Why The Need For Certainty Is Hurting You
Get ready for some tough love on the Healthpreneur Podcast! Yuri here, and today I’m going to get into why the need for certainty is hurting you. I get it. It would be nice to know every step of the journey and know – for certain – that everything will work out 100% of the time. But that’s simply not life, right?
Life requires moving forward, even if you’re uncertain of the outcome. Think of all the greats out there. Do you think they knew with 100% certainty that their idea or business would take off? Do you think they avoided all risk to get to where they are today? No.
And that’s the difference between successful entrepreneurs and those who fall flat on their face. You simply can’t live in the comfort of certainty and expect the growth, freedom, and impact that you desire in your business. So, it’s time to make a choice. What’s it going to be?
In this episode I discuss:
1:00 – 3:00 – Why the need for certainty hurts us
3:00 – 6:30 – We need to believe in results before we can see them
6:30 – 8:30 – My personal examples of stepping into uncertainty
8:30 – 10:30 – The difference between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs
10:30 – 12:30 – What to do if you’re ready to step up
Transcription
Hey, hey. Welcome back to another solo round. I hope you enjoyed last week’s interviews with Andrea Nakayama and Marnie Greenberg. I thought they were awesome. This week, we’ve got some good ones coming up, too.
Why the need for certainty hurts us
Today, I want to share an interesting perspective on mindset with you. It’s this whole notion of certainty. I believe that the need for certainty hurts us, and could be hurting you in your business. Now, what does this mean, exactly?
Well, if you’ve ever done any Tony Robbins or deep work into your human behavior, you probably know that there are several fundamental needs that humans crave. One of them is certainty. Another one is uncertainty, which is an oxymoron. We need the variety, but we also need the certainty of things being the same every day or all the time; like the sun rising every day from the same side of the Earth.
Having consistent cash flow or profit coming into your business is a degree of certainty that I think most business owners want, and that’s important. That’s called “predictability,” not just certainty.
But there’s a type of certainty that hurts most entrepreneurs. I say “most” because – let’s be honest – most entrepreneurs fail in business, and this is part of the reason why.
I’m bringing this up because we get on the phone with a lot of health coaches and health entrepreneurs every single week, and our goal is to help them go from where they are to where they want to be and support them as best as possible during our time on the phone together. If there’s an opportunity to work further together, we certainly do that. If not, it’s all good, but we find that one of the biggest reasons that people are stuck is because they need to see something before they believe it.
We need to believe in results before we can see them
But that is not how entrepreneurs create magic in this world.
You see, what’s amazing about being a business owner and entrepreneur is that we have creative superpowers. We must believe something before we can see it. If you’re listening to this on an iPod or an iPhone, do you think that Steve Jobs needed to see this thing before he believed it would work?
No. He knew, whether that was from universal energy or he just knew intuitively based on what people want or what they don’t want, that this was going to work. He believed it before he could see it.
If we need to see something before we believe it’s possible for us, essentially we need certainty that it’ll work before being willing to take the leap. I’m sorry, but that’s not the way the world works. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.
Think of the clients you might be serving. They may come to you to lose weight, for example. As an expert, are you going to tell them, “Listen. You want to lose weight and to do that, you just have to believe it before you see it”? No, we’re not going to say that, right? But what we need people to buy into is the fact that if you want to see the weight loss results, believe and understand that you must put in the work. Commit to the process and have the courage to walk across the chasm.
The reason we want certainty is because we’re fearful, and all it comes down to is if you’re going to let your fear stand in the way of your bigger dream and hold you back from getting what it is that you want. We turn to certainty because we think, “Okay, I’m scared. I don’t know what the outcome of this thing is going to be, therefore I need a 100% certainty that this is going to work.” But that’s not how the world works.
If your clients come to you and they want to lose weight, can you 100% guarantee them a specific result? Can you say, without a shadow of a doubt, you will get this result? No. You can do what you can to help them get there, but they must meet you halfway. They must understand that they need to put in the work, even before they see the results.
That’s the key.
If you’re allowing your need for certainty to get in the way of stepping forward with your business, you will never get the results you want. Never.
My personal examples of stepping into uncertainty
Let me give you a couple examples from my life. I’m not sharing this with you because I think I’m some god or whatever. I’m sharing this with you because I am somebody who is a great example of someone who doesn’t need certainty before I do things. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve had the failures, but also the successes, that I’ve had in my life.
Let me give you an example from soccer. This is not business-related at all.
When I was young, I believed I was the best goalie in Canada. Probably the world. I was delusional. I’d call it delusional optimism, but that level of confidence allowed me to take a lot of risks. I played in Brazil with one of the top clubs in the country. I played professionally in Toronto. Then I lived in a new country, a foreign country, France, where I’d never lived before and was away from my family to pursue my dream of playing pro soccer.
