Ep# 109: Mindful Entrepreneurship: Strategies for Cultivating Peace in a Busy Business World
Episode Summary
Are you constantly feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending demands of your business? What if the secret to true productivity isn't about doing more?
In today's fast-paced business world, it's easy to get caught up in the hustle, thinking that the more you do, the more successful you'll be. This episode dives into practical tools and life-changing mindset shifts that will transform you into the present and grounded CEO you’d like to be.
In this episode you will:
Learn the simple 20-second a simple habit that lets you effortlessly prioritize what truly matters and eliminate unnecessary stress.
Uncover the surprising truth behind your addiction to busyness.
Discover a powerful mindset shift that can turn you into the CEO of your mind, allowing you to achieve your business goals with confidence and ease.
Ready to unlock a more peaceful, productive way of working? Press play now and start reclaiming your time, sanity and fulfillment!
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The Uncommon Way is led by business coach Jenna Harrison, who helps women entrepreneurs feel confident, find their ideal clients effortlessly and avoid overwork so they can manifest money and abundance in their business and life.
This podcast empowers female entrepreneurs to overcome imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and limiting beliefs through somatics, mindset, and spirituality, create 7-figure offers, and build an online coaching business with clarity and alignment.
Episode Transcription
[00:00:00] What if all it takes to feel calm and spacious in your business are a few simple tweaks?
Welcome back to the Uncommon Way. Do you feel like there's so much going on in your business and your industry that it's almost impossible to keep up? And you keep thinking, well, when I just finish X or I get through Y, then I can take a breath, except that there's always something else that crops up.
Well, in this episode, you are going to discover the 22nd habit that lets you effortlessly prioritize what truly matters, and you will uncover the surprising truth behind your busyness addiction. And you'll discover a powerful mindset shift that can turn you into the CEO of your mind, allowing you to achieve your business goals with confidence and ease.
Now that we are in Spain, and we're putting so much effort into just getting established, I'm really working less than ever. [00:01:00] Yesterday, it took me two and a half hours just to go to the store and find my way around and find about, oh, I guess 50 percent of what I was looking for. But it's okay. My business is fine and will be fine despite the fact that there's a lot going on.
And if I choose to tune into it, I could open up my feed right now and see all sorts of things happening in the industry, but I don't. And being in this place and watching this happen, it's inspired me to create this episode with strategies for women like you who want to cultivate peace, even in the busy business world.
So to set the stage, it actually is impossible to do all that could ever be done in entrepreneurship. If you haven't figured this out yet, then here's the spoiler. You will never reach the end of your [00:02:00] list. You'll never get the gold star in the army. They did a study and realized that if you were actually to implement.
All of the trainings that were required and all of the must-do's that it would actually take up more time than is available in a year. And so what that meant is that it really fell on the commander to decide what are the command priorities? What are we going to prioritize? What are we not going to prioritize?
And if there's a problem, know that you made that decision. And you're accountable, but that that's really what you get paid for or why you were put in this area of responsibility was so that you could make the tough decisions. And the same is true in business. So you have got to step off the hamster wheel.
You've got to change your way of thinking. Thinking and your way of being in the face of infinite possibility of infinite choice, because our brains are not designed to compute in that way, analyzing [00:03:00] all those possibilities for the best course of action while navigating your own brain wiring that of course is going to attract you to what's most urgent or what's most interesting rather than what's most important.
And of course, you've got this subconscious that keeps you self-sabotaging yourself with the best of intentions naturally in the name of, of protection and safety, but it keeps you potentially people pleasing or keeping up with the Joneses or trying to be superwoman or just keeping yourself busy enough that you won't really ignite that greatness that deep down, you know, is inside of you.
There was a Soviet. Psychologist named Eric from, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but he wrote a book called escape from freedom. And it was really about the tyranny of choice, how we want lots of choice, lots of possibility, but when we're faced with it, it [00:04:00] leads to a lot of anxiety and a lot of.
Yeah. Ineffectiveness. And then I had an economics professor at Swarthmore named Larry Westfall, who really developed this further with his work on choice theory. And it turns out that, like I just said, our brains are not wired to compute in this way. And that actually about three choices are what we're able to navigate in terms of making a good, solid decision.
Obviously we have far more choices and far more possibilities available as we're even working through one day in our business. So as always, I've got some tactics for you, some mindset tips and energetic tips for those who are interested. So, the tactical advice for this episode is to purposely limit your choices.
This goes for things you're doing and for things that you're thinking because we disconnect from our life when we're in [00:05:00] either of those things. Now, of course, that's going to be challenging because you're not used to doing this yet, but it is totally doable. And here's how to do so in a way that won't have you rebounding later, like someone who's been on a super strict diet and then binges or gives up altogether.
