When I evaluate my own personal development in the network marketing industry, I find a lot of positives and a lot of negatives.
I can still remember my first month in my very first MLM company several years ago.
Wide-eyed, anxious, over-bearing, and maybe even a little 'sales-y' at times.
Of course, I was simply doing what I was told.
Most likely, I was told the same thing you were when you joined your first network marketing opportunity.
If I talked to everyone, recruited my friends and family, bugged strangers, held parties at my house, and handed out magazines and fliers, my bank account would be overflowing with cash! So naturally, I took action.
But that action led to few results, a ton of rejection, and a boatload of alienation from those close to me that I tried to turn into business partners.
As the months passed, the results failed to come in.
This immediately led me to doubt my decision to start my business, and even worse, led me to doubt myself.
This led to months of inactivity and, naturally, no results.
Finally, I took a look in the mirror and asked my reflection what I could do to make things work.
I didn't want to spend the rest of my life just 'scraping by' living paycheck to paycheck.
I also wasn't ready to admit defeat without seeking out an answer to my problems.
Fast forward to today.
In the time since my meeting with the mirror to the present, I've made some drastic changes.
Many, many of these personal adjustments have led me to rewrite my personal blueprint on how I approach my life and my business.
Above all, I've made a conscious effort to surround myself with leaders and mastermind with them as much as possible.
There's an adage I've adopted that's altered my thinking: "Your net worth is a result of your network.
" By masterminding with leaders, listening to their words and adopting their principles, I discovered the ingredient that was missing all along: You can never develop the necessary skill set unless you first develop the necessary mindset.
That single thought summarizes all the struggle I've ever had, not only in my business, but in my life as well: My negative thinking was getting in the way! It really had nothing to do with my product, my company, or even my opportunity.
I was simply approaching my business from the wrong perspective.
If you allow yourself to accept failure as an inevitability, there's no way your mind can reach a level that allows you to be successful.
Instead of seeing things for what they can be, you will automatically see things for what they once were or what others around you believe they should be.
The mind is your most powerful asset, but it can quickly become a liability if the majority of your thoughts consist of negativity, failure, or lack of development.
If your mind is not in the right place, you can never fully develop the necessary skill set you desire.
Mindset goes hand-in-hand with skill set.
In order to get the latter, you have to first master the former.
The necessary mindshift does not take place overnight.
But the sooner you realize your mind may be the biggest roadblock in the way of achieving your goals, the faster you can begin training it to project nothing but positive thoughts that constantly help you move forward.