Last week we discussed the importance of throwing aside your reservations when it comes to creating independent sources of income. As the saying goes, “Fortune favours the bold;” so if you need to earn more to pay bills and achieve your goals, you have to become courageous in trying to make money.

Many persons are fearful of taking action on their income creation ideas, as they wonder if they can really be successful in offering a product or service to other people. They worry that they will fail miserably in their efforts to sell, and prefer to live in financial distress rather than try something new.

If you have thoughts of failure when you consider your options to earn more money, then you have already set yourself up to be unsuccessful. Let’s look at how you can transform these feelings and develop a more success-centred approach that will help you to attain your financial desires.

Successful attitudes

The root of your success starts with the beliefs that you hold and the thoughts that stem from these convictions. If you want to have a profitable outcome to your income-earning endeavour, it’s important to have faith in your idea and talents, and trust that you will learn all the skills you need to succeed.

It’s not enough to make nice declarations about what you want to achieve. If your subconscious mind doubts that you can really accomplish your intention, then you will find the process almost impossible. Remove any impediment that makes you uncertain about your ability to carry out the required tasks.

To increase your potential for success in your income quest, envision yourself achieving your goal. Champion runners often visualise themselves crossing the finish line ahead of the pack; you should similarly create a winning image of yourself delighting your customers and making lucrative sales.

Successful actions

Once you have a practical idea how to boost your income, act at once to carry out some small, simple actions which will kick-start the journey to attaining your objective. It’s important to give your brain immediate feedback that confirms your commitment to your goal and starts the momentum rolling.

Let’s say that you want to offer a landscaping service. You could obtain costs for gardening equipment or make a list of potential customers. Acting right away usually brings a little early reward, which will confirm that you are headed down the right road and prevent you from second-guessing your plans.

The story of the tortoise and the hare reveals why you should never rest on your laurels. The hare lost the race, not because he was the slower runner, but because he failed to press ahead and complete the journey. Any initial success you receive must be followed up with even more determined labour.

Successful associations

You can also increase your success rate with your income-generation plans by associating with persons who are working profitably at their own business goals. The positive energy that they radiate will help to lift your spirits, and encourage you to persist until you reap the results you desire.

Successful business persons can also provide you with many valuable lessons that will help to guide your own actions. Look for someone who has achieved, especially in an area where you think you are weak, and assess how you can replicate or adapt some of their ideas in your own enterprise.

For example, if your sales efforts are ineffective, study the winning traits of business leaders who are noted for marketing success, such as Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart of Sandals. What strategies did they use in the early stages to increase sales? How do they champion their products or services today?

Can initial failure defeat success?

So if you set out on your income-earning quest armed with attitudes, actions and associations that are aimed at achievement, you should quickly reap success in your own endeavours, right? Not necessarily. In reality, you may find that your initial efforts are anything but rewarding.

When you are starting out a new venture, you normally have to experience a learning curve, where you endure discouraging mistakes and have to make adjustments to your plan of action along the way. It could be said that success ultimately comes by way of adapting from your failures over time.

Think of babies who are learning to walk. As they figure out how to get their legs to operate properly, their natural instincts tell them to get up every time they fall. If babies gave up after hitting the floor several times, believing that walking was just not possible, then we would all be crawling as adults.

As you become bold in setting out to accomplish your earning goals, understand that you will be faced with outcomes that don’t match your idea of success. However, these setbacks are only part of the learning process that will help you to eventually attain your desired financial results.

Copyright © 2014 Cherryl Hanson Simpson. No reproduction without written consent.

Originally published in The Daily Observer, October 23, 2014

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Cherryl is a money coach and business mentor, and founder of Financially S.M.A.R.T. Services. See more of her work at www.entrepreneursinjamaica.com and www.financiallysmart.org. Contact Cherryl