Right? We want you to actually be able to move into a life where you don't feel stressed all the time, where you can actually enjoy a morning routine or break for lunch with your husband and gain some serious momentum in your business to kick ass because you're working. On the right things and giving them enough time and attention that they need with a brain that is open and relaxed and can provide you with the creative hits that you truly need to do more with less.
Now, here's what it is. You ready? All you do is you pause before and [00:06:00] after each thing you're doing, and you notice where you are in space and time, right? You notice how your body feels, what the temperature feels like. This can all be done in just a second, and then take some time for awe, that sense of gratitude or wonder.
And this whole thing is really just 20 seconds. It's just a little pause in the moment, and you definitely have time for this. There's no way you don't have time for this, even though I understand my brain also likes to tell me I don't have time for this. But this alone, this small practice can completely change your life, thanks to brain chemistry and to its effect on the nervous system.
It is a pattern interrupter that breaks the neural loop that your brain was just engaged in. It takes you out of that moment [00:07:00] and it puts you into this present moment. It's like too often we like to compartmentalize. I'll work now and I'll work really hard and get it over with. And then when I'm not working, I'll be present in life, but no.
How you do one thing is how you do everything, be present in all of it, take breaks for joy throughout all of it. Right now, one of my favorite things is my stairwell. The windows open out to this beautiful garden courtyard. It's not a really manicured garden, but they happen to have all sorts of. Like a variety of beautiful Mediterranean plants.
So you have a palm tree, but then you also have an olive tree and there are rosemary bushes, but you also have bougainvillea and hibiscus bushes. And somehow these plants and flowers. all release their scents and it makes the most delicious smell. And whenever you walk up the stairs, the [00:08:00] windows are always open and the cross breeze always brings in all of this very warm gorgeousness.
Ooh, I forgot pine, Mediterranean pine is in there as well. And this is what we want. In our life, these are the moments that we want to notice that, you know, moment with your child or with your loved one, or even just, you know, cutting up a fruit, it seems inconsequential, but it actually completely changes everything, because when you create some mental distance, some space, That's when you can ask yourself.
That's when you have a clearer perspective. And so when you're taking this break, you can then just ask yourself this thing that I was doing, or this thing that I'm about to do, is this really a priority or serving my highest intentions? Why did I say yes to this? And you don't want to ask these questions from judgment.
But from curiosity, [00:09:00] even if you go a whole week without making a single change to what you're doing, just being in this space of curiosity, you are gathering tons of information for the future. This practice that I'm suggesting helps you build your self-awareness and also your intuition muscles so that you can really zero in on what truly matters.
What are those priorities? And start saying no. to more things. Now, I do practice what I preach. I talked about using these sacred pauses myself in episode 71 of how I structure my 33-hour work week. And by the way, the takeaway from that is that even though I was filling my days and doing things, it didn't feel like busyness.
It didn't feel like doing, doing, doing, or hustle or rat race because of how I've conditioned my body to move through the day. So when you're clear on your true priorities, you can [00:10:00] start to plan out your days in advance. This doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, I recommend that it not be, especially when you're first starting this protocol.
You simply choose a few things a day that you need to do, and you decide in advance that once those are done, you are going to call it a win. You're going to feel satisfied, and then practice noticing that satisfaction. You could even reward yourself with something when you're done with those, that one thing, or those three things so that you can create a positive feedback loop that will entice your brain to want to do that again the next day.
Just this last year, I was working with a client who was so caught up in overthinking and she had a ton of ideas for how to grow her business and kept going back and forth on options. So it was definitely not conducive to a sense of inner peace. And when we got clear on our highest leverage activities and created those clear priorities, which I'll tell [00:11:00] you, it is so much easier to create these kind of signature strategies and then stick to them when your business is.
is aligned, right? When the top matches the bottom you know how the dots connect and how they're going to connect in the future. So we tabled everything else in her possibilities list. And afterward, she felt such a relief and ended up feeling so much more focused and motivated than she had in years.
In the end, she brought on more clients and revenue, blowing her mind with how different her business could be than how it had been. This is the surprising truth about busyness. It's usually totally counterproductive, and it keeps your business growth from skyrocketing. But I am sorry to tell you, I need to be completely transparent that in the short term, it isn't always a feeling of being freed.
A lot of [00:12:00] us, you know, our brains won't initially let us feel satisfied when we just focus on a few things, which really leads us into the mindset portion of this episode. Your brain might tell you that you don't get to feel satisfied until you've crossed everything off your to-do list, that you definitely could have done more, that you should do more, that you should feel guilty for not doing more, but tell it that you are in training right now, and you'll soon add in more things step into being the CEO of your mind where you decide what's going to go down rather than reacting to whatever emotion it happens to feel.
You need to be the CEO of your mind in order to truly be the CEO of your business. If you need help sticking to your schedule, you can try apps or timers. One of my clients had success with an app called TickTick, as in a clock ticking. TickTick. And there's an AI app called Motion that looks [00:13:00] really interesting to me.
