Do you ever feel like you are just along for the ride in your life? Like all these things are happening and you’ve got no say in what, when, where, or why?
There’s a lot of things out of our control and when that happens, it makes us feel nervous, lose confidence (maybe even in progress we’ve made), and go numb.
That’s when you need to tap into your O factor.
And by O, we mean the queen bee herself, Oprah.
If you don’t know Oprah’s story, take a moment and read it here. Basically, this woman came from some of the most challenging upbringings you can ever imagine and made her big dreams and goals happen.
She fought for everything she had. She didn’t get a handout or a leg up…and she found massive success.
Here’s the thing: everybody has the O factor…we just have to learn how to tap into it. But most of us have some major blocks standing in the way of truly accessing it, so today, we’ll dig into how to overcome them and make magic happen.
Wait. What’s the O factor?
Glad you asked!
Think of it this way: what makes Oprah be Oprah? How did she come to be somebody so impactful, phenomenal, powerful, and polarizing? What was it about her that made her have so much more success than another person chasing the same path?
It’s like Steven Pressfield said: “Most of us have two lives: the life we live and the life we’re capable of living.”
A lot of us feel this, right? We’re going through the day, getting through the grind, making progress, having setbacks. That’s life, right? But deep down, we know we’re made for more…so we spend hours dreaming big, setting goals, and scoping out our dream house on Zillow.
We dream bigger because there’s another life we know we’re capable of living.
To tap into your O factor is to live the life you’re capable of living. But to live that big, beautiful life, you need to tap into that O factor to blast through the blocks in your way, own your passion, and choose inevitable success.
Block #1: Your Circumstances
Have you ever heard the saying that everybody’s fighting a battle you can’t see? It’s true; everybody faces negative circumstances.
The question is do you want to be a victim of your circumstances? Or do you want to tap into your O factor and decide to move past them?
Even if you don’t always quite know what you’re doing, taking imperfect action can be better than taking no action at all. Why? Because the one thing you can control in life is your action.
So even if the action you take today has zero positive results on your life, your business, your family, your health, anything, it doesn’t mean you don’t take the action. It means you do the best you can do. Because then, more often than not, circumstances will turn around and you’ll want to be in the best possible position when they do.
Block #2: Your History
Raise your hand if you ever fall victim to what you’ve experienced in the past. “Oh, this happened to me seven years ago, I know how this plays out now.”
As humans, we’ve been taught to learn a lesson once and never do that thing again so we don’t experience the pain, right? But the truth is, you don’t know how it will turn out this time. You know how it played out seven years ago, but not today.
You can’t keep looking at your past and saying, “I know what’s going to happen,” if you want to be an entrepreneur. We can’t allow past pain, mistakes, misconceptions, or poor experiences in the past to define our future. Instead, feel confident walking into the situation with more knowledge than you had before.
You’re in the driver’s seat. If you change nothing, nothing changes. Be brave enough to take that chance.
Block #3: Your Comfort Zone
We’re all about comfort over at the Thrivers team, but we’re gonna be real: nothing good comes from your comfort zone.
All you’ll get? Stagnation.
Think of comfort zones like a roller coaster. In life, business, pretty much anything, there’s this dramatic buildup, right? Maybe you go to cosmetology school, meet all these phenomenal people, and love what you’re learning. You get hired at your first salon and it’s amazing. Then that feeling peters off a little and you either get complacent or comfortable in the face that you’ll always be a struggling stylist and you decide to cruise…ending up in the comfort zone.
But what happens after the roller coaster hits its peak? It crashes down on the other side six times faster. The rise to the top may take a long time and a lot of work, but the plummet to the bottom can be almost instantaneous.
The key is to never get complacent, to never get comfortable, to never feel like you’ve reached the top. There is no “I’ve made it.” There is no comfort zone; there’s always more.
That’s the mindset of somebody who’s in touch with their O factor and therefore wildly successful.
Block #4: Being Locked into Routine
A lot of us are creatures of habit, right? Healthy habits are a wonderful thing, but being so locked in your routine that you never want to shake it up or push outside your comfort zone traps you into the history of your choices and your circumstances won’t change.
But if there’s one thing we learned in 2020, it’s that nothing is predictable. Meaning it’s good to develop good habits, but not to depend on routines.
You can’t be afraid to break out and try something new. Go ahead and shake up your schedule; so what if that one client is mad? Is Carrie being happy because you’re still working nights and weekends more important than your own happiness?
If you put everybody else’s happiness in front of yours, it won’t bring you joy. It’ll breed contempt, frustration, and you might even start to feel upset about the industry you chose.
Do you think Oprah was afraid to make choices and shake up her routine? Nope. Neither should you.
Block #5: Solitude
Do you ever feel like you’re totally alone on this journey to success? Like you work really hard in your business, but your coworkers mock you for it? Then the isolation kicks in and you start to question everything.
This block can do you in, even if you break through the previous four. The judgment and isolation of people telling you you’re wrong is so difficult.
Here’s the honest truth: you can’t build a great business alone. It’s so important to have somebody you can go to as an ally—not your partner, not your best friend—for business support.
Going to your business peers over your personal inner circle means if you explain what’s on your mind, they’ll totally get it and can give you tangible advice.
Having that network keeps you from straying into the dredges of nobody gets me, I’m alone in this. So align yourself with people fighting the same fight instead of trying to rally people who aren’t even on the battlefield. Look for stylists and salon owners who’ve achieved massive success, whose goals are like yours.
Because if you are the product of the top 5 people you surround yourself with, why wouldn’t you surround yourself with badass people with a really positive mindset?
Block #6: Fear
If we put the first 5 blocks into a circle, fear would surround them all.
Fear is what holds us back from achieving a big, crazy goal that you aren’t sure you should try for, solely because you aren’t sure if it would work out. Totally get it, but think of it this way: what’s the worst thing that could happen?
The more we ask ourselves that question, the more fear loses its power.
Think of fear as a gremlin on your shoulder, chatting it up in your ear, pouring in negative self-talk 24/7. He’s trying to keep you in your comfort zone, in your routine, reminding you how it hasn’t worked out in the past, making you feel like a loser.
But let’s say you ask yourself what’s the worst thing that could happen and the answer is you could lose revenue. What could you do now to prevent that? How can you save-proof yourself from those circumstances?
Suddenly that gremlin’s got nothing to say.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Your O factor is essentially this: feeling all those fears, those blocks, that negative self-talk, and doing it anyway. Step one? Recognizing and moving past these blocks so we can start living our biggest, best lives.
Don’t be afraid to show up being the person you are fully capable of being. You’ve got this.