What role does mindset play in aligning and thriving in business and personal wellbeing?
When looking at mindset, the first thing we need is a healthy mind. A healthy mind requires nourishing, taking care of, food, and hydration. That’s the foundation. And where we will increase our bandwidth of what we can accomplish.
“Many people aren’t thinking, “healthy mind,” when they are thinking, “mindset.” They’re not thinking, “How can I make my brain, my mind my body healthier?” Instead, they might be thinking about the thoughts but not necessarily connecting how important it is to have a healthy mind as the baseline for healthy thoughts.”
Because of that, we have physical, mental resilience to take risks and make decisions when things are in a painful state of urgency, which we do in business.
Having that foundation of getting back to basics and taking care of our mental physical health is extremely important. I always like to mention that as part of the mindset.
There’s also the actual programming of our minds. On the survival side, which almost everyone is tapping into that at this point, when they’re stressed, when there’s chaos, when we’re supposed to return something quickly, if you’re a deadline, it actually triggers our nervous system.
Our nervous system gets a little flooded, and we start becoming reactionary. We don’t want to be constantly reacting because then we’re on the defensive and we’re putting out fires. Instead, we want to create this more intentional mindset that allows us to be resilient, respond, give ourselves a little bit of space so we can choose how we move forward.
How do we cultivate more focus and productivity and decrease feeling scattered in our work?
Focus on nutrition, hydration, sleep, exercise, blood flow to cultivate mental, physical health.
To tackle brain fog, take a five-minute walk. 75% of America is dehydrated, which causes those individuals to brain fog and headaches. Grab a glass of water, save the cocktail for later on as a celebration because you were intentional, and you accomplished a lot.
As for the business part, First, set up the intention. What are your areas of impact? Instead of booking ourselves all day long with to-do’s, think about, “How do I want to feel? What do I want to accomplish? And what matters most today?”
Many of us are working from home. For me, this morning, I had several things going on, but I picked three tasks intentionally, this interview being one of them.
Then my daughter woke up, and she did not feel good. Today, we have wildfires going up in Colorado. And it seems like she has some smoke inhalation. I had set those intentions so instead of thinking, “Oh, no, the day is ruined!” and allowing the negativity bias of, “How am I going to get all this done? There’s just no way!” I had cultivated a mindset of one inner calm with mindfulness practices. That was how I had decided to feel.
Second, before I got out of bed, I asked myself, “What are my three most important things I want to accomplish today?” Again, realistically, with some buffer time, just in case.
“Buffer time is often what is missed. It is the space between appointments in case something goes wrong. Without it, you may feel like you are moving from thing to thing such that when that emergency comes up, there’s no room for it.”
What is one mindset shift that can make an impact on a daily basis?
I hear this all the time. “There’s not enough time to do everything I want.”
Almost everyone says that, it comes from a scarcity mindset. That mindset can be detrimental in business. Sometimes we also put that towards our money in our charging. Shift that over to an abundance mindset such as, “I have the time to get what’s important done.”
Today, I had this interview; I am revamping my entire website. And I had one other very important thing.
I paused to ask, “What is my intention?” Then I got up, I went for a walk, I made sure I had a great breakfast, I even did a dance class to get the energy moving. I’ve been taking care of my daughter, but having that priority list, I know what to keep coming back to.
I’m not getting distracted by voicemail or email, or other people’s emergencies. I know what I am focusing on today. And I have that buffer time in so that I can breathe. That’s abundance and expansiveness.
Instead, cultivating a dialogue of, “I got to do, I have to, I’m supposed to, I should,” which is heavy and takes away from being able to create. We can act with intention.
We don’t have to end the day feeling less than and judging and critical. I acknowledged that I completed what I needed to complete and nourished myself before the day went to hell in a handbasket. The food came my way. And I was able to be a good mom, take care of my daughter, and work from home. In doing so, we have learned to pivot.
When you have a healthy mind and body, you can take risks, handle stress.
3 Action Steps
1. Focus on your brain’s physical health first: hydration, good food, exercise, rest.
2. Start with intention. Decide what you want to feel and your 3 priority tasks for the day.
3. Shift to a belief that you do have all that you need to be successful including time.
Connect with Melissa Wolak at LinkedIn, or LinkedIn, or at Melissa Wolak, or click here for short audio downloads that will allow to just do five-minute reset breaks so that you can take charge.
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