What you focus on expands

As a leader, your mindset is the most important factor in staying focused and productive, working smart, and reaching your goals. How do you achieve the right mindset to turn your leadership dreams and goals into reality each day? Here are three tips you can put in place today to help you start cultivating a mindset for success and significance.

• Focus on what is working
• Tell someone what you’re going to do
• Meditate

Focus on what IS working

Did you catch the subtle but powerful emphasis on IS?  Humans are drawn to negative signals—it’s part of our nature. Thousands of years ago this nature kept us safe and fed. And even now, these negative signals keep us safe from danger and help us course-correct when we’re on the wrong path. The problem is, when it comes to us as leaders, we can over-notice and overreact to the things that aren’t going well.

Be captivated by the good

Meanwhile, with our attention captivated by the bad stuff, we can fail to notice what’s actually going well for us—and that can end up hurting us. It’s so easy to become attracted to what’s not working in our business. We don’t have enough time, we need more resources, our team is exhausted, we are exhausted.  Whether it’s a negative comment on our latest virtual meeting or a customer calling in with a complaint, our focus gets sucked to the dark side too easily.

 

But chances are, there’s a lot more going right than you realize. Your team is closer and stronger than ever because they’ve come together against the common enemy #COVID. You are better at noticing who needs a break and helping them avoid burnout. You are getting better at going to bed earlier so you have more energy to support your team the next day. This is major progress friend!

Don’t let the music fade

Unfortunately, the stuff that’s going well tends to fade into the background hum of our business, and it goes under-appreciated as a result. This is a shame, because looking at the positive helps us stay motivated—and we can learn a lot from it! It’s so important to remember all the positive things that are happening, even if they don’t grab your attention the way problems do. And when something does go wrong, look at what’s going right—it might teach you something that helps you find an answer to your issue.It’s critical to spend time focusing not just on the problems in your business, but also on the things that are going right.

Take action and expand the good

Action Step: Each day, spend 5 minutes reflecting on what went well in your business and in your life. It can help to use a gratitude journal or simply keep a notebook on your bedside table. The sheer act of putting pen to paper and recognize the positive is helpful and energizing. Pat yourself on the back and ask what you can learn and take away from the positive steps you’ve taken that day. I guarantee you and your team will benefit greatly from this subtle and powerful shift.