Working on your mindset is one of the most important skills you can master. Not only will it pay dividends in your business, it will also have huge benefits on your mental health and general wellbeing too.
Why mindset is so important
Put simply, what you think of yourself, your abilities and the world around you, is what dictates the level of success, happiness and wellbeing you can reach. How you view things sets up the beliefs you have. If you believe you’re worthy of business success, you’ll achieve business success because you think you’re worthy of it. Think you’re a lucky person, are supported by the Universe or that you’ll always find a solution? You’ll see the silver cloud and solution in any situation. Believe there’s not enough clients to go round or you’ll never make the levels of income you want – you’ll struggle with both.
Your brain filters out anything that doesn’t match the beliefs you have about yourself and your abilities. It will look for evidence to back up what you believe – good and bad. Why is mindset so imported? Because it will keep you stuck at the level you believe you should be at.
Want to give yourself a quick mindset once-over to find out how healthy your mindset is around your abilities and business success? Did reading that opening statement in this section make you happy – or was there a slight level of panic, depression or resignation around it?
How to master your mindset, if you want success
So now you know how important it is to master your mindset, how an earth do you go about mastering it? Here’s 10 tips to get you started. The beauty of these tips is they don’t need to be completed in order, but combine them together and you’ll be well on your way to mastering your mindset and having an essential tool in your personal and business arsenal.
#1: Start now
The great thing about mastering your mind is you don’t have to wait, before you begin. There is no ideal situation, time or place to get started, and you don’t need anything special to do it – so start now, in this moment. Make the decision, read this blog post and when you’ve finished reading, pick one thing from this list and begin.
#2: Stop comparing ourselves to other VAs
Comparing yourself to others is the fastest way to send yourself on a downward mindset spiral. There’s always going to be someone who’s doing better than you, earning more than you or working with the clients you want – and all of this will lead you into a tailspin. So don’t do it – stop comparing yourself. After all, you’re a unique blend of skills, talents and personality, so why even compare?
#3: Positivity is the fastest way forward
This isn’t about refusing to face reality or ‘keeping it real’. Keeping your mind in a positive state enables you to see solutions, keep your energy high and your motivation up. That’s before we even get to it enabling you to see things to be grateful for (another important part of positivity). Why not ramp up the positivity, by keeping a daily gratitude diary, in order to further ramp up those feel good, positive feelings!
#4: Be nice to yourself
We often find it a lot easier to be nice to other people, than we do ourselves. So make it a personal goal to switch this around. This isn’t just about treating yourself to things you deserve or want – it’s about talking nicely to (and about) yourself too. Stop putting yourself down, talking disrespectfully about (and to) yourself, pointing out your flaws and imperfections, and generally downplaying your abilities, goals and dreams. Treat yourself with the love and respect you reserve for your nearest and dearest – because you are the nearest and most dearest person in your life!
#5: Shut out the noise
The online and offline world around us can be a noisy place. There’s always someone with an opinion about something, that wants to rain on your parade. So learn to shut out the noise. Leave groups that aren’t serving your needs, unsubscribe from those marketing emails you never read, mute online friends who are always on their soapbox and quietly minimise contact with the negative nellies in your life. If the noise coming from people too close to avoid – either have a conversation and lay down your ground rules, or stop sharing your plans and dreams with them.
#6: Master visualisation for mindset success
Visualisation is a powerful skill to master, but it only works, if you add in emotion. When you visualise and feel the associated emotions that visualisation brings, your brain doesn’t know the difference between that imagined scenario and a memory. You’re basically reprogramming your brain – the more you visualise, the greater the belief.
When you visualise a future, confident you, who’s achieving everything you want and living how you want, those emotions you feel and the scenarios you’re seeing – pride, confidence, seeing yourself signing up another customer or giving a presentation to group of people – these train your brain to create a filter relating to them. The more you visualise the same things, the greater the belief that you’ve already done and achieved them – and the more you actually develop those skills you see yourself accomplishing. The added bonus is this; when you see yourself living a certain way or having a new level of business success, you’re more open to the steps needed, to achieve it and have it in your life!
#7: Learn acceptance
Acceptance is a great motivational mindset tool. It helps free you from the negativity of regret and hindsight, whilst alleviating the need to beat yourself up over mistakes.It’s about accepting that they happened and you can’t change them, but you can move on and change how they influence you from this point forward. Acceptance is about seeing the current situation as it is, and then doing what you can, with what you currently have and are able to do, to change it for something different. So what can you accept today – and how will you move forward from it?
#8: Feed your mind
A lot of what we watch, read and listen to is not great for our minds. When you’re dieting, you become aware of what you’re eating and how it impacts on your body and energy levels. You need to do this for the things that you’re feeding to your mind. How are they affecting your mindset? Are they nourishing it with knowledge, nice music and uplifting images, or is your mind in need of some real substance and positivity?
#9: Put in the work
No matter how much you read about improving your mindset, nothing will change if you don’t put in the work. You don’t have to make big changes overnight, but every step you take, no matter how small, will add to having an awesome mindset further down the road. So what action will you take now in this moment, today, to commit to the journey?
#10: Celebrate the wins
Finally, it’s important to celebrate every win, no matter how big or small. Did you leave 5 Facebook groups or unfriend 10 negative followers? Great, celebrate that! How about that negative thought that ran through your mind? Did you replace it with a more positive one? Another win – so celebrate!
It’s important to celebrate every win in your personal and business life, as these little celebrations boost your confidence, motivation and positivity. They also help raise your expectations and beliefs about yourself and your abilities. And as I mentioned right near the beginning of this blog post – what you think of yourself, your abilities and the world around you, is what dictates the level of success, happiness and wellbeing you can reach – so let’s start raising that level a little higher.
Here are VACT – we have several ways in which we can help you master your mindset in order to achieve success, the primary method is you can work with a Coach or a Mentor as part of the VA Membership.
The VA Membership is the only UK VA business accelerator that’s designed specifically to help you build and grow your VA business, to help you create recurring revenue and consistent growth through regular and consistent action. With over 100+ hours of courses, weekly co-working sessions, weekly group coaching calls, a private support group and the ability to pay as you go – when you’re ready to grow or scale your business online.
The VA Membership has the option to upgrade to more one to one coaching and mentoring support as part of the Luminary VA coaching and mentoring options. If you would like to see / learn more then please do check out The VA Membership.