I’ve recently been re-reading Gay Hendricks Upper Limit book “The Big Leap” which discusses the glass ceiling we carry in our lives. All of us have an inner thermostat which tells us how much money, love, happiness or joy we can experience in life. When we have success in one area of life, another problem crops up in another area! If you’re ever experienced this problem chances are good they are an upper limit paradigm; a belief which holds you back from more happiness, joy or success.
The upper limit problem is mostly created by inner fears which can hold you in your existing comfort zone and paradigm. I’ve definitely experienced this in building the online business and after reading Hendrick’s book realised it was an upper limit problem.
Gay Hendricks Upper Limit – Upper Limit & Online Business
I’ve been working online for several years and have experienced a lot of frustration in that time. In the early years getting traffic was a problem. Then it was making sales, then consistent sales, then scaling up. But one of the largest problems I’ve found has been hiding in my own mind. Gay Hendricks Upper Limit book The Big Leap has helped me unlock the issue. After reading it I immediately turned up my advertising budget! I realised it was an upper limit problem in my business – fear of losing money!
But it’s also a fear of success. If I was successful in business what then? My whole identity of a struggling affiliate would be lost! The purpose of my life has been found in struggle and strain. Without it, what would I do. I realised that my purpose was tied to the struggle! So I feared success as much as I feared failure. I feared losing myself and my identity.
Gay Hendricks Upper Limit – The Elastic Band
After re-reading the book again this time, I got clearer on how the upper limit problem was affecting my business. I looked to the pattern of behaviour I was repeating over and over. My initial venture into the online business world was through different tactics. I started out with Forex marketing and eBay and eventually I found affiliate marketing. I struggled for a long time with affiliate marketing, repeating behaviour which was tied up to my lack mentality.
Because I had very little money, I did everything for free. This is a long, slow process of creating content and attempting to get it found. From the content I sold affiliate products. Once I made a sale, I would get very excited and have a burst of energy. I would create loads more content in the hope that another sale would come. Then just crickets! Nothing happened. So I would stop. This pattern of sporadic action was to follow me on my online journey for a long time. Even with different marketing strategies including paid marketing.
My best commission of several thousand pounds came after a spirt of paid marketing. I had run up my credit card to thousands of pounds also and the commission I received only just covered the bill! How interesting! I paid off my credit card in full that month but the stress of it all was a lot to bare so I fell back to my previous blogging activities, instead of trying again with paid marketing – which clearly worked!
Looking back now this was clearly an upper limit problem. The status quo became more important to me until I got frustrated with my comfort zone and another spirt of energy would ensue.
Blogging & Online Success
My old content would occasionally give me a sale here and there. Each time it did, I became more confident that affiliate marketing could actually work for me. So I would start blogging again. When I had been blogging for several weeks in a row and nothing happened, I would stop, procrastinate and wonder whether I should be doing something else.
A month would pass of me just procrastinating. Then another sale would come in from my blog posts! Damn, if only I can maintained consistency with my blogging, and not stopped then I would be getting many more sales dropping in!
I realised my patterns were based on my belief about whether what I was doing would actually work! Both my paid marketing and blogging efforts were entirely based on sales, not belief! No wonder my actions were so sporadic and my results were so intermittent.
I realised I needed consistency, and set about being consistent in both paid marketing and blogging.
Summary
If you’re struggling in your affiliate business could it be you have an upper limit problem? The best way to solve an upper limit problem is by shining the light of your consciousness on it, and making it conscious! You can’t solve the problem when you don’t know it exists! Likely the problem will surface in some problem in your life whether it’s success, money, relationship or love related.
See also affiliate mindset and affiliate psychology.