Smarts should be characterized by who we are and how we can use our strengths to shine, rather than perceptions of smarts from other people!
Read moreThe Lonely Game Of Entrepreneurship
Have you ever felt like you weren’t always sure the way you’re headed is the right way?
What if you didn’t have anyone to reassure you that what you are doing is the right path for you or what you're doing is even right or wrong?
Welcome to the game of entrepreneurship.
It’s a world where more often than not you’re by yourself, making decisions that can impact your entire business and life and you have almost no one who has walked in your shoes to talk to on a daily basis.
With decisions that can so profoundly affect you a helping or guiding hand is often something, you would want or need and that's why there are so many mentoring groups and consultants out there.
But as an entrepreneur you make these decisions, formulate new ideas and develop strategies all from within your own head and these ideas are CONSTANTLY flowing.
With this, you are left thinking about everything from A to Z often in a continuous way with a seemingly night and day focus and often no way to actually turn it off.
From the moment you wake up these things are on your mind and when you go to bed all the information you need to process is still racing through your mind and it's your ultimate responsibility to execute on these ideas,
With all of this comes an extreme amount of stress and pressure to learn to live with and to be comfortable with and even start to embrace. It's quite the addicting experience!
Because through all the pressure and loneliness there is no better feeling than acting on your thoughts and ideas and along the way not really having a clear idea as to whether any of it will work. Because you are LITERALLY forging your own path.
When it comes down to it entrepreneurs are the ultimate executors.
We think, act and analyze on a constant basis. Chances are while you’re still thinking about doing something an entrepreneur has acted on several of these things.
And we’re lonely because we don’t have other executors with us, we’re often the founders of our companies who bear the burden of growing something akin to our child.
No one else can possibly understand how important this game is to us.
And because of that, we live this life to where we forge our own paths, create new industries and do things most people would only dream of doing.
The excitement, the anticipation, the thrill, the loneliness, the sadness, the stress all culminate to create an epic lifestyle that leaves a legacy for generations.
To me, it’s always worth it though sometimes I’m riding high and sometimes I’m a little down I always end up proud of what I’ve accomplished and built and amazed that my thoughts have been turned into reality on a consistent basis and that so many people believe in what I do as an entrepreneur.
Thank you to the risk-takers, the doers and the people who build industries we all wish we could be part of!
Learning to be Mindful
Recently I gave a talk to a group of Infusionsoft Partners and small business owners about my 10 laws of marketing and customer-centric business strategies.
One of the things I took away the most after listening to everyone and answering questions was the amount of fear people experience when trying to do something new and the fact that being mindful or being in the present is something not many people make a practice of doing or even understand how to do.
Being mindful or staying in and understanding what you're doing in the present is a practice that keeps you moving in the right direction and allows you to be conscious of when you start to fall off track, become distracted, or become aware of when your emotions take over.
How many times have you been working hard only to find yourself watching cat videos on Facebook or engulfed into a lengthy online debate that has no bearing on your professional or personal life?
Now in those instances how quickly were you able to recognize that you were sucked in and were you able to pull yourself out of it and back to what you were doing?
This is a huge piece of being mindful and you can practice this to become more aware of what you're doing in the present and when you get distracted from what you are doing.
If I'm focused for example I can keep working with people screaming and yelling around me, the entire building burning down or complete chaos happing and I won't even move a muscle or fall off track.
The point here is if you want to develop a level of mindfulness to where you can overcome distractions you have to practice it in your everyday life.
Start to make it a point to identify when you become distracted and fall off track. Stop at that moment and say:
"I'm distracted and now it's time to go back to what I was doing"
Say this every single time you fall off track and after a while, it will be a sub-conscience thought process you go through that will begin to automatically pull you back into what you were doing.
This is incredibly useful when you're trying to argue a point or when you feel emotions start to come out when working with other people.
In these situations, you work to take a step back and think about the emotions you are feeling at that very moment.
Say to yourself "Is this how I really feel or is this the product of letting my emotions take over?"
By doing this and understanding when you get distracted you will build a sense of mindfulness that allows you to understand where you are at in the present and what you are doing. From this, you can maximize your productivity and move away from letting emotions take you over in arguments.
This is not easy to do and won't happen in a day and that's why we need to follow this exercise to make sure that we are installing the process into our thoughts and minds every single day.
It doesn't take meditation or yoga to do this, but if that helps you clear your head to be more aware than add it to your routine as well!
Take this blog as a way to learn how to be more aware in the present and create a sense of awareness of who you are and what you're doing at all times.
Try this out and let me know how it goes!
Crossroads
Life should be about living it to embrace every single day, but we often make decisions that lead us to be unhappy and we end up in situations to where we have to choose to be happy or unhappy.
Read moreFocus On YOU First
To be truly happy you need to focus on ensuring you are happy before you try to make anyone else happy! Focus on YOU first!
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