For those of you who have been plugged in to the SPF Community you know I talk a lot about Impact Statements and how they have transformed my life.  I want to tell you the story of how these Impact Statements started.

 

I was building my business as a rep for a global company for many years and had been ‘so close’ to a life changing promotion for what felt like forever. It was getting ridiculous the time that it was taking for me to ‘cross’ this finish line.  I finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired of not getting it done that I made a ‘decision’ to finish it once and for all. I went to my home library and got out my copy of Think and Grow Rich and also ordered the Think and Grow Rich Workbook and I got to work.  I re-visited the book, I started working in the workbook and during this process I also started journaling as this work was ‘opening’ my mind to new strategies. It was during this journaling process that I created Impact Statements.

 

I knew from all my work in the past that writing out your goals as if they already happened was a powerful way to get into action. I know that ‘feeling’ is the secret. The feeling, the emotion is the strategy.

 

I wrote down a super vivid story of what it would be like when I finally accomplished this promotion. I wrote down in great detail how I would feel, how this would affect me emotionally. I wrote about the confidence I would gain and how that would translate into my world. I wrote down how this would affect the people around me, specifically my children. How they would feel when I accomplished my goal. How it would affect their futures. If I did this it would show them that persistence and hard work pay off. It would show them that You Can do what you say you are going to do. It would give them more confidence. I thought about how this would affect my teammates. If they saw me win they would say “If she can do it, I can do it” I could go on and on but you get the idea. By the time I was done with this Impact Statement I was feeling so excited and motivated to get this sh*t done!! But as I sat there in this excited state ready to take action I thought … hmmm I have felt this way before and the motivation has been ‘temporary’ – I get off to a great start and fizzle out. This is why I have been ‘so close’ for ‘so fkn long’ – there needed to be another motivator, something else that would ‘keep’ me going, that would PUSH me.  This was a situation where I didn’t ‘have’ to do it so there wasn’t that ‘desperate hunger’ for me to use as a driving force. I realized I needed to ‘manufacture’ that hunger.

 

I opened my journal back up and I wrote another Impact Statement – but this time the outcome was not good. It was daunting. It made me sick to my stomach and it even made me cry.  I wrote down how it would be if I ‘didn’t’ accomplish my goal.  I wrote in vivid detail how I would lose confidence in myself and how that would translate into my life and my future goals. I wrote down how my kids would be so disappointed that I didn’t make it, that they would lose confidence in their own abilities to push to their goals. I even envisioned how one of my kids ran into one of my relatives who was never supportive and having to tell them ‘oh my Mom didn’t make it’ she never got there. UGH!! That broke my heart and pissed me off.  I wrote down how my team might be affected and lose confidence that they could win too.  I was really so sick to my stomach. 

 

After this process, that was IT – I WAS READY.  I knew I had to burn the boats and quit fkn around and playing small.  I set a deadline and made a crazy Plan of Attack and when I say crazy I mean it was literally a plan that seemed impossible to accomplish in the timeline I set. But I was so moved by these Impact Statements that I needed to GET IT DONE NOW!!

 

The end of this story is… I DID IT!! I fkn DID IT and it was amazing. That journal entry I wrote came true. I was on top of the world. My children were beaming with pride. My team was beyond moved. What I didn’t consider is how this would impact people I have never met before. I received countless messages from people that I didn’t know saying how my getting this promotion changed their life, gave them the confidence to play a bigger game. It was better than I could have ever imagined.

 

I now use these Impact Statements as a strategy for goals big and small.

 

Whatever you want to do, you CAN DO. Add Impact Statements as a Strategy in your life and GET IT DONE.

 

If I can do it, YOU can do it. <3