How much of business success is down to a positive mind set?
I ask this question after coming back from the Action Coach Business Excellence Forum held earlier this month. There were a number of excellent speakers and three spoke about how mind set and the way you think can lead to a change for the better in the results you achieve. Here is a summary of the examples they gave for you to consider and look at how you can apply to your thinking about your business.
Jim Lawless runs a business called Taming Tigers and is a motivational speaker. He took a £1 bet that he would not be able to be a jockey on a horse that runs in a televised race within twelve months of the bet. He did some research and concluded that despite the fact he was three stone over-weight and had never ridden a horse, he could do it. So he spoke to some racing experts, went into a severe training programme and did win the bet. His learnings were that we were raised educationally for the industrial age but are now living in the ideas economy. As a result, being adaptable and open to new opportunities or challenges is not how we would “normally” think. However, it is a learnt skill. He used a three stage process : Decision – Action – Result to explain how you can become more adaptable and achieve things that would not be possible if you stay in your comfort zone. My take-away phrase from him was “We hold the pen that will write the story of our own life”. This can be summarised by accepting ownership for our own situation, avoid blame, excuses and comfort zone and look to be more adaptable and open to new opportunities that may be presented to you but that get discounted too easily.
Marc Hogan acted out his comedy sketch Funny Business which, spookily, also involved him taking on a £1 bet but his was to run a stand-up show at Edinburgh within the year. He tells the tale of the ups and downs along the way and this was the act that he took to Edinburgh. His theme was based around “Opportunities are always around us”. Don’t miss them by being too busy to spot them. He also talked about limiting beliefs being “The editor in our brain” explained that the editor can keep you safe but also means you may miss out on opportunities. The key phrase I took from him was “You don’t have to feel good to do the difficult thing, do the difficult thing and feel good as a result”. What opportunities have you missed because you have been too busy and when should you confront your “editor” ?
Michael Heppell was last but not least and his talk was entitled “How to be brilliant!”. He set out three things that are the characteristics of successful people : They take positive action – They never have a bad day and They have an ability to get out of their comfort zone. When elaborating on how to ensure you never have a bad day he explained that most people allow external triggers to change their state. He defines state as the result of your physiology, language and focus. He explained that a positive or negative trigger will impact your state and these three factors in opposite ways. The way to never have a bad day is to learn to control your state without waiting for the triggers so your language becomes positive, your physiology is active and your focus is towards the future success. The key learning I took from him was that good is no longer good enough as it does not differentiate you in the eyes of your customer and will not WOW them. So do a brilliant job and get brilliant results. Ask yourself this question. The last three times someone asked you how you were, how often did you reply “I am brilliant”. Try it and see how it affects how you feel. Then keep doing it and see what you have to change to remain true to it.
In conclusion – I believe that a positive mind-set is a key differentiator in business and would be happy to speak to anyone reading this who would like to change their mind-set for the better as a stepping stone towards future business success.
Please contact me at rogerpemberton@actioncoach.com or on 07511969690 to discuss further.
Thanks for reading.
