How to Upgrade Your Mindset and Defeat Your Biggest Obstacle as an Entrepreneur What got you to here won't get you to "there."
By Scott Oldford Edited by Dan Bova
Our biggest sale — Get unlimited access to Entrepreneur.com at an unbeatable price. Use code SAVE50 at checkout.*
Claim Offer*Offer only available to new subscribers
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
What if your mindset was your biggest limitation and obstacle as an entrepreneur?
News flash ... it is!
Related: The 10 Traits That Define Entrepreneurial Success
People get sucked into the idea that tactics and strategy are what help you grow, that if you get your tactics and strategy right, you'll find success. In work and in life, people obsess over goals and measurables and how much progress they have or have not made.
Sure, all this stuff matters. It's important. But only if you have the right mindset.
And this is hard. It's difficult to accept that what got you to here won't get you to "there." But, as a human being, you evolve. You need to keep adapting and taking on new ideas, beliefs, concepts and identities.
Right now, you only know what you know. This will change. You will meet new people and come across new ideas, and a lot of it will blow up your old beliefs. You know this is true, because if you think back to the person you were one year ago, two years ago or five years ago, how different are you?
Are you the same person? Do you believe in the same things? Did everything you believe in then still apply today?
Of course not. And it's because what got you to here won't get you to "there."
Related: 10 Podcasts That Can Change How You Think About Life
What got you to here won't get you to "there."
What "there" is for you, I do not know. Chances are you don't at this moment in time, either. But, assuming you wish to grow and progress, I know one thing for certain: What has worked for you up to this point will not continue to work for you.
To an extent you need to "blow up" who you are and continue to evolve your identity. But this is one of the biggest things I see entrepreneurs not do, and it's the reason they get stuck and start to plateau.
You have to keep moving. You have to keep progressing. You have to keep innovating.
It's those who refuse to do who get left behind. But this has nothing to do with strategies or tactics, and it rarely has anything to do with lead generation or marketing.
It's to do with what goes on within your internal operating system, and in the same way you have to upgrade your laptop or phone every few years, you need to upgrade your own IOS and mindset -- the inner workings of who you are, which determines what you do and how you think.
Related: The Most Common Habit of Self-Made Millionaires
You need to open your eyes (and ears).
So how do you do this? How do you upgrade your personal IOS? How do you blow up your identity and evolve into someone bigger and better? How do you overcome this obstacle that keeps you locked into who (and where) you are today?
To begin with, you need to surround yourself with new people, new ideas and new situations. If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to know what you know today. No growth. No progress. No evolution.
You need to surround yourself with new beliefs, concepts and ideas that push your boundaries, and force you to step out of your comfort zone. You need to question what you believe and know, and the only way to do this is to open your eyes (and ears).
Related: 10 Quotes to Help You Not Suck and Be Awesome, According to an Awesomeness Expert
You also need an open mind and to look beyond what's comfortable, because surrounding yourself with new people, ideas, beliefs and concepts isn't enough. You can hear them and experience them, but it means little unless you accept them.
It's not to say you have to agree with it all or act on every new "thing" you come across, but you need to take it on board and consider, How does this affect me?
Take it in. Dissect it. Question it. And question what current belief you have, and how this new "thing" affects it. Like I say, you won't agree or act on it all. But you need an open mind so you can ask yourself whether it belongs.
You may resist it. In fact, you often will. But resistance doesn't mean you don't need it in your life.
Mindset determines your success ... period!
Your mindset determines everything. Not the strategy. Not the tactics. Not the goals. What got you to here played an important role. But you cannot cling to it. Because what served you in the past won't necessarily serve you in the future.
This is hard to accept, because accepting this means you must break down walls and at times reinvent who you are. You must face your demons and overcome limiting beliefs. You must develop new habits and push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Related: 10 Things Successful People Tell Themselves Every Day
This is never easy. You will resist. No matter -- your success (in work and in life) depends on your breaking free. The strategies and tactics only take you so far. It's what goes on in between your ears that counts.
Had you spoken to the version of me three years ago, I would have told you this is B.S. He would have said the hustle was enough. He would talk about strategy and tactics and goals. He would say mindset was a luxury, not a necessity.
He would have been wrong.
But he only knew what he knew at the time. I have since grown and discovered a whole new world. And the version of me three years from now ... he, too, will think differently than the person I am today.
The difference is, I now embrace this. I have an open mind and open eyes. If you want to take your own success to the next level, you, too, must "blow up" who you are today.