Many people shy away from the idea of personal development. Strangely enough, the idea of becoming a better person and being happier is seen as some silly activity. But, in reality, we all want this and we resist it because we shy away from personal responsibility; also, the idea of actually facing all our internal junk kind of scares us and we would rather not. No matter what type of person you are, you will clearly benefit from working on yourself. If you are an entrepreneur in particular, you really need to devote time to bettering yourself because if you want to be successful in your endeavor, you will likely need to make some changes to your belief system as well as how you think and act. If you look at the most successful entrepreneurs of our time, it is clear that personal development was a huge part of their life. Coincidence? I think not.
Busting Through Limiting Beliefs
What we believe sets the stage for everything we do in life and will determine the course of our experience. Successful entrepreneurship requires adopting a set of beliefs that many people do not hold…if they did, they would be happier and living the life they truly want, not the one they think they are supposed to live. If you were not fortunate enough to grow up around people with mindset directed towards success, personal responsibility and abundance, you are carrying around heaps of stuff that can thwart your professional success and keep you working through the natural fear, doubt and anxiety most of us experience. We can only adopt more empowering beliefs when we make a conscious effort to do so and this requires self-examination, study and finding tools that help us make this mental shift.
Changing Self-Sabotaging/Success-Blocking Tendencies
The idea that we purposely do things to thwart our success seems ludicrous to our conscious mind. But, this is not the part of our mind that is calling the shots. That is the subconscious mind and it is not rational. All sorts of weird things sabotage our professional success, such as fear of added responsibility, failure, criticism, or being more successful and wealthier than the people in our lives for fear of how they will receive us. We also have habits that block our success, such as laziness or procrastination. The goal is not about totally becoming this perfect being, but if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you are likely going to have to make a concerted effort to work on the areas of yourself that will stand in the way of the success you seek.
Managing Stress Effectively
Stress is inevitable and as an entrepreneur, you will likely experience high levels often. Stress from planning your business, running it once it starts, fearing whether or not you will succeed, dealing with unexpected roadblocks…the list could go on. Stress can be very destructive to your business goals and for something so destructive, you would think more of us would make a more concerted effort to relieve stress, but many of us do not. We just complain about it and let it overwhelm us. Without committing to stress management, whether through meditation, yoga, deep breathing or just regular exercise, you will not be able to achieve and maintain the state of mind necessary to successfully run your business. Stress skews our perspective, it makes us feel negative and pessimistic about things, it makes us self-sabotage. While you will certainly have your moments of not feeling great, it is important to do whatever you can to minimize them or reduce their intensity when they do arise.
Are you actively working on your personal development? What techniques do you use? Share your Small Biz Diamonds in the comments section below.
Elli Cooper, writing on behalf of Conquest Graphics which provides graphic design services for all your business needs, enjoys writing pieces about personal development and its importance in business success.
Read more: The 4 Stages of Entrepreneur Development