The Power of Mindset
When I was twelve I borrowed a dog book from the small local library. On each page, there was a different dog and description of the size and temperament of the breed. It was a smallish perfect book about 9″ by 5″, or 22cm by 12cm if your brain’s calculated to a metric system. I would spend hours looking through it, in fact, so long I forgot that the book had a return stamp on it. By this time I had gained a relationship with it and I actually didn’t want to let it go – so I didn’t! I took that little book and I hid it. I wasn’t thinking of the consequences and that the clock was ticking its return. Weeks past then months, I hid the book deeper because I didn’t want anyone to find it. I was slowly eating away at my mindset!
While walking down the street in the distance I would see the librarian coming, my mind would race. I had a belief that the only thing on her mind was that little book and the fact that I hadn’t returned it. When I would see her coming I would jump fences, hide behind trees and take a long way home. I stopped going down the library street and I stopped myself from going back to the library. The shine was gone I no longer looked at the book. My mind had destroyed the excitement of the book, so I discarded it. It couldn’t go back to the library because, well if I did I would be confessing my guilt – I had killed the passion.
Positive Mindset Positive Business
See, the thing is I had become crippled by my mind. It had woven stories and built imagery walls that were making me adjust my life. I was expelling a huge amount of energy on something that could have been easily rectified. You see, you cannot expand and grow if you are in the fetal position. The mind can destroy success quicker than it can build it. You can be 12 or you can be 65 and your mindset will take you down if you let it. I should have chosen courage over fear and taken that book back. It’s the same in business, you have to sometimes choose courage over fear and go beyond what you think you are capable of to achieve growth. When attitude is everything, the book fractured my belief in myself. Successful business people believe they can achieve everything and go out to create it. Essentially, I wasn’t choosing good company! If I had been hanging around with people that could have mentored me or I could have shared my fears then the book would have been returned. We often do this in business, we become lone wolves attempting to take on the world, ducking, and diving. Who we surround ourselves in life is one of the most important choices we’ll make. Did I actually know what the long term goal of that book was? Did I care? Was I thinking about the future ramifications? Certainly not – that’s the problem. When we have a healthy mindset we have to adopt self-chosen goals. Stretch beyond what we know to grow our business and ourselves to the next level. Otherwise, we stagnate and start to move backward. Always consider the bigger picture – as there needs to be one.
Success doesn’t happen to you it happens because of you.
To have a healthy mindset and a successful business, we have to willing to take risks, but discard risks that stop growth and destroy passion. I should have been grateful for the opportunity to have the book for two weeks and been willing to share. In business, show gratitude and be thankful for the people that aid you to pay your bills, who share their wisdom with you, who reach down and pull you up the ladder. Invest in your passion and don’t rob that joy from anyone else – return the book!