Episode 4: How to Change Your Life with a Positive Mindset

Dawn McGruer:

Welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast Chronicles of a Serial Entrepreneur with me, Dawn McGruer, digital marketing speaker, author, and trainer. And in this episode, episode four, we’re going to be talking about something very important. That really, really is the hub to being a good business owner and a successful entrepreneur. And this is mindset, something that gets put by the wayside and left behind so often. This is about being kind to herself. And in episode four, I really want to talk about three ways that you can shift your mindset and look after you and your mental health and your wellbeing because if you have a positive mindset, it changes your life. It changes your business, and it changes the outlook and the outcomes that you have, because if you go into a situation and we feel positive, we feel motivated and we feel invigorated, it is so different to feeling down and overwhelmed and negative, and sometimes it just needs a slight switch or a shift in our daily pattern to achieve massive, massive results.

Because I always operate and look at three processes, three core areas that help me invigorate my mind and get this positive flow, because in business we are running around and life is quick. And it seems to get faster and faster and faster and faster. And sometimes we do not look after ourselves because our mind is the most important thing. If we don’t have our health, we don’t have anything. We need to feel positive, healthy, and we need to that to not only be good to ourselves, but to be good to others and to build and form positive relations. Because the core here is that if we think about every day that we talk, walk, and chalk, this is going to be something that you can apply quickly.

As soon as you get a feeling that you are not in control, you feel overwhelmed. Something has happened maybe that has set you off in a negative vibe, or you just feel a little bit low. You just don’t have your mojo. You need to be thinking about talking. This is the most powerful thing for the brain because as soon as we start speaking, we get clarity. We get a whole different kind of outlook on what is happening. And sometimes just talking changes our mood. It changes the way we feel. And it sometimes gets that control back that we need to feel in the driving seat. And just by picking up the phone, talking to someone, a work colleague, a friend, a family member, or your partner, this is going to be a really powerful way.

And if you are insular and you hold everything, then there is going to be a breaking point. There is going to be a point that your mind and your brain is going to feel overwhelmed, but you’re going to suffer. You need it to share how you feel and others will share that back. It’s a two way street. We are filled with joy of other humans in our lives, and we want to be a positive joy, a positive vibe to these humans too. And in business, when you’re working with your clients, having that energy and that ability to rub off on others, it’s catching. It’s that whole feeling that when someone laughs, people laugh with you. So talking, spend time. If you get like a break in your day, just pick up the phone, talk to somebody. Have a chat. Don’t always fall into texting.

I always send voice messages to clients. I love the fact that I can hear the tone in the voice. I can feel the energy and they can feel that too, for me. And sometimes just checking in with someday and having a chat is not just powerful for you, but it’s powerful for their mindset too. Now talk, walk, and chalk. Well talking, we know is very good. And by talking even just by doing lives, it’s weird because you’re connecting with your community. These are things that are a positive energy. Humans need other humans. And when we talk about walking, this is not necessarily just going for a walk. This is just feeling in control, like walking away from the situation, even going for a walk. All of these things will contribute to just having that head space that you need.

Going for a walk for me is a very positive thing because it’s my timeout. It’s my alone time. It’s the time that I reflect and look at the day and I get a perspective of how I’m feeling, what I’d like to change. And it just slows everything down for me. Now, this could be exercise for you. It could be just taking time out from your day to day. It could be anything but talking and walking, if you can find the two even better.

Now, what’s the last one? Chalk. Well, this is about writing down your feelings. Now some of you will be into doing journaling and all those sorts of things. For me, I have never been someone who could actually ever do something consistently like write down what I was feeling every day. I don’t even know if I have a diary. I have planners and things like that. And I have calendars and whatnot, but I don’t ever take time to just kind of reflect on my day to day feelings. Now, if you do journaling, I believe that this can have such a positive effect. And I think it’s amazing.

For me though, sometimes just actually chalking out the situation or chalking out and writing down and kind of having a visual of where I’m at, what I want to do, it gives me that feeling that I’m kind of taking it out of my brain and I’m just trying to make logical sense of it. So writing down a situation and sometimes thinking about what the outcomes could be, change the way I feel. So this is something, or a tool that you can use if you have a feeling of like anxiety or nerves. So for instance, you were going to go and do a live or a public speaking event or a seminar you felt really kind of like anxious, nervous, and a bit panicked about the whole situation.

One of the things you can do is you can kind of write it out and sort of think about the situation and kind of visualize yourself doing it. And think about the outcomes. Quite often, when you put a rational perspective on it, you start to feel quite differently about the situation just by charting out what could happen. And what you want to do is you want to look at times you’ve done this before and really look at the outcome of what has happened. And if you’re fearing something… Say for instance, you’re going to do a public speaking event and you were really panicked or you’re going to do a live and you’re worried about being judged or what people would say or being criticized, think about a time that you’ve done that before and did that occur? and you start to think about the outcome because quite often the actuality of what we were thinking, and the reality of it, is quite different to what we thought.

Now, the brain is powerful thing in terms of positivity, but it can also be a flaw in terms of negativity and it can bring a slam of untruths. And when we start replaying a situation in our head in a negative way, it really affects our mindset. So you want to start chalking it out in terms of the different stages, how you’re feeling and just taking time to sit and think about each stage, going into the room and looking out and thinking, “Well, how do you feel?” And just kind of breathing through each time that you feel anxious and just keep breathing out until that feeling eventually goes.

Now you can keep doing this in the run up to an event. And it does change the way that you feel. And many people who do large events and things will always feel nervous. This is not sometimes something that people see as a positive, but actually having a little bit of nerves, it can be good and people will get nervous for different things. And it doesn’t always change. Some people say, “Oh, I never feel nervous.” Some people do. It’s just how your mind deals with situations. And again, if you went live four or five, six times and realized there was a positive outcome, your brain would tell you that there’s nothing to fear.

So sometimes the fear is something that our brain is making up, a situation because it’s the uncertainty and the unknown because we’ve never done it before. So it gets easier and easier. And sometimes just breathing through the situation and actually thinking, what is the worst can happen? And thinking how possible is that to happen? Can just bring a different, different vibe to it. So try and chart out a way in your daily process of incorporating the talk, the walk, and the chalk.

Now I’ve done a little worksheet for you as ever just to kind of come up with some ideas about how you can implement these in your day, and also for you to brainstorm some ideas of obviously things that you want to do. Even just having a weekly call with a friend or a family and putting it in the diary. And maybe doing a walk or an activity or an exercise and putting it in the calendar. Taking time out in a day, just to maybe kind of brain dump and absorb how you’re feeling and just think about a situation and chart it out and look at the process behind it.

So join me on the next episode. I’m here each and every week, talking about being a business owner, but the true life challenges that we experience as entrepreneurs and hopefully helping you overcome some of the pitfalls that you will experience and bring a new perspective to the way that you look at your mindset. But most importantly, I want you to go away with one thing and just each and every day, wake up and think, be kind to yourself. And you’re the person who’s the driving force behind your business. So if you look after you, you are the most important thing in that business. You’re the foundation, nothing exists without you. So be kind to yourself, and I shall see you next week. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and don’t forget I’m going to be with you each and every week. So download and listen on Dawnmcgruer.com or on iTunes and come and join us in our Facebook community, too. All the details are on the website and I’ll see you next week.