decisions based on fear. If we buy something because it’s a “good” price (or on sale), that indicates we’re afraid it might not be again, or we might not find something comparable for such a “good” price. On the flip side, when we pass up something because it’s “too expensive”, we’re making that decision based on the fear that we won’t be able to make money back.

 

Instead, try deciding on your own whether something would be a good decision for you first, before you even know the price. Even small things when out shopping! Ask yourself if, regardless of the price or your money supply, this would be right for you. If not, great, you can move along. If so, and then it feels expensive, get creative with how to come up with the money (see #2 on this list!).

 

Please note this doesn’t mean you should never buy things on sale. It just means you should decide whether you actually want or not FIRST. I know I’ve bought lots of clothes just because they were on sale, but then I haven’t really loved them and they don’t really get warn, and I have to go buy more anyway. So that didn’t really save me money at all, just added clutter.

 

3- Make decisions based on where you want to be, not where you are

 

Often David Neagle shared that clients will let him know that they can’t do a certain new thing because that’s now how they do things. For example, they can’t spend six figures on a coaching package with him because they don’t spend that much on coaching. Or they can’t fly first class because they can only afford economy. Or they can’t charge a certain amount of money to their clients because that’s how much they think their clients will pay.

 

He urges you to switch that kind of thinking to make your decisions based on where you want to be, not where you are now. If you allow yourself to continue living under these barriers and limitations that you currently live in, you will remain within them and remain where you are. To get to where you want to be, you have to make decisions from that place. Ask yourself what’s in your future’s best interest.

 

2- “I don’t have the money” is not a valid excuse

 

In a powerful exercise, David Neagle had us write down our an amount of money we desired that month and then draw columns to map out how to come up with money to make it happen. In column A, we wrote “Why I can’t” and in column B, we wrote, “How I will.” We spent 15 minutes working on this exercise and he encouraged us to really push ourselves with getting creative on the “how I will” section, having at least 10 ways listed.

 

Long story short, by the end we each had a healthy list of ways to come up with a big chunk of income that month. This required “out of the box” thinking, and we all had expanded past the normal ways we make money in our businesses. Things like raising your prices, freelancing temporarily, selling something you no longer use, launching a new product, taking out a business credit card, etc. The point here wasn’t to leave the seminar and do every single thing on that list to make up the money. The point was to prove to ourselves that there’s always money out there for something you really want.

 

So, if you don’t move forward with an investment, it’s not because you don’t have the money out there, it’s because you haven’t made the decision that it’s a must for you yet.

 

1- With every obstacle, there’s a way around it. There is always a way.

 

This is my favorite component of David Neagle’s teachings and it’s based on the Law of Polarity- it gives me chills! It’s been one of the biggest mindset shifts that has supported me in reaching my entrepreneurial success.

 

This universal Law of Polarity states that “a desire can’t be felt until the supply is ready to appear.” In other words, you cannot want something unless the means in which to have it already exist, and you cannot have a problem unless a solution for it already exists. You cannot have hot without cold. We could not experience happiness without sadness (thanks, Inside Out!). You get the picture.

 

So what does it mean for us as entrepreneurs? When we understand this law, the very normal obstacles and challenges that come in our paths aren’t seen as impossible. We know that because the problem exists, there is a way to solve it. This takes so much pressure off of these “what if” nightmare scenarios we come up with in our heads. Instead of thinking “what if I run out of money, what if I don’t make the money back, what if people laugh at me”, we can rest assured that for any obstacles that arise, a solution for it already exists.