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What Got You Here Will Hold You Back

Written by: Jamie Broughton

Article Overview: This article is where I will walk you through the process I use with my private 1:1 clients to uncover their “success strategy.” Your “success strategy” is both the source of your success-to-date but also the source of your limitations. Once you identify it you can move beyond it. In other words, you control it, vs. it controlling you.

What Got You Here Will Hold You Back

“It's my belief that sanity lies in realizing that
reality is not exactly what we had in mind.”
~Roy Blount, Jr. (1941- ) American humorist


In the movie “The Truman Show” Jim Carrey plays Truman, an unknowing soul literally born into a carefully constructed artificial world. Indeed he’s the product of a grand experiment by a visionary TV producer. Everyone in Truman’s life is actually an actor - his parents, friends, coworkers, people on the street, everyone.

For 30 years Truman had lived in/on the biggest stage set ever created – there’s the “town” he lives in, an island, a small ocean, even the weather is artificially created. Truman’s life is carefully orchestrated, meticulously captured on film and transmitted to an eagerly awaiting outside world 24/7.

Truman of course thinks his whole life is real, after all he doesn’t know of anything else.

Slowly over the course of the movie, clues about the real nature of his world start appearing – lighting equipment falls from the sky, miniature cameras are found. Questions start arising in Truman’s mind and he begins to question what he believes to be true.

In the final scene of the movie Truman stumbles upon a “real” exit door on the set of his world as he knows it. He faces the choice to leave his artificial world or stay within it.

For the first time, the producer’s voice appears on loudspeaker in Truman’s world. The producer has grown to love Truman, much like a parent, and implores him to stay:

Producer: “There is no more truth out there than in the world I have created for you. You see love, you see deceit. Yet in my world, you have nothing to fear.”

Truman is frozen at the doorway, presumably considering his thoughts, his options and his life.

Producer: “You’re afraid, and that’s why you can’t leave. I’ve been with you through all your great experiences – loosing your first tooth…your first day of school… You can’t leave. You belong here with me.”

Truman makes his choice…

Coaching Fieldwork:

While it’s obvious the producer in the “Truman Show” created the physical world for Truman, Truman’s world is more than that. It includes his hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears etc. Indeed, Truman created his own artificial world based on the “artificial circumstances” created for him.

Here’s the rub:

We’re no different than Truman.

We all create our own artificial worlds on a regular basis. We don’t need visionary producers to construct realities for us. We are quite capable of creating our own fantasy-lands thank you very much. In fact, we live in them everyday; they’re founded on assumptions, attitudes and beliefs about the world we live in.

Those worlds we create and our experiences of them shape what we desire, what we think we’re capable of and ultimately the leaders we become in life. This is the interesting part: over time, in our own little custom-constructed contexts, each and every one of us creates a formula to succeed in the world.

I call it your “success strategy.”

The problem with your “success strategy” is it works! After all, it’s got you to where you are today.

Your “success strategy” is like the physical bounds of Truman’s world. Inside it, you feel at home. You’ve proven you can produce results there but of course your results are innately limited. To top it off your own internal “producer” implores, “In my world you have nothing to fear…you can’t leave… You belong here with me...”

If you really want to break through to a whole new world of performance you’ll need to walk out the exit door of your own stage-set and leave behind the very thing that kept you safe within it, your “success strategy.”

Over the next several issues I’ll walk you through the mechanics of what the “success strategy” is and give you exercises to uncover yours.

For now, consider renting “The Truman Show” starring Jim Carrey. It’s has a humorous yet practical context. Enjoy!

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Article Tags: 1941, american humorist, coworkers, deceit, doorway, fieldwork, first day of school, grand experiment, jim carrey, lighting equipment, loudspeaker, miniature cameras, movie the truman show, parents friends, real nature, roy blount jr, sanity, tv producer, weather, whole life



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