The Mindset you need to transform your business and your life during COVID-19
A recognition that a global health pandemic has changed the way we do business, socialise and how we feel. (10 min read)
Change is constant! So I am sure you know something important is coming. I’ve been writing my blogs for the past 4 months and getting great pleasure out of sharing coaching and well-being tips. I realised I have not done the obligatory, introduction blog! So I thought now would be a great time to do one. I too have been impacted by COVID-19 personally and professionally. I am here to let you know what has changed for me and what’s the same! So without any further ado, I’m going to introduce myself and my song for this blog.
My name is Ekua Cant and I’m a Coach. I’ve had a rich mix of a portfolio career working for numerous Her Majesty’s Government Departments including the Cabinet Office. From working on open data policy to being part of the award winning team that transformed the UK’s voter registration system from paper to an online service. (Register to Vote) My business is young and, like everyone I’m adapting to living in a global health pandemic. For me, this has really made me think about how I do business and the kind of business I want to do. For me I have realised that I wanted to define a specific coaching niche which I was made to uniquely serve.
This is me, Ekua Cant, Coach and Mentor at Be your No. 1 Cheerleader.
Through getting coached, reflecting and speaking to other professionals and connections, I have come to understand what my coaching niche should be and why. I will be coaching American Expat Women acclimatising to London who need help with more than just the movers, but a cheerleader to help them manage their emotions, build new communities, start a new job and settle their families! In addition to that I’ll be coaching Mid-Level Career Women that want to level-up, push deeper, get uncomfortable in order to lean into their visionary leadership. I am going to be focusing on servicing these niches for 2 reasons, firstly I was raised as an “expat” and lived on Army Bases around the world and secondly “I feel culturally American”. These two things have affected the Woman that I have become and I’m proud to finally be using these lived experiences in the service of others. On that note we need a song! So our anthem for this blog is “Proud”, by Heather Small;
“I look into the window of my mind
Reflections of the fears I know I've left behind
I step out of the ordinary
I can feel my soul ascending
I am on my way
Can't stop me now
And you can do the same
What have you done today to make you feel proud?
It's never too late to try
What have you done today to make you feel proud?”
Today’s blog is going to look at the mindset that you need to transform your business and your life during COVID-19. Here I really want to look into the mindset and the emotional aspects of making tough decisions about your business or your life and how they might affect your personal relationships. We’ll do this by looking topics:
Your Mindset
Your Feelings?
What you can do differently?
Your Mindset
It's tough out there, so if we are “waging a war in our own minds” about our value, self worth and whether we should be in business or not? We need to stop and reflect. I’m here to tell you we need to take some time to pause the “normal showreel of negative thoughts” and to ditch them! How do I ditch them? Some of them are subconscious! I don’t know what to replace them with? Hold, up say what? How about a positive thought? How about something you want to positively affirm to yourself? So here 2 ways to “police the thoughts in your mind!”. See the tips noted below:
1 “Press Pause Mentally” and take some time for quiet reflection
Find some time for about 30 mins - 1 hour sit quietly and “listen” to the thoughts that are in your mind. What phrases do you hear? Write them down, draw them, make a voice note about them. Once you know what they are. Ask yourself does that thought serve me and how do I know if it’s absolutely true? Then think about at least 3 reasons why that thought is not true. Write them down, draw them, make a voice about them. Then slay a negative thought and replace it with your own positive affirmation. A positive sentence that you want to be reminded of every day.
2 Reflect on cultural beliefs pertaining to your identity
Say what? What does that even mean? Well it means, simply this, we were all raised in particular communities relating to where we were born, our race and our religion. This is not an easy thing and in fact very sensitive. I no way wish to diminish anyone’s cultural values or beliefs. I simply ask you to consider if any of these values are incongruent with your own personal values. If they are this could be causing a conflict for you and making you feel bad. Any example would be in your community “Doctors are held in high esteem”. You are not a Doctor and you’re a Teacher and you feel bad every-time you tell someone that. I simply ask you to think about why you are feeling bad? If the reason is because of the aforementioned, then perhaps you should not feel bad about yourself. Just recognise that you have chosen a different path and you are happy with that. So you have no need to feel bad about that. Change the way you see the world and create your own happiness. Which leads neatly onto considering our feelings in the next section.
Your Feelings?
