For most of us, change is excruciatingly hard. We're creatures of habit. We like to find a system or method of doing things and sticking to it until becomes second nature. And we don't have to think about it. And once we find a system, we don't want to change under any circumstances.
Even if the way we're doing things are inefficient, slow or costly!
Even if there is a more efficient, faster and less expensive way of doing something, we many times refuse to change and cling to the familiar! Many of us won't change unless forced to.
The New Economic Reality
Most of us are familiar with the economic situation in the last eight to 10 years. We know the good old days of near full employment are over. Many of the jobs we thought we could depend on are gone forever. Even in the information technology sector where I work, jobs are going over sees to the lowest bidder. When employees leave or retire, most of the jobs are not filled. "We're doing more with less" as the cliche goes.
We live in a world were depending on one income can be a financial disaster. However, many of us still think our jobs will be around forever and aren't prepared for the future, which is right now. In today's economic climate, you have to be willing to learn new skills, adapt to new ways of doing things and find other ways of making money.
Many of us seek part-time employment in addition to our full-time jos. Not a bad idea but sometimes part-time jobs can lead to more stress, more hours away from home and more time away from family. The whole point of working a part-time job is to supplement your current income.
After a while, the return on investment of your time away from family and home and the relatively little increase income doesn't seem worth it. So many of us decided to start home businesses.
But to be successful at an home business, you must change or transform your way of thinking.
Transforming Your Mind
For years, I tried to run my home business like a hobby. I would sell or market my business when ever the urge hit me. And I've tried many home business but I wasn't successful because I didn't run my at home business like a business.
I could not escape the "working mentality." Like most of us, I was raised to go to school, get an education and get a good job. So I expected to put in some time and magically some money would appear. When the money didn't appear after a few weeks or a month, I would say the business didn't work.
Couldn't seem to wrap my head around the fact that you have to put in time, money and effort into your business consistently. Sometimes it takes months before you start making money because in many cases it takes that long to change your mindset.
What it Takes To Change Your Mindset
Change is not easy. If it were, most people would do it pretty easily. Change must intentional. You must make a conscious effort to change the way you do things before it becomes second nature. You might revert back to your old ways sometimes but as long make the effort to change, you will.
As I sat down and thought about how I've had to change my mindset over the past year, I thought of seven steps that has enabled to slowly change from an employee mindset to a business owner mindset. Here are the steps below:
- Change your associations - As the whole saying goes, birds of the same feather flock together. If you want to be a business person, you might want to hang around business people. If you want to stop a negative behavior, you have to disassociate yourself from those people. Not always easy because some of those bad associations may be friends and family.
- Change what you listen to - I get on my kids all the time about wrap music. I tell them "garbage in, garbage out." If you listen to negative people, music, words, etc. Those words will become part of you. Conversely, if you listen to positive words, inspirational music and listen to positive people, you will see how your mind changes over time.
- Change what you view - I've pretty much stop listening to the news. It's all negative. Everything happening in the world isn't negative but that's what sells and captures people's attention. You have a choice over what you see. Look at educational DVDs, television shows and books. Your view of the world will be positive and you will see the world from a positive point of view.
- Change the places you go - I remember wanting to stop drinking and cursing as much. Well, I had to stop going to night clubs and bars. No matter how strong willed you are, if you hang around places where people smoke and drink, chances are, you're going to smoke and drink. If you want to change your behavior, you have to stay away from those places and/or hang around more positive places such as church, supportive family and friends, or get involved in community events.
- Change what you think about - This may seem a bit vague but what I mean by changing what you think about is focus on things outside of yourself. Focus on helping or serve others. Take your mind off the negative and try to see the positive in situations. Think on things that will positively impact someone. Focus on ideas that has helped you and can help others in a positive way.
Understand that changing or transforming your mind is a PROCESS. Chances are, it's not going to happen overnight. Change is hard but necessary if you're going to achieve the goals you set out for yourself.
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