The inspiring entrepreneur, Henry Ford, once said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you’re right.” He was on to something. We all have untapped potential, but it is often blocked by our conditioning.
One of the first steps to jump starting your momentum is to look at where this conditioning originates. Your conditioning is part of what I refer to as your inner entrepreneur. Your inner entrepreneur is the inner workings of your subconscious mind and your natural hardwiring. It is always at play, but isn’t always playing positively for us. If you only pay attention to the external and neglect your inner entrepreneur, you will work harder than you need to for years.
Often times, stories we tell ourselves or experiences we’ve had keep us from moving ahead. These stories come in forms of excuses giving us reasons why we do what we do, rationalizations and even justifications. On a global scale, many people use the rationale of a bad economy and then continue with self-limiting thinking or habits that align with the bad economy. (I can relate because early on in my business I had the same thoughts. When I changed my way of thinking, my actions changed and so did my desired results.)
So when a client wondered why “nobody wanted to do business with her” it was the perfect opportunity to dig deeper. It turns out that when my client met with a prospect, there were actually three things she was telling herself. “Nobody wants to do business with me,” “This new approach is not going to work – my business is different,” and “Nothing is working.” As it turned out, her body posture also reflected her thoughts. She often slouched and didn’t project a confident image.
Once she changed the dialog in her head, she was more open to doing things differently. She started to stand a little taller. Once she started to project that confidence, she signed on more clients. It was almost as if she just hit the “on” button to her light switch. She became more open to opportunities, she had more business growth ideas, and she reorganized her business bringing in multiple income streams and more options for people to work with her. Her thoughts had a systemic impact on her entire business.
Researchers have even found that our brains are conditioned to produce habitual behaviors and ways of thinking. You can get into a habit of thinking you won’t have enough business. Your actions will follow your thoughts. Your current habitual actions you take or don’t take are based on your current subconscious programming.
The good news is that if you’re not achieving the results you want, you can change the results you want to manifest into your life today. To break free of conditioned ways of thinking and behaving, you must recondition and reprogram your brain. You must change your thoughts about those events that keep you from moving ahead. To get started, there are three simple methods to access your subconscious mind. These three methods are visualization, affirmations, and behavior modification.
1. Visualization. Visualization is a process of forming a mental image of your desired future. When you visualize your desired future, you are drawn toward actually fulfilling what you visualize. With repetition, the system of visualization helps you to train your brain to access your untapped potential. I use this process daily. When I was writing my book, I visualized it on the Best Sellers List. Almost effortlessly, new resources and people came into my life. Each one had a tip or something they learned about becoming a best seller. Each day I wrote more of the book, created a plan, and worked the plan. My book that I had visualized rising to the Best Sellers List indeed rose to the Best Sellers List.
2. Affirmations. Affirmations are a clear statement declaring a belief. Affirmations are almost always going on. However, when they are left in default mode, the affirmations are many times not positive. Become intentional about what you want to affirm to yourself. Repeat affirmations frequently and with emotion as if they are already true or have already occurred. This will give clarity to your projected outcome. Focus on what you want to occur or invite into your life.
3. Behavior Modification. Behavioral modification is simply the process of changing behavior. One of the success principles to making new modifications stick is to develop a process or new habit. When you develop a new process and reward yourself for sticking to the process, you’re more likely to make the new habits last. As any athlete knows, you get better at your craft with time and repetition. Consistency and repetition will give you results. But if you’re consistently playing solitaire instead of marketing your business, you’ll want to break that self-sabotaging habit fast. Instead, substitute that behavior with a new one. Schedule an appointment on your calendar to network or market your business when you might have been playing video games. Remember to reward yourself when you’ve changed the behavior and continue repeating it. Over time, you will recondition your brain and produce new business-building habitual behaviors.
Remember to find the optimal part of your day to practice these simple strategies that exercise your inner entrepreneur. When you implement these approaches every day, you’ll begin to change your inner game and, once again, regain your momentum.
