What gets measured gets done.

How do you keep your business growing? How do you ensure health of your business and your personal income against threats from competition, market cycles, commission payout changes, regulation of all kinds, and human threat of complacency?

The answer isn’t to run faster on same treadmill. The laws of physics say you can maintain a steady speed and still accelerate by changing direction. Since you’re already traveling at top speed in your business and personal life, you can get acceleration you need by making small changes in direction you’re taking. It’s hard to foresee what those changes will be, but they will reveal themselves if you regularly devote some time to thinking and working on your business, not just in your business. A professional is constantly learning and improving through reading, professional education (an annual requirement in some professions), research etc. Coaching is a very personal and effective means of keeping a perspective on what’s happening and “noodling” with someone else what your growth options are. Without a second perspective you sometimes “can’t see forest for trees.” The top professionals in sports and business have a coach or mentor they trust to help them improve their game.

Changing your mindset can have a significant impact on achieving your goals.

We’ve all heard about power of positive thinking but does it work? How does your thinking influence your actions and get you results you want?

Understanding Your Mindset

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about significance of our beliefs and mental models, or mindsets that shape our behavior. According to psychologists interviewed for piece, we act and perform in accordance with beliefs these models tell us is true.

Yet most of us have some flawed or erroneous beliefs, which in turn misguide our interpretation of our world. As a result, we see world not as it is, but as we are – and it’s this flawed interpretation that drives our attitude and behavior.

For example, if you think something is not possible or out of your reach, you’re probably not going to commit much energy and resources to accomplishing that goal. Whether it’s gathering new assets, landing a big client, or simply getting out of office at five o’clock, your thoughts influence your actions.

The bottom line is that our beliefs become our truths and reality. Henry Ford explained it best when he said, “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.”

What This Means to You

The professionals I work with are highly skilled and well-educated individuals with rewarding compensation plans. They also have mindsets that support or inhibit their ability to optimize their performance and results. Over course of my career I’ve witnessed just how significantly these mindsets influence success.

As changes in industry and your market occur, so do demands on you and your business. No longer is skills training sufficient enough to ensure that you will accomplish your goals. Old habits die slowly because they are driven by an outdated mindset. And despite efforts of many corporations and businesses, behavior-based training and monetary incentives don’t have a lasting effect on performance. It’s your mindset that needs changing and then lasting behavior change will follow.