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There is an obstacle standing between you and success. It’s placed directly between you and that which you most desire. If you cannot overcome this obstacle, you will never have what you want. It’s impossible.

If you can overcome this obstacle, whatever you want will be yours.

Acknowledge That You Are the Obstacle

You are the obstacle. You are the only one standing between you and your success, between you and whatever you want.

Unless and until you accept complete and total responsibility for your current situation, you will not empower yourself to take the action necessary to succeed. Instead, like most people, you will focus on what you cannot change or what you have no power to change.

Accepting that you are the obstacle standing between you and success is empowering. If you are responsible for your current state, then you can also be responsible for your future state. If your decisions and actions got you here, your decisions and actions can get you someplace better. Believing this is what enables you to focus on what you can control and what you can influence.

For some, this step is the most difficult. Instead, they prefer to blame others for their current state. By acknowledging and accepting that you are the obstacle, you are finally empowered to succeed.

Determine the Price You Will Have to Pay to Succeed

What stands between you and success, whether in sales or some other endeavor, are all of the actions necessary to succeed.

Success comes with a price tag. That price tag is all of the actions that are necessary to obtain what it is that you want. You have to be willing to pay that price by taking those actions.

In sales this price you have to pay is, among other things, prospecting. In business-to-business sales, it is also reading and studying to obtain the business acumen that your client needs you to possess. That price is paid in nurturing relationships and paying in advance for your dream clients.

In management, the price of success may mean learning to lead your people—and the people above you. It may require that you pay the price and learn to change the behaviors that made you successful when you weren’t a manager. The price might be paid adopting new and uncomfortable behaviors.

This is the same gap analysis we do in sales. Where are you now? Where do you need to be? What do you have to do to get there? The “getting there” part means change. That change, and all the actions that requires of you, is the price that you have to pay to succeed.

Start Paying the Price In Advance of Your Success

The final step is truly the most difficult.

It isn’t enough to acknowledge that you are the obstacle standing between you and success. There are many who know that they are what stands between themselves and success and still don’t succeed. It isn’t enough only to know.

It also isn’t enough to know what you need to do to succeed. There are many that know what they need to do to succeed but refuse to do so. It isn’t enough to know what you need to do.

It’s the deliberate taking of the actions that move you forward that allows you succeed.

Success requires not only that you know the price that must be paid but that you also pay that price. Many refuse to pay the price.

Those that succeed pay the price. Successful people take the necessary actions day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. This is the secret to their success: They accept that they are only real obstacle standing between themselves and success. They determine the price they must pay to succeed. Then they pay the price.

Questions

What is the real obstacle standing between you and success?

How do you define success?

What is the price you will have to pay to succeed? What actions or behavioral changes will be necessary?

When are you going to start paying the price?

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Sales 2011
Post by Anthony Iannarino on November 22, 2011

Written and edited by human brains and human hands.

Anthony Iannarino
Anthony Iannarino is a writer, an international speaker, and an entrepreneur. He is the author of four books on the modern sales approach, one book on sales leadership, and his latest book called The Negativity Fast releases on 10.31.23. Anthony posts daily content here at TheSalesBlog.com.
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