Foundation for Growth: Master Your Mindset
For the next few weeks, I’m doing a series on the blog about growing your business as a thought leader. My clients are consultants, coaches, workshop facilitators and keynote speakers. Each of them have a unique perspective, story to tell and niche service that they offer their clients. The common theme among them is that the day-to-day business of today gets in the way of their growth vision of the future.
The foundation that needs to be built in order to scale your business beyond where you are now is to get your mindset in the game. You can have all the fancy strategies, team members and launch plans; however, if your thought patterns and beliefs aren’t in check, you are in for an uphill battle.
Here are some ways to create more ease while you grow with mindset work:
Get the vision and desired outcome down on paper. This can be through a brainstorming session with a thought partner, a journaling exercise or even a mindmap. The ultimate goal is to have in writing what success will look and feel like.
Set intentions for yourself around improving your thought patterns. While you are dreaming and brainstorming about your ultimate future growth, notice the gremlin thoughts. If you don’t have any, your vision isn’t big enough. Write down these limiting beliefs. Next to each one, create an intention or affirmation that is a positive opposite of that limiting thought. Then use this as a mantra when you hear your inner critic getting loud. For example:
Limiting belief: I am not good at self promotion
Positive mantra: The more I share my gifts with the world, the more lives I change
When you are living a busy and full life, it is hard to distinguish the negative inner dialogue from all the regular thoughts running through your head. Sometimes we let these thoughts run the show. The more we think about them, the more we believe them. The opposite is also true. The more we think positive and encouraging thoughts, the more we believe them. So become a steward of your mind and your belief patterns will shift.
The best way to become a more gentle observer of your thoughts (instead of feeling like you are your thoughts), is a regular meditation practice. A close second to this is regular exercise and getting out into nature. So make it a habit to plan these things into your calendar like your business growth depends on it (because it does).
Once you are aware of your limiting beliefs, you can quiet them quickly by asking yourself one simple question: IS IT TRUE? Most of the time, the answer is no. Follow the work of Byron Katie to learn more about a life changing process all based from that simple question.
All of this mindset work might start to highlight how often the negative thought patterns persist. Don’t get discouraged; instead, use it to your advantage. This is simply the ego trying to keep you safe. When you notice these thoughts going crazy, you know you are onto something, keep going! It is when you go after your big audacious soul driven goals that the ego gets to work trying to keep you in your safe normal spot (but that isn’t growth). So let those voices be a compass and run toward the actions that you resist the most!
Noticing how you feel on a daily basis is important mindset work. Things start to flow with ease when you are high on the emotional guidance scale. Your emotions are a useful guide. Notice how you feel often. When you are low, don’t beat yourself up. Allow those emotions to be there, feel them fully and then ask: what do I need? Your body knows what it needs in order to feel better. The key is to listen to your emotions and act. Many driven entrepreneurs have workaholic tendencies (myself included) that we have to train ourselves out of. The only thing that pushing harder and harder will do when your body is giving you clues to stop is lead you to burnout which slows down business growth.
The fastest way back to good feeling thoughts and emotions is to move your attention to gratitude and appreciation. When you notice yourself complaining, move your attention to what is going well and what you are happy about. Then more good will come your way. Celebrate your wins and find gratitude daily and notice how it multiplies.
All of this “mindset work” is not called “work” for nothing. It is a daily practice. You don’t reach a certain level and then get to quit this part of your entrepreneurial journey. You do get to continue to evolve and develop these skills and benefit from the compound effect of your successes. This is the solid foundation on which you can build and scale your thought leadership business.
