Ever wonder what's holding you back from the pinnacle of success? Transformative insights await as I, Kristen Burke, unravel the secrets to an unstoppable business mindset, sharing personal hurdles and client triumphs that shed light on the power of our thoughts. We kick things off by tackling the fear and risk-taking necessary for growth, drawing from my keynote revelations and the eye-opening research of psychologist Carol Dweck on fixed vs. growth mindsets. Listen in to hear how we can turn the tide on the negative and repetitive patterns that shape our actions and outcomes, and hear firsthand stories of resilience that can change the way you chase your professional dreams.
As we venture further, I get candid about my own brushes with fear and self-doubt while developing a goal-setting course, offering you a front-row seat to the transformation from self-limitation to self-empowerment. Find out how to dismantle 'all or nothing' thinking, take action to boost confidence, and why celebrating the little victories can create a ripple effect of success. I'll even let you in on my morning workout strategy, designed to kickstart your day with intention and progress. By the end of this episode, not only will you have a blueprint for embedding powerful routines and mental frameworks into your life, but you'll also be equipped with the strategies to make achievement inevitable.
Ever wonder what's holding you back from the pinnacle of success? Transformative insights await as I, Kristen Burke, unravel the secrets to an unstoppable business mindset, sharing personal hurdles and client triumphs that shed light on the power of our thoughts. We kick things off by tackling the fear and risk-taking necessary for growth, drawing from my keynote revelations and the eye-opening research of psychologist Carol Dweck on fixed vs. growth mindsets. Listen in to hear how we can turn the tide on the negative and repetitive patterns that shape our actions and outcomes, and hear firsthand stories of resilience that can change the way you chase your professional dreams.
As we venture further, I get candid about my own brushes with fear and self-doubt while developing a goal-setting course, offering you a front-row seat to the transformation from self-limitation to self-empowerment. Find out how to dismantle 'all or nothing' thinking, take action to boost confidence, and why celebrating the little victories can create a ripple effect of success. I'll even let you in on my morning workout strategy, designed to kickstart your day with intention and progress. By the end of this episode, not only will you have a blueprint for embedding powerful routines and mental frameworks into your life, but you'll also be equipped with the strategies to make achievement inevitable.
Kristin:
When you feel fear in business, it's usually a sign you are growing and taking risk in the direction of your goals. You want to party with fear, because when you face fears repeatedly, you start to become desensitized to the fear and it feels less fearful. Hey goal achievers, welcome to Elite Achievement, your go-to podcast for service-based business owners who want to achieve their goals and grow their businesses. I'm Kristen Burke, your host and coach here to help you achieve your goals. Together, let's close the gap between the goals you set and the goals you achieve. Hey, goal achievers, last month, I had the opportunity to speak at a top-ranked financial services company's regional meeting. It was an honor to share the role mindset plays on the goal achievement journey with hundreds of financial advisors, leaders and team members. Mindset work is ongoing. It's not like you arrive one day and your work is done. Your mindset is like a muscle that needs to continue being flexed. So I want to share some of the highlights from my talk with you today to help you develop an unstoppable mindset to achieve your goals.
Kristin:
According to VeryWellMindcom, your mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. Your beliefs drive your behaviors and your behaviors drive your results. Your mindset influences how you think, feel and behave in any given situation. Have you ever wondered why you have so many negative thoughts? According to the National Science Foundation, an average person has 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those, 80% are negative and 95% are repetitive thoughts. Let that sink in for a moment. Most of your thoughts are negative and most are on repeat. Have you ever wondered why you give up quickly when faced with adversity?
Kristin:
You might be operating from a fixed mindset. Psychologist Carol Dweck coined the term fixed mindset In her research. She has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine if you accomplish the things you value. People with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities are fixed. You are either born with a certain amount of talent and intelligence and that's it, so if you're not good at something, you'll never be good at it. On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe that abilities can be developed. People with a fixed mindset fear failure, while those with a growth mindset see failure as a chance to grow. A fixed mindset can negatively impact your confidence, courage and consistency on your goal achievement journey.
