How Changing Your Mindset Can Change Your Profits

When you’re an entrepreneur, you and your business are connected. Your life will influence the business and vice versa.

The ways in which you respond to the events of life have a direct impact on the way you conduct your business, so understanding this connection can improve your company. The goal is a healthy life and business, so if setbacks, both big and small, cause you to fling yourself into a pit of despair, then let’s talk.

Your Actions Affect Your Bottom Line

When you respond to difficult times by mentally heading down a hole, then you’re bringing your business down with you. Extreme reactions like this take too long to recover from. While you’re sinking into a dark mental pit of despair, business goes on. Without you mentally ready to face the demands of your business, it starts to careen toward the cliff.

The bills still arrive, clients still call, and new business still awaits, but you’re mentally unable to manage it all. Unpaid bills, angry clients, and lost business will only make things worse. So, when you let the world beat you down, it will ultimately affect your bottom line as you spiral downward and your business plummets.

As things grow worse, it feeds the feelings of despair, creating a vicious cycle. But there is another way. Let’s look at the alternative.

Why Some People Thrive Despite Setbacks

Business owners who bounce back quickly from setbacks thrive, and so do their businesses. These owners face difficulty head-on and look for opportunities within them to grow or learn; for these folks, obstacles become challenges to overcome, and problems become situations to resolve. They thrive because things don’t continue to get worse when all goes haywire; they ride it out.

The difference between spiraling and thriving business owners has everything to do with the way they think about themselves and the world at large. One is a negative frame of mind that keeps you stuck and blocks you from the road to recovery, and the other is a positive mindset that acknowledges the issues and steps over them.

When you react to setbacks with prolonged anger, jealousy, frustration, and shame, then you will continue to fall. By lingering in negative emotions, you prevent the good feelings from getting through. And, you need the good ones to get you moving again and in the right direction!

The ability to create a positive mindset means you stay open to the uplifting feelings like confidence and hope even problems come your way. The positive mindset allows you to find solutions to problems, recognize opportunities, and be ready to take a risk.

The Answer Lies Within

When bad things happen, it doesn’t have to affect you. Listen, I know from experience that bad things happen all around you, and to you, all the time. But, you control the way you respond.

If a car cuts in front of you during a commute, you can let it ruin your day, or you can choose to move on. It’s up to you.

The truth is that every set back can be turned around with a positive mental attitude.

And, forming a positive mindset does not mean ignoring bad feelings or negativity. That would be a mistake because it’s normal to feel anger, jealousy, frustration, and shame when things don’t go our way. However, the healthy reaction is to feel the acute emotion but then move on.

Yes, it’s annoying when someone cuts in traffic, but if you stay angry, you’re likely to be next in line to be a jerk in traffic; someone’s jerky move to you doesn’t justify you following suit.

The goal when confronted by setbacks or difficult times is to feel the emotion and acknowledge it, but then let it go.

“Easier said than done,” you’re thinking. And you’re right—learning to recognize the negativity, experience the emotions, and move on takes effort and practice. It won’t happen overnight.

How To Create A Positive Mindset

There are methods to help you change the way you think in response to negative situations. You can think differently and train your mind to be more positive in the face of adversity. You can climb out of the holes you put yourself into when bad things happen.

So first, check yourself and your reactions. Do you dismiss all things positive when you have a bad experience? Do you think bad things happen to you more than others? Do you accept a viewpoint that eventually bad things will find you no matter what you do?

Any belief that you deserve the roadblocks in front of you dismisses the good things that have already come your way. You’re blocked from seeing anything beneficial, and now your negativity is a burden that holds you back. You’re carrying the weight on your shoulders with you instead of letting it go.

Once you recognize your negative frame of mind, then you can begin to change. That’s the next step, finding tools that help change your mindset, such as affirmations.

Say something bad happens, and your reactions plunge to the depths of despair; this is bad. However, imagine if your brain kicks in to tell yourself, “It will be okay;” “Things happen,” and, “This isn’t forever.” This creates a positive mindset, reassuring yourself that the world isn’t out to get you. Each phrase brings you closer and closer to the surface until you break through and find equanimity again.

Again, this is just one technique, and there are many others.

It About Mind Over Matter

The success of the methods is their ability to temper negative emotions with positive thinking. When you train your mind to think better after a negative experience or setback, then you will begin to feel better NOW.

Here are a few scenarios that show how this works:

• Your numbers are low — Instead of obsessing over the things you do wrong, a positive mindset will tackle the issue to see the types of things you need to do differently. You’ll work the problem out.
• A client leaves in a huff — Instead of feeling guilty or ashamed, a positive mindset recognizes that you can’t please all people, but you also might need to learn from the situation to manage clients differently.
• A review comes back negative — Instead of feeling embarrassed and quitting, a positive mindset will acknowledge the frustrating situation, attempt to repair the damage with a counter comment, and realize that one review isn’t going to topple your business so get back up and keep going.

Thinking Positively Is Better Business

Whenever this negative mindset hits and you feel like a failure, you’re heading down a slippery slope that could lead you off a cliff. This is true both in life and in your business. Your mindset can make the difference between salvaging a bad situation or tanking your business.

Work today to create a positive mindset to sustain you and your business when the time comes for it. By looking at the tough stuff and keeping your mind in the game, you can turn problems into learning opportunities, learning opportunities into new directions, and new directions into stronger profit.