This month I revisited the topic of Mindset. In order to have Mindset transformation you have to make a conscious decision to develop healthy thinking patterns. I believe the 1st step towards this is awareness. Where are you currently?
Here’s the 4th video in my I Know The Pieces Fit ongoing vlog series…hope you can vibe with me on this one:
the tortoise and the hare
As I was power walking my way to toned legs nirvana, I had a clumsy moment; I decided to embrace the teaching moment nature had given me, and translate it into a lesson about running a business.
Funny things happen when you begin walking around your neighborhood to get the simplest form of exercising in. Besides noticing that you should probably cut your grass because everyone else’s lawn is putting yours to shame, or potentially attracting a stalker, (switch up your habitual routines ladies) what you begin to notice over time is results. Sometimes the path you take is a pleasant walk, and sometimes if you don’t know where you’re going, you end up on a dead end street. Sometimes you never lose weight because the walking speed and time you put in don’t match the goals you’re trying to reach. Sometimes, you just choose the wrong direction. Every now and then you run into other walkers and joggers, some may say hi, some may ignore you, heck, some may even make for new friends.
But on this day, I stumbled on unleveled ground and injured my toe. I already had a brace on the one knee which was now pulsing, (the knee that is) and now the big toe on my “good” side was all jacked up. I didn’t have a car to just hop in, forgot my cell, and had no money to pay anybody to help me get to my destination, and my walking peeps were busy trying to meet their own goals. All of a sudden the neighborhood was a chilling ghost town with no one in sight. My targeted destination (home) was just ahead even though I couldn’t see it, I felt exhausted and hurt.
What did I do? I took a breather, stretched out my leg cramps, remembered that the path I had chosen had a clearly defined end goal and destination which was just up ahead, I sucked it up and took my butt home. That’s right, I went limping down the street tired, frustrated, and doubtful about my abilities and the path I chose, I mean who the heck trips on a routine walk and injures themselves? Still, I pressed on and got to my destination.
What does this have to do with running a business?
Running a business is a part of your journey; it’s a path you choose to walk. It’s a path that takes a lot of energy and hard work before you see the fruit of your labor. Some people try to run it as if it were a sprint; to the top of the mountain they go before they look ahead to see what possible dangers await them. They tumble down without good bearing. Every business leader I respect, never said it was easy. It’s not. Some days it’s sunny and it can feel like a beach party, you catch momentum and ride the waves.Other times it could feel like the coldest winter ever and you hope you have enough to hold over and weather the storm. Sometimes, you may have to work a job and on your business even though you wonder if you have enough time in the day to accomplish both.
But if you’re serious about running and growing a business you’re going to have to treat it like one. If you’re feeling tired, unmotivated, uninspired you still have to do what you have to do in order to go where you’re trying to go. There are employees who have no problem fulfilling the vision of the one who put them to work. Heck, they go in ill; they don’t want to waste a sick day on a sick day!
You make time for Scandal and Game of Thrones; and don’t hesitate to pull your credit card out to add to your shoe collection.
So why then would we not give ourselves that same kind of fighting chance to invest in and grow our business, tired, injured toes and all?
This month I thought out loud about the “I already know that” syndrome. It is a deadly mindset that usually signals to initiate the beginning of the end. You know, that wonderful day when you finally know all you need to know in life, and there’s nothing more to learn. It’s a phrase I’ve admittedly expressed on occasion, especially when it comes to unwanted advice about relationships, (another topic for another day) But most importantly, it’s a phrase that shuts down the chance for evolution. It is an attitude that blocks creative synergy, hinders focused efforts, and squashes dream realization…
Here’s the 3rd video in my I Know The Pieces Fit ongoing vlog series…hope you can vibe with me on this one:
A couple of weeks ago I posted a video that posed a question, What’s Your Unique Super Power? It wasn’t meant to be complicated and yet when I asked that question to a couple of people many responded that they didn’t know. Even when I asked my follow up question, what’s one thing you really like about yourself, again I received I don’t know and even a few nothings. It bothered me so much that I knew that’s where this journey would have to begin.
