HOW TO HANDLE SUCCESS
By VICKY BROWN
I recently heard the phrase “Victory has defeated you, Batman” – and it got me thinking.
While I didn’t see that installment of the movie franchise, I did do a little sleuthing to find out who said it, and what they actually meant. The short of it is, Batman had vanquished all the bad guys, so he didn’t need to stay in shape to fight anymore, and now he was weak.
Of course, that’s quite a dark and literal interpretation. But the phrase stayed with me, and I realized it can so easily apply to the entrepreneurial experience.
When we first start out, we are so scrappy. People tell us it won’t work, that we can’t make it work – and we nod our heads, smile secretly to ourselves and think…”just you wait”.
We are willing to move heaven and earth to get our vision to a reality, and we’ll do mostly whatever it takes to get us there.
But what happens when we accomplish our goal. Whether it’s small g goal or large G Goal, what happens when we reach it, when we gain that measure of success?
Actually, there a couple of things that can, and do happen.
In his book, The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks talks about how we set a ceiling on our success. I call it our ‘set point’. Whether we know it or not, most of us have a ‘set point.’ It’s a level in our mind that is the limit point of our success. It shows up in our self-talk. “I’ll never get to millionaire status.” “I wish we were making $500k a year.” That self-established limit sits in our subconscious and our subconscious says, “OK – good to know.” And oddly, when we get near that limit, or break through that limit, we are mysteriously stopped or pulled backward. That’s because the place past the limit is an unknown to us. And our subconscious will do everything it can to keep us from the unknown, from the uncomfortable, from possible danger.
I know, and have been talking about, our set point for a while, but that phrase ‘victory has defeated you, Batman’ expanded my thinking. What if you understand and have successfully pushed past your set point. You have stepped over to the other side of that wall, and are now walking in your accomplishment. What do you do next.
“Victory has defeated you, Batman”
Do you refocus on the next goal and start driving toward that, or do you take a deep breath and sit down – you made it, you’re there.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with (and in fact it is critically important) that you celebrate your wins. You have to. Give yourself credit where credit is due. You worked hard, and you succeeded at your goal – it is definitely pat on the back time. And it’s also probably time to take a beat before going on – after all, you have to rest between reps.
But don’t get stuck in that place. Because,you may think you’re just staying put, but in reality you’re going backward. Skills are atrophying, your sharpness is becoming dull, your reaction time is slowing, you are losing the facility of your mastery. It’s just a fact of life for an entrepreneur – if you think you’re just standing still, you’re probably moving backward.
Of course, it’s true – maybe once you make the goal, you don’t want to do that thing anymore, it doesn’t’ hold the same pull for you that it once did. And that’s fine. But what is the next thing? Adapting your business model, creating a new business, teaching others, coaching, mentoring – what? What is your next great idea? What is your next great passion?
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You may be saying to yourself – she’s talking about a multi 7 figure business owner that has already grown their business – this doesn’t apply to me. Actually, it does. Again, I’m not just talking about stopping once you reach your big, visionary goal. In fact, it’s a much more dangerous issue if you slow down after achieving your smaller goals. Because that will certainly impact your ability to reach your visionary goal.
My take-away is this – keep growing, keep developing, keep reaching – and don’t forget to give back. The lessons you learned along the way to your success will be invaluable to those behind you.
And above all – don’t let victory defeat you – Batman.