The power of positive thinking in your Virtual Assistant business is an excellent skill to learn. Do you have trouble staying positive?
When we start our VA business, it is easy to be optimistic. But as time goes on, it is very easy to let negativity set in.
Sometimes we just have a bad day. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by client work. Sometimes we struggle to find clients. Sometimes we feel like it’s too much, and it’s probably just easier to go back to a J-O-B.
There are any number of things that may take over that positive area of your brain and bring you down.
Wow, nice optimistic article, eh?!
But this is a real issue – especially during a pandemic – and we need to talk about it.
Learning how to bring positivity into your mind is something that you should talk about and do!
I recently attend a mindset intensive and we learned some strategies to flip our belief system so that your brain helps you handle hard stuff more easily.
It was a brain-centred theory, but I won’t bore you with the details!
Basically, the idea is that your brain needs to believe something before it can help you cope with it or change it.
So if you are constantly telling yourself that something is hard, it will be hard.
If you always tell yourself that you can’t do something well, you will not do it well.
If you struggle with procrastination around something, it’s probably because you have told yourself something negative about that activity.
You have probably told yourself things like: it’s expensive, it’s difficult, it’s a waste of your time, or it won’t work anyway.
In order to move through these thoughts, you need to instead flip what you are telling yourself. And you need to reinforce that message again and again.
And again.
You have likely heard the experts say that it takes 21 days to form a new habit.
The flipping of your beliefs is the basis of that statistic.
You have to tell yourself over and over again that something is good – that it will work – that you CAN do it – in order for your brain to actually believe it. And only then can your brain help you achieve it.
It’s a hard exercise because we are conditioned from birth to be careful and our negative experiences have reinforced that. Some things ARE hard, but it doesn’t mean we can’t convince ourselves that they can be done.
It’s the reason that a lot of diet or exercise programs are 21 days long. You have to set yourself up for success, and that means getting your mind into a place where you KNOW you will succeed, and that you HAVE the tools to reach your goals. You need to SEE your success and ACT as though it has already happened before.
It’s the power of positive thinking, but it’s taking responsibility for those thoughts first that will help you achieve them consistently.
Try these things to help you switch your frame of mind to one of positivity every day:
- Choose a thought that you are struggling with (I can’t find clients, I don’t make enough money).
- Change your thoughts and self talk around this thing (Clients come easily to me, I charge what I am worth and my clients pay it easily)
- Post your positive thoughts around it near your work station so you can see them all the time
- Say them out loud so that your brain hears the message again and again
- Start a success journal, and every day write three things in it that went well for you, related to your new thought.
This process probably sounds like affirmations, but what you are doing when you focus on a certain problem you have, and when you consistently tell yourself that it can be fixed, your brain starts to believe you.
You have probably heard Jim Rohn’s quote ‘You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.’
Why is this? Because you share thoughts, you guide each other’s moods and you inspire each other (or you drag each other down).
If you look at who you are spending your time with, can you see why you are not achieving the success you want to be?
Strive to surround yourself with 5 other business people who are pushing for the success you want. It works.
If you have ever been a part of a mastermind group, you will know this works. If you haven’t, then you should check out the Inspired Action VA Mastermind that starts in September.
Your brain needs to believe in your success in order to help you achieve it.
So give your brain a helping hand, and you will see your attitude, your mindset, and your success shift.
The Inspired Action VA mastermind is a small group of supportive VAs who work together through the day to day issues that crop up just like this one. If you are struggling through your VA business, check out this group to see if it’s the right time for you! Our daily and weekly support is just what you need to get things done, and to keep yourself in a positive frame of mind so you can reach that success!