Latest news with #mindset
Entrepreneur
4 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How to Harness Your Inner Athlete and Reach Peak Performance
It is important to make yourself the primary force driving your growth. Here are several strategies to channel your inner motivator for success. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Just like how an athlete trains for peak performance, your career growth demands passion, resilience and daily action. Tapping into your inner competitor will guide you to build the momentum needed to thrive professionally. Here are some strategies to help you stay focused and energized in your journey. 1. Strengthen your mindset Just as athletes visualize their performance before a big game, you need to be able to let your mind guide you in making your professional dreams come true. It is a matter of using your intuition to navigate uncertainties that lead you to success. You will learn to adopt a sense of purpose when you envision your future and take steps to make it a reality. Use your senses to bring to life what success will be like, and this will motivate you to pursue it further. Observe the turf, hear the crowd, feel the adrenaline. When you achieve a desired level of success, what will your new car smell like? Imagine being able to travel and see destinations that have been on your bucket list. Tasting foods that seemed too splurge-y at one time are now a bite away. Being legally blind, I have come to rely on my heightened senses and mental focus just as an athlete trusts their instincts when the road is not clear. My motto has always been "You Don't Need Sight To Have Vision" meaning in my mind, my dreams are fed through all my other senses and that translates into giving me the energy to keep going on those long days. The best way to know if and how you are progressing is to track your performance and reflect from week to week. Journaling is a great way to keep track of your efforts and consider if you are satisfied with your growth. Having this log is like reviewing game footage and will enable you to see where you should focus your greatest efforts and if there are any new issues that may need attention. I use an audio recorder as my mental fitness tracker for my list of to-dos and projects completed. Being able to listen to my voice also allows me to hear my state of mind. This can be revealing to see how positive I was in a moment of indecision or even how strained I may have been in the height of a busy day. Sometimes exhausted but often with that intentional focus, I see mental blocks and doubts fade away as my intellect grows. A runner's mindset is their biggest advantage before a long race, fueling their body through belief and determination. Consider using affirmations to boost your spirit on those days you are challenged. Many people shy away from being proud of their achievements but truly, the inner athlete in me knows that with every effort, I am doing my best and am taking a step further into my journey of growth. Related: 10 Strategies for Building a Successful Entrepreneurial Mindset, Overcoming Self-Doubt and Encouraging Growth 2. Energize your day Growing in one's career takes laps of deadlines and expectations that require grit, pacing and inner strength. These can feel like an unnecessary weight to carry which can impact your thinking and functioning ability. To navigate these strenuous times, it takes channeling your inner athlete to have the stamina to keep up. To build endurance, runners need to know when to take breaks and recover. If you find that you are sitting at a desk and you know that you have a long day ahead of you, consider making sure you are consistently stretching your back and maintaining good posture so that you can get through the long day without feeling pain from all the sitting. Consider even massaging your fingers in between typing or rubbing your own neck and shoulders to keep them from getting tight as you look at your computer screen. I believe in maintaining my energy level through quick, spontaneous bursts. That might be a cold or hot shower, often multiple times a day, enabling me to be alert so I am creative. I also use ankle weights and do leg lifts in virtual meetings to provide energy to the rest of my body. This way I can dedicate the top of my body to be present and engaged in leading a presentation, while at the same time I can get my lower body working out to keep my endurance at peak level. It is important to push the envelope from time to time. Just like how an athlete is constantly striving for their personal best, you need to be comfortable extending past your limits. This means that you may physically commit to more in a day than normal. Consider looking at your schedule: can you get in an additional call to a client or one night a week, go to a networking function? Those extra efforts can open doors for your career. Related: I Work Nearly 50+ Hours a Week and Rarely Feel Tired — Here Are My Secrets to All-Day Natural Energy Cross-training is vital to develop balance and agility. I wake up every day looking to do one new action I have never tried before. That might be exploring how I can use AI to move an initiative forward, expanding my brain in a way that is new. I might also choose to physically organize a room at the office. This often has me finding items I had forgotten about or opens space to expand within the office with less clutter, allowing for room to grow. Harnessing your inner career athlete means showing up in the arena with purpose, breaking boundaries and celebrating your successes along the way. Your mindset is your playbook, your energy is your fuel and your daily actions are your drills. Through proper conditioning and training, you create a powerful rhythm of growth, driving yourself forward until you cross the finish line.
