9 min read
The Ultimate Guide To Mindset Mastery As An Entrepreneur
Kevin Wathey : February 22, 2022
Energy flows where your attention (focus) goes and being able to command your attention is a brilliant step towards mindset mastery, both within your business and in your life. We get it... entrepreneurship can be extremely hard at times, but creating a resilient mindset will make business exponentially easier and the journey to success a much more enjoyable process.
To master one's mindset you must start with the ‘why’ behind what you do. This ‘why’ often stems from a singular subconscious ‘primary’ question. A question that dictates every action, decision, and choice you make in your life. Sounds like an oversimplification, but that’s only because we add complexity to equations to fuel our ego… simplicity is the highest form of genius.
We’ve gotten extremely great at creating routines… unconsciously create patterns (habits), notice and label movements (danger detection), and distance ourselves from discomfort every single day.
Evolutionarily speaking, this is why we’re alive today. Patterns confirm past decisions that proved safe, movement recognition allows us to avoid becoming prey, and pain avoidance ensures our ability to flea at a moment's notice. Nature is a marvelous thing, but in our modern, technologically advanced society where we have a roof over our heads, a stocked grocer on every corner, medication to treat almost any ailment, and a completely interconnected world wide web to satisfy our every desire. The primitive, instinctual parts of our brain no longer serve us in the capacity they were initially intended.
As a visionary entrepreneur with aspirations of impacting the lives of others, it is pretty evident these past strengths are becoming modern weaknesses… and they no longer serve the person you so desperately desire to become.
Now, If all you want is to live a comfortable life, don’t read any further. On the other hand, if what you want is to design your own destiny and live a life everyone dreams of but only a few ever achieve, you’re going to have to master 9 principles.
In this article we're going to discuss:
- Why Discomfort is the Path To Fulfillment
- How Consistency Compounds
- Why the Words You Choose Create Your Experience(s)
- What the Art of Saying 'NO' Actually Means
- How to Award Yourself For Micro-Wins
- Why You Want More Problems In Your Life
- The Difference Between Incantations and Affirmations
- How to Channel your Energy Towards Who You Want To Become
- What 'Proximity is Power' Actually Means
1. Seek Discomfort
Contrary to popular belief, easy times DO NOT create strong people… it does the opposite. If you look at history you’ll realize that it is one giant, continuously repeated multi-faceted process. It appears to be full of ‘random acts of god’, twists and turns, and inspiring new breakthroughs, but at the end of the day, you’re only attaching value to it because it reflects a pattern you’re familiar with. (If there isn’t a familiar pattern, you become impressionable – *Hello, mainstream media.)
Every one of us has an incomplete view of the world, but we create a complete narrative to fill in the gaps. Compound this with hindsight - the ability to explain the past which gives us the illusion that the world is understandable, and you’ve got a recipe for routine.
The way to break this cycle is to avidly seek discomfort. To find what you know you must do but avoid doing and do that in place of what’s easy. It’s through this process that you become the person you were meant to be… and who you become is far more important than what you accomplish.
I must warn you… you will become extremely misunderstood when you master this principle. Your ‘friends’ will ask you what on earth you’re doing because you’ll no longer fit the mold (pattern) they’ve created in their minds for you. It’s odd they think you’re working this hard to stay the same, but that’s the human brain and how routines and patterns dictate our outcomes.
If this philosophy is brand new to you I’m going to recommend you start your journey with the following – Ryan Holiday expands upon this subject and stoic philosophy very succinctly in his book The Obstacle is the Way, and the extremely popular YouTube channel Yes Theory shows you that life's greatest moments and deepest connections are outside your comfort zone.
2. Consistency Compounds
If I was to ask you the question, “Who’s the greatest investor of all time?” you’d probably respond with Warren Buffet, Carl Icahn, or Ray Dalio. Icons, nonetheless, but they’re not actually great investors, they’ve just mastered their own emotions.
Your relationship with money is an emotional and often spiritual game, and most lack the level of awareness necessary to break the beliefs instilled in them during their impressionable years. What all of these ‘investors’ have in common and have placed primary importance on is uninterrupted compounding, AKA consistency, the 8th wonder of the world.
