You’ll often hear that dealing with the up and down life of an entrepreneur requires a certain mindset. One thing’s for sure, it’s not easy, so working on your mindset helps massively. I think we have all seen a ‘journey to success’ image in our mind’s eye, with life as a straight line, but in reality, it is full of peaks and troughs.
Life does get easier when you are surrounded by people of a similar mindset and, for me, being on the Natwest Entrepreneurial Accelerator has connected me with a community of change makers!
More Than Just Mindset
I have learnt something about mindset from this bunch though: At some point they had all made a decision to do something for the world. Deep down, they were brave enough to ask deeper questions of themselves and then were brave enough to act. It didn’t have much to do with their mindset though, it was more to do with setting out to act on what was in their hearts – I call it their ‘heartset’ . Having the right mindset will increase your income, but having the right heartset means you increase your impact. The story of the impact you want to have on the world is the story you need to double down on. From profile to stage and website to blog, if you lead with the heart you’ll always attract attention.
If you survive on mindset alone you’ll take action and get the job done, but without heartset, you’ll eventually need a reset. When what’s in your heart doesn’t align with your actions you start to experience a drift in meaning and momentum. This in turn leads to being heartsick rather than heartfelt. Mindset works best when your heart is set on the right things rather than just maintaining a stubborn mind and denying that the heart exists.
As an entrepreneur, business owner or even elite level leader, it’s too easy to get swallowed up in day to day business rather than staying convicted by the reason we started in the first place. Mindset conditions us to break through and to keep fighting the fight. Heartset, on the other hand, reminds us of what we are fighting for – and in those tough moments when the mind is exhausted, it’s your heart that carries you over the line.
So, why wait until we get to the end of ourselves? Why not just stay in tune with what is in our heart? That will carry us, help us say no to the things that exhaust us, and keep us sharp for the journey ahead. Heartset is where courage lives and brave men and women are what we need right now. Rather than always wanting to lead, they are focussed on looking to love. The world needs people of purpose, not just people looking for position. Titles count for nothing in the trenches, it’s those that go the extra mile and care more who will win a crowd for a cause.
Leading with the Heart
When we invest in heartset, powerful stuff happens. This is what we call alignment. The biggest transformation that heartset changes is our perspective. Our heart will always remind us to make choices for the right reasons, which the right mindset then helps us to execute.
HeartSet + MindSet = Set for life.
If mindset is the set of beliefs that shape how we think, feel and behave, heartset is the existence of our purpose, power and potential. The mind creates momentum, the heart carries the message. Each of us has a message to bring, a purpose to walk out, a voice to share and a mark to make. When heartset connects to a healthy mindset, then you are set for life.
So, how do we recalibrate our hearts to our minds? How do we learn to tune ourselves into our heart when life has just gotten so full that we can’t think straight? If your mind is ‘fried’ you need a healthy helping of heartset. Even though we don’t listen to our heartbeat it’s still there. It’s the noise of normal that drowns it out. If we don’t look after our heart, artificially beating faster with caffeine to ensure that it keeps up with our mind, it will eventually give out under the strain.
When we live by mindset alone in our ‘normal everyday’ we are looking for extraordinary and wonder why we can’t see anything different.
Take time to listen to your heart
The quickest way to tune into purpose (the reason why you started) is to unplug from the day to day and listen to your heart. Take some time out. In fact, doing so during the day by breaking the normal routine, will be the greatest health check you’ll ever make. You’re the leader right? The main woman or man in your business… so invest in you for one moment. When you emerge you’ll have more clarity to make the right kind of choices to ensure everyone is healthier.
So take that time alone. Turn off your phone, lay on your bed, put your hand on your heart and listen. Breathe. Listen. Breathe, and there it is… Boom boom boom, your heartbeat. Quiet. Just you, and what lives within.
Now, in that place of peace, ask yourself the question… What do I really want to say yes to?
There… in-between the beats of your heart, in the gaps of silence, is purpose, the song of your heart. Pay attention and listen to it. It was the reason you used to get lost in the day, forgetting to eat, it fired you up and made you brave.
Now… give yourself permission to say yes again, do everything to guard it, and do everything to live it out, delegate everything else, staff the distractions and stay the course.
Purpose brings life. The extraordinary isn’t in a magical place, it’s deep within you. The trouble is, you got lost because you never stopped long enough to listen to what was in your heart.
Today, say yes to the answer you are confronted with. Make your actions line up with your heart. Your job is not to find extraordinary, it is to create extraordinary. We have become experts in mindset alone, focussed on moving forward without looking back to see if we are aligned. One degree of moving forward can take us miles off course. If we don’t take enough time to reflect, we’ll disconnect.
Only the Brave
Heartset is what you need to reboot your life because your mindset has been causing you to make too many decisions that just don’t align. Heartset chooses what is right above commonly held narratives, the ones you used to question, but now they have become a stronghold against being brave.
Your legacy is written by making heartset choices. It’s more than just emotion, it’s the essence of our being. When all is lost, heartset whispers, come on, when things appear hard, heartset says you can, when you are lost for words, a voice within speaks – heartset is where the creator lives.
When you know deep down that things don’t add up, that the circumstances in front of you don’t align, and you sense something’s off… that’s heartset. It’s where you are needing to reboot, recalibrate and restore that message written on your heart, the one that gives you your true identity.
Too many people are looking outside for validation, when in fact all you need is a conversation with yourself, in your heart, to bring about transformation. That clarity is the only confidence you’ll need to turn an ordinary life into an extraordinary one.