By Shauna Tolchinsky, First Wholistic LLC and creator of Align Yourself

As holistic practitioners and business owners, many of us have the desire to share the knowledge we have with the world. It’s safe to say we will all experience ups and downs in our business life, and the way we handle these often determines the ultimate success of our business. I have spent the past decade working toward building my own successful company, and have found that there is a secret formula to success.

This formula is marrying the inner game (vision and mindset) with the outer game (the logistics of running a business and business skills). While many business owners focus most heavily on the outer game, I’ve found that it’s the inner game, the mindset, which is truly the key player. After all, without a strong mindset it is really difficult to feel motivated enough to keep going when times are tough in business life. There is something special about transitioning from employee to business owner. There is a deep sense of exploration that naturally occurs as we learn to handle the ups and downs of running a business and learn to control our own doubts and natural concerns.

As entrepreneurs, we have to put ourselves out there in such a different way than an employee generally does. It can be challenging financially, mentally, and emotionally, though rewarding in ways that most people only dream about. Yes, it can at times feel safer working for another person, and something about working for ourselves can seem scary. But the questions to ask are: where is your passion and what makes you happy? There is no right or wrong answer. When you are actively working on something you are passionate about, it is easier to push past your fears, barriers and obstacles, because passion breeds success.

Have you ever watched Steve Jobs discussing passion and success?  He emphasizes that the downfall of many failed businesses stems from the entrepreneur’s lack of passion for their business.  No sane person would endure all the ups and downs without the passion. You can view his inspiring speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNQgln6TL0

However, for many holistic entrepreneurs, it’s not the passion that is missing. So what is it? I believe it’s the combination and alignment of a strong mindset, passion as well as vision that propel us toward success.

Once I realized that my mindset, my passion and my vision were the determining factor in my businesses success, things began to really shift for me. I began developing tools to help myself get extremely clear about what I wanted and how to use my mind to bring about my ability to succeed. The mindset is often what separates those business owners who can shout their desires from the rooftops from those who merely whisper. The mindset is what keeps business owners in the game when things are not going as expected. Mindset is, in my opinion, the most important part of running a strong and successful business.

I want to share with you a few tips on how to get a clear picture of what you want and how to begin working on a strong mindset.

• Get to know yourself. As simple as that sounds, most of us really only know the conscious desires we have. We may say: I want to run a successful business, work out, eat clean and feel confident. Unfortunately, we too often have that pesky auto-pilot that somehow derails us from what we say we want out of life. Why does this happen? Most of us are not tuned into our deepest beliefs and desires.   I would suggest that you get extremely clear about what you really want from your business and what road blocks that pesky auto-pilot might put in front of you by means of self-sabotage.   One of my favorite examples of self-sabotage is procrastination by doing anything but what needs to get done. If you promise to write a blog, you may find yourself in the sock drawer working at the important job of find mismatched socks. We humans can be pretty complicated about working toward our true desires. I know I did this for a long time and now I try to catch myself before I organize the entire closet to avoid doing something scary or challenging within my own business. I would suggest writing out, in explicit detail, everything you want for your business and how you see yourself in that business. Then act like a lawyer and write out reasons you think that it can’t be done. Through this exercise, you will begin to learn what is happening in your own auto-pilot.

• Now that you have a better sense of what is going on behind the scenes, watch your thoughts like a hawk. You can prevent negative thoughts from getting through by taking my gratitude challenge. This challenge will re-wire your brain to think more positively and be open to change. For the next 14 days, I challenge you to not complain or say anything negative to yourself or others. This has proven to be one of the most challenging tasks for most people. However, if you complete this challenge, I can bet that you will want to call me, write me or somehow find a way to get in touch to let me know about the mini miracles happening in your perception around your business. Often people tell me that they see mini financial miracles as well (but of course I can’t promise money raining down on anyone).

• Review what you wrote about your business (both what you want as well as the reasons why it can’t be done) each day during your 14 day gratitude challenge. Each day, ask yourself what beliefs you would love to keep and which beliefs and reasons are just stories that you now realize you don’t need to own any longer. Even though it doesn’t seem like you are doing much; you are feeding your auto-pilot with new and improved information.  This new information can feed your brain positivity when thinking about your list or goals for your businesses success.

• Gain confidence in your ability to push forward each day. Pick one item that will help you move forward in your business and do it first before your other business tasks. As the best of them say: eat a live frog every single day! In the “doing” you will create a stronger sense of self and business momentum.

The big idea and ultimate intention with these exercises is to change what happens in your mind. When you are driving, sitting on the couch, eating dinner and just going about your life, what is it you think about? Those auto-pilot moments will determine your actions and your actions will determine your outcomes and success. It is all connected and the amazing part of our stories is that we can change our own auto-pilot with positive thinking and consistency in our thoughts for the positive!

About the Author

Shauna is a Nutritional Therapist and the creator of the Align Yourself courses. She has spent the past 10 plus years working on her own mindset and business building skills with countless hours of research, real life experience and certifications on personal development and countless classroom hours on business development alike. She is deeply passionate about teaching other business owners how to marry mindset and vision with business skills to propel them into a deeper sense of success in business. Visit www.FirstWholistic.com and check out the tab Align Yourself to view more about mindset and business building skills.