Business is not just a strategy game. Or an effort game.
It’s a mental game.
The cold hard truth is this: If you don’t have your mind in good shape, you will not reach the levels of business success you could have.
When most people read that, they would quickly agree- of course, having the right mindset is important to succeed in business. So why is it that close to ZERO entrepreneurs and senior executives work on the health of their minds?
It’s ridiculous.
When I am coaching entrepreneurs or CEOs I like to ask these two questions:
“What will the most successful people in your field be doing in 50 years?”
 “And how can we start doing that now?”
Well in my view one thing that almost all senior executives will be doing in 50 years is keeping their minds as fit as their bodies.
Arguably mental fitness is even more important for business people as physical fitness. If we are thinking well we will act more effectively- and with effective actions will surely come better results.
We need to treat the state of our minds seriously if we aspire to optimize our success at work.
To do that, we need to do two important things:
- Learn techniques that keep us mentally excellent- sharp, motivated, calm, clear and happy.
- Spend time daily training those mental techniques.
They do exactly this in pro-level sports. And in elite military units, like the U.S Navy Seals and the army’s Special Forces units.
Bear in mind that these kinds of groups are extremely results-oriented- they would certainly not be doing mental skills training if they weren’t seeing good results from it.
It’s time we in the business world did the same.
There are three main areas of mental performance for business people to master:
-  What we say to ourselves– is our mental self-talk positive, motivating and well-focused?
- What we picture in our minds – are we envisioning being successful and anticipating handling the inevitable setbacks well? Or imagining pictures of failure ahead?
- The quality of our mental energy – are we relaxed, but also sharp and energized at the optimum level for the particular business task we are doing?
Take a minute now to rate yourself in each of these areas. How well do you do these three key mental performance skills?
If you’re not happy with your answers then please take appropriate action.
A good place to start is to Google articles and videos on sports psychology, grab 3 tips that resonate with you and start practicing them for a few minutes every day.
I will also include some mental performance techniques in future posts that I use with my executive coaching clients, so keep an eye out for those.
Mental fitness is absolutely crucial for success in the business world. And you can gain a huge advantage over your competitors if you get great at it before they even think of studying it.
Becoming truly mentally fit will not only help you reach your business and financial goals, it will greatly increase your happiness as you travel on the road towards them.
