Empowered Mindset

Focus without attachment!

In business and in life, you can tick all the right boxes in terms of skills and knowledge, but with a limited mindset, you will always limit your potential and your results. Focus without attachment (aka without ego) is the foundation of all the mindset work that we do with our clients!
For his entire competitive martial arts career (7 years) I had a part-time role as the mindset coach for Jon Robson, the multiple times British Kung Fu Champion and world silver medalist. As a martial artist myself (Karate) I have applied much of the same mindset methods, philosophies and tools to help business leaders to grow their empowered mindset.  I believe that to maximise your potential, your mindset must be aligned with:
1- ‘Who you are!’ (your authentic core values), and
2- ‘Your focus on being authentic in everything you do!’
“When your primary focus is NOT on a material goal, but ‘to authentically give everything you can with everything you have got’, then no matter how ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ you are in the eyes of others, you will ultimately ‘fulfil your highest potential’ and ‘maximise your experience of being fulfilled’!”

This video was filmed just before Jon Robson went to the Kung Fu World Championships in Toronto. Jon’s primary focus was not ‘to win’ but  to ‘give it everything he could with everything he had’, as he did throughout his martial arts career.  This ‘non-attachment’ enabled Jon to be fearless and perform at a level beyond anyone’s expectations. Jon did in fact win the World Championship Silver Medal, defeating some formidable opponents along the way. After his narrow loss in the final to a magnificent opponent, Jon told me with a big smile “I gave it everything I could with everything I had, I am fulfilled!”From a coaching session in a coffee shop some 5 years earlier before he had entered a single competition, where we sketched out Jon’s purposeful vision, Jon had pushed the boundaries of his potential beyond what he and I imagined was possible!

Growing Your ‘Empowered Mindset’!

All of the entrepreneurial business leaders we have worked with over the years have been faced with ‘self-doubts’ and ‘limiting beliefs’, experiencing fears, anxieties and excess levels of stress! For all human beings and all leaders these challenging feelings are an inevitable reality, it is HOW we deal with these feelings that defines us and shapes our destiny. When a business leader gets stuck in cycles of ‘limiting beliefs, fears, anxieties and excess levels of stress’ it not only limits their personal potential but it limits the potential of their entire business team.  We help our clients develop practical strategies to develop an ‘Empowered Mindset’!
We use numerous leading edge ‘mindset tools’ having previously worked for 5 years as an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) trainer, followed by 16 years as one of Dr John Demartini’s senior facilitators, facilitating at over 30 of his renowned ‘break through experience’ events around the world, intensively helping thousands of people to break through the greatest mental and emotional challenges and blockages of their lives!

FEAR, ANGER & SADNESS! (EXCESS STRESS)
We define an ’empowered mindset’ as one which transcends the ego and transforms ‘fear, anger and sadness’ into inspiration and enthusiasm.
An ‘Empowered Mindset’ is where you are ‘focused on an end result’ but paradoxically you ‘are not attached to this end result’!

The Enneagram which is just one of many tools that can help us to understand our ego, which if we are unaware of it, can significantly limit our potential. It has it’s origins in ancient hermetic philosophy. Fear, anger and sadness are illustrated here as the 3 pain bodies of the Enneagram aka ‘the 3 components of the ego’.  These 3 pain bodies represent our ‘physical, mental and emotional stress’.  We all experience in some shape or form the underlying beliefs, which,  in this particular illustration, are stated in the ‘away negative form’ rather than the ‘towards infatuated’ form. These beliefs are often lodged deep in our subconscious and if we do not address them, we will significantly limit our potential in terms of both achievement and  fulfilment!

This is why having a vision that inspires you and those you lead is an essential component of transforming fear, anger and sadness into inspiration (inspiritu – the spirit within) and enthusiasm (en Theos – the god within).

Empowered Mindset

Philosophy – An ‘Empowered Mindset’ has a resilient continually evolving philosophy that is both AUTHENTIC and driven to learn and can, when required, be able to deal with the most extreme challenges.  The most empowered, adaptable and sustainable mindsets are built and driven by ‘your authentic spirit’ as opposed to ‘your ego’!  When your primary focus is on ‘serving others’ and ‘making a difference to others’ you will inevitably go far beyond any ‘self serving potential’!
At Certain Progress our philosophy is that every individual should take ownership of developing their own philosophy. Your philosophies may have similarities to other people’s, but just like your hierarchy of values, your philosophy should be unique to you. Your philosophy forms the basis of your mindset in all aspects of your life.

Authenticity – If we wish to maximise our potential individually and collectively, we HAVE TO BE AUTHENTIC!  In business and in life you will metaphorically encounter ‘many fish trying to climb trees’ your greatest power lies in your own unique authenticity. Many people believe that they are being authentic most of the time, but authenticity in business is often rarer than you might think and it takes some hard questions and reflections to uncover some aspects of the unauthentic self, without such reflection it is not possible to become more authentic. Self-reflection is absolutely essential if you wish to expand your potential!

Values –  Understanding values, values alignment and values linking are essential in developing an empowered mindset. One of the core premises of Axiology ‘the study of value and values’ is that every single human being has a unique hierarchy of values, a bit like finger prints. However, unlike finger prints your values change and evolve over time. On of the greatest sources of conflict in a business or indeed any group of people is that the inevitable differences in values between individuals! Learning to understand and deal with these differences is essential to building an empowered mindset.
In line with ‘staying authentic’ we should understand our truest and highest core values and allow others to do the same.  People pursing visions and goals that are not aligned with their core values they are not being authentic and cannot fulfil their potential.

Emotional Charges – Identifying and moving beyond emotional charges is a foundation of building an ‘Empowered Mindset’! Emotional charges that we may have with ourselves or with others can run our lives and hold us back from fulfilling our potential as a person and as a leader.

Mindset Strategies – We work with our clients to develop their own practical strategies to deal with (as they happen) the inevitable self-doubts, limiting beliefs, fears, anxieties and excess levels of stress.

Our approach to growing your ‘Empowered Mindset’!

Mindfulness ‘Balancing The Mind’

To work effectively, productively and sustainably in a busy environment without ‘buying ourselves out’ means it is essential that we regularly practice mindfulness, it is through practicing mindfulness even just for a minute or so, that we can rejuvenate mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Transcending the EGO, thereby transcending anxiety and distress. ‘Switching off the voice inside your head’, connecting to ‘the infinite field of intelligence’ that goes beyond the physical world.
In the midst of a busy working life, it is essential to find some time to practice some form of stillness and mindfulness. Meditation is an obvious route to switch off our ‘noisy minds’ and listen to the space in between the noise. There are many other activities in addition to meditation that we can do on a daily basis to help us to rejuvenate mentally, emotionally and spiritually, including walking, gardening, running, cycling, swimming and rock climbing can take us into this detached state where we can .

Critical Thinking!

Transcending the EGO, thereby transcending anxiety and distress. ‘Switching off the voice inside your head’, connecting to ‘the infinite field of intelligence’ that goes beyond the physical world.

Responsive Strategic Thinking

It is human nature to have a highly reactive mind, many of our reactions on a given day have little or no impact on our potential, however, many of of our reactions

Awareness

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Creative Mindset

We maximise our creative thinking when our minds are in a relaxed theta state. Interestingly, IBM conduct an annual survey of the CEOs of the top 100 companies listed on the NASDAQ, one of the questions they ask is ‘What is the number one leadership attribute needed in the current business climate?’ For 10 years out of 10 ‘Creativity’ was quoted in the top 3 attributes and 7 out of those 10 years it was quoted as the number one business leadership attribute.