For almost 3 decades, I have been a skill set trainer. I have tons of tips and business strategies that help people to both build and get better at creating and sustaining a successful business, and I have watched thousands of clients apply those skills and grow their businesses exponentially. But no matter how many skill sets you have mastered, I will always shout from the peak of any mountaintop, “80% of your success is wrapped up in your attitude.”
Even after 30 successful years, last year, when things came to a halt for all of us, it hit me hard that a healthy mindset - what I was always preaching from the mountain top - was more important than ever!
For me personally, within 5 days, I lost a year's worth of speaking engagements, which are a huge chunk of my business. I was devastated and depressed. My first thoughts were, “How am I going to pay my staff? How am I going to pay for my daughter’s student loans? I have a lot of people depending on me right now!”
Things had to be figured out quickly.
Whether it’s just for yourself, your whole family, or your staff of employees, you know you have to pick yourself up when others are counting on you. Even when you are devastated, you have to get a healthy mindset in a quick hurry!
How do you do that, especially when the situation is dire?
Here are four things that helped me get back to where I needed to be during the uncertainty of the past year that can help you, too.
1.Keep a gratitude journal. I know the power of this, yet I haven’t always been great or consistent about doing it myself. This past year, it was a lifesaver for me. Research has shown over and over again that constantly reminding yourself (in writing) about what you are grateful for helps you reach your goals. Research tells us that practicing gratitude lowers your stress levels, creates more happiness, and makes it easier to deal with adversity (among a lot of other things!).
When you are in a mindset of gratitude, you cannot be in a mindset of pessimism. What I have found is that, when I am keeping a gratitude journal, my creative mind starts to flow and it’s easier to see opportunities, solutions, and new strategies for my business to get back on track. This past year, keeping a gratitude journal kept me in a positive frame of mind, even as it felt like the walls were crumbling down.
Here are a couple of great articles on some of the more recent research that has been done on the power of gratitude: The Research on Gratitude and Its Link with Love and Happiness and If You Feel Thankful, Write It Down. It's Good For Your Health.
2. Be intentional. This isn’t about focus, this is about being deliberate. It’s when your actions align with your words. It’s one thing to say what you want to achieve, it’s something else to do it. The key here, just like with the gratitude journal, is to keep track of what you’re doing by writing it down. If you are not writing down what you’re doing, you don’t really know what you’re doing.
What you feel you’re doing and what you are actually doing can be very different. Making a choice to be intentional about your actions is the one thing that will keep you moving forward, regardless of what is going on in the world. Get clear on what you need to do and then go do it.
3. Surround yourself with positive people. Even in a pandemic, there are people who look at the world in a hopeful and positive way. Those people are the ones who understand the situation at hand, but also understand there are things you can control and there are things you cannot control - and they focus on what they can control. Identify those people in your life and spend the vast majority of your time with them. Identify the negative and drama filled people in your life, as well, and spend less time with them.
The people you choose to surround yourself with have a huge impact on your energy, your attitude, and your ability to focus on what matters. In good times and in bad, know who those people are in your life and keep them close to your side.
4. Be brave. Do it scared! Just do it. Don’t sit around and wait for everything to be perfect or to ‘get back to normal.’ You have to just start. Step out of your comfort zone, try new things, you need to say ‘I’m scared, but it’s ok!’
I was scared for a full year! Everything looked different, my business had to shift, and I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it. But I felt the fear and shifted every day anyway, not always knowing what the outcome was going to be. Doing that allowed me more time to concentrate on my business, since I wasn’t traveling non-stop. I was able to be intentional.
The outcome was that I created my best yearly planner ever and actually grew my customer base. I had the opportunity to dive into my business in ways I would not have been able to, had things been “normal.”
Learning how to have a healthy mindset can help you to achieve anything you want in your business! Want to hear more? Click HERE to listen to me talk about developing a healthy mindset in a Tuesday Tips segment of my podcast, Work From Your Happy Place.