Unveiling the Silent Business Killer: Your Mindset

This article is about the biggest killer of dreams, our mindset. How we think can have a huge impact on our outcome, in life and in business.

So one of the first things we should do as entrepreneurs is examine our thought life, and take time to focus on things we don't like about our situation and work to improve them. 

Its important to not only examine our thoughts, but we also need to be realistic about what we can control and the things that are beyond us.

And our thoughts fall under the category of this we have control over. And as you'll learn in the article, small changes can make a big difference.  

What I Thought I Was Supposed to Do

I'll start with a brief snippet of my story. Like many people who grew up in my generation, I did what I thought I was supposed to do. Finish my education, get a job and live the American Dream.

I started out my career scurrying around, driving long distances, networking and climbing the corporate ladder.

This was not really who I am, because I'm about the biggest introvert anyone would ever meet, however I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do to be successful.

Working long hours, thinking about the job as I drove what seemed like endless miles during my commute.

I was working a job that while I loved from an intellectual perspective, but was wearing me out personally, mentally and physically. The thing that bugged me the most was that I had to travel a lot for my job. This mean that I missed a lot of family time... time that I'll never get back.

At the same time, I met a lot of great people and grew professionally by leaps and bounds. That growth also resulted in me rethinking and re-evaluating my choices. This resulted in me making a few tweaks to how I thought about earning money.  

I realized that working a 9 to 5 job is not the only way to earn money and that earning in this way could be detremental to my future. Working a grind that takes me away from my family for large portions of time, was wearing at me, and while I grew professionally, and made a decent salary, personally I was shrinking.

Time for Self Reflection

I started evaluating all the things I was doing to further my corporate career. I always worked to exceed the requirements of my job, so I never worried about getting to that next level.

But all that exceeding expectations was wearing me down.

I continued to do things like getting my degree, learning about tech, using my verbal and written communication skills to present ideas, gather and analyzed data, etc. I realized that I could use these skills to build my own side hustle.

Once I took the focus off of helping someone else reach their goals, and I started appreciating the things that I brought to the table, I started using more of my energy to start building my own dreams.

Once I focused on my side hustle and evaluated what I wanted to to, I was able to see my way out of the rat race. But it was a long winding journey... and it's a constant struggle.

What Happened When I Shifted My Focus?

I lost a lot of the stress and my obsession with making it to the next level on my job. I started focusing on personal development and pacing myself, instead of being in a mad rush all the time.

I was no longer focused on exceeding the requirements that others placed on me. And I placed my primary focus on things that would move me ahead in my personal development and side hustle activities, which in my opinion would move me forward financially.

Self Sabotage: Thinking Like an Employee

We all have our own issues and baggage to overcome in our personal and business journeys. The goal is to think of the glass as half full when things don't go so well in our business life. 

Doing things like focusing thinking that things must be perfectis one of the limiting beliefs that can hold us back as entrepreneurs.  Have you ever heard the term, Perfect is the Enemy of Done? It's so true, and as an entrepreneur, it should become your mantra. 

Once you realize that it will "never" be perfect for everyone every time, you will become happy with "good enough". You will test, measure and go with what gives you the "best" results without the hassle and stress of perfection. Perfection, in my opinion is over rated. All you need is what gets the job done.

Allowing yourself to focus on your doubts, negative self talk, allowing fears to take over without investigating to learn more, feeling that you don't have what it takes without exploring and trying, are all ways that really great people miss out on opportunities that have the potential to change their lives for the better. 

Another area that we entrepreneurs struggle with when it comes to mindset has to do with thinking like an employee, versus thinking like a boss. I've included a video that outlines some of the ways we continue to think like an employee even after we have left our roles as employees. This thinking can limit your ability to take the bull by the horns and move your business to where it needs to be. 

It's normal to have fears and doubts when it comes to the unknown, but it's important to work through those issues as you go through your transition from employee to boss. 

It's important to keep and open mind about things you're not sure about, prior to making a decision on whether something will work or not. Before making an assumption, do your research and ask questions to receive clarification about the things you're not sure of.

Doing things like investing in personal development, reading books, listening to podcasts, investing in training and using the right tools can make things come together for us very quickly.

Focusing on the negative, and seeing the glass as half empty (versus half full), will keep us stuck.  

Once you decide to start an online business, the buck stops with you. And nobody will believe in you, if you don't believe in yourself.