What you do once is negligible, but what you repeatedly do is who you become.
The way to ‘beat the market’ is to remove the human element from the equation entirely. Similarly, the way to design your destiny is to consistently compound that which shapes your character. As an entrepreneur, our work often works more on us than we do on it… and it’s one of the greatest blessings we can give our visionary spirit.
“Repetition is the mother of all skill.” - Tony Robbins
3. Choose Your Words Wisely
One of the greatest gifts I’ve ever given myself was hiring a life and business coach to shed light on the choices I made to get to the place I presently am. The reason being, what got you to this point (A) in your life or career is not what’s going to get you to point B… let alone C-Z.
I share this with you because what I learned on our second call completely transformed my life and business… and that’s to choose your words wisely. I’ll explain…
Our words are the container through which our emotion is stored and/or expressed, and the words you choose dictate the outcomes you experience. For myself, I was unconsciously using words like ‘need to’ and ‘have to’... all of which create tension in the body and force your mindset into a binary thought process. In this state, you focus solely on how to accomplish something which shuts you off from your ability to adapt and innovate.
The reframe I was provided on that call has led to some of my greatest epiphanies… to replace those words with ‘want to’, ‘choose to’, and/or ‘get to’. This shift allows you to remain open and receptive to change because they signify you’re making a choice rooted in abundance.
Change your language, change your story… Change your story, change your life!
4. Discover The Art of Saying ‘No’
There comes a moment in every entrepreneur's journey where doing more actually causes you to be able to do less. It’s a counterintuitive tipping point, but real nonetheless… and unless you have the awareness to recognize when this moment strikes, you may find yourself trying to ride a bike with square wheels in the sand for quite some time. (You’re not going anywhere…)
Obviously, you want to be prepared for this moment, and you can do so by training your mindset how to say ‘No’. You’d be shocked at how often you say ‘Yes’ to things out of alignment with who you want to become. When you do, you’re not just wasting your time, you’re also incurring a lost opportunity cost because that time could have been spent more productively elsewhere.
To become more productive, you must change the questions you ask yourself. Respond to all inquiries and requests for help (in all areas of your life) by first asking yourself, “Does this move me toward or away from who I want to become?”, and watch as you regain an unlimited amount of time to focus on what matters most… to YOU!
*Remember - It’s not what you do that allows you to grow, It’s what you don’t do. One bad investment can completely wipe out years of positive gains.
5. CongratulatE Yourself
If we spoke to our friends the way our internal voice speaks to us, we would have no friends. You’ve heard this before and it’s something you know intellectually… so why do you consistently belittle yourself day after day?
Our minds do not know the difference between an experienced event and an imagined one, therefore, all of your negative self-talk is being internalized and is repeatedly reinforcing self-imposed limitations… ones created by you alone.
Life isn’t supposed to be easy, but it is happening for you… not to you. We spoke a moment ago about The Obstacle is the Way and when you seek discomfort you grow exponentially. It’s a fantastic realization for many, but if you consistently reinforce how ‘difficult’, ‘hard’, or ‘uncomfortable’ the obstacle is, you’re not going to persist for very long.
Next time you seek discomfort or do something difficult you must congratulate yourself for showing up and doing the work despite discomfort. If a friend entered a competition you’d be there to cheer them on… so why not be your own biggest cheerleader for every occasion?
You’re always in competition with yourself… act like it and congratulate your wins.
6. Problems Prove Progress
We’ve been conditioned to associate problems with pain… yet it’s the solution(s) to our problems that create results. Most pain is no longer a life and death experience, physically, but our minds still interpret it as one and seek pleasure.
Pleasure is euphoric, but most seek pleasure from areas outside themselves… from other people. The problem is, if we’re reliant on another for our fulfillment we communicate to our brains that we’re always in ‘lack’ without them. This is not ot a healthy place to live.
This realization comes from the recognition that problems are opportunities for growth and expansion… New problems prove progress. Repeated problems are a result of your current mindset repeating a pattern that’s no longer serving you.
