In the August Issue:
As a business owner you will, at times, hit a glass ceiling. Are you ready to look up and smash through using the power of your mind?
If you’re like me, you are brave, bold, and a lover of risk. That’s why you are running your own business. Once upon a time, I thought the reason I wasn’t reaching my financial goals was because I needed a new strategy. Surely, when I found the right ONE strategy, business would skyrocket. It was only once I’d exhausted them ALL, that I began to see there was something else holding me, and my business, back.
That ‘thing’ turned out to be so simple, and within my control, that I can’t believe I was in my mid-40s before I knew this. Here’s the secret:
YOU ARE THINKING YOUR THOUGHTS
Yep! Simple self awareness.
Now you might already be more consciously aware than I was back then. But for me, this changed everything.
‘Oh yeah! I am thinking my thoughts. No one else is. So that means I can think what I like.’ It is so simple, so obvious. Yet, if this is true, why aren’t we all wildly successful, happy, and making lots of money?
As I became more ‘consciously aware’ of my thinking, I realized how loud my negative self-talk was at times. Some days I had that entrepreneurial invincibility I could tap into; ‘I’m on fire! I can do this.’ But other days it all felt too hard. I felt vulnerable and tearful.
This swinging back and forth between ‘maybe I can do this’ to ‘I CAN’T DO THIS!’ was exhausting and demoralizing.
The great news is, once you are conscious and self-aware, you can hack your own mind with relative ease.
It isn’t what you think in your conscious mind that really shifts the dial. It is becoming aware of your subconscious programming. That is where the magic, and your freedom, hangs out.
We have between 60-90,000 thoughts a day. 90-95% of these are automated.
That means the decisions you make, the actions you take, or avoid, and the results that you get, come directly from what you believe to be true in your subconscious mind. Most of these thoughts were hardwired in during the first 7 years of your life! So, you could say the CEO of your business is your 7-year-old self!
Our brains have a negativity bias, so we are walking around with this kind of narrative:
‘I can’t do this. It is too hard. I’m not going to make it work, so why bother. I might as well quit whilst I’m ahead because I’m going to fail anyway.’
As Henry Ford said, ‘Whether you believe you can or you can’t. You’re right.’ So, with this ‘automation’ running how successful are you going to be?
To get you started so you can automate in ‘I CAN DO THIS’, rather than rely on daily positive affirmations, here are 3 simple steps.
STEP 1 - YOUR FIRST THOUGHT OF THE DAY MATTERS
You want to become consciously intentional with your first thoughts when you wake up, as this sets the emotional and energetic tone for your day. First become aware if you are in the negative or positive frame of mind when you wake up. Then set your alarm, or put a note to read first thing, with a reminder to tune into gratitude for the day. Build this habit daily.
STEP 2 - FEEL YOUR THOUGHTS
Practice using your body as a signal to get to the thought behind it. Because it is the thought that triggers the emotion which is felt in our body. This then cascades down to impact our decisions, actions, and results.
Where do you feel that sense of dread when you have to pay bills? Or the anxiety when you are about to take an important sales call? Next time you feel a strong emotion in your body, ask yourself ‘what is the thought here?’
STEP 3 - CROSS EXAMINE YOUR THOUGHTS
Once you catch an ANT (automatic negative thought) you want to consciously choose whether you believe it or not. You’re an intelligent businesswoman who is here to make money and impact. What do you need to THINK to be able to fulfill your vision?
If you catch the thought, ‘Maybe I’m not meant to be a successful entrepreneur’ (this was one of my Queen ANTS!) then you can ask yourself whether that is true or not. My answer was ‘Of course I am. I AM an entrepreneur because I will never quit on my vision.’ By locking in this thought as my identity I made decisions from that more empowered place.
Over this next week, be intentional with hanging out with your negative neural networks. Get them down on paper. Catch them. Expose them as a lie. Then reframe them to a belief you consciously choose. Doing so will change your life, your business, and smash that glass ceiling.
meet julia black
Master Neurocoach
Julia Black is the creator of Lights On® and a social entrepreneur passionate about learning and human potential.
She runs a leadership training company for mothers to become inspirational leaders of their families, so they can make a positive contribution to the world, by doing what they love. She lives in rural Somerset and is a mother of two teenagers.
Find Julia Black HERE!
