Written by: Rachael Downie, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The past 18 months have been an incredible experience for businesses worldwide. It is also an opportunity to harvest the good and look for opportunities. And sometimes, this means doing things that make you feel uncomfortable and stretch your thinking in a way that hasn’t happened before.
Our dairy farming business faced a crisis 5 years ago. With the drop in the milk price, we were faced with losing a business and family property that had been in the family for over 4 generations. I didn’t have the mindset that I have now. And my husband and I did fall into a hole for a while until we asked for help. It was time to dig deep, look for the opportunities, look at all the options, decide what was right, and then seek the people and resources that were required to stay in business; as this was the decision that whatever it took, we were going to make sure that we kept the farm.
Working with businesses to shift mindset over a number of years has highlighted how easy it is to get in harmony with the worst-case scenarios and stay stuck and even lose the business that you spent so much time building. No one really wants to give up on their dreams.“Bad news” is reinforced in the media day in day out. You might be looking at the physical results you are achieving (perhaps loss in revenue, the lack of money in your bank account, a lack of clients) and lose heart, be stressed, despondent, and at an absolute loss as to what to do. You can be in a place of being so worried about what you may lose that you can’t receive the ideas or see the opportunities that can take you in the opposite direction.
You see, this is the mindset that actually chokes on the supply of creative ideas. Solutions don’t come from this place of thinking.
It requires a mind shift to focus on possible opportunities and operating from the solution mindset rather than the fear mindset.
It is about doing and looking at things in a certain way. If your mind hasn't been conditioned to look at things from a place of looking for opportunities, it can help if you go back to the beginning.
When you first started your business, you probably fell in love with an idea. You had a goal, and you looked at ways that you could create it. You may have sought certain people’s guidance, resources, and opportunities that helped bring your business to fruition. You made a decision, and you went after it fuelled with the desire and the possibility of what you could create.
You were persistent. This is exactly what you need to be doing right now. Tap back into the desire that made you jump out of bed in the first place to go after what you wanted.
If you haven’t fine-tuned your mind to continue to take this form of action and come from a creative space of thinking, then your conditioning can take over, and you stay in the ‘comfort zone.’ When a situation arises from the left field, you may not actually be ready to deal with it. This is where many businesses can go backward and ultimately go out of business.
Change is the only constant. With the fast pace of technology, the natural disasters, and all that is going on in the world right now, the business world needs to be ready to embrace change and look for opportunities or become extinct. This will involve the same creative thinking that you used when you first started your businesses. It will be a continual evolvement process.
You will need to outwit your fears. Understanding your fears will help you to find out what is standing in your way. Identify what they are and then come up with intelligent actions that you can take to move forward or take side steps.
Harvest the good. Forget the rest. Focus on hope and expectation. There is always an opportunity, but you have to look for it, be open to it and expect it. And quite often, the outcome will be even better than you could have imagined.
Rachael Downie, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Is your mindset holding you back in your business? Rachael Downie is a success mentor and someone who is truly focused on converting your thinking into results. Rachael works with a variety of individuals, businesses, and CEOs both locally and internationally - simply because we all have the same blockages, doubts, limited thinking, money, and staffing issues. (and if you don't, you are probably one of the 3% who is an unconscious competent, who may find it difficult to transfer your success skills to your staff or family). Rachael loves helping you create success not only in your business but also in other areas of your life.
