Sometimes when we talk about money, weight, fitness or relationships, it’s hard to take in critical lessons because we’re subconsciously defensive. They can be touchy subjects, especially if you’re in place where progress feels so hard and like such a battle.
In those situations, I like to introduce the critical concepts with examples that have nothing to do with the sensitive areas we’re struggling in.
Let me tell you a story…
I’m in a business mastermind because one of my priorities is to keep learning and growing. A couple weeks ago, as part of this mastermind, I sat through a presentation on data. Yeah, just thinking of it kind of makes my brain cramp, but hang with me. It’s worth it.
The presenter shared how most business owners go through launches, or just their work in general.
It’s like they have this arsenal of ideas in their mind and when something isn’t going well, they jump to pulling things at random from their arsenal of ideas.
- I probably need to do more lives!
- I should have a presence on TikTok
- It looks like webinars are converting pretty well…
- Maybe my email subject lines need work
- I should start a podcast
- I need to be more consistent with social media posting
They work furiously, trying anything that seems like it’s worked for someone else or it worked for them at some previous point in time. They try it because they read about it or listened to a podcast about it. It’s unstructured effort. It’s frantic effort. But it’s not precise. It’s not accurate. It’s not a direct result of digging in to identify the real problem.
I’m in the home stretch…stay with me.
Let’s say this hypothetical business owner launched a new product and the sales were a lot lower than she expected. She dips into that arsenal of ideas and starts posting more on social, going live on Instagram and sending more emails. She’s working her rump off but it’s barely moving the needle.
The problem is…she’s not solving the actual problem.
The actual problem is that no one is scrolling past the first 10% of her sales page. If she took the time to diagnose and respond to the real problem, she’d have updated the top of her sales page first and really put effort in to make that connect with her target customer.
But she was in such a rush, she didn’t even know that was the problem.
We do this too. All the damn time.
If you have a weight loss goal, maybe you’re furiously grabbing at every possible strategy.
- I should count macros
- I should intermittently fast
- Should I try keto?
- Is carnivore what my body needs?
- Maybe a detox?
- Let’s add some supplements
If you slowed down, you’d probably see that you don’t have a strategy issue, you have a mindset issue. The same excuses talk you out of everything you commit to.
Maybe you’re trying to build a business and you’re trying absolutely everything.
- You’ve read books on email marketing
- You’ve bought a course on starting a podcast
- You hired a coach to help you with branding
But progress feels so hard because strategy isn’t your problem. Mindset is. You keep telling yourself stories to justify delay. You play the game of “I’ll start tomorrow” or you let fear of judgement hold you back.
We’re solving for the wrong things and that’s why progress feels so hard.
I was there, too. At 350+ pounds I thought for sure I had a food problem. I tried every diet under the sun. But food was only the symptom of the problem. The problem was how I was thinking about my life, my circumstances, my goals, my time and just about everything else.
So what do we do? How do we shift this broken pattern? Is there a way to make change easier?
The thing I constantly work on (for myself and with my clients) is paying more attention to how you THINK. We disproportionately focus on what we DO or feel we should do. But that overlooks the critical fact that those behaviors flow from how we think.
- Are we making excuses? What kind of excuses? Are they true? Are they the whole truth?
- Are we putting off what we said we’d do today in favor of tomorrow or some other future point? Are we conscious of this pattern?
I fully understand that this “mindset work” can sometimes seem silly, pointless or plain difficult, largely because it seems that a lot of these thoughts are happening on a less-than-fully-conscious-level.
THIS is why I knew I needed to create 10x Mindset. At the end of the day, every decision you make is a result of how you THINK about your options, goals and circumstances. So, when you become a better thinker, you become a better, more accurate problem solver.
If you have questions about 10x Mindset, let me know – I’m always here and happy to help. In the meantime, click the button below to learn more and get started!