From the time I began in the field of personal development, I’ve heard about the importance of modeling others as a way of speeding up the process of creating success. Find out what others who have succeeded thought, what actions they took, what strategies they used — do the same and you’ll get the same results. Great!
And modeling does work — at least a good portion of the time. However, there is an important caveat.
Model people who are similar to you who have created the success you desire.
Sage Kotsenburg just won the first gold of the 2014 Winter Olympics and when he stood at the top of the course at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Saturday, he was not sure which tricks he would attempt.
The one that mattered was one he had never attempted. “I just kind of make things up,” he said.
Think of how different this is from other competitors who have spent all winter perfecting runs that they imagined for months.
Which strategy is better for you? For some of you, this “I just make things up.” strategy would never work and for others it could be a way of thinking that frees you to create greatness!
It depends on your natural strengths.
Another example… If you are a quiet person who wants to be a speaker would it really make sense to model someone like Anthony Robbins? If you are a high energy, boisterous person would it really make sense to model someone like Deepak Chopra? Well, yes and no. Of course there are things to learn from everyone and we most likely can all benefit from stretching ourselves to grow and expand our idea of who we are and who we can be.
But when it comes right down to it, what I’ve observed after almost 30 years in this field is that people rarely change the core of their personality so doesn’t it make sense to just go with it? Make the absolute most of your uniqueness instead of trying to model someone completely different from yourself?
Learn from / model others but make YOUR mark, YOUR way!
Spread the word,
Debra