Kristin:
There is good news, however, if you think you might be operating from a fixed mindset, you are able to change your mindset. It's imperative that you do the work to minimize what weakens your mindset and focus on what strengthens your mindset. And have you ever thought about what actually weakens your mindset and what strengthens your mindset? I asked some of my clients to answer those two questions and they shared. When I am doing awful, when I get busy and get out of my normal routine, when I'm juggling so many balls and throw processes out the door, when I'm having a bad month, when I don't feel like I'm learning something new, or when I feel stagnant all weekend, mindset. On the other side, when I'm doing really well after I come back for a training or a discussion, when I'm having a good month in terms of production, when I'm learning something that will be valuable and helpful in business all strengthen mindset. And I'll add in my business, when I'm hearing a lot of no's, it weakens my mindset. But hearing yeses yes to new clients, yes to opportunities, yes to meetings booked all strengthens my mindset. The key is staying consistent with the activity that leads to these yeses. I have to remember I'm going to hear no's along the way and it's so important to not give up. And in order to not give up, you need to understand what weakens your mindset.
Kristin:
First, negative mental narratives. You know the stories you tell yourself that are overly critical. These are the stories that often show up in the form of absolutes such as always or never. These stories encourage us to diminish our impact and play small. Negative mental narratives inspire us to seek comfort, avoid risk and play it safe. They don't exactly inspire the confidence and courage we need on our goal achievement journeys. And since negative mental narratives have such a negative impact on our goals, it's critical we learn to rewrite them. So, in order to rewrite negative mental narratives, you start by testing the validity of the story you are telling yourself. You have to figure out is there actually any proof to the story that you're telling yourself? So start by asking what proof do I have? And I bet when you pause and ask yourself what proof do I have, you will find out you don't have any proof at all, but maybe there is proof. So the second question you can ask yourself is is what I am thinking, moving me closer to my goals or further away from my goals? This is a powerful question to ask because you get to decide if you want to keep believing the story you are telling yourself or if you want to rewrite that story and create a story that will move you closer to your goals.
Kristin:
Last year, I did a lot of work to rewrite some of my own negative mental narratives. I wanted to create a course on goal setting. For years I wanted to have a product that people can buy at any time that will support their goal achievement journeys. I also wanted to extend my impact beyond what I'm able to do in individual coaching sessions. Yet I didn't act on this desire for years because of fear and limiting beliefs. I told myself I didn't have time to create a course, and I don't have time is an absolute goal killer. I also told myself that I am not an online marketing expert. And hey, there's a hint of proof that I'm not an online marketing expert, because the coaching and consulting services of my business are referral driven and relationship based. But the story I am not an online marketing expert is not totally true, because there is proof that I am growing in this space. My team has helped me show up consistently on social media for the past couple of years. We also have multiple resources that people can download from my website, which helps us grow our email list.
Kristin:
So, even though I told myself a story that I'm not an online marketing expert I've been laying the foundation to start to succeed in this space and, by discussing this situation with my coach, she helped me realize three major mindset shifts. First, I'm not doing online marketing full-time. I love to learn from the experts in this space, such as Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher. I was comparing my beginning with where they are. Expert level Beginnings are clunky and often full of testing as you learn what works and what doesn't. I needed to give myself grace and practice what I preached to my clients, celebrate the small wins and progress along the way. Second, my coach pointed out that in my business, kristen Burt Consulting, I didn't have any products currently available. I was comparing my success with coaching and consulting services with a product that didn't even exist yet. It's hard to grow something that doesn't exist. Third, to grow in the online space, I needed to embrace risk. Taking time away from my proven coaching business to invest in creating a course that may or may not sell was a risk by examining what proof do I have? And assessing is what I am thinking, holding me back or moving me closer to my goals. I'm proud to share that. I created and launched my first course, goal Setting Success, in December. You can check out the show notes for a link to get access to this course.
Kristin:
If you want an unstoppable mindset, it's imperative you monitor your negative self-talk so you can take action in the direction of your goals. All are nothing mentality also weakens mindset because it inspires inconsistency. Have you ever started a new year thinking this is the year I'm going to get healthy, I'm going to work out, implement a morning routine, drink water, eliminate fast food and go to bed early? You're either going to do all the healthy things every day or you've failed. Well, I'm not a health expert, but I'm pretty sure if you pick one or two healthy habits and do them with consistency Meaning if you miss a workout, get back into the gym the next day you'll finish the year healthier than you started. We do this all of the time. We set out at the beginning of the year or the beginning of the quarter, or even the beginning of a new week with big plans this is going to be the week for change. I'm doing it, I'm going all out. Then you miss one day and you feel like that's it. I failed, it's never going to happen.
