I recently gave a presentation on Doing Business as Yourself. I like to do business with people that seem genuine, authentic, natural and powerful. However, for a person to be these things often they need to change or realign their beliefs with what they feel is their own ideal. This was one of the biggest issues I had in creating this presentation.
If we want to do business as ourselves and want to improve, aren’t those opposing ideals? My answer is that they do not have to be, based on the reason for your improvement. Is it conformity (or nonconformity) or is it growth becomes a looming question.
That being said, I am of the belief that it is rare that someone is completely satisfied with who they are. We are imperfect by design to allow us to chase our idea of perfection. It would be pretty boring if everyone thought they were the best in every aspect of their lives, wouldn’t it? It would also be a fallacy if we did believe we had no room or desire for improvement.
So the ideal is to constantly improve. You are yourself today, right now, what your standards are. Look at your income, weight, friends, hobbies, business, etc. and you will understand your minimums acceptable to you. You can probably do very well just like this, being yourself. That said, we all know that you either grow or you die. Nature does not allow stagnation. Which means that becoming complacent to who you are in your view is not possible for very long. So to define who you are as “yourself” would be like defining the weather. It is constantly changing, especially in Wisconsin.
The challenge is knowing if you are happy with who you are now. Do you wish you were this or that or did something different? Most people would say that they would like to change at least one aspect of their lives. Every person is who they are today based on the experiences and education and improvements that they have made to themselves previously. You should also include the failures, judgments and drop-backs that people have had. We do not always improve, right? Sometimes we fall back to a previous bad habit or create something negative within us that we did not have even a year ago. Often this is not intentional. Change is happening whether we are aware of it or not, both good and not so good.
The point is that who you are today is not who you will be tomorrow. The beauty is that you get to choose who you will be. You can consciously decide you will be faster, stronger, healthier, happier, better at this or that. This is something you can do right now, you do not have to wait. So I would argue that you can improve as much as you want and still be “being yourself.” Especially since you yourself alone gets to decide who you are, right?
No one can alter that. They can attempt to influence you, but you get the final say about who you are going to be. Learning and implementing change from that fact alone can do wonders for your life and business.
I say all of that to say that as long as you are altering your limiting beliefs and improving yourself as you see fit, than you are being yourself. Who would you rather do business with, someone that claims to be exactly who they want to be or the person that accepts the challenge of constant and never ending improvement and is taking action to do so? I personally feel an alignment with the person that realizes their imperfections and is working to change them for the better. The person that feels they are already the best in every aspect, in my view, is simply not being honest.
That is a trick question though, isn’t it? How many people do you know that claim they want to improve and take no action? The friend that lost 100 pounds, 10 pounds annually for the past decade of which they gained all back ceremoniously as well. The contact that claims to be an organizational powerhouse that shows up late to your coffee meeting. Change is not a someday action. Change is happening now to and around you whether you want it to or not. You have the option to decide what that change will be internally as well as how the external change will affect you.
Choose wisely and implement quickly. The time for being the best you is now.
James Kademan is a Business Coach for Draw In Customers Business Coaching in Madison, Wisconsin. When he isn’t asking people to be themselves by changing he helps them achieve success in business and beyond. He blogs successfully to the world at www.drawincustomers.com. If you are considering hiring a business coach, take a moment to call James at (608)210-2221. Smile, your new you is about to be improved.
