Why Focusing on Your Mindset is so Important
Focusing on your mindset is so important. Maybe you are thinking, “Enough with all this mindset work. I just want to know how to grow my reach and how to get more customers.” However, mindset is tied to getting more customers and growing your reach.
What does mindset have to do with growing your business?
Here is the thing, if you want to grow your business, you need to get your mindset right.
There's so much research out there that shows that if you do not get yourself in the right mind space, the rest of it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what books you read, or what planner you use. You can have the best planners in the whole world. But that will not do anything for you. You won't be happier. Your life won't get better. Your business won't grow. None of it is going to change.
The only way things are going to change is if you get into the right headspace.
What happens when you are not in the right mindset?
What happens when you aren’t working on your mindset is that your brain tends to gravitate towards the negative. And that is when you have those fear responses because you're working outside your comfort zone. That fear is completely normal. Your systems are naturally designed to help protect you from the world. And so when you do anything that's outside your comfort zone, the fear response sets in.
The biggest problem is what happens after you feel that fear response.
I was listening to Greg McKeown’s Podcast with Arianna Huffington. In that episode, she says that your fear hormone is called cortisol. And what happens is that cortisol is building up in your system.
Now it takes 60 seconds for cortisol to go through your system. Any other response that you have after that: your fear, your anxiety, the panic, the worry, all of that is actually your brain. That's not your hormones.
How to get past the fear
And so when you start to realize that you have control over the final response that you could have, you’re able to move forward, move past the fear and keep going.
The problem with the whole fear and mindset thing is that a lot of times you get stuck. And you think that there's nothing that you can do about it.
And that's just not the case. You have so much more control over what is happening in your life and in your business than you would like to believe.
Now, this isn’t easy. It's work. It is work every single day. Getting control over your responses is not something that's just going to miraculously happen.
That is why you should listen to podcasts, read books, or listen to audiobooks.
I want you to think about:
- What is one thing that is stopping your business from getting where you want it to be?
- Is it a lack of clients?
- Is it the time to do the work?
Some of the things that you might be thinking are:
- You don't have the time or the energy
- Someone in your life doesn't support you
- You don't have the skills or knowledge you need
- Nobody wants to work with you
All those thoughts are just fear.
How to get past the fear to get into the right mindset?
Write down all of those negative thoughts on paper. Think about what are all the things that are stopping you from building or starting your business. What is stopping you from getting to where you need to be?
Many of you want to start your own business. But you don’t know what to do. You don’t know the next steps. So, you are stuck there. Unless you write it down and unload that piece and start the process, you're going to continue to be stuck.
Determine what is external and what is internal
Once you have it all written down and have the list in front of you, you need to focus on determining which of those are external and which of those are internal. So what I mean by that is which of those reasons are you in your thought process (internal) and which of those are external forces that you have no control over. It's very important to make that distinction.
Once you get that list down and start identifying what is really you and what thoughts are stopping you and determine what things are actually external things that you do not have control over, then you can really start working on your mindset.
Examples of negative thoughts that affect your mindset
- When you have a thought like "nobody wants to work with me," you need to think about experiences you've had in the past at other workplaces, volunteer environments, your church, or in a group where you've worked with other people and it's gone well. Maybe it's been at a job. Maybe it's a supervisor that has commented on how well you've done on something. Think about those instances and then go back to that statement that nobody wants to work with you. You can see that that statement is not true. That is just fear talking.
- Even thoughts like your spouse or family don’t support you. That won’t stop you. It’s your fear telling you that you are going to put up a barrier to stop you from acting. There are lots of people with no support systems that start businesses and are very successful. It happens all the time. That's just another one of those barriers that you put up.
Are your thoughts realistically stopping you from having the right mindset?
As you're going through that list, I want you to really think about it. Is this something that is realistically stopping you? Or is this a fear barrier that you’re putting up?
Once you have a clear idea of what your thoughts are, that's going to be a really good guidepost for things that you've need to look at within yourself.
There are a tremendous number of free resources out there that you can use to help you:
- Your library is an amazing resource. Even if your library is closed you still have access to eBooks and audiobooks through services like Hoopla through Overdrive or Libby
- Google is your friend.
- There are tons of free podcasts out there.
What if you don’t have time to work on your mindset?
Podcasts are a great place to start. They're short and free. You can listen while you shower, go for a walk, make dinner, or clean up after dinner. There are lots of moments in the day where you can do this. And it’s one of the best things that you can do for your mindset.
Suggested podcasts/books to listen/read to:
- Greg McKeown podcast or his books.
- Brendon Burchard podcast or his books.
When you find a podcast you like, that will lead you to other podcasts or books. Since a lot of podcasts are interviewing people or they're talking about books that they've read, that will help you grow your library.
How social media can drive your negative mindset
Put down your phone. If you have Netflix, go watch the “Social Dilemma”. Social media will cause a lot of that negative mindset. Turn off all the notifications, the buzzing, the beeping, all that stuff. Unsubscribe from emails.
Check on your cell phone and see how long you're spending on it every day. It's kind of scary. You’ll see how much time you actually spend on social media. Cut your usage way, way back. That will help your mindset and it will provide you with more time.
What’s important in your life?
It's critically important to look at what's important in your life. And then ask yourself how much time and how much energy are you putting into those things. You’ll probably find that there is a lot of disconnect between the things that you say are important and where your time and energy are going.
And as you realign and pull those back together, you’ll see what is really important. And then you can spend more time there. Those things that are not important to you will decrease the amount of time you spend there.
Recenter yourself
It’s really important to recenter yourself. And I think a lot of you feel discombobulated because you're not lining those things up the way that you should. You're spending all your energy on things that are not important in your life. And so you feel disjointed, you feel like you're not aligned.
And that's not good for your mindset either. So when you start doing the work, I promise you, you're going to start feeling better.
How a brain dump helps your mindset
You need to get all the stuff out of your head. Do a brain dump. Write down all the things that are swirling around in your brain. Include all the things you’ve got to get done, things that you're thinking, ideas that you have, get them out onto paper. And then once they're on paper, if you want to digitize them, you can, but you have to get them out. What you will find is that your ability to focus is so much better.
Keep your list close by and as you think of things throughout the day, write them down.
You’ll start developing lists that are insane, crazy long. You will then have to decide when you will do all those things. Some will be done today, some the rest of the week, and some things will be someday things, something that will be done 6 months from now or longer.
Steps to take to work on your mindset:
- See how much time you're spending on your phone.
- Get out your planner and get out a blank piece of paper or a notebook or some, some cards or whatever. And write down what's stopping you from starting or growing your business.
- Think about how much of that is internal to you. Is that fear that's stopping you? And then the internal stuff will become the mindset stuff that you need to deal with. Those become action items:
- If your anxiety is flaring up, figure out how to deal with your anxiety
- If it's fear, figure out how to deal with that fear
- Maybe it's time. You don't have enough time. What can we do to free up that time? Do you need systems in place? Do you need a schedule? What are those things?
- And then how much of that is really valid external things. What do you need to learn? Create action items.
- Do a brain dump on a piece of paper, note cards or planner.
- Sit down with all of these lists that you're generating and figure out when you are going to deal with all those things. Write it down.
- And then start thinking about solutions to move you forward.
Tell me what are the things that are stopping you. Share in the comments below. I will develop content for that and help you find answers.
This is why I talk about mindset all the time, because mindset and all of the stuff that you're carrying around is what is stopping you from getting where you want to go.
