“It’s all in the mind.”

– George Harrison

These five words uttered by famous Beatle George Harrison in the Yellow Submarine feature film can easily go unnoticed amongst the nonsense of the scene. Though it’s a light hearted music-adventure animation, George’s words are more deep and meaningful than we might realise.

That’s because it is, in fact, all in the mind.

Our experience of life and the many parts of it are, by and large, governed by our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, about how the world works, about the intentions of others and so on. Our minds are incredibly powerful and we have the capacity to use them for our own greatest good, but this can only happen when we are conscious of what is happening within.

This principle applies just as much to running a business as it does to every other area of life. It’s what prompts small business owners to seek mentoring and coaching or to join mastermind groups – our existing mindset and thoughts can only take us so far before we must grow and expand in order to go further. Part of this is broadening our knowledge and skillset but it also goes deeper than that.

Recently at an event I began talking with a friendly and engaging small business owner. She was an artisan and craftswoman with decades of experience making beautiful things with her hands and with the help of sewing machines. During our conversation she told me that you couldn’t sell the custom products she creates – by hand with great love and care – for more than a particular price. I gently pointed out that this was arguably just a belief she had developed at some point, probably long ago, that had become her “reality”. A quick google search could bring up abundant evidence that not only were similar products being sold for prices well beyond her limit, many were mass-produced and uninspired rather than beautiful and bespoke like hers. This belief had undoubtedly contributed to many years undervaluing her exceptional skills and experience and without a doubt had greatly impacted her earnings.

We can discover many of these self-imposed limits when we look more closely at our most dominant thoughts and prevailing mindset. It starts with asking impactful and challenging questions.

What are our core beliefs? What do we believe to be true about ourselves? About those around us? About how the world works? Or how business works?

What does our behaviour tell us about what we value most? What blind spots are we missing?

What do we spend time thinking about? Are we thinking of the things we do want? Or are we consumed with negative thoughts about what we don’t want? Are we plagued by anxiety and fear thoughts?

Until we can get a handle on our own mind, we are unlikely to experience our business (or life) in the ways that we want to. We will be stuck living beneath our potential and feeling unsatisfied, even when it seems like we have it all.

The good news is that unhelpful thoughts, beliefs, values and negative mindsets can be changed to better align with our goals. It takes awareness and conscious effort but the results can be significant. Our coaching programs for business owners pay just as much attention to calibrating your thoughts and mindset as developing your practical skills, building solid systems and leveraging your strengths. If you’re not making regular time to work on these things, maybe we can help!

What mindset do you need to adopt to reach your next level?

Until next time,