Forbes
13-06-2025
- General
- Forbes
2 Ways To Rewrite Your ‘Self-Concept' For Success, By A Psychologist
What if your own mind is your biggest saboteur? Here's how shifting your self-view can break you ... More free from the patterns holding you back. We all carry mental blueprints or schemas of how the world works, what love should feel like, how success should arrive or what's possible for us. These schemas are internal roadmaps that determine how you navigate through life. At the very core of all these maps is your 'self-concept'— the beliefs you hold about yourself, about who you are, what you're capable of and what you're allowed to have or hold onto. Your self-concept isn't something you're born with but something that has been building ever since you were born and continues to form as you live through varied experiences. From childhood onward, your self-concept is shaped through repeated messages, cultural narratives and most importantly, your emotional interpretations of life events. In simpler words, anything your brain picks up from your environment as a 'suggestion' about who you are can become part of your self-concept. It doesn't even have to be explicitly said; sometimes it's just what you felt. For example, if you went through an experience that ended up making you perceive yourself as 'not good enough' or perhaps even 'too much,' that very conclusion quietly becomes a self-belief and eventually a part of how you see yourself. In case that belief keeps getting reinforced, maybe through similar experiences or the way people treat you, these beliefs become stronger. Your brain starts scanning the world for more evidence of them, which happens because of confirmation bias. This means once you believe something about yourself, your mind selectively notices and remembers the things that confirm it, while filtering out what contradicts it. Over time, this becomes your internal baseline. Even if life gets better or can get better, your self-concept may keep you stuck in that older story unless you consciously shift it. Here are two ways your self-concept sabotages your desires. Often, the reason you may not be pursuing your desires isn't laziness or lack of ambition. It could be that it doesn't align with your current self-concept and so, it just doesn't feel possible to you. This can lead you to shrink what you desire to keep yourself congruent with your current beliefs. When your self-concept quietly says, 'That's not for someone like me,' your brain doesn't even allow the desire to fully register as an option. This kind of rejection often doesn't even happen consciously, but at unconscious levels of your core identity, which can have an even more powerful impact on your choices. This idea is explored in a 2017 study published in Psychological Inquiry. Researchers developed the Identity-Value Model (IVM) to explain how deeply identity shapes our motivation and self-regulation. Their work shows that when a behavior or goal feels aligned with your self-concept or when it feels like 'you,' your brain assigns it more subjective value, which makes it far more likely for you to pursue and sustain it. However, when something doesn't match your identity, no matter how desirable it is, your brain can quietly decenter it. In other words, your self-concept even shapes what feels worth wanting. So, when your internal identity says a desire or goal is not for you, your subconscious won't even let the desire land fully, let alone act on it. Next time a desire feels off-limits, catch the thought in the moment and journal about it. Try reframing it into an empowering statement, such as 'I'm someone who can learn this.' Then, take one tiny action to act on your goal, like reading a page, making a quick call or spending five minutes practicing. Such micro-commitments can send a signal to your brain that a bigger and bolder dream is possible for you, even if it happens in steps. All you have to do is let yourself desire it and see it happening for you as much as it can for anybody else. When your identity is stuck in who you have been, no matter how hard you work, it can be hard for newer outcomes to emerge. This is because your internal reference point may still be tied to an outdated version of you, including old roles you played, unresolved pain or perceived past failures. These experiences also subtly influence your present behavior without your conscious knowledge, and you may find yourself stuck in similar patterns in different situations. Instead of living in the current moment, you might be living on autopilot, where the same beliefs, reactions and even results get recycled. