Do you know how to disempower a Disempowering Belief?
It’s simple! Just ask the right questions.
A conversation…
Son “I can’t do anything right at work”
Mum “Is that true? How do you know that?”
Son “Well, no one tells me I do a good job”
Mum “Has anyone told you that you are doing a poor job?”
Son “No”
Mum “So if no one has told you that you’re doing a poor job – then we could infer from that
that you are doing a good job, right?”
Son “Well, no, it’s probably just that they haven’t actually said it”
Mum “So does that mean that they also may not have said that you have done a good job,
even though you are doing a good job?”
Son ”I’m confused”
Mum “Great … my job here is done!”
There are some gems in here – and it’s more than Mum messing with her Son’s mind.
A great question to ask when someone carries a disempowering belief is: “Do you know that that is 100% true?” There is always a chance that the belief is not valid – and this is often enough for the person to re-consider their position on the subject.
Son “Ok, I don’t know that it is 100% true that I can’t do anything right”
Mum “So you could be doing some things right at work? – it is possible that you are doing
some things right.”
They may continue to argue and gather evidence to support their belief – but eventually they must admit that this belief may not be 100% true.
Adding doubt to the mix weakens the belief, and the focus and mindset is directed towards a more positive space – I might be doing something right?
Now that is messing with the mind!
Sometimes stuff happens – stuff that wasn’t in the plan and which doesn’t appear to be supporting our journey towards our goals.
We could take a woe is me approach – take the low road and blame, excuse, deny our way through this less than extraordinary experience. Play the victim.
Or we could take the high road and know that everything happens for a reason and in some way it serves us. This is a leader’s way of thinking. We take responsibility for where we are and ownership of our current state. The focus is on identifying the learning and learning from the experience – building intellectual capital as we go.
We must continually practice high road thinking – it is a mindset which requires resetting from time to time. The most important thing is that we recognise our state of thinking so that we know when we are on the low road – we can then reset, refocus and go back to the high road.
Victim thinking is a disempowering mindset – energy levels are low and we begin to get more of what we are focusing on – more and more stuff!
High road thinking is so much more productive and changes the state of who we are being – we are focused on the positive, energy levels are high and our journey is so much more enjoyable.
We do have a choice when stuff happens – high or low?
Which road are you travelling?
So you know what you want to achieve this year? You are clear on what your goals are and why it is important to you that they are reached. This knowing is so powerful – clarity around goals means that you are more likely to make decisions and take actions everyday with these desired outcomes as your point of reference. If I take this action… will it take me closer to my goals? You are FOCUSED on the main aim of your game.
You have EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES. You know what and how to do what needs to be done. There is a purposeful series of actions needed to be taken to achieve your objectives.
It is just as important to consider what might “do you in” – what disempowering beliefs or thoughts could block your progress? Be honest and write them down. Now you are better prepared to take them out of the equation – to recognise these disempowering beliefs when they show up as inhibitors to your success.
Will any of these “do you in” – laziness, fear of failure, lack of focus, procrastination, when-then??
Engage someone to keep you on purpose and to remind and support you to stay FOCUSED, to hold only EMPOWERING BELIEFS and build EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES which will accelerate your success.
FOCUS, EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES & EMPOWERING BELIEFS equals the “A” ZONE – combined these 3 factors compound the power – accelerating your success!
Do you keep a journal?
Robin Sharma, the author of “The Leader who had no Title” recommends that in order to maximise daily effectiveness we should write in our journal every morning – as an entree to the day.
I have been journaling for years and I totally agree. It is a great way to position your mindset, to reinforce your focus, to encourage anticipation for what is possible for you and to establish an acute respect for the value of time.
This is what I include in my daily scribes…
1. Wins. I record my wins from the day before. This places my focus squarely on the positive and reminds me to celebrate my progress, my successes (and often this includes the wins of others I care about).
2. Insights. I write down my insights and how these learnings will add value to me and those I connect with. Writing increases the stickiness of the learning and I often go back to these sections to check that I continue to implement these insights – to leverage off the knowledge.
3. Gratitude. Each day I record that which I am thankful for – this is an opportunity to connect to my heart – to place my ego squarely in my back pocket.
4. Worries. If your mind is full of worries there is no room for creative thought. So, I write down those worries, concerns, disempowering beliefs which are blocking my entrepreneurial thinking. I ask myself if I am 100% sure that these worries, concerns & disempowering beliefs are valid – if not (and that is always the case), then I cross them off and leave them in the book and out of my psyche.
5. Moments. Record those special moments, what you did, where you were, who you helped, what you observed.
6. BE, DO, HAVE. And finally I write down who I am going to be and what I am going to do in order to have an amazing day… a day in which I am on purpose, perfectly aligned to why I do what I do.