I believe the 1st step in wanting to be a happier, healthier you is Awareness. Sounds simple enough but it isn’t. Many people who wish for good things to happen or for someone (that chivalrous Knight perhaps) or something to rescue them are so busy trying to survive, that they don’t know how to make the time to invest in their own well-being let alone how to create their own luck.
If I’m working two full-time jobs, raising kids without much support, trying to find love in all of the wrong places and when I do have free time I just want to escape so I turn to reality tv to say to myself “well at least I’m not as jacked up as that crazy chick” it’s very hard to notice something just doesn’t add up. I believe enough awareness will at the very least drive you towards seeking answers or solutions even before you get to the acceptance part of your journey.
Let me explain: I wake up and one day in that brief moment of solitude I look towards the heavens and wonder what the heck am I doing with my life? I have this feeling come up every time I have a moment to myself but because it makes me uncomfortable I quickly scurry about day ignoring that feeling until…sometime happens that gets my attention and I can no longer ignore it, that nagging feeling that something just don’t feel right, and the moment you finally sit down to acknowledge that feeling you can’t help but to remember that you still have to live with your sad harsh reality every day then you realize something else…You feel stuck. So you Google “Get Unstuck” and go from there; all of that from simply being aware.
So, now that you are aware that you couldn’t answer my question, not even the more simple one which asked you to identify one thing you liked about yourself…let’s explore Having a Healthy Relationship With Self and progress from there.
Your assignment if you choose to accept it…grab a mirror and take a good look at yourself. Now, tell yourself that you are beautiful and that you love yourself just the way you are. Just like this, “I am Special. I am Beautiful and I love me some me” Do it when you wake up and/or right before you go to bed for a whole week. You don’t have to share with anyone that you are doing this but if you want to leave a comment if you tried it. How did doing this little exercise make you feel? If saying a bunch of negative things and looking at life from the bottom of the barrel has gotten you to feeling hopeless and stuck…why not try speaking life into your situation starting with becoming alive from within?
Until Next Time…
Flickr Credit: jma.work
I’m going to start this by saying; I am not a psychologist, a psychiatrist, or any kind of mental doctor or practitioner. I decided to post different blogs under the category of mindset transformation simply because everything I’ve done, every decision I’ve made, every step that I’ve taken to my knowledge and understanding has begun with a mental shift. This particular category is me embracing my long-term love affair with social science namely, (and most recently) positive psychology. These particular posts may not even be a full written blog; it may just be a picture, or *insert something that isn’t a standard written blog post* that has elements of what I feel are stepping stones in the ongoing process of mindset transformation, and these elements will be or have already been applied by experiment 626 …er I mean moi (Yeah, I make a lot of cartoon references- what can I say).
Why I’m choosing to explore and blog about mindset transformation?
Psychology, philosophy, sociology…and all that jazz, has always fascinated me, (social science in general peeks my interests) and so during my college years, I took coursework surrounding a simple yet complicated question: Why do we as humans do what we do? I took that question decided it wasn’t as important as helping people get to their next step in life for the here and now, and had the intention of becoming a guidance counselor. As fate would have it, I wound up in the field of addictions and my curiosity reignited as I wanted to know more about how addictions were formed, and what caused some people to really fall down to the bottom of the barrel with one particular addiction versus someone else. Once I came to the conclusion that quite frankly, it was going to take years of ongoing research to get any clear understanding of additions; I decided to shift my focus on whether or not you can really go from darn near broken (if not broken) to healed, joy, peace of mind, (you get the picture) and maintain it simply because of a mindset shift and ultimately transformation.
And so, here we are today. I’m interested to see where this discussion can go and the different things we can all learn from one another as we all go through our own mindset transformations, (If we are indeed open to the concept of growth mindset that is.)
I know this was a background kind of post but I thought it important to breakdown my intention for this particular category in my blog series, and honestly speaking, understand why I was interested in blogging about this particular topic in the first place.
So, I’ll leave you with this:
What do you believe Mindset Transformation is about?
Can it really make that much a difference in our lives?
Flickr Credit: dierkschaefer
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