When you are thinking about starting your business it can be like a battle inside your head.
You’ll have many positive feelings also mixed with many negative ones.
Are you excited, motivated but also nervous and uncertain? This mindset is normal especially when you’ve worked at your 9-5 for many years. You’ve been told what time to arrive, what to do and when to leave.
But following someone else’s orders causes you to lose your own sense of self-direction.
Tuning into the right mindset doesn’t mean that you’ll never feel uncertain or nervous. But you’ll be able to control these emotions that are keeping you caged from reaching your potential. You’ll still experience negative thoughts and emotions but the successful mindset automatically transforms into positivity.
With such confidence, you’ll be progressing and will rarely be stuck in procrastination.
So, let’s look at the 3 mindset changes you need to master before starting your business
The Secret Handler
Your subconscious plays a big role in the thoughts you think and the outcomes as a result of these thoughts. At the moment, if you are not conscious of what your subconscious tells you, then it’s likely to be having a negative impact on your success.
Your subconscious takes in and processes everything around you. It then replays this information back to you like a message of confirmation. Whatever is in your subconscious hard drive can expand or decrease your chances of success when starting your business.
The first step to reprogramming is through meditation. Harvard Gazette explains that meditation changes the structure of the brain. 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation increases the areas of the brain that helps to control emotion regulation and self-referential processing. There is also evidence of decreases in this part of the brain too. Cell volume in the Amygdala, which is responsible for fear, anxiety and stress, showed a lower level for people who meditate regularly.
Alongside meditation, simple quiet time is another great tool. You’ll be finding out the reasons behind why you’re holding yourself back.
Sit in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Get a pen and paper and sit as though you are getting ready to meditate. Write down all of your worries and anxieties. Listen and feel what your subconscious is trying to say.
What are its fears? Why isn’t it helping you work towards your goals? Is it trying to protect you from something? List the broad reasons and then you can start to dig deeper for specific answers. For example, your subconscious fears success which is a broad reason.
Listen to the specific answers about what it fears about success?
Is it scared of letting people down? Is it scared you might grow apart from your partner? Is it scared that business will take over your life?
Your subconscious is trying to prevent you from harm and disappointment so let it have its say. Use the opportunity to find genuine answers without judgement or anger. By tapping into their reasons why this is the priceless information you need to turn things around and reprogram your mindset.
The Luxury of Negative Thought
Business is tough and sometimes life can turn up the pressure. It can feel easier to stay in pajamas, eat cake and feel sorry for yourself. But this attitude never created anything positive.
Once you start becoming aware of your thoughts and committing to a positive attitude your perception of the world changes and so does your mindset.
Commit 1 day to being a bystander on your own thoughts. Have you ever seen Supernanny? She spends one day monitoring the family and the next day she tells them where they are going wrong. This is what you will be doing with your own thoughts. Spend a day thinking your usual thoughts without interference. But every time you think a negative thought make a mental note of this.
By the end of the day think about how many negative thoughts you have accumulated? Can you even remember?
If you can’t, then it’s time to change. Instead of unconsciously committing to negative thoughts, why not conscious commit to positive ones?
Think about what makes you happy. Think about who you love. Think about it so much until you can’t help but smile. When you are filled with this positive, warm feeling you can begin to write down the things that you are grateful for. Make this process a personal one. It doesn’t have to be obvious. For example “I’m grateful that my family loves me”.
Make this about you, write down things like…
- “I’m grateful my dad phones to check I’m home from work safely”
- “I’m so lucky to have an accountability partner who cares enough to support me when I wanted to quit”
Write down 3-5 items. The next time you have a negative thought, take a minute to gather your thoughts and think of 1 item on your list. Take a deep breath in and breathe out slowly. When you do this imagine that you’re expelling the negativity, only being left with the gratitude of your positive thought.
Success Steps Look Like This
New start-up owners make goals, want to hit targets and grow their business. But when it doesn’t happen within the time frame it can bring on impatience. The feeling of impatience creates negativity, anxiety and frustration which is the mindset that you don’t want.
A mindset that is constantly in a state of ‘chase’ will always be just out of reach from its intended goal.
You have to relax and know that no amount of shortcuts results in success. The reason it never works is because there is no shortcuts, no secrets and no get-it-faster technique.
Be in a state of focusing on growth and laying down strong foundations so your mindset is in the place of careful processes.
Conclusion
When it comes to starting your business a big mistake is to believe that years of a stagnate 9-5 will have no effect on building a mindset geared for success. You can break this mound and it’s not out of your reach. The mindset you seek is one that you already have; you only have to activate it. The seed is already planted and you just have to grow it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on mindsets. Leave me a comment
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