Coach and author Karen Williams shares her expertise and knowledge in today’s guest post and asks:

How does your mindset affect your business?

by Karen Williams

Let me share with you one of my beliefs. I believe that you can have all the marketing and business knowledge you need, but unless you have the right mindset, you’ll struggle to make it in terms of running a successful business.

Our mindset has an incredible affect on what we do and how we do it. It is more than just belief and confidence, it is about the way we approach a situation, our outlook, our mental attitude and the way in which we think. It is about the language we use to talk to ourselves and others, as well as the thoughts we have in our head about a problem or a solution.

Think about it now. Have you been with someone where their mindset has not been at its best? Perhaps they have been feeling down, depressed or concerned about something. Or maybe they have been feeling unsure or frustrated. Now that’s not to say that we always have to be on top form, but noticing your mindset, your thoughts and your actions is the starting point of understanding how it impacts on your success.

Let’s think about another person you know who has a positive mindset. Someone who always sees life with the glass completely full, has energy and enthusiasm, and a zest for life.

Where do you fit?

How do you feel about that?

If you are like most people, you are probably somewhere in the middle. Some days you will be feeling fantastic, and on other days, you will want to stay beneath the duvet. So with my comment in mind that your mindset affects your success, what can you do to recognise your state and do something about it when you need to?

The first step is to recognise how you feel every day and be aware of your emotions and feelings. If you are feeling negative or frustrated, what can you do to change your state? I know that sometimes you’ll want to wallow for a while, but think about how you will feel when you’ve broken the pattern and done something else instead? One of the strategies I follow is the premise that motion changes your emotion, so physically get up, do something different and return to your task later.

The second step is to be aware of what you could do differently to retrain your brain. In a nutshell, we have thousands of thoughts every day and we need to decide what to hold onto and what ones to ditch. Our beliefs often inform the thoughts we have, which inform the feelings we have about the beliefs, then this influences our behaviour and the consequences. You then have a choice on whether you create a vicious circle or a virtuous circle. If you keep thinking negatively, which creates negative behaviour, you will enter a downward spiral, but if you break the pattern, you can create a virtuous circle. These, by their very nature, then create more happiness and wellbeing.

The third step is to be aware of the impact that other people’s behaviour has on you. You could say that it is your choice how another person’s behaviour can affect you, it is often difficult to put this into practice, especially if this behaviour is pessimistic. Generally negativity breads negativity, so it can be difficult to break the pattern. But there are things you can do about it. The late Jim Rohn said that “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. So ensure you spend your time with inspirational people whose goals, aims and intentions are bigger than your own. When you do this, you’ll raise your game, achieve more, and get the support to step through your comfort zone quicker and more easily than you could do by yourself.

Before I move on, I’d like to give you something else to think about.

Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
Answer: five
Why? Because there is a difference between deciding and doing!

With this in mind, what are you going to decide to do differently going forward? Are there new strategies and habits you need to put into place? Only you can decide to have a success mindset. Then when you have chosen this mindset, you will be focused on abundance rather than lack, success rather than failure, so can you see now how it can make a difference to your business?

You’ll be the one achieving results, getting more clients and generally feeling inspired and inspirational! Doesn’t this sound like a great place to be?

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out” ~ Robert Collier

About the Author/Further Resources

Karen Williams runs Self Discovery Coaching and is the author of The Secrets of Successful Coaches, which reached #1 in the Business charts on Amazon. Having interviewed 24 top performance coaches, Karen has learnt from the experts how to create a successful coaching business. Since just 10% of coaches make it in terms of running a successful business, she gets frustrated when she sees coaches who are amazing, but don’t have the business skills or confidence to make a difference. Karen’s big vision is to enable more coaches to reach more people and help them to live a happier and fulfilled life.

You can download Karen’s 38 Success Mindset tips at http://www.thesecretsofsuccessfulcoaches.com/successmindset/ and follow Karen’s current Ultimate Blog Challenge – 31 posts in 31 days so I make this number 32!

You can also follow Karen on Facebook and Twitter.