 |
| Upgrade your mindset for success |
It takes a certain mindset and discipline if we want to
achieve the happiness and success we want in our lives. We have to become aware
and vigilant with how we approach life and business and realize the power of
our attitudes and choices that shape our reality. Our mindset determines how we
direct our mental, emotional and physical energy in everyday living and deal
with what life throws at us.
While there are many success mindsets to master, having
worked with clients in my Results Coaching program and my personal experience,
here are my top 8 mindsets to set you up for entrepreneurial success:
1.
The power of anticipation.
Creating any kind of change in
life, whether it’s starting a business, changing vocation, embarking a new life
path, or doing anything you haven’t done before, you have to anticipate how
you’re going to do it so that you can plan for it to be successful.
When you lack planning and don’t
have a frame of reference for what you’re going to experience, it seems foreign
and it may cause confusion and anxiety.
Firstly, your reptilian brain
goes into fight or flight mode - as that’s its main purpose – to protect you
and keep you safe from the unknown. And because it doesn’t know what its
dealing with and you don’t have a frame of reference, when it shows up, you
won’t always know what to do with it.
It generally starts with an idea,
then a concept, then a vision, and then you start taking action and things
start to happen. And in that process,
you have to set yourself up to deal with the emotional, physical and mental
changes that may or may not occur.
In anticipating change, you need
to get real about how that change is going to affect everything in your life –
your money, your energy, your health, your time, your resources and the people
you care about. With foresight you can
then plan on how you are going to deal with each aspect, anticipate what kind
of challenges you’ll encounter and have solutions in place that will support
you in getting to where you want to be.
In making ourselves successful,
we often have to first make space for what we want to come in, which means some things (in some cases, a
lot) need to go – this may include people, situations, habits and belief
patterns that hold us back and it can be very challenging letting go of what is
familiar but that we know we can’t take with us.
Through the power of anticipation,
you not only anticipate and prepare for what’s ahead, but when things come up
while you’re going through it, you’ve already equipped yourself with strategies
and coping mechanisms to get through it.
2.
You have to be hungry for your own
progress.
Without the hunger and desire to
go after what you want, you’re not really going to get anywhere. This is what is going to fuel you, move you
forward and get you through the challenges you’re going to encounter while
you’re making things happen.
It’s going to take maintenance,
sustenance, endurance and strength, and you’ve got to be committed to doing
better than you did yesterday and to prepare yourself for whatever that means
because there will be some challenging situations and decisions that are going
to come up on your journey. Your
self-motivation is going to come from how strong your desire is to have what
you want.
3.
The power of association.
You are the average of the five
people you hang around. You really want
to be around people who motivate you to be the best you can be, who support
you, who you can confide in, people who are smarter than you, people who are
more organized than you, who have a better or different skill set than you –
people you can learn from and help you grow.
You want to be around people who elevate each other, feel joyful, are
energized and are authentic.
When we’re with people who are
not aligned to our success, we stay stuck, we doubt ourselves, we tend to not
make the best decisions, we keep ourselves small and we consume a lot of energy
in trying to maintain those relationships – energy that could be spent on
expanding our business, doing the things we love and spending it with the
people who actually make us feel good.
The reality is that we often just
outgrow relationships and while letting go of these relationships can be
painful at times, you have to look at it from a different perspective. It’s not personal, it’s called growing
(up). Some peoples’ journey will align
with yours as you move forward and others not, and that’s ok.
Association is powerful, because
it incorporates everything you’re associated to. What you listen to, what you watch, what you
read, what your share on social media.
Do a quick audit in these areas and assess if you’re surrounding,
listening, watching and sharing information that actually brings value into
your life and those of others, elevates your personal brand and helps you get
closer to what you want to achieve in life.
If you don’t have access to the
people you really want to associate with, start by reading books, blogs and
podcasts of people who are achieving success already. My personal favorite is
listening to podcasts. I love that you
can listen to them at anytime, anywhere and you can choose what you want to
listen to. They’re the perfect traffic buster and have become a habit that I’ve
incorporated to keep me motivated and inspired.
I listen to podcasts of people
who are successful based on my own definition of success, who are on the same
journey as I am, who share their experiences, what they have learnt, what tools
they use and give insights into how they have achieved success in other areas
of their lives. My favorite podcasts are
Entrepreneurs on Fire, The Tim Ferris Show, Amy Porterfield, The Lead
Generation and the Mastin Kipp Podcast.
There are so many amazing people sharing their stories and skills to
help others, it would be worth your while to spend some time in finding those
that resonate with you and learn all you can from them to accelerate your
success in all areas of your life.
 |
| A growth mindset is adopting a learning mindset |
4.
Develop a growth mindset.
In order to develop a growth
mindset, you must be prepared to learn - learn about yourself, learn from your
failures, learn from success, learn about your customers, learn about people,
learn technology, learn tools, learn new ways of doing, thinking and
being. You can’t really move forward if
you’re wanting to hang onto the old way doing things.