Kristin:
In the popular book the Twelve Week Year, the authors encourage readers, using the 12-week year system to strive for a weekly score of 85% not 100% to make significant progress towards their goals. All or Nothing mentality is not serving you well. I encourage you to be aware of this mentality as you are striving to achieve a goal or accomplish something you've never done before. If you miss a day or get off track, guess what that's called being human? We are all imperfect. If we continue to put rigid all or nothing expectations on ourselves, we hinder our ability to achieve our goals and weaken our mindset. Do you tend to give up when you get a little behind or miss a day? If so, you might want to examine your relationship with all or nothing thinking.
Kristin:
While we are on the topic of thinking, let's address how thinking can destroy your confidence by convincing you to not take action. We grow confidence by taking action. In order to take more action, we have to minimize two types of thinking past thinking and future thinking. Past thinking is when you ruminate or repeatedly replay in your mind situations that happened in the past. When you engage in this type of thinking, you often overblame yourself and overemphasize the negative. This thinking is unproductive because you are usually having a one-way conversation with yourself about a situation that involved other people. Since the other people aren't part of the conversation, your mind is filling in the blanks instead of you being able to ask clarifying questions. This thinking tends to leave you feeling disappointed or frustrated, and then you're not taking action in the direction of your goals.
Kristin:
Future thinking is when all of the what-if scenarios take over. The what-ifs are rarely positive and assume the worst outcome and inspire fear. We think ourselves out of taking action by wanting to avoid these made up what-if scenarios. In a recent conversation with a marketing agency business owner, she was sharing with me her desire to hire a team member to oversee the day-to-day operations of her business so she could spend more time in the CEO role. She was telling herself what if the business doesn't bring in enough revenue to support this new hire and I have to fire them? This is a story rooted in fear. I encouraged her to think about what if the business revenue doubles or even triples because of the new hire. We don't often consider the positive scenario because of a negativity bias that our mind has. I encourage you to think about the positive version of the what-if scenarios if you find yourself thinking a lot of negative what-if scenarios.
Kristin:
If negative mental narratives and all-or-nothing mentality and past and future thinking weaken our mindset, then what strengthens our mindset? Fear. Now you might be thinking, kristen, why did you mention fear as something that strengthens our mindset? Doesn't fear weaken our mindset? Fear doesn't weaken your mindset. Being a victim of fear weakens your mindset. If you reframe your perspective of fear and invite fear to the party, it can strengthen your mindset. When you feel fear in business, it's usually a sign you are growing and taking risk in the direction of your goals. You want to party with fear because when you face fears repeatedly, you start to become desensitized to the fear and it feels less fearful.
Kristin:
Most of my clients find that when I hold them accountable to doing the thing they are fearful of, it was never as bad as they thought it would be. So we usually make fear into a way bigger deal than it actually is. I'll share with you an example. When I was a recruiter at a financial services firm, a financial advisor walked his client to my office to introduce the two of us. His client was open to having a career-focused conversation and even handed me his business card. Yet I let that card sit on my desk for about a week before I had the courage to call him. He was an attorney on the path to becoming a partner, so I was afraid to call him, even though he gave me his business card. I finally called, booked the interview, and that client is now a managing director. I still remember how energized I felt after our initial interview. That interview strengthened my mindset as a recruiter, because I was afraid of making the call but did it anyways.
Kristin:
I used to think that successful people didn't have any fear and I thought that something was wrong with me. Wow, was that thinking wrong? The more I interact with successful people, the more I learned that they feel fear too. They just don't let fear hold them back. They invite fear to the party. So I want to remind you that we all experience fear. I bet there is something right now that you've been thinking about doing that will take your business to the next level, but you are letting fear hold you back. And if you find yourself paralyzed by fear, I want to offer you what I call the power questions. What is the worst that can happen. What is the best that can happen? And when you explore your answers to these two questions, you'll likely find that the real fear lies in not going after all of the best things that can happen.
