lion“What’s on your mind?” should be the first question you ask yourself when trying to uncover the mysteries of success. Everything starts with having the proper thought processes.

Recently I gave a presentation on the power of mindset in business and I thought I would share with you some of the ideas and a few short clips.

Take some time today and reflect on what it will take for you to start thinking differently about yourself, your relationships, and your business.

Many years ago, I learned (from my Mom actually) that no matter what happens in business – no matter how successful I become, people will remember me for how I manage my emotions. If I lost my cool, was rude, or had a breakdown, it wouldn’t matter if I had an amazing year in sales or not. People would remember me for how I made them feel. That was a lesson I learned years ago and always try and remember to this day. Thanks Mom!

Here is a short clip talking about managing your emotions:

Success depends on many factors, but the number one aspect you can control is how you train your mind.  Most people spend some time on building their physical bodies, but very few actually take the time to excercise their brains.  Challenge yourself to go and get something inspiring to read THIS WEEK.  Read my post on developing yourself for some ideas on how to build your mental arsenal.

Where should you begin?

Start by asking yourself if you are being the type of person you would want to spend time with?  Would you be inspired?  Would you have great conversations and develop new ideas together?  Or would you sit there with yourself and complain about how the whole world is against you?  Start there.

Next, you need to understand that you are the byproduct of your environment and your associations.  If you find it difficult to move forward, have a hard look at who you spend time with and what your physical environment represents.

  • Where are you living?
  • What does your workspace look like?
  • Who are you associating with and how are they assisting you with both your attitude and success?

 

If these questions stir up more questions, then you should think about:

  • What can you do to change or remove yourself from your environment?
  • What can you do to restructure your relationships?
  • How can you influence your associates?
  • Who SHOULD you be spending time with?

 

If these ideas stir up some emotions, then it is time to take action and move your life in the right direction.  Read my post, “4 Steps to take control of your life and stop feeling sorry for yourself.” 

What else can you do?

Now that you are ready to take some action, set out a game plan.  Make a commitment to build new actions and behaviours into your life.  Try some of these:

  • Make a decision to just GO for it.  If you don’t decide to do anything, the rest of this list will essentially be futile.
  • Commit to spending time on this.  How long have you had the wrong behaviours and acions in place?  Putting a year into building new patterns is not that long in comparison
  • Begin your day with an energizing and positive process.  Read a few pages of positive, and inspirationtional wisdom.  Get the mental motor revved up. I recommend The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny
  • Avoid and ignore negative people, idiots, and nay-sayers.  If you are committed to changing your patterns and thinking about long term success, I have news for you – you are swimming upstream, and against the masses.  Don’t stop to listen to other people’s opinions.
    • “Never let anyone tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.”  -Eleanor Roosevelt
  • SMILE.  Whether you like it or not, people will decide yes or no about you before you even say hello.  And once that decision has been formed, it is a lot of work to get them back to even just neutral.  Make your life easier and portray a powerful, positive persona ALL THE TIME.
  • Say “You bet!”  Anything you come across, make it about what CAN be done and stop worrying about what can’t be done.  Let’s do this thing.
  • Surround yourself with positive, encouraging people and messages.  Print some quotes and put them all around you.  Go and seek out the people that energize you.
  • Be in the NOW all the time.  When you feel yourself slipping out of positivity, do a quick check and remind yourself that everything is your choice.
  • Allow yourself some down time.  Don’t burn out.  It can sometimes be tough as you work on building your success, so give yourself some breathing room.  Take some time for yourself and relax.  Once a week, find a quiet spot and reflect, have a nap, and unwind.  Then get back to work!

Go make some new friends!

Life is all about people.  Go and find people that energize you and inspire you.  If you don’t have a strong network, go build one!  In this clip I talk about the difference between your cold market and warm market in business.  It all comes down to how well you go out and get to know people.

There it is.  Go out and get to know new people every week.  You will be surprised to find that new opportunities, friendships, and thought processes develop in direct correlation to how much you put yourself out there.  Think about how often you hear someone say, “It was great to meet you, we should get together for a coffee.”  And many times people do not follow through.  YOU be one of the few people who follow through and start building new relationships today.  I recently printed out a business card-sized note that I give to people as a reference when they have coffees with new people.  Here are the questions:

  • What are 3 things about them that are not about business?
  • Have they always lived in this area?
  • How did they get into their field?
  • What do they hope for in their life?
  • What concerns them?
  • How can you help them?

 

At the end of every get together, always ask how you can help the other person, regardless of whether you are in a position of power or money.  Give freely of yourself to others and expect nothing in return.  See what happens.

Share your most interesting coffee encounters in the comments section!

Joe Girard
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