I haven't tried it yet, though. And no shame if you do have trouble sticking to whatever you set out to do. Right? Many entrepreneurs have ADHD, first of all, but even if you don't have ADHD, very powerful forces are at play here in your brain to preserve the status quo. That does not mean that you can't change.
It just means that you need to keep applying energy to the changing until it becomes a new normal. And if you do that, things will change. You have an amazingly plastic, adaptive brain, and you get to use that to your advantage. Look, you need to realize that you have to detox from busyness and the deeper state that it brings about, which is the state of being on autopilot, i.
e. not being present and mindful in your life. That is built up over time, and you're going to [00:14:00] feel the effects of taking that away from your normal. Now, I've got a lot more to say on this topic of detoxing, and you can find out how to detox the key parts of your business and mine that are necessary for you to step into the next level of results and revenue by going to my homepage and signing up for the free training there.
We're going to link to it below, but when it comes to doing this in your business, know that it is a literal addiction on many levels because of the dopamine hits you get from completing tasks or being on social media. And Because of the ego strokes you get. You get those from being able to manage everything like Superwoman, or from someone being happy with you because you did something they wanted you to, or because your sense of FOMO is appeased.
Or because you get to feel like a responsible adult or a quote-unquote, real business [00:15:00] person or because your anxiety thinks you're now slightly less likely to end up under that bridge and lose everything. Or, you're less guilty for having found your way into earning a living where you don't have to work as hard as your parents did, or their parents did, or other people in the world still do.
Or, you get to feel worthy because your entire sense of self-worth has tied into how much you work. Or I have a client whose brain doesn't argue in those particular ways, but it tells her that anything she'd do outside of work is wasting time. So it makes more sense for her to focus on this stuff. When you've been in that state of disconnection from yourself and the world that you're in, your immediate present world, it's going to take some redirection to change that status quo.
So, But you can do it. You can do it by [00:16:00] increasing your awareness daily, and then making a change, and then being present with whatever comes up when you do. Remember, just cause your brain offers up a thought doesn't mean it's true. If my brain tells me I'm not doing enough, I tell it, interesting. And then I sit there for 30 seconds with not enoughness.
I feel what that feels like in my body. I completely let it be there. And I just kind of watch it with curiosity, you know, like a compassion, like a child who's having a tantrum and then it passes. It usually just passes through, or sometimes I help it pass through with some movement, like, like shaking out my hands.
Once I've actually given it some stage time, some presence, and then I continue with my day. Because it's just a human brain being human, with all of its lovable doubts and opinions, I no longer react to it anymore. And you can change your beliefs too. Beliefs are just thoughts that you [00:17:00] think over and over, so choose to redirect your thoughts to what you've intentionally decided to think.
Really, the voice in your head with the most conviction wins. I heard this from an old coach of mine. I love that saying, and I found it to be so true for me and my clients. So yeah, basically, don't make yourself wrong if your habits don't change overnight. Because, you know, habits, by their nature, linger.
So be gentle, but consistent, and watch for the self-sabotaging thought, this isn't working. Whenever you hear that, flip it to, Oh no, this is definitely working and ask your brain to come up with one example. Brains love to answer questions and solve problems. So have it come up with one example. It could be something like, You know, today you didn't just drop what you were doing because of something that a client or a [00:18:00] team member brought up, or it could also be awareness of what did lead you to drop everything.
That's a win to one of my success killers is the thought. Oh, I'll just do this first. It sounds so innocent, right? How could you argue with it? So logical, just get it out of the way. But luckily I've gained awareness and I gained awareness by failing at something, failing at something important that I wanted to do because I'll just do this first.
So that is a win. Even though it may feel like a failure, whenever you can gain awareness, you are a step closer to change. So now when my brain offers up the thought, Oh, I'll just do this first. I'm not surprised. And I can act very intentionally with it. Sometimes that's just a pattern interrupter of some sort, right?
Which really helps create those new neural pathways. Like I mentioned before, I have a client who was trying to think of a [00:19:00] pattern interrupter. And we just, for some reason started using the sound
It was just enough to be funny enough, but also, I don't know what's the word, like unorthodox enough to really do the trick and kind of snap her out of something that she was in. So if that's what works for you, you are free to borrow it, my friend. All right, let's talk energetics. When it comes to the energetics of this pattern, it is all about trust.
When you're tuning out what's around you, when you are indulging in doing this or indulging in the busyness of the mind, it stems from energetic unease. We can't trust or accept, so it's up to us to make things happen or rather to not let bad things happen. If you trusted that your business were going to grow to the extent that you want, regardless, would you [00:20:00] be hustling?
Probably not. If you trusted in your next investment or strategy move, would you be playing the mental tennