This episode delves into the profound realization that oftentimes, the very strengths that have propelled us to success may paradoxically become the impediments to our further growth.

We explore the notion that what got us here will not necessarily get us there, urging you, dear listener, to introspectively examine the habits and behaviors that, while once beneficial, may now be stifling your potential. Our dialogue invites you to engage in a daring challenge: identify the strengths that are inadvertently holding you back. With anecdotes and insights, we illuminate the importance of relinquishing outdated practices, such as micromanagement or excessive control, that prevent us from embracing new opportunities and fostering growth within our teams.

Join us in this engaging exploration, as we encourage you to embrace imperfection, let go of the past, and design a breakthrough year filled with infinite possibilities!

Takeaways:

1. In the journey towards self-improvement, recognizing the strengths that impede our growth is paramount, as these can often serve as double-edged swords, simultaneously propelling us forward while constraining our advancement.
2. The podcast emphasizes the notion that what has previously contributed to our success may not necessarily be the catalyst for future breakthroughs, urging listeners to reassess their established habits and approaches.
3. An essential aspect of effective leadership involves relinquishing the tight grip of control and allowing team members the freedom to innovate, learn, and occasionally falter in their endeavors, thus fostering an environment conducive to growth.
4. To cultivate real progress, it is imperative to identify and eliminate time-consuming activities that do not align with our overarching goals, thereby making room for endeavors that truly propel us towards our aspirations.

Chapters:

00:01 - Celebrating Breakthroughs

00:48 - The Dilemma of Strengths and Growth

03:38 - Letting Go of Perfection

04:51 - Achieving Breakthroughs: Stopping Unproductive Habits

06:16 - Creating Breakthroughs: Embracing Strengths and Opportunities

This episode part of the Force for Good Tool of the Week Series! Each week we feature one of the 100+ Force for Good Tools.

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*** The Full FFG Toolkit is available with A Force for Good, the Book: https://aforceforgood.biz/book/***

****Have questions on how to pioneer your 100 Year impact plan? Schedule time with Coco: https://calendly.com/coco-sellman/zoom-office-hours-clone **

** Follow the Force for Good Business show to install the unique system of perpetual growth into your company.

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Coco Sellman, the host of the Force for Good Business Show, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

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Hey.

Dear doer, it's been amazing getting to see your 12 month breakthrough that you're looking for in your business and lives.

Hasn't it been incredible, Coco?

I love hearing everybody's ideas and what you're wanting to create in the world in just 12 months is so exciting and inspiring.

So good.

And I love this dare that we're going to be doing in this video because there's so many times in our lives that we are really good at something, but maybe it's not the thing that will help us grow or scale our business.

It's almost the thing that's holding us back.

This is what I love about you, Coco, being able to help us see that through this dare.

So the dare is I dare you.

What is your strength that is holding you back?

What got you here will not get you there.

Right?

I invite you to look at your life and your history.

What are the things you used to get to success?

Right.

Sometimes it was working really hard, sometimes it was using fear.

We tell ourselves, I have to do this.

If I don't do this, I can't pay the bills.

It's these different pressure points.

We use what I believe in business and in life, our businesses are an expression of us.

A company, even a great big company, cannot grow any further than the leaders are growing, right?

If you look at your calendar right now and the activities you're in every day and you look back a year or 10 years, are you doing exactly the same thing every day?

Right?

Because if you are, chances are you're creating incremental change in your life and in your success and in your health.

But in order to create breakthroughs, we need to evolve and change.

The truth is we develop strengths and then those strengths become what holds us back.

Right?

Especially as a new leader, you might use a lot of control.

You might need to do everything.

You might work really long hours, you might be on that treadmill of running fast, fast, fast, fast, fast.

But that's only going to get you so far, right?

So now it's time to think about leverage and where you can start to build.

But before you can think of leverage, we have to take a moment, stand back, and see those behaviors that are actually stopping you, the ones that you've subconsciously told yourself are what is making you successful.

When it's not overworking, not trusting your team, not giving your team chance to make mistakes, not giving yourself a chance to make a mistake, giving yourself permission to allow new behaviors to come forward that you haven't trusted before.

One for me has been over preparing.

I can spend all kinds of energy over preparing.

And at this stage in my career, I have to let that go.

Right?

I have to let go of the over preparing and show up and be my best.

That's what I need to do.

But it means I have to let go of my fear of needing to be in control and know what I'm gonna say.

When I was growing Elume, it was all about letting people do their jobs and make mistakes.

Not needing everything to be perfect because we couldn't be perfect and grow at the same time.

Those two things don't happen.

There has to be room for imperfection.

So another way to look at this is where are you holding on to perfection?

Where are you holding on for things that have to be a particular way?

Once you let it go, once you see what do I think that's going to do for me, you'll find that you're looking for strength, you're looking for certainty, you're looking for clarity, you're looking for confidence in all the wrong places.

Allow yourself to see what are old habits that are holding you back.

Wow, I'm having a breakthrough right now.

True.

You think you're so good at certain things and it's hard for you to let other people do them because that's your thing.

But you're right, how can you leverage that if you keep doing it?

I love what you said about if you're doing the same things you were doing a year ago.

You gotta look at that.

How can we grow?

How can we leverage our skills?

That's actually the thing that's holding you back because that's hard to trust someone else.

So, yeah, I'm having a breakthrough right now as we're doing this video.

It's really good.

There's one other way to pick at this.

One of my favorite exercises, and I do it with myself all the time, is I think about a goal.

What do I want to start doing that I haven't been doing?

Yeah.

What do I want to stop doing?

Stop doing isn't just about that.

It's not good for the goal.

You have to stop doing things that take time, that are less important.

You have to look for everything you possibly can to let go of in order to have a breakthrough.

You have to stop doing everything that is not in the service of that breakthrough.

If it's spending four hours a day on email, you've got to fucking stop that.

Because they.

There is no way that four hours of email is gonna help you get your breakthrough.

Right.

Maybe you have this mindset that I have to have a zero email system, and that could be holding you back.

Wow.

Right?

So you have the start, you have the stop, and then you have the amplify.

We won't talk about that this session because that's a different part of the session.

Right now we're talking about the stop.

I need to make room for a breakthrough, so I need more space, energy, and mindset.

Clearing my head.

Good.

I love this too, because as you're doing your videos or you're typing and you're telling us the answer to this dare, I have a feeling you're going to learn from each other.

I hadn't thought about email until you just said email, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I have to do that too.

And so we're going to learn from each other in this collective sourcing of information that we're going to be able to really tap into.

Cannot wait to see what you say for this one.

The dare is what is your strength that is holding you back?

Do the thing.

Don't wait for opportunity.

Create it.

Design your breakthrough year.

Yay.