Everyone in business knows what it’s like to feel stuck. It’s a terrible feeling – like you’re pushing against an invisible wall and nothing seems to be moving forward. The truth is that your mindset can play a major role in this, and if it isn’t in the right place, you might find yourself unable to do the things necessary for bigger possibilities and profits – ironically preventing them from coming to fruition!

Have you been frustrated with your results when it comes to revenue, or you’re wondering why you didn’t get accomplished the things you wanted in business at the end of the day, the week or the month?

You’re not alone! The first thing to ask yourself is “do you have a solid strategy in place.” If the answer is yes, then are you taking the action daily on a specific tactic? But more importantly, what’s happening with your mindset?

To be clear, what I’m sharing is NOT the law of attraction. It’s science. Mastering my mind has been something that I have been actively doing since 2005, when I was introduced to the Pacific Institute’s curriculum to create a performance mindset. The program is based on cognitive psychology and social learning theory. The four-day workshop changed my life, so I went through the facilitator training and led performance mindset workshops for companies and associations for over five years.

MINDSET TIP 1: Be Aware of Self Doubt

One of my top-performing Instagram reels shared a science-backed approach to achieving your goals. And in those 60 seconds, I talked about the amygdala, which is that part of your brain that is risk averse. It’s something that’s been keeping us safe for thousands of years because it was focused on threats and danger. In fact, it kept us from being eaten by bears as we were going through years of evolution. But then you also have your prefrontal cortex, which is that visioning and goals process. What you may not understand is how your amygdala can affect you every day and prevent you from achieving what you want in business and life.

When you become aware of what you’re thinking and, more importantly, what you’re saying not only out loud but to yourself, that’s when you’re able to make the shift. Now, when it comes to doubt, doubts can be small, and you may not notice them. But when those small doubts creep in, your self-talk starts sounding like, “I’ve never been good at that, or I don’t know how to do that”.

When you start to doubt yourself, then typically what happens is you’re pushing a comfort zone. The good news! when you recognize it, you can stop it.

ACTION TIP:  Start intentionally pushing comfort zones so when the doubts come along, it’s much easier to get in control of them instead of them being in control of you. Recognize that when you start to doubt yourself, it’s self-talk (over 50,000 thoughts a day). And those doubts, even though they might be small, can stop you from doing the things you want.

> #truthbomb: “It takes just as much effort to talk yourself into something as it does to talk yourself out of it.”

MINDSET TIP 2: Quit Catastrophizing

Catastrophizing is when you start seeing failure in advance, even if there’s no evidence your venture is headed for disaster. It may happen, it may not, but you have mentally blown this ‘thing’ up to the size of a mountain. The problem is that when the mind foresees failure, it can lead to paralysis.

When I find myself starting to catastrophize, I reach out to a trusted friend and talk things through to determine if my own brain taking me for a ride or is it something that I just haven’t thought through a process because it goes back to my comfort zone. If this is something that’s new, you’re not familiar with it. Are you turning a molehill into a mountain?

You can fight future failure by reminding yourself of past successes. Use evidence from your past to predict your future. Think back to one thing that went really well and gets into that feeling. Now use it to project forward.  You gained knowledge in the process. Lean into the accomplishment and use it to push you through this moment.

ACTION TIP: When doubt fills our minds, fear dominates our thoughts, take action and realize that most of your fears are imagined.

You’ve heard of taking “massive action.” Try taking imperfect action. Instead of procrastinating on the big thing, do one small thing. If this is something you’ve never done before, then your amygdala will get in the way. Focus on taking small steps consistently because they add up over time and give you incredible results.

MINDSET TIP 3: STOP Complaining

Spoiler alert – you cause what you complain about.

There’s a phenomenon called negativity bias, which means we’re drawn more quickly, strongly, and persistently to bad things than to equivalent good things. The more you complain about something, you are setting yourself up for negativity bias because you’ll see more things to complain about. It can put your brain in a downward spiral. The other thing you must consider is how you’re impacting people around you when you complain. It could be your team, your family or even your children because they are listening to everything you say and watching what you do.

