Hear me out. Don’t pull me into the entrepreneurial version of “People’s Court” just yet. I have a (very good) point.
In the beginning, I was wholly unimpressed by the whole “mindset/manifestation” movement. No surprise there, for anyone who has been with me for a decade or more. To be totally honest, I ignored the whole “law of attraction” thing…. because I was a mechanics girl. I much preferred — and PREFER TODAY — the law of CREATION. My mantra was — and make no mistake — IS:
It’s WHAT you do that matters.
It’s what YOU do that matters.
It’s what you DO that matters.
This mentality took me far, and so I refuse to fault it. I GUTTED out the first several years of my business, proudly wearing the “early morning” badge and the “hard work” emblem that DID — in fact — create my success.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized I’d made it soooooooo much harder and longer than it needed to be. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I began really paying attention to how my MINDSET was TRULY shaping my reality.
TODAY, my mantra is still “It’s WHAT YOU DO that matters.” Today, I still ascribe to the law of creation, rather than “attraction.”
However, I ALSO KNOW that what we BELIEVE to be true, and what we BELIEVE to be normal and what we BELIEVE to be possible… shapes what we DO. Our mindset WILL guide our mechanics.
And so TODAY, I’m willing to concede that MINDSET is 80% of your success — OR lack of success. And 80% of mine.
I want to offer this as a POSSIBILITY for anyone mentally crafting their response to this post: Just as I OVER-RELIED on mechanics and missed out on ALL of the benefits of mindset and manifestation, it IS possible to OVER-RELY on mindset and miss out on that critical ACTION piece of “mechanics.”
Mindset is 80% of it, but there IS that other 20%. Mindset IS important, but you can’t just Journal yourself a new car or new house. You MUST take action to make it a reality. You MUST DAILY apply mechanics to your business in order for it to “work” and create a profit.
So, yes… my “average” days are amazing. I start every day with coffee I love, my Bible, my favorite journal, birds showing off their singing skills all while sitting on my back deck, which can only be described as glorious. In some ways, I show up every day, being ME — encouraging and empowering and equipping — and I have monetized my voice. This reality was written back in 2002 or so, and — now — has been fully “manifested” in the real world.
Still, even though I DO KNOW the lure of the “easy button” in our culture, and even though I DO KNOW how easy it is to sell “magical” business promises….
I REFUSE TO GO THERE.
While I HAVE “monetized my voice”– and my life in certain aspects — there ARE, ALSO, mechanics involved. 80% mindset, yes… I’ll give you that. BUT, that other 20%? The mechanics? Well, they are a VERY important 20%.
I DO show up even when I don’t feel like it.
I DO do things that — at times — feel very much like work.
I DO push myself, stare down failure, and pull myself up by my bootstraps.
I DO…. do the work.
And I believe — inherently — that work is HONORABLE.
So here’s where I fall on the mindset/mechanics thing:
If you BELIEVE in what you’re selling and if you REALLY BELIEVE in the POTENTIAL of your “dreams,” work will be a privilege, and not a burden to be avoided.
If your mindset is FOCUSED on what you’re creating, you’ll be far MORE burdened by NOT showing up than you are by those moments when you “must” show up when you don’t really feel like it.
So, grow your mind. STRETCH your own pre-conceived (and totally false) limits. REACH for the “unreasonable” levels of success that YOU KNOW — deep inside of you– you were CALLED TO. RE-CALIBRATE new levels of “normal” for yourself. Journal EVERY day. Learn to BET ON YOURSELF.
Do all of this.
But then, get to work. Your MIND WILL create the vision, but your HANDS will bring it to life.