I didn’t have certainty that things were going to work out. There was no way I could know for sure whether things were going to work out, but the only thing that I did know was that I believed in myself.
When we speak with people who think they need to see social proof and certainty, what that’s screaming is, “I don’t believe in myself.” That’s what it comes down to, guys. If you need certainty for something to work for you, you don’t believe in yourself. That’s the bigger problem, and that’s when you should look in the mirror.
Another example: When I first published a book, I invested $300,000. Yeah. $300,000. It’s ridiculous. That’s the price of a house in a lot of places. I would never recommend anyone do that, but I was hell-bent on making it happen. Did I know that that was going to work out? Did I know I was going to see an ROI from that? Did I know that my book was going to hit the New York Times list?
100% no.
What I did know was that I was going to do whatever I humanly could to make that happen. This is the difference between the entrepreneurs who succeed and those who fall flat on their face time and time again, struggle, and never see the results they want.
The difference between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs
You must believe in yourself and be comfortable being uncertain. If you don’t, you will not get the results you want. It’s as simple as that.
Whether it’s investing in something that you’re not too sure is going to pan out for you, or doing something that you’re not too sure of, if you feel that it’s the right thing for you to do, and you know deep down inside that you will make it happen no matter what, that’s all that matters. As an entrepreneur, you can create magic out of thin air and turn an intangible idea into a physical result for somebody, and that is what matters most.
That’s why I believe the need for certainty will sabotage your business.
It will hurt you. It will hold you back in so many areas of your life, and if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking to yourself, “You know what, Yuri? I am somebody who needs a ton of proof before I jump into something.” Or, “I do procrastinate for months on end before I decide,” I’m going to challenge you.
Ask yourself why you do that, and if it boils down to not believing in yourself, then go back to the drawing board and build your confidence. Build a better program that’s going to create amazing results for your clients, because when you have that, you have the confidence you need to move forward. If you don’t have that, then you have no business enrolling people in the first place. I’m serious about that.
This is a little bit of tough love today, but I hope this message sinks in deep for you. It is core to what allows you to succeed or not succeed in this world in any area of life. Like parenting. If you’ve ever had kids, did you have 100% certainty that the kids were going to come out healthy? No. Did you have certainty that you were going to be an amazing father or mother? 100% no. So why is it that people, time and time again and until the end of time, are going to continue having kids?
Because they know they’ll figure it out, right? It’s the same thing with business. It’s the same thing, and if you can’t see that, you’re going to struggle. I would hate for that to happen.
What to do if you’re ready to step up
So, if you’re ready to step up and if you want us to help you work through some of those limiting blocks, then let’s get on the phone and chat.
Here’s what I’d like you to do right now: If you’re ready to step up and are serious about moving your business forward, making the income, enjoying the freedom, having that dream life you’ve always wanted – maybe it won’t happen next week – but if you’re ready to get on the path to get you there, then let’s jump on the phone and let’s talk.
Book a call with us today.
Go to healthpreneurgroup.com/book, and I’m going to call you out. I seriously will. If you are not willing to step up and if you’re not willing to move past your own fear, this is not right for you. We’ll talk about where you are and where you want to go, but the goal of this conversation is to get to the truth of what matters most. It’s to have an honest, vulnerable conversation and say, ” You’re saying you want this stuff, but there’s an incongruence here. So, what’s really going to happen?”
Part of being a coach is having these difficult conversations. They’re not always difficult, but there will be times where you must go a little bit deeper, and you must get the weeds out of the garden. That’s what we can help you do on this call.
So, if that’s of interest to you and you’re ready to move forward and get your business where it wants to be, even if things haven’t worked out the way you wanted them in the past, then let’s book a call and do it now.
That is all for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, if you haven’t yet done so already, subscribe today on iTunes. Leave us a rating and review as well. That would be greatly appreciated. For now, continue to get out there, be great, do great, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
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What You Missed
In our last episode, we were chatting with Andrea Nakayama, creator of the Functional Nutrition Alliance and Functional Nutrition Lab. Through her business and school, she provides functional solutions for patients and practitioners alike.
Andrea is a Functional Nutritionist, educator, and speaker who is pioneering the movement to transform healthcare into a system that works.
Building a multifaceted business wasn’t easy – especially when Andrea wanted to scale but remained the face of the brand.
It was in this moment that she realized the importance of having systems and processes in place so she could confidently step away and trust her team.
Tune in to hear how Andrea did it, why she’s so passionate about revolutionizing healthcare.