Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results

Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results is not just a financial services disclaimer.

You’ve likely read this financial services disclaimer, “past performance is no guarantee of future results?”  And the same is true as it relates to creating an environment for success.  We can get stuck dwelling on past performance when in reality we should be focused on the present and the future. We are constantly judged by results and performance in the marketplace, the majority are fixated on the results or effect of their actions rather than the cause. It’s not just our performance that we should be focused on, it’s our unlimited potential.

Tracing back to its early Latin roots, potential means “being able” or having “power.”  We all have the unlimited potential and the innate power to accomplish amazing things. Focusing on our potential is forward thinking. While focusing on our performance is like driving in reverse. In my book, The Residual Effect, the U of the acronym, stands for Unlimited Potential.  We as humans actually have vast resources to tap into once we recognize what is creating our results.

Any leader who asks the right questions of the right people has the potential to discover and develop great ideas. — John C Maxwell

Want to accelerate your entrepreneurial success?  Recognizing and learning how to tap into your potential by first improving the quality of your thinking is the first step.

Our paradigms and belief systems—formed by what we allow in, how we process the information, what we speak, and even how we talk to ourselves—can limit our potential. The battlefield is in the mind, a precarious minefield we navigate every day. We are what we think. Verbal communication reveals what is already inside of us. This includes our attitudes, whether positive or negative. Negative thoughts and perceptions invite destructive self-talk. When we entertain negative thoughts in our conscious minds, self-talk communicates at a subconscious level.

There are not two separate minds, but rather, two spheres of the same mind. Self-talk trains and coaches the subconscious mind. Positive affirmations empower, while negative self-talk creates a vicious destructive cycle. Once there is input, the subconscious mind, with military precision, relays instructions to the conscious mind with specific commands and the sole purpose of ensuring that those orders become reality.

Here are six practices that protect you from negative thoughts and emotions when they launch an assault:

• Become aware. Eliminate negative influences. Learn to recognize and become aware of negative thoughts and self-talk. Guard your thoughts and words. Become vigilant and walk circumspectly. Stop watching, listening to, and surrounding yourself with negative input and people who serve to hold you back.
• Establish reality. Ask questions; evaluate and determine what is real and what is not. Are these thoughts facts, fiction, or my interpretations? Am I jumping to negative conclusions?
• Confide in a friend. Surround yourself with trusted advisers in your inner circle. Ask questions. Confide in people you trust, those committed to supporting you and who speak positive affirmations into your life.
• Actively oppose bad thoughts. Oppose negative thoughts by rejecting them and by thinking, saying, and doing the opposite.
• Focus on a positive outcome. Overcome negative self-talk by staying focused on positive thoughts. Focus on your vision and purpose and the goals that motivate and inspire you.
• Write personal affirmations. Write down positive written affirmations that proclaim positive, empowering words to yourself every day.