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence explored how the way teenagers talk about their life experiences (their narrative identity) relates to how they build their sense of self (their identity commitments and exploration). Researchers focused on two aspects of their stories. The first was self-event connections (a question of, can they link life events to who they are?) and agency (do they see themselves as someone who takes action or has control?). This was compared to identity-building behaviors like making commitments, exploring different paths in life, ruminating and overthinking choices, and so on. Data was collected from two groups, a large group of 1,580 Dutch teenagers at one point in time and a smaller long-term sample of 242 teens over two years. Researchers found that teens who made clear links between life events and their self-image and saw themselves as agentic were more likely to have stronger commitments and explore options more deeply and broadly. Over time, those who saw themselves as agentic in their stories tended to grow in identity strength and exploration. Teens who didn't share any story or couldn't link it to themselves were less engaged in identity formation. The findings suggest that adolescents who narrate themselves as having a greater sense of agency and who actively shape events in their lives are more likely to build stronger commitments and explore life's possibilities in adaptive ways. This implies that how you narrate your life can reflect and even shape who you are becoming. If you want to break out of old patterns, start paying attention to how you tell your story to yourself, as well as to others. Try reflecting on whether you are always the victim of what happened or the one who learned and adapted to become better. Even if your past wasn't ideal, seeing yourself as someone who can grow from it rather than be defined by it can help activate a growth mindset. With this mindset, it becomes more likely that you'll build a sense of self that's evolving and open to new outcomes. When you think of changing your self-concept, remember that it isn't about overhauling everything at once. Take it one step at a time. This is going to start with awareness of the beliefs that tend to hold you back. Limiting beliefs often show up in situations where you feel stuck, patterns of repeated emotional responses or in repeated thoughts that feel true but disempowering. Start by noticing what keeps coming up for you. When something triggers you or makes you feel small, journal about it. What was the situation? How did you interpret it? Over time, this may help you spot patterns. Since these are often rooted in beliefs you've internalized over the years, it can seem like an overwhelming process, but a rewarding one in the long run. Once you've identified a limiting belief, try to consciously affirm the opposite. An affirmation is simply a thought, and a belief is just a thought repeated enough times to feel true. By practicing daily affirmations and searching for positive evidence in your everyday life that directly counters your limiting beliefs, you can start to rewire your internal script. It's one of the simplest yet most powerful tools to reshape how you see yourself. However, some beliefs are deeply rooted and may be hard to identify and untangle alone, especially if they stem from childhood experiences or long-standing emotional wounds. In those cases, seeking professional help can offer the support and tools needed to shift those deeper layers of your identity. The idea is to consciously become the author of your internal story, one belief at a time. Because when you shift how you see yourself, everything else begins to shift too. Curious how confident you truly feel about your goals and capabilities? Take this science-backed test to find out: Growth Mindset Scale
Entrepreneur
12-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
6 Steps That Helped Me Lead Through Three Global Crises
Feeling afraid is natural. But feeling afraid every day? That's not sustainable, especially for entrepreneurs. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In 2000, I was head of the first fintech in Mexico, Finanzas Web. A company so innovative that we survived the market collapse when the dot-com bubble burst because we had capital reserves and a clear execution plan. In 2008, the Great Recession hit, and I was in the eye of the hurricane with a business specializing in mortgages for the Hispanic market. When the bank cut our lending overnight, I lost the company and was left with $1 million in personal debt. Third time's the charm, right? In 2020, amid COVID, my current company, Growth Institute, was prepared. We doubled revenue and made the Inc. 5000 list for the third consecutive year. We came out stronger than ever. Same CEO. Same world. Different outcomes. So, what changed? Better systems, deeper awareness and a disciplined mindset. Related: Fear Can Hold Us Back – But It Can Also Drive Us Forward. Here's How to Turn Fear Into Fuel. Step 1: Name the fear The first step in managing fear is naming it. Psychologists Justin Milano and Dan Cordaro emphasize that high-performing entrepreneurs don't deny fear — they study it. When fear arises, don't suppress it. Ask: What's the fear? Where do I feel it in my body? Is it rooted in a real threat or in a future that may never happen? Anxiety often stems from mental loops rather than concrete facts. For instance: "What if we run out of cash?" or "What if the product fails?" These fears narrow your thinking, reducing your ability to problem-solve. When you label the fear, you reclaim power over it. Step 2: Shift the lens Fear signals potential loss. But what if it's pointing to opportunity? Milano and Cordaro outline three common fear mindsets: Scarcity: Believing there's never enough. Aversion: Resisting reality as it is. Unworthiness: Feeling inadequate. The moment you shift from "What might I lose?" to "What could I gain?" you take back control. Related: 3 Steps to Overcome the Fear of Uncertainty and Daily Stress Step 3: Build systems before the storm Jim Collins coined the term Return on Luck, which he defines as the ability to turn unexpected events—good or bad — into momentum for scaling. And here's the key insight: successful and unsuccessful companies receive the same amount of luck. The difference is in what they do with it. How to increase your Return on Luck: Stay alert: Opportunities rarely look like opportunities at first. Act with discipline: Minimize emotions. Rely on data and strategy. Learn fast: Every crisis brings a lesson. Are you listening? Be consistent: Don't change course with every breeze. Discipline sets you free. ROL allowed my companies to collapse or scale, depending on our preparedness. So ask yourself: Do we have a system for cash flow management? Do we have KPIs we monitor weekly? Can our team execute without micromanagement? Luck is unpredictable — but your response to it isn't. Adopting a disciplined mindset can turn uncertainty into growth and lasting success. Train for chaos before it arrives. Step 4: Tighten your execution disciplines In times of uncertainty, operational discipline becomes your safety net. Think of your business like a car. Without a dashboard — clear KPIs, priorities and communication rhythms — you're driving blind. Go back to the basics: Define your top priorities. Hold daily and weekly huddles to maintain alignment. Make your metrics visible and reviewed consistently. Beyond the mechanics, reinforce your company's strategy and values in every meeting. Be vocal. Be repetitive. Leadership means becoming a constant messenger of your vision. And don't just trust your gut. Use data. In uncertain markets, instinct can be misleading. Stay alert to trends, benchmark your performance, and course-correct early. Finally, empower your team. Give clear direction, then step back. Agility comes from confident, decentralized execution, not from micromanagement. Related: Leading With Transparency in Times of Uncertainty Step 5. Lead with transparency and strategy In crisis, communication becomes your most powerful tool. It's not enough to have a strategy. You must communicate it clearly and consistently. That means: Articulating your vision in simple, repeatable terms Listening to your team's concerns without judgment Staying transparent during tough calls Leadership is not about having all the answers but showing the path forward. Step 6: Negotiate like a pro During economic instability, one of the most overlooked levers is your supplier relationships. While most CEOs rush to cut headcount or pause marketing, the smart ones call their vendors. Consider this approach: "Like you, we're feeling the pressure. Let's revisit our agreement and find a win-win." You might be surprised how flexible suppliers become when the relationship is strong. Here are quick wins to explore: Extended payment terms Lower minimum commitments Locked-in pricing for more extended periods Proactive negotiation in times of uncertainty isn't a risk. It's strategic leadership. You can't eliminate fear, but you can lead through it Fear doesn't disappear as you scale; it evolves. However, so can your strategies and resilience. The best entrepreneurs don't wait for confidence to act. They act their way into confidence. As someone who's experienced three major crises and emerged stronger on the other side, my advice is this: Don't try to outrun fear. Make it your ally.
Entrepreneur
12-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Why Business Leaders Need to Stay Calm Under Pressure
One thing I know unequivocally is that your mindset as a leader directly impacts your entire organization. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The entrepreneurial journey is filled with challenges that can test even the most resilient business owner. Throughout my years bootstrapping Marketcircle and growing our business growth tool Daylite, I've learned that maintaining a positive mindset isn't just helpful — it's essential for business survival and growth. The leader's mindset sets the tone One thing I know unequivocally is that your mindset as a leader directly impacts your entire organization. According to Gallup research, 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the leader's approach. What you project is super important. If you come across as "we're doomed" and project panic or despair, you'll kill any motivation that anybody had to try and solve problems. Even though you may be doubting everything and don't have a solution, it's necessary to remain calm. When leaders project panic, that second layer of people around you — your inner circle — will get discouraged and panic as well. Conversely, when you stay calm and ask for ideas and input, your team remains calm and solutions will emerge. Related: This Is the Single Trait Every Great Leader Needs Tools to prevent overwhelm With studies showing that 42% of small business owners have experienced burnout monthly, having strategies to maintain perspective is crucial. I've developed several tools to stay positive when feeling overwhelmed: Journaling: When feeling overwhelmed, I write things out. This might be a list or even doodles—whatever helps me organize my thoughts when I'm just spinning my wheels on one thing. Taking walks: Going for a walk, especially with music, helps clear my mind when I'm stuck on a problem. Watching movies: Sometimes I watch familiar movies that I've seen before (like The Hunt for Red October, Braveheart and Interstellar). This serves as a mental change of scenery, so to speak, allowing me to return to challenges with a fresh perspective. While these tools work for me, the key is finding what rejuvenates you personally. I'm an introvert, so my recharging activities tend to be solitary. My wife, an extrovert, gets reenergized by being around other people. Know yourself and your recharging needs. Related: How to Build a Resilient Team That Thrives in Uncertainty Don't make assumptions — gather information When faced with unexpected bad news, avoid making assumptions. Instead: Stay calm and resist immediate panic. Gather relevant information and data. Ask questions to understand what happened. Collect facts before deciding on next steps. This approach isn't about being overly data-driven. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs, including myself, operate more on probabilities than deterministic certainty. We work in a probabilistic environment, making bets on what might succeed. I've experienced this firsthand. When making strategic decisions for Marketcircle, I can't make deterministic decisions; I have to make probabilistic ones, meaning I'm going to make bets. I've found that some of our strategic mistakes between 2022 and 2023 came when we relied too heavily on data. While data helps back you up, it shouldn't be the sole driver of decisions. The point of gathering information is to avoid assumptions when facing unexpected challenges. Get the facts so you can make informed decisions. Surrounding yourself with the right people Your team's mindset significantly impacts your resilience, and through years of building teams, I've observed how people tend to be characterized by three types of mindsets: The negative spinners: These people dwell on problems rather than seeking solutions. They drag everybody down; they should be kept out of your inner circle and, I would argue, out of your organization entirely. The silent types: These people don't question or contribute — it's just like having someone on mute. While not actively negative, they don't help move things forward. The solution seekers: These people ask, "What about this?" or "What if we did that?" Even if their ideas aren't perfect, they generate possibilities and commit to thinking things through. The third group is invaluable. Even when they don't have immediate solutions, they'll say, "I don't have an answer now, but I'll think about it and get back to you tomorrow." They multiply your efforts rather than divide them. In our development of Daylite, this kind of solution-oriented thinking has been essential. When facing challenges in feature development or customer needs, having team members who can see options rather than obstacles makes all the difference in how quickly we can pivot and improve. Related: 7 Ways to Improve Your Life in 7 Days Learn to stay calm under pressure A leader's response to unexpected challenges creates ripple effects throughout the entire organization. I focus on asking "What could we try next?" rather than dwelling on "Why did this happen?" This reframing has repeatedly unlocked creative solutions from my team when they might otherwise have felt stuck or demoralized. The most innovative breakthroughs in our business often emerged directly after our most difficult challenges, not despite them, but because of how we collectively approached them. Remember: there's a critical difference between urgency and panic. Urgency has a next step; panic doesn't. When people ask how I stay so calm during crises, I simply explain that I know I can't project panic if we want to find solutions. Cultivating a solution-oriented environment requires consistent practice, but its impact on our ability to adapt and grow is tremendous. By developing tools to stay positive and surrounding yourself with solution-oriented people, you'll navigate challenges more effectively and build a more resilient business in the process.
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Your Hometown Is Silently Killing Your Dreams. Here's How To Stop It.
Your environment is branding your brain. Every conversation, every room, every feed is shaping what you think is possible. Hang around people who settle and you'll start to shrink without noticing. They won't tell you your dream is too big. They'll just laugh a little too long when you say it out loud. Your algorithm won't say it can't be done. It will just keep showing you examples of people playing small. Your surroundings silently program your potential. I founded my first business, a social media agency, at age 22 and sold it for seven figures. Throughout that journey, I saw firsthand how environments either limited or expanded my vision. When I was surrounded by other agency owners who thought charging by the hour was the only option, my company stayed small. When I joined a mastermind of entrepreneurs with different business models, I doubled my prices within a week and clients still signed. Environment determines everything. Most people don't realise their motivation problems are environmental problems. They read more books, listen to more podcasts, and try to pump themselves up. Then they go right back into the same rooms with the same people who have the same limited thinking. The self-help high fades fast when no one around you believes bigger is possible. Here's why: When you see someone similar to you accomplish what you want, their success removes your excuses instantly. Your brain stops creating barriers and starts plotting paths. This is why masterminds work. This is why business conferences transform companies. This is why traveling to cities with bigger economies expands your pricing. You see what's actually possible. Without these influences in your life, there's no blueprint. There's no signal it's possible for someone like you to rise above the normal around you. The collective vision of your five closest contacts becomes your business vision. Pay attention to how these people react when you share ambitious goals. Watch their face when you mention your next move. The passive aggressive eyebrow raise tells you everything. The quick shift to another topic speaks volumes. The subtle reminder about "being realistic" reveals their ceiling, not yours. Ideas shrivel in spaces where you constantly defend them instead of developing them. If you spend more time explaining why something could work than actually building it, you're in the wrong room. Your business grows at the speed of your aspirations. If you constantly hear "impossible," "unrealistic," or "too expensive," those limitations become part of your thinking. You can only achieve what you believe is possible. Expanding what you see expands your trajctory. Here's how to upgrade your environmental influences, even if you don't actually leave your hometown. Join networks and groups, online and in real life, where your biggest accomplishment barely gets noticed. Find places where your current goals seem modest compared to what others are building. The temporary discomfort forces rapid growth. Swap the people who say it can't be done for those who already did it. Visit locations with economies that dwarf your local market. Experience business cultures where your pricing would be considered a bargain. See how entrepreneurs in major cities approach their ventures. Your hometown mindset shapes your business scale more than you realize. Change your trajectory by changing your geography. The fastest way to change your future is to stop spending time with people who are loyal to the past. Some friends and family will unconsciously keep you at their level. They don't want you to outgrow them. Their comments about "the old you" or "staying grounded" are anchors disguised as concern. Make your circle intentional or forever play small. If you can't find the right room, build it. Create a mastermind of people playing bigger than you. Host dinners with people whose businesses you admire. Start a Slack channel for ambitious founders. Begin a podcast interviewing people ten steps ahead. Your environment won't upgrade itself. Take control of who and what you allow to influence your thinking. Your business vision expands or contracts based on your surroundings. Find rooms of people who will champion your crazy ideas. Travel to places that recalibrate your sense of possible. Distance yourself from those who reinforce old limits. Build communities that pull you forward. Your potential is waiting on the other side of your current environment. Step into bigger rooms, build bigger businesses.