Kristin:
Having a plan also strengthens your mindset. It sounds so simple and obvious, but it's surprising how many of us don't have an actual plan to achieve our goals. A plan helps you minimize the overwhelming feeling that comes along with achieving a big goal. It allows you to break a big goal down into manageable steps so you actually start taking action instead of feeling paralyzed by how much there is to do. Working from a plan gives you direction, allows you to work intentionally and inspires you to make progress. A plan helps you identify what you need to prioritize. Without this intention, you can do a lot of busy work, but not productive work. A plan doesn't have to be complicated and it can evolve and change. This is why I recommend you review your goals monthly and quarterly to assess what is working and what is not working, so you can adjust your plan and if you are thinking about the goals that you have for yourself this year and realize you need a better plan, check out the show notes to download my popular breakout plan. The breakout plan is going to help you plan and prioritize what you need to do in order to achieve your goals.
Kristin:
And the last thing I will say that strengthens your mindset is tracking. I can't finish this podcast episode without talking about tracking. Tracking helps us understand where we are at and what we have left to do in order to accomplish our goals, so I want to offer you some ideas on how you can use tracking to strengthen your mindset. I know that many of you don't like to track or avoid tracking when things aren't going well. This is a huge mistake. You can learn a lot about your goal achievement tendencies by studying your data, by studying what you're tracking. To embrace tracking, it's important that you shift your perspective away from shame and judgment and move towards perspective and understanding. Reviewing your data can also help you recognize the truth versus the perception.
Kristin:
As a business owner, I want to grow my business, just like many of you, which means I need to get in front of potential new clients. So earlier this year, I was doing outreach and I started to doubt if it was even working. I wasn't hearing enough yeses, so I started to get discouraged. Does that sound familiar. But instead of buying into the story I was telling myself, I looked at the data and my ratios. My perception was that no one was responding, but the reality was that 20% of the people I reached out to responded, and out of the people that responded, nearly 50% booked a meeting with me. By reviewing my ratios, I learned that I needed to keep going and likely needed to do even more outreach to achieve my desired outcome. So the next time you start thinking I'm never getting enough meetings, I'm never getting enough referrals, I'm never getting enough people to say yes, do your data and look for the truth.
Kristin:
And one of the most beneficial aspects of tracking is that you start to learn what works for you and what doesn't work for you. We can get too caught up in what other people are doing, which can derail our confidence or make us feel like we are not good enough. It's empowering to understand your personal progress towards your goals and what is getting you results. All right, as we near the end of this episode, I want to offer you some simple practices that will help you develop an unstoppable mindset to achieve your goals. First, change can't to can. Our language creates a reality, so the words you use matter. Next, it's not I have to, it's I get to. I learned this practice from my nine-year-old daughter who one night said I have to read, and it made me think what a gift it is that you get to read. So instead of saying I have to, try saying I get to Recognize your value when clients tell me all the reasons they are not qualified to work with higher net worth clients charge a fee or move into a leadership role, I help them shift their mindset by asking them to share why they are qualified. So the next time you think you are not qualified, identify all the reasons why you are qualified.
Kristin:
Stop relying on emotion and start relying on processes. If you want a more consistent workout routine in the morning, lay out your clothes the night before and determine what your workout will be. Minimize as many of the decisions as you can in the moment. And last, be mindful of comparison. Remember, don't compare your beginning with someone else's middle or end. It's so easy to get caught up with what you see on social media that you start to feel bad about the progress you're making. Compare yourself to your plan and the commitments you are making. You might be tempted to stop doing mindset work when things are going great Don't?
Kristin:
People who continually focus on strengthening their mindset are better equipped to overcome adversity when it will inevitably come your way? Party with fear. Create a plan to achieve your goals and leverage tracking to strengthen your mindset. Learn to rewrite your negative mental narratives. Ditch the all or nothing mentality and minimize past and future thinking to grow your clarity, confidence, courage and consistency. And with that, goal achievers, keep celebrating your weekly wins, writing down your lessons learned and identify your priorities for next week so you can continually pursue progress in the direction of your goals. Hey, goal achiever, congrats on investing time in your growth and finishing another episode. If you are left craving more goal achieving and business growing wisdom, visit my website, christenbuerckcom, and check out the resources page. Here you will find my popular breakout plan, which has helped hundreds plan, prioritize and progress towards their goals. Vision prompts to help you draft your vision and a mid-year goal check-in to help you reconnect and reignite your passion for your goals. Together, let's close the gap between the goals you set and the goals you achieve.
