In the first two posts of this series, we talked about how your mindset can create stress for you, and how you need to tell yourself the truth at times about where you are and what’s real.  This post wraps up the series of my 5-step process for how to navigate and be victorious when it feels like stress wants to kick your butt.  Click on the links above to read the earlier posts to refresh your memory of the 5 steps.

After we stop spinning around a bit, we look to our environment and places that we can make a change in to immediately shift the energy.  The first is outside of us, and the second technique is about refueling.

Take away Tolerations – Okay, raise your hand if you have just a bit of clutter around or if your desk is sometimes too messy to work at.  Tolerations are the things in our environments that zap our energy.  What I find is that even though we don’t think about it, this adds to our stress level.  I have one client where every quarter when she’s having a bit of an overwhelm breakdown, I check in and find that the clutter has crept back which makes her unable to focus or find her work.  A simple solution of going back and addressing this will always allow her to move forward.

• Relationships that hold you back
• Technology that is outdated or slow
• Health issues that take away your energy
• Conversations not completed
• Clients that don’t resonate with you
• Old commitments you are keeping because of guilt

Find your Fuel – So far you have identified your unique way of being stressed, made a decision to stop it, reoriented to your goals and then worked on not tolerating things that drained your energy.  But a car isn’t going anywhere if it’s out of gas! The final stage is super critical and that’s the place where you get to recharge.  This is very individual, and one of the main things you must learn is what it is that allows you to refuel.  These are some ideas:

There ya go…one of my formula’s for keep you in the zone and loving the business you have.  Shoot me an email and let me know what your favorite stress busters are!

Last post I reminded you about my last blog series that outlined the “Five Mindset Traps of an Entrepreneur”.  In this new series, I’m going to share some strategies to break free of these pesky little patterns that can be standing between you and your success.

If you are a business owner who has not yet delegated or still struggles with figuring out how to better leverage your time by having a team, you may be suffering from mindset block #1 which is the I have to do it all myself syndrome. How would you know if this is you? See if you related to any of these statements –

“No one could do it as good as I can”
“I’m not comfortable asking for help”
“I couldn’t trust someone”
“I should be able to handle it all”

Many of us struggle with this concept and the cost is really high. The first thing I do with a business owner is to look at where they are wasting their precious time by doing things that would be better outsourced. There is the tactical piece of “How do I do this” but mostly, the place it breaks down for people is when they have the mindset block of having to do it all themselves. Very often this comes from family messages and early training about not giving permission to be vulnerable or receive support.

The first step is to make an assessment about where you are in this area. If you haven’t yet mastered delegating and outsourcing (or just reaching out for support/encouragement), is it that you don’t know how or could it be a mindset block?

If you push past the first sentences and find what’s on the other side, you’ll discover the golden nugget. For example, if you relate to the sentence, “I’m not comfortable asking for help” take it the next step further and ask yourself why. Would you feel stupid? Would you lose credibility? People think you are less than or too needy? What’s the story under that? If you unravel the story that’s usually unconscious or not quite in your reach, you can finally ask the magical question…Is It True? Once you look at it from this perspective, you can begin to chip away at the old belief/block so you have freedom to make a new choice. To further this questioning process, look into the work of Byron Katie at www.thework.com. She’s got a quick way to turn your erroneous thinking around. On her site got to the Do the Work section and get started taking back your power.

Next post, we’ll journey together into how to blast through Trap 2.  You’ll be surprised how some simple shifts can really make a big difference.

Blessings,
Therese