Finding the Missing Link Between Your Brain and Your Business The practice of faith can have a big impact on filling in the blanks with how you position your new business.
By Sandi Krakowski Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Our mind is trained and programmed by the choices we make. The things we feed it, and the beliefs we hold dear to our heart. There's no such thing as "thinking" about a matter one way and feeling another. We're one in all aspects and our brain is fueling the kind of life we create. If we attempt to start our own small business, the first war we'll battle is with our own brain, our personal demons and what we hold near and dear, in our thought process.
When we take in information, our mind does not know the difference between truth and lie. It only knows what we tell it. This is why it's crucial that we filter the things we agree with. A simple act of saying, "I don't agree with that!" tells our brain to not file or store that thought. Agreement is very powerful.
Are you paying attention to what you are thinking as you build your business?
During the last 20 years I've been building businesses online and it never ceases to amaze me the things that people do, quite successfully I might add, to sabotage their own success. They believe things that are not true, follow assumptions that pop into their head as though they are fact and the end result is repeated failure, year after year.
If you have been exposed to traditional education, the media, the news and various cultural messages, it is a given that you have been programmed to believe the following as "true" :
1. The rich get wealthy because of a lucky break
2. The "small guy" is struggling because the "big guy" stole from him what he rightfully deserves
3. That those who succeed in business must be doing something immoral, unethical and unlawful and it's your job to discredit them as quickly as possible
4. To always have a door to escape anything worthy of commitment, such as a career, a business, a relationship, a marriage or anything. Have a way out. You'll need it
5. That the majority of money in our world is hoarded by the wealthy and the reason we have the poor is because they have been robbed
All of these messages are suggestions and programmed ideals we have all been exposed to. Ironically they are all lies. Whether you like it or not, believe it or not, doesn't matter. These statements permiate our culture and no one is exempt.
My question for you today is, "What are you doing about it?"
Related: Faith at Work Is About the Practice, Not the Preaching
We must work on mindset and marketing when we build a business and this is where faith steps into our work. If we only work on the way that we think, our mindset, every single day, we'll end up a nervous wreck. Working only on mindset will make one go bonkers. We'll become hyper-sensitive and overly reactive. In the same way if we only work on our marketing, we'll never achive our goals. Why? Because no matter how good we get at marketing, if we don't deal with our internal issues, views of people, the messages that are in our own head about business, money, wealth, sales and the like, we'll keep us struggling.
We must work on your mindset and your marketing. The two are married and are a strategic process for success in business. As Dr. Laura Schlessinger says in her books over and over again, "Personal change is difficult, bitching about somebody else is easy."
Here are some of my favorite books on dealing with how the mind works in life and in business:
1. #BEMORE: 77 Secrets To Your Powerful Life. by me. (Yes, it's a shameless plug but this book will change your life.)
2. The Holy Bible. No matter what your faith is, if you do a topic word search on the words belief, thoughts, think, and the mind you'll find million-dollar nuggets that will shock you.
3. The New Psycho-Cybernetics. An amazing book by Maxwell Maltz, M.D,
4. Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments For Making Money, by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
5. The Gift in You: Discovering New Life Through Gifts Hidden in Your Mind, by Caroline Leaf
6. Who Switched Off My Brain, by Caroline Leaf
7. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield
8. How to Work with Just About Anyone: A 3-Step Solution for Getting Difficult People to Change, by Lucy Gill
9. Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life, by Henry Cloud and John Towsend
10. Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work, by John C. Maxwell
11. The Millionaire Mind, by Thomas J. Stanley
12. How To Win Friends And Influence People, the classic by Dale Carnegie
When we build a business it is imperative that we keep our eyes on our own work, business and what you are to be doing on a daily basis more than you do on the work of others. To be champions,we much be able to point out at least 10 things about ourselves that we need to work on before we even take a minute to point out one thing that we think someone else should. This alone will change a business and one's life, in exponential ways.
Our brain is directing your future… Where is your focus right now?
Whatever you focus on, you will get more of. Write that one down. Focus on all that you want. Focus on the things you will achieve, the way you will be and how you will get to your goal. Faith does work, at work.