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Smart
Mind Set for Success part II
Last
Friday, I had one of those days. A number of interruptions
and minor emergencies kept me from feeling like I’d
accomplished anything. As the day progressed, I
could feel the energy draining from my body and turning
into negativity and anger. Finally, at my wit’s end,
I remembered to pause, take several deep breaths and quietly
observe the thoughts that were tumbling through my head.
They went something like this:
“You’re
wasting precious time and accomplishing nothing.”
“ Why do all these people have to
be so difficult and inefficient?” --(referring to
the ones who were “ruining” my day).
“ Why does everything need to be such a struggle?”
Ya-da,
ya-da, ya-da. You get the idea. As I witnessed
these thoughts I began to smile. Ahhhh—my
nasty little Inner Critic at work again.
If
50,000 or more thoughts pass through our minds each day,
how many of them serve to empower and motivate us and
how many just drag us into a lack of productivity and
power. If I hadn’t remembered to stop and reflect,
I’m sure I could have
continued to dig a nice, deep black hole of negativity
and frustration.
After
sitting quietly, relaxing, and simply focusing on my breathing
for five minutes, the day seemed to come into perspective
and I felt calmer and more peaceful. I remembered
to look at the big picture.
If
you’re interested in finding more energy, focus,
peace of mind and success, understanding your self-talk,
how you think, and where you’re selling yourself
short are essential.
As a
small business consultant, about a year ago I worked with
a client who owned a marketing and PR company. She
felt that she couldn’t pursue more lucrative contracts
with larger companies because she didn’t have a degree
from a prestigious school, nor had she worked
with a Fortune 1000 company before. This led her to conclude
that she would appear inexperienced and inept. Yet
it was obvious that she had extensive, valuable experience
and was well regarded by her clients.
Initially
she hired me to assist her in developing better time management
and business systems to make her business run more efficiently,
but it quickly became obvious that that wasn’t the
key issue. In our business
and personal assessment, she was asked to monitor her self
talk, the messages she gave herself, for a week, and to
jot down any Inner Critic messages
(negative, draining, deprecating,
defeating) and Inner
Friend messages (empowering,
encouraging, energizing) she observed.
It didn’t
take long for her to recognize that her nasty Inner Critic
was hammering away at how she wasn’t good enough and
couldn’t compete with them—whoever “them”
was. A light bulb went off when she recognized this
as a pattern that had plagued her since high school. We
set out to change this negative self talk through practicing
mental emptying, mental imaging, and affirmations, while
at the same time planning a focused strategy of action for
her to gain the ideal clients she deserved. This
strategy involved practical action steps, but it was interspersed
with reflection and a development of her inner awareness.
Four months later she had a golden contract in
hand.
If
you think you don’t have the time to do the inner
work necessary to make a constant companion of your Inner
Friend, try to imagine how it would feel to achieve what
you passionately want for yourself or your career? If
that would feel pretty darn good, you need to start by
putting aside just 15 minutes each day to begin the journey
that will get you there.
For
so long, we’ve been taught that in order to succeed
we must struggle and constantly be engaged in some productive
action (i.e. meetings, marketing, creating, writing,
phone calls, e-mail, etc.). But truly, we
achieve much more in less time when our Mind Set is powerful,
focused and at peace and our self talk supports our actions.
The
struggle occurs when we’re giving ourselves negative
messages that conflict with the goals we’ve set
out to achieve. The result is resistance, or a
mixed message.
Fifteen
minutes is all you need to start. Sit quietly, focus on
your breathing, let the stress of the moment float away.
Simply observe what thoughts
pass through your mind. Although this is only a step in
the Smart Mind Set process, it’s the simplest and
most important step. I hope you’ll
join me on the journey. |
Janis
Pettit is President of SmarTrack which specializes in improving profit,
productivity and life balance through small business growth consulting,
business and executive coaching, workshops and tele-classes. Janis is
co-author of "136 Ways to Market Your Small Business". Her dynamic
Big Vision Roadmap series includes a Mastery Program for Small Business,
Big Vision Marketing, Big Vision Leadership, and an upcoming book. In
addition to owning four successful businesses over the last 18 years,
Janis has worked with scores of small businesses owners and independent
agents, as well as larger Fortune 1000 corporate clients. She hosted her
own TV business talk show in New York, has motivated hundreds of professionals
through public speaking and workshops and her articles on business growth
and marketing have been published both locally and internationally.