A way of developing a strong
growth mindset is to view the challenges you're encountering from a learning
perspective as opposed to feeling like a victim or not having any options
available to you. This means approaching challenging situations with the
question "What is this teaching me?". This question is really
powerful because it removes the blaming and shaming of the situation and
empowers you to look at the situation more objectively, which in turn, helps
you to think more clearly in coming up with solutions. By taking this approach,
you give yourself permission to be ok with learning as you grow and eliminate
the unnecessary pressure of having to have the answers all of the time.
Another way to develop a growth
mindset is to work with a coach who has expertise in a specific area that you
may need help with. I’ve personally worked with a money coach, a business coach
and a life coach over the last five years because I just didn’t have all the
skills myself and I didn’t know people who could help me get to where I wanted
to be. All of the coaches I’ve worked
with advocate self-investment and that you actually need to invest in yourself
to make yourself better – in doing the outer work and the inner work.
Working with someone who you
resonate with and who’s already achieved the success you want is gold and worth
every cent if are willing to learn and apply their teachings. You automatically expand your perception of
what is available to you and you’ll naturally start attracting like-minded
people that will introduce you to other people, who not only introduce you to
tools and resources that help you get to where you want to be but open you up
to other opportunities. When you’re open
to learning, you increase your potential and possibilities to expand.
5.
Habit is destiny.
You have to take daily,
consistent and intentional action towards what you want to achieve in life and
in business. You have to do it
habitually until it becomes automatic.
We are creatures of habit. We
already have routines that we execute without even thinking about it and where
we want to create change in our lives, we need to accept that it's going to
take some effort in creating success focussed habits.
The good news is that it only
takes 30 days to implement a new habit and while the initial stages are met
with resistance, once you get into flow with it, do it enough, think and feel
it enough, it becomes involuntary. This
means that you can create new success focused habits that form routines,
reprogramming how you work and what you spend your energy on so that you drive
your own success.
Ideally you want to have a
morning success ritual that sets you up for the day. You want to feel
emotionally, mentally and physically strong and you want to set yourself up for
maximum productivity so that you get the most results out of your day.
Another important habit to create
is quality rejuvenation - to rest, recharge and refuel. To give yourself time
to replenish improves your energy, clarity and drive.
6.
Time management vs self management.
Unfortunately, we can’t manage
time and we can’t control it. We have to
learn to manage ourselves. By managing
ourselves, we take self-responsibility and we avoid projecting our inability to
manage ourselves when we focus on not having enough time.
This is why creating success
focused habits is essential to us achieving our desires and personal
success. When we think about how
available and accessible we are to other people, how we indulge in low grade
entertainment such as sensory stimulation, idle gossip, guilty pleasures and
TV, and we use our time to start enjoying the activities that, directly or
indirectly bring us more results, we’ll
manage our time better and achieve more.
I like to focus on high-value
lifetime activities, where I'm either working on my business and marketing
initiatives, or spending time on the things that feed my soul, keep me
connected to the activities and people I love and fuel my cups mentally, emotionally
and physically. The reality is that if
you’re spending energy on things that don’t align with your high-value lifetime
activities, then you’re really just wasting your time and your energy, and
who's got time for that?
7.
There is no magic pill for sustainable
long-term results.
We live in a culture of instant
gratification. Everybody wants a quick
fix and while there are many promises made out there, for the important things
in life – like relationships, health and money, there aren’t many and we have
put in the work to get the sustainable and long term results that we want.
It’s a continuous process that
requires continuous attention and energy.
Your results are going to be dependent on how badly you want it and what
you’re prepared to do to obtain it. To master yourself and achieve what you
want in life and in business, is going to take doing the work.
8.
Productivity is the antidote to fear.
Fear only turns into worry, which
leads to more fear and worry, and worry is really a waste of time. It keeps us stuck and indecisive. The best
way to eliminate fear is to be as productive as you can be.
I like to list the key goals of
my businesses in detail and break them into bite-size activities so that when I
am struggling to focus in moments of fear and uncertainty, I can focus on
getting things done on that list without having to really think about it. I
have a tool that I can easily access to help me refocus my attention instead of
getting caught up in the paralysis of fear.
By being more productive you will
feel more in control of where you are going and how you are going to get there,
fear less and be more inspired. Being
productive is the most constructive way to face your fears and help you stay
focused while you’re in the trenches going through it.
In order to achieve the success you want in life, you must
become the next best version of yourself – which means being prepared to take
your thinking, your self-image and your self-esteem to the next level and by
letting go of the old ways of thinking, doing and being.
Your mindset is the driving force behind your thoughts and
actions and is essential to achieving personal and business success. You have to become ruthless with your energy
so that you have enough of it to deal with whatever comes up and you have to
equip yourself with the knowledge, tools and a new mindset to go after what you
want.
