If you are someone interested in maximizing yourself, your business and ultimately the impact that you have on this world, then I’m sure at some point you have read or heard about the importance of your mindset and its relation to your success.
Mindset can be a loaded term, however, it’s one that takes on different meanings for different people, but when you break it down to its core, your mindset is simply the collection of thoughts and beliefs that you use to determine your actions and habits.
And since your success is heavily dependent upon those actions and habits, it makes total sense that giving an upgrade to your mindset will translate into dramatic growth and transformation for you and your business.
As entrepreneurs and business owners who deal with a large amount of stress, responsibility, and uncertainty, there are three mindset shifts in particular that will elevate your ability to maintain the drive and clarity needed to maximize yourself and the impact you have on your business.
I am going to walk you through how to master each one of these shifts so you can unlock new levels of passion and performance as you navigate your journey to growth and fulfillment.
#1 Discomfort
To most people, discomfort is just like making small-talk at Thanksgiving with the one relative that you can’t stand. You avoid it at all costs, and when your paths do finally cross, you endure it for the shortest time possible and then lie about having to go to the bathroom so you can sneak away to safety.
For the sake of your development, however, I encourage you to stop and challenge this negative relationship that you may have with discomfort and investigate what it can be costing you and your business.
For starters, living to constantly avoid discomfort is exhausting and causes a ton of energy-zapping stress. If you’re always on high-alert, trying to dodge the people, tasks, and situations that make you uncomfortable, you are wasting your focus—which is a finite resource—on things that aren’t directly beneficial to your growth and success.
Another important thought to consider is how discomfort has actually helped you flourish as a person and a business. Look back to any period or phase of personal growth and transformation.
Did this evolution happen by staying safely tucked away in the confines of your comfort zone, or was it preceded by a little discomfort?
As an entrepreneur, it’s essential to be constantly growing, changing, and evolving, and if discomfort is a crucial catalyst in creating these things, then it is actually a good thing for you. If discomfort tends to initiate growth, and growth tends to translate into success, then you actually owe it to yourself to intentionally seek out the opportunities that initially seem uncomfortable because they’re likely to benefit you in the long run.
Action Steps: In order to help you solidify this mindset shift, write down 3-5 situations in your life and/or business where discomfort translated into growth or success.
#2 Failure
Just like discomfort, most people have an avoid-at-all-costs relationship with failure.
They firmly believe that it’s synonymous with weakness and incompetence, and as a result, they steer clear of the situations and opportunities where failure could be lurking. Thinking about failure in this negative light can seriously impact you as a person and as a business owner because it forces you to play it small and safe.
By challenging the way you think about failure, however, you can take the sting out of it, which allows you to execute on the bold and powerful actions that will really move the needle forward for business. Winston Churchill framed it in a really unique way when he said:
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
So in that context, really start to investigate failure and its role in your growth. Is it possible that failure has had a positive influence in your life? Are there crucial lessons that you would not have otherwise learned if it weren’t for trying and failing? Has failing actually made you stronger and more competent? Are there people you look up to that have failed on their journey to success?
When you start to question some of the automatic thoughts and beliefs you have about failure, you liberate yourself from its paralyzing effects. And doing that allows you to move forward with passion and purpose as you build your vision to its full potential.
Action Steps: In order to help you solidify this mindset shift, write down 3-5 situations in your life and/or business in which failure translated into growth or success.
#3 Limiting Proof
As human beings, we rely on our senses to tell us what is real and possible. Only when we can see it, touch it, taste it, hear it, or feel it, do we finally give ourselves permission to fully believe it. This constant reliance on proof to validate the limits of our reality, however, can severely hinder what we allow ourselves to achieve.
I know this can be a tricky concept to grasp, so I’ll give you a prime example of how this need for proof can suffocate our limitless potential.
Up until the 1950’s, people thought it was impossible to run a mile in under four minutes. The most elite runners at the time would train intensely to achieve this feat, but all of them failed to hit the mark. Then in 1957, Don Bowden posted a mile time of 3:58, giving everyone proof that it was possible to achieve and permission to do so.
Now that the world had the physical evidence that this could be done, people magically started accomplishing this feat in alarming numbers. In the next 10 years, over 24 people broke the four-minute mark.
I use this example because it clearly illustrates that as humans, once we allow ourselves to fully believe something, we can achieve more than we ever thought possible.
My challenge to you is, why wait for proof or permission?
If you look throughout history at any revolutionary creation, it happened as a result of someone who built something without the proof that it was already possible. The Steve Jobs and Elon Musk’s of the world didn’t wait for permission or physical evidence to take action. Their belief in their mission and purpose outweighed that need for validation, and as a result, they changed the world.
So take a look at your own goals and see if you are letting your current circumstances dictate how high you are trying to climb.
Action Steps: In order to help you solidify this mindset shift, find three to five inspiring examples throughout history of people taking action without proof and permission that what they want is possible.
It’s All In Your Head
The common theme throughout this article is that challenging the negative self-talk that plays in your mind can truly liberate you from the stress and anxiety that it creates. Whether it is fear, doubt, judgment, or unworthiness, do not let your thoughts and beliefs run on autopilot. Since they play such a crucial role in determining your actions and quality of life, be intentional about questioning the negative mindsets that do not serve you.
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