How you feel affects your mood, your motivation and your outlook on life. Wow! So considering all that, we need to get more comfortable with thinking about how we feel. So here I ask you to think about how you are feeling before you dive into thinking about changing your business or your life. What I mean here is that you might be “blocked” by an un-resolved feeling that is making you feel a certain way or preventing you from thinking or taking the action that you are desiring to do. So what can you do about this? Well I would suggest that you consider some of the things in the list noted below:
Journal and write down our thoughts and feelings
Read a self help book
Take a run do some physical activity
Meditate, yoga, spiritual practice
Insert your own reflective activity
Next up we’re going to consider what you can do differently, to change your business or your life.
What you can do differently?
You are an amazing, unique and awesome person! That’s the first thing. Now as we think about wanting to make changes to our lives or business that can be daunting and quite frankly a bit overwhelming. So I’m here to give you a helping hand.
Your mind is a powerful thing! So we need to think about guiding values to make sure that we serve ourselves, so we can live a more hopeful and optimistic life. Here are 3 rules that you should implement to help you do it differently!
1 I Can and I Will!
Learn to think in terms of “I Can” and “I Will”. This will help your mind become attuned to solutions thinking and problem solving. No matter how long it takes or how many attempts it takes, “You Can and You Will!” Don’t berate yourself if it takes time for you to train your mind to think in this way. We are training your brain and it will take time to grow. So keep at it. I am cheering for you!
2 My Potential is Limitless!
Are we in some kind of trippy movie? No! What I mean here is that you need to become accustomed to believing in your own potential to change, achieve goals, change your life or your business. How do I do this? You do this by feeding your mind with thoughts that serve you and by growing more “positive mental mind muscle”. Tools you can use could range from self help books to positive affirmations. I urge you to find the tool that works for you. I 💯support you.
Here’s an affirmation that you could use:
I open my mind to new ideas, opportunities and I commit myself to actively leaning into my power.
By Ekua Cant
3 Don’t do it alone - Get held Accountable!
As the old saying goes “Old habits die hard!” So you want to make change and you don’t know how to? Ask for help and get held accountable. Ask a friend, colleague, family member or seek someone out that inspires you and ask them for advice. The key thing is to ask for help, set a small goal and ask someone to check in on you as to how you’re getting on. No matter how slow, or little the progress you make, keep checking in, adopting a learning attitude and commit yourself to the journey. I believe that you will! ❤️
What values do you live by?
Today, I am going to give you “4 Commandments on how to transform your mindset during a global pandemic”.
1 Accept your gifts and talents
Whether we’re in business or not it is fundamental to our success to accept our gifts and talents. Why? This is because if we do not accept them then we cannot confidently go about representing ourselves or our business. So we need to accept that whatever we’re good at can also be done in different ways than we had previously imagined. I open my mind to my gifts and talents. I will think differently about how to do what I am best at during a global health pandemic.
2 “Police” your negative thoughts!
We can be our own worst critic and this does not aid us in positively moving forward with our business or our lives. We need to try and adopt an optimistic mindset. What does this mean? It means that we try to be hopeful rather than pessimistic in our thinking. This does not mean that we are not realistic or manically happy all the time! So look at this a bit deeper, we try to think on these terms as opposed to these terms:
Optimistic
“I’m talented.”
Pessimistic
“I try hard.”
Try and work on catching your thoughts and moving to a place where you tend to use more optimistic phrases than pessimistic. It will take days, weeks and years, but it will definitely improve your well-being. I know that you’ll give it your best, that’s all I ask of you. ❤️
3 Train your Mind to Cheer for You!
As un-British as it is to “cheerlead”! I urge you to “cheerlead for yourself in your mind”. Speak positively to yourself and affirm to yourself that you are powerful, worthy and great just as you are! Work on finding a personal phrase that you say in your mind, that you know is You cheering for yourself. Something like, “I believe in you and you’re doing great!” Try saying it out loud or mentally when you start your day, see how it makes you feel?
4 The Art of the Possible
We tend to think in a certain way. That is awesome! What’s also good is to challenge how we think about things to try and uncover if there are any gaps or biases in our thinking. So here we’re really trying to think in a different way so that we can see different ways forward or opportunities for our business. There are many techniques as to how to get yourself thinking creatively, so I’m just going to list a few considerations to get you going. Check out the list below:
Go somewhere different to think, go for a walk, enjoy nature or even just a change of room at home.
Write down all your ideas and then ask a friend or connection to share their perspective. Were any new ideas added to the list? How do you feel about those new ideas?
Engage in a creative activity that you enjoy and think about the problem you are looking to resolve and see if you come up with any different ideas than usual?
Insert your own idea on what get’s you thinking creatively!
So try some of these out and see what you can create. I know you’ll create something awesome. ❤️
Resources
Address Stress - Mental Health First Aid England
Mind Mental Health Charity - How to manage stress
Contact the Samaritans - Confidential advice