I drew this picture while I was at Business Mastery a couple of weeks ago… (don’t be jealous of my handwriting)
It doesn’t matter what level of success you’ve achieved in your business, we’ve all got a “Threshold of Control.”
In a nutshell, it’s the outer limit of where you and your business have currently grown, and what you can currently “handle” or feel like you have a solid level of control over.
If a problem you’ve seen before pops up, no biggie, you’ve got it in the bag.
But what happens when you start to see challenges pop up OUTSIDE of your circle?
Well that’s a different ball game. You’ll need to learn or do something that you’ve NEVER done before. That would be outside of your “Threshold of Control.”
These are the things that push you and require you to adapt. They force you to grow. And when you do….. you expand your threshold of control.
This is great news- because growth is not linear. If you’re truly challenging yourself, you’re a lot more likely to be able to solve other problems that pop up within a new, bigger circle.
See the NEW circle in the pic to the right? That’ll be your new “threshold of control.”
When you grow and are able to solve the RIGHT problems, other problems go away, and things start to fall into place.
If you ignore the problem, things get worse. Kind of like your dashboard where you’re getting a red flashing warning light. If you pretend it’s not there, 3 other red lights will start to go off.
The faster you learn how to adapt, the more successful you will be.
Embrace the fact that we ALWAYS have to be learning, growing, and taking more risks….. or don’t… and watch your business slowly start to wither and die.
So think about this in your own business and what this means. How does this apply to you? How can you expand your “threshold of control” to take your business to the next level?
- Who do you need to hire?
- What do you need to delegate?
- What holes do you need to plug?
- What new skillset(s) do you need to learn?
- What new systems or strategies do you need to implement?
- What other areas of growth do you need to focus on?
- What new boundaries do you need to put in place?
- What new habits do you need to put into practice?
- What new risks do you need to take?
A great example of this, is one of my FPA clients who has effectively DOUBLED his business in the last 12 months.
To be able to accommodate their incredible growth, he’s looking at either moving into a 10,000 square foot facility or adding 4,000 additional square feet to where he’s currently located.
There’s a significant amount of risk to expand. It’s a scary move.
His classes are already busting at the seams. If he doesn’t do SOMETHING, his square footage becomes a chokehold on his business. His growth is stunted, his reach is limited, and unless he changes his business model, his income in his facility is (for the most part) capped.
Moving will require him to: take on more risk, incur the costs of moving or build-out, take on more overhead, hire additional staff, and the list goes on.
However, it WILL allow him to: expand his impact and client base, provide a better experience and atmosphere for his members and staff, help him better accomplish his mission, and enable him to make a LOT more money.
He will easily be able to take on an additional 300-400 clients with the new space.
Here’s the thing about your “threshold of control” / comfort zone…. it’s 80% psychological, and only 20% mechanical. How you tackle fear is a HUGE piece of the puzzle.
Would you move forward with the expansion? That’ll all depend on how big you want to make your circle.
Looking at your growth from this perspective may help you see things in a new light.
To me, this is one of the most important things you can think about in your business, and was one of my favorite things that Tony talked about. Hope this helps you in your business!
Alicia 🙂
PS. If you’re interested in coaching, I am taking a total of 5 new clients on in February. My program is designed to help you plug in systems and processes to make EVERYTHING in your business run like clockwork. If you’re interested in seeing if it’s a good fit for you and your business, head over to FitProAccelerator.com and we can set up a call to chat.
