Empowering the Business Mind

Whether it is us or others who engage in such negative self-talk, it can be very detrimental to our happiness and personal fulfillment.

Adopting an attitude, a mindset or a perspective, is eventually a CHOICE, which we choose.  Nothing can stop us when we choose to believe, for instance, that 'life is a failure' or 'life is full of challenges and opportunities'. 

A perspective is so fundamental and yet so important to a person's way of experiencing life because it strongly influences their thoughts, moods and actions. In other words, it is our perspective rather than the circumstances we are in that rules our lives.  For instance, if we strongly feel that people cannot be trusted, we either shun them, have nothing to do with them, be cold to them or even cheat them back! Conversely, consider a poor man who is satisfied with his life. The circumstances of 'having lesser'  is not directly related to 'experiencing lesser' in life.

Ultimately, it is us who control how we think, feel and act the way we want.  With so many uncontrollable forces that can affect us, it becomes absolutely vital for anyone who want sustained happiness, to change or reframe our mental perspectives each time we hit something negative; be it  'bad luck', misfortune, failure, loss, or anything that brings us down.

The crux of why certain people can 'turn the table around' is due to their ability to shift to a more positive perspective quickly; seeing things in a whole new way. In coaching, this is called moving from a perspective of 'significance' to a perspective of 'game'.  'Significance' here means taking a very serious outlook of the world or happenings around us. 'Game' is about looking at the less serious or a more positive side of things. A person who is waiting for his friend in a departmental store for more than an hour can adopt a 'significant' perspective by being really angry with his friend for being irresponsible and unreliable. This same person can be less angry when he shifts to a 'game' perspective to tell himself that this delay has given him the opportunity to do some window shopping which he has not being able to do for a long time!  We can do this shifting of perspective for almost everything.

So how do we develop skills to reframe our mental perspective? There are 4 key steps to follow:

1. Firstly, we need to be aware of our own conditioning; on how fixed our current thoughts and beliefs can be, and how they are conditioned to look at things the way we do.
2. Secondly, we need to sharpen our own self awareness by being conscious as to what and how our feelings and mental state are affecting our well-being. 
3. The third step is to suspend our feelings for a while for time to reflect deeply on them.  
4. The final step is to bravely make efforts to look for alternative answers, and thereby make a mental shift from a 'significance' perspective to a 'game' perspective.

At the heart of changing our perspective is the use of powerful questioning techniques, not on others but on ourselves. Good questions lead to good answers; and bad ones lead to bad answers.

 Here are some powerful questions to ask ourselves: 

• How can this be fun? 
• What other ways are there? 
• What will it take to reach our objective? 
• How can I understand the other person's perspective?  What is missing in the way I think? 

Our ability and versatility to change perspective constantly is truly a hallmark of an effective leadership. Leadership, like it is commonly expressed, is one's ability to control circumstances, rather than allowing circumstances to control them. As good leaders, not only are we capable of shifting to alternative perspectives for ourselves, but we are equally capable of influencing this change onto others to view a totally new world of opportunities and possibilities.

And it applies equally to the business world as well as our personal life!