Achieve Self-Mastery and You Will Never Settle for Less in Business An entrepreneur's fears and small vision are the greatest limits to success. Overcoming those brings every goal within reach.
By Sherrie Campbell Edited by Dan Bova
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As an entrepreneurs you are on the search for your career to fulfill your dreams and make you feel happy and satisfied in life and love. The desire for success is natural, even to your biology.
You are programmed toward the psychological inclination for self-direction. You are biologically preset towards the growth and evolution of your being, and to gain a sense of spiritual satisfaction through choosing to consistently advance your life and career. Yet, many aspiring business leaders are weakened by fear, the need for approval, buying into perceived restrictions and continually settling for less.
1. Meet each challenge.
You are the most powerful when making strong declarations to stand upright amidst challenge. What sets the successful apart from the mediocre is going face to face with obstacles, refusing to play small. Your greatest human power, as an aspiring entrepreneur, is to choose your own directions and the subsequent actions which lead to your desired heights of success.
Your business challenges are fine-tuning opportunities necessary for your increasing success. Embrace them. When you embrace them you bring your full presence and power to each circumstance, positive or negative, and can use challenge as an opening to set clear, definable intentions for who you want to be, for where you see your business going, and for what roles in life and business you wish to serve.
The more clearly you know yourself, the more resilience you demonstrate in the face of challenge.
Related: 4 Big Challenges That Startups Face
2. Clear direction.
Commit to having a much bigger "something" in this Universe to live for than an unclear haphazard plan of earning and making money. Just because you want to be an entrepreneur doesn't mean it's going to come easily. Do your homework, and do it all the time. There is always something more to learn.
One of the core objectives of being human is to express yourself authentically and pursue your dreams without limitation or constraint. There is something in this world you are called to do that is individual to you. There most motivating place to execute from is the force of your passion, backed by clear direction. This gives your business a sense of stability, maturity, responsibility, viability and the higher purpose of making a difference.
3. Be other centered.
Rid yourself self-centered and narcissistic perspective in your business approach. Self-mastery cannot develop from your ego. This is why TV programs like Under Cover Boss are so successful.
Negativity is ugly and contagious. There is no room for complaining, whining, negativity, entitlement, abuse or anger in your pursuit of success.
To be successful, you have to pay attention to others, good and bad, who you work with. Take care to eliminate relationships from your life and business that stunt your vitality, growth, happiness and subsequently your desired heights of success.
Treat employees, customers and the like with respect and admiration. Treat them with flexibility and openness. Praise often and utilize each relationship for its gifts to expedite your rise to the top. In being other centered, you become a great leader. To lead your team you must understand your team members, their needs and their abilities.
You can only grow your company as much as you grow your people.
Related: At Work, Emotional Intelligence Pays
4. Mastering fear.
Your success as an entrepreneur is largely determined by how well you manage doubt and fear. Doubt and fear, if left unmanaged, will create delay. Fear sets up the approach/avoidance conflict where on the approach to a goal or idea you believe you can do it. However, as you approach manifesting this goal, idea or change fear sabotages your efforts and delays movement forward as a way to avoid and protect you from the unknown.
Without self-mastery it is easy to fall weak to your fears and live dreaming but not achieving. You settle for scraps of reward. With your fear mastered, greatness, transcendence and success are nearly guaranteed.
It is in the process of learning to master fear and doubt you develop the confidence and resilience necessary for unlimited success.
5. Determination.
Courage is a choice. To be successful, operate with a valiant and disciplined initiative towards goals and your bigger picture. Your business is always the sum total of your intentions and ensuing actions, so rise up and deliberately set your business on a path to greatness.
It is invaluable in the business world, which is often ailing and unsettled, to think independently and be self-reliant in creating the life you want and deserve. Determination and a resolute unwillingness to quit will lead you away from self-sabotage. Therefore, never do for others what they are capable of doing for themselves, and never let others do for you what you are capable of doing for yourself.
You do not need permission to move forward in your business pursuits. What you need is the boldness of mind and action required for their fruition. Refuse to give in to the weakness and doubt projected by the masses. That is why they are in the masses. You are here to be a pioneer, not to live a life of mediocrity. Leave the masses behind and embrace the determination you need to meet goals with your full presence and power.
In committing to these steps you become more and more of who you want to be as a leader. In committing to self-mastery you take full responsibility for the success of your business and your life. To be an elite entrepreneur you cannot participate in settling for scraps of reward when you have been endowed with the potential to embrace your personal freedom, to use your confidence to overcome fear and doubt, and to be wholly creative and independent in the way you think about and design the success of your business.
Related: These 7 Lessons From the Ancient Stoics Are Relevant for Entrepreneurs Today
