Hello! What’s your Like to Dislike ratio?

During the recent coaching conversations I had with many people in different cities, I noticed a common trend. Many talented people often have an inclination to hold back on their creative ideas, expert opinions or artistic creations, fearing those are not good enough. What would others say? Here’s the thing:

This fear of rejection or reprisal is real. However, a small change in your perspective can change the game eternally in your favour.

Look at the following thought, fear and decision patterns (taken from some real coaching conversations)

• Thought: If I share my opinion, what will others say? Fear: I don’t want to look bad. Decision: I will not share my opinion.
• Thought: If I make that proposal, ‘they’ may not like it. Fear: They might say something nasty. Decision: I will keep quiet.
• Thought: Last time, I shared my opinion on LinkedIn/Facebook/Youtube, someone wrote a bad comment. Fear: Someone will write bad comments again! Decision: I will never express my views again on social media.

Have you faced a similar situation before in your professional life or your public life? Where have you held back from expressing your ideas/opinions/creativity or sharing with others your stories/poems/articles/artistic pursuits because you felt they were not good enough? If so, change YOUR Perspective! Instead, ask What’s your LIKE to DISLIKE ratio?

What’s your Like to Dislike ratio?

Like to Dislike ratio

Have you watched the video of the song Hello! by Adele? Her ONE song on Youtube has been watched by people around the world a whopping 2,263,960,469 times. Yes, more than 2.2 billion times. Going by numbers along, it is about one-third of the world population.

Despite such humungous viewership, 720,000 people disliked her video. (720K Dislikes!!!!!). Ouch!! 814,000 people left their comments on that video.

Did you also notice that 12,000,000+ fans liked the video (That is 12 million likes. Wow! Wow!! Wow!!!)

I would invite you to see it this way.,… For this song, Adele’s LIKE to DISLIKE ratio is 16:1 ( Yes, 12 divided by 0.72). This means, for everyone who expressed their dislike for her song, 16 others loved it enough to give her a thumbs up!! 16 times more!

If this was your video, what would you focus on?

Would you focus on the 720,000 people who hates your master piece OR the 12,000,000 people who love it OR would you be focussed on the fact that your video was watched over 2 billion times? Each time someone taking out 6:06 minutes of their busy life to check out your masterpiece.

You might often be affected by these perceived rejections, but don’t let that reign in your parade!

Don’t lose heart and focus on the following to uplift yourselves and keep going forward.

No matter how great you are or how fabulous your ideas are, not everyone will like it. If nobody every complained about you and your ideas, you might be playing small.

By playing small you help no one. If Adele held back her song, the 720k people wouldn’t like her any better. However, if she held back, she would be preventing 2.2 billion people from enjoying her creative work and 12 million people expressing their admiration! You possibly can’t make everyone happy. If everyone is happy with you, maybe you are not standing up for what you believe in.

Hello! What areas of your life are you holding back? Your fans and followers are waiting to hear from you!

Call to Action: Reflect on what’s stopping you from getting to the next level of your career or profession. If you need help, visit NextLevelUnlmited.com

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Manoj Vasudevan is a Next Level Leadership Readiness expert, management consultant, and the World Champion of Public Speaking. He helps executives and entrepreneurs to breakthrough to the Next Level in career and life. Manoj is known for his expertise in simplifying complex topics into practical strategies. He is the CEO of Thought Expressions and holds an MBA from Imperial College, London. His books include the international bestseller Mastering Leadership The Mousetrap Way. He speaks at international conferences, multinational companies, universities, and around the world. As a coach, Manoj has a proven track record in personal transformation and breakthroughs. CEOs, Senior Executives, UN Diplomats, Celebrities & Professionals from 50+ nationalities have benefited from Manoj’s coaching. To contact the author click here.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/in/manojthecoach/.