Lasting change comes from lifestyle change(s).. not from a temporary diet. This holds true for the problems you experience in your business and life. If you continually experience ‘same-shit, different day’ syndrome, see if you can recognize the deeper patterns that aren’t serving you. Uncover those and you’ll be on your way to experiencing expansive growth.
7. Incantations vs. Affirmations
Incantations are NOT affirmations. An incantation combines intentional language with physiology and turns the heat up on your focus. While affirmation are purely a series of repeated words for emotional support.
The reason why affirmations are absolute bulgogi is that spoken words accounts for just 7% of all communication according to psychology professor Albert Mehrabian’s 7-38-55 rule. We’ve all been around people who ‘speak to hear the sound of their own voice’ and that’s kind of what an affirmation is. If you don’t believe what you’re saying, why should your subconscious… which is the real queen we’re working to win over.
In order to create an effective incantation, you need to:
- Get hyper-specific on what it is you want and why. Once you know what that is, you can create and link together a few short phrases that will make up your powerful incantation.
- Associate emotion and physical movement with each phrase.
- Make it 100x stronger, expansive, and more expressive than you could ever possibly imagine. It should get to the point where, if people saw you, they’d think you’re a sociopath. That is the state you’re going to want to recite this from hundreds of times per day.
*If you’re communicating your deepest desires why leave 93% up to chance?
8. Energy FOLLOWS FOCUS
Have you ever had a crazy thought and then realize that everything you asked for actually came true? That’s the power of our subconscious mind… it’s the most powerful supercomputer on the planet and the ‘data’ you feed it determines what comes out* of it.
*Garbage in, garbage out…
How do you show up consistently? Do you listen to low-vibrational music, mindless entertainment, or numb yourself with insecure conversations… or do you listen to inspiring and motivational content and only surround yourself with others determined to design their own destiny? It’s pretty evident in contrast which will give you a higher likelihood of success, but you’d be shocked at how few actually take action on what they know.
“Small minds discuss other people, gossip… good minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.” - Denzel Washington via AFI Life Achievement Award.
Our energy follows our focus, and if you want to accomplish what others haven’t you need to be willing to do what they won’t. Only fill your focus with growth-oriented content.
Some ways that you can increase your growth oriented content consumption are:
- Replace music with audio books or podcasts.
- Utilize 528hz music for deeper focus during working time blocks.
- Setup a weekly coaching or mentoring session
- Create an accountability group and check-in daily.
- Recognize and replace ‘busy’ with ‘productive’.
- Mix in outdoor workouts and/or walks.
- Spend time listening to nature.
- Ask the top people in your market for book recommendations (read 1 hour a day minimum).
- Unfollow everyone who isn’t in alignment with who you want to become (family included).
- Subscribe to more educational newsletters like our Weekly Marketing Memo >> click here.
If you allow negativity to fester, you become an emotional victim… not the emotional victor. The conscious choice is yours. Seize the day!
9. STUDY THE MASTERS
In every industry, market, niche, you name it, there is someone who is where you want to be.
To get to where they are you need to do 3 things:
- Gain Proximity
Proximity is power… and you ALWAYS have something of value to offer. The closer you can get to the person the quicker you’ll experience similar results.
- Become a Sponge
Success leaves clues… Walk, speak, read, work, exercise, and eat like this person. Eventually, you’ll start to think like them too. Once you change how you think you’ll experience similar results.
- Change your State
How you showed up previously got you to where you are, not where you want to be. Consciously changing your state regularly allows you to integrate everything into your nervous systems… and that’s where all change takes place.
Once you master these 3, you’ll be able to step into any arena and compete with the best of the best. Not because you’re smarter than them, but because you’re willing to do what others will not. Having a lifelong student mentality like this will catapult you towards success quicker than you ever thought possible, and the best part, you’ll actually enjoy the process.
At the end of the day, material success in life provides little fulfillment… it’s who you become on the journey that dictates a life well-lived. Seek discomfort, consistently, and discover what true liberation feels like by learning how to command your own focus, attention, and mindset.
You have all the tools, no go make something happen… and if you got value from this, please consider paying it forward and sharing this article with a friend you want to level up with you!
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