MINDSET TIP 4: Ditch the Money Blocks

Mindset tip four is a big one because it impacts your ability to generate money and grow your business. Money blocks are simply negative beliefs or thoughts about money and your worthiness to have or earn it.

Do any of these sound familiar:

“Will I make money?”
“Will I make enough?”
“What if I don’t make anything?”
“Will it go away?”
“What will I do if it doesn’t work?”

The idea of MAKING money online is scary.

“Am I charging enough?”
“Am I charging TOO much?”
“Are my services worth my prices?”
“Do people think I’m scamming?”

The idea of CHARGING people is scary. And then there are …

• “I don’t deserve to make money.”
• “I’ll never make money.”
• “I’m not smart enough to make more money.”
• “It’s only other people who make a lot of money.”
• “I’m not good with money.”

 When we believe we can’t make more money, guess what…we won’t make more money.

As I said early on, this is not about the law of attraction as in I’m just going to imagine I’m a millionaire, and it’s going to happen. There are specific things you need to do in business to create a foundation and be able to grow. Pay attention to your money mindset and potential blocks. When you recognize one, then shift what you say about it.

MINDSET TIP 5: Pay Attention to What You Fuel Your Mind With

What are you fueling your mind with? This is a big one. When you think about what shows up in your feed, whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram or whether it’s the news feed, look at the evening news. Anytime you turn on the media or you login into social media, is it uplifting and positive information you’re reading? Is it good stuff that’s coming out, or is it all this negative crap?

There’s a saying, “Garbage out, garbage in.” It’s a computer term, but the same holds true for your brain. What are you fueling your mind with?

We are being hit with a ton of information every day from a variety of media sources, and not all of it is good. So that’s why whenever somebody tells you something, whenever you’re reading something, think about how this impacts you. How is it affecting your mood? How is it impacting your focus?

Interruptions can also have a big impact on your mindset. These could be the 100+ emails you get each day, texts, and social media notifications. A good way to control how you fuel your mind is to turn the notifications off and block time to respond. If you’ve never done this before, it can feel awkward. Yes, there will always be deadlines and business fires to put out. By taking control of your day when you will help you stay mentally in control even when things are out of your hands.

> #truthbomb: To change anything, start with awareness.

BONUS TIP:

Practice gratitude. No matter it’s doubt, catastrophizing, complaining, or money blocks, science has shown that when you start to focus on what you’re grateful for, then that can help shift at a subconscious level. It helps to squelch that negativity bias that’s going on in your mind. Research shows over 65% of our thoughts are negative. Start by becoming aware of the small things that you can be grateful for. It could be something as simple as gratitude for the sun shining after a couple of bitter cold winter days, a good cup of coffee or a friend who called just to say hi.

Think about gratitude as a mindset reset.

If you have children, this is a great question to ask at the end of every day. Ask what did you enjoy most today or what was the best thing that happened to them that day, and then ask them what they’re looking forward to tomorrow. Don’t ask them if they had a good day because there’s a good chance you’ll get a shrug and unintelligible uh hu.

When you ask specifically about their best thing, you help shift physiology in the brain into a forward focus. Remember the amygdala mentioned at the beginning of the blog? Gratitude helps you to tap into your pre-frontal cortex. Research shows the simple act of thinking about your future, your goals, and your dreams in a positive way lights that region of the brain up.

With the right mindset, you can turn any situation into an opportunity. You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react.

One of the best things you can do to get clear on your goals (and clear out the mindset blocks along the way) is to plan.

I mentioned the Drive Planning System Weekly GPS. If you want clear priorities and a simple weekly planning process complete with a mile marker activity to keep you on track, send me a DM, and I’ll send the Weekly GPS your way!

I Want the Weekly GPS!