My journal travels with me and I open it before I look at my phone, facebook or check my emails – it is like having the first conversation of the morning with yourself – a conversation which isn’t tainted or effected by others.
And then with the right mindset, with reinforced focus, I am ready to open the window and let the world in. Bring it on!
So start your journaling today!
What if I told you there was a way to significantly increase your productivity and what you achieved in a day – a method that was based on working smarter, not harder – would you be interested? Would you like to see even more output for the effort you’re putting in? The sense of achievement at the end of the week when you look back and realise what you have achieved will be amazing.
You can – by using one very simple technique. Don’t be deceived by its simplicity though – this technique is used by the world’s most successful business people on a daily basis and in fact, for many businesses it is an integral part of their culture – how they do things.
Here it is….
Set a deadline.
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams
It sounds blindingly obvious right? But how often do you set mini-deadlines for yourself throughout the day? – Or, do you just find one task morphing into another, mixing with a few more and becoming a big unproductive mess of several things being ‘on the go’ at once?
Try this, next time you have a task to complete – set yourself a deadline – no matter what the task is. For example, if you have an article to write, give yourself an hour to complete it. You’ll be amazed at how powerful your focus becomes once you know you have a set time to complete something. This one simple trick alone has the power to significantly improve your productivity and will do wonders for your efficiency and clarity of mind.
Then, when you’ve set your deadline, focus on your task 100%, close your email programs and take the phone off the hook while you commit wholeheartedly to meeting your deadline.
Limited time doesn’t mean limited capacity
Also, don’t think that just because you’ve limited the amount of time you’ve given yourself to finish the task you’ll be restricted in any other way (for example, diminished creativity). In fact, many artists and creative people believe they work better with a deadline looming, than when they have unlimited time up their sleeves.
A team exercise
Try this… next time you’ve got an operational challenge, put it to half of your team as a problem to solve and give them 15 to 25 minutes to come up with as many creative solutions as possible.
And for then for the rest of the team, just ask them to come back to you with ideas when they’re ready – suggest that they think about solutions as they’re working throughout the day and at the end of say, two weeks, compare the two problems’ responses.
You’ll most likely get far more creative solutions in the first instance when they had a deadline, than when they were able to get back to you at their leisure.
Giving yourself deadlines forces you to quit procrastinating, ditch your excuses and just jump right in and DO IT! What could be more productive than that?
It is much easier to be focussed when you have someone to hold you accountable. So share your deadline with someone who will keep you on task. You could share what you intend to have done today with your team at a start up meeting – this way you are accountable to the entire team.
Consider having a lock down policy at your work place. Have a sign – “In Lock Down” to be displayed when a team member is working to a deadline and needs to stay focussed and work uninterrupted. Ensure the team are on board with this concept and understand when it should be used.
Developing productive behaviours and learning about tools to get the best return on the time invested each day is the focus of our PRODUCTIVITY by DESIGN workshops.
Now more than ever, we need to be innovative, energetic and ready and willing to adopt change – to have the entrepreneurial spirit.
This quote by Charles Darwin is so very relevant:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”
The saying, “business as usual”, is a misnomer. If you are doing “business as usual” then you will be going backwards. Why? Because the environment in which you operate is changing at an incredible pace. If you are not responsive to change then you will become obsolete. In order to have a successful and sustainable business, I suggest that you need to be anticipating change, pre-empting what you need to do to accommodate future trends, being ahead of the game.
This is what our renowned entrepreneurs did and continue to do. Much is written about what sets them aside, what they do differently, how they see the world?
What they have is what I like to call… an entrepreneurial spirit. I have listed below ten of the characteristics often demonstrated by those with this spirit…
1. Committed to business success – and they know what success means to them
2. Innovators – bringing fresh ideas to the market
3. Implementers – great at following through or engaging and empowering others to so
4. Team builders – able to align the team to their vision
5. Understand value exchange
6. Live in positive expectancy
7. Passionate about making a difference
8. Great at managing results over time
9. Understand brand, marketing and selling – or the power of these
10. Eager to learn and improve.
Take a moment to consider these traits and rate yourself out of 10 for each.
What areas provide an opportunity for improvement – how can you be even more successful?
Which trait did you rate the highest? Why do you think that was?
Which did you rate the lowest? Why? What is one action you could take to upgrade your rating in this area?
Our LEADERSHIP by DESIGN and INNOVATION by DESIGN workshops look closely at what it is that sets aside leaders who most successfully create change.
Question your processes, your policies, your strategies… are they as relevant as they could be given the direction your market or your sector is headed? Never fall for the trap of business as usual. Be innovative, inquisitive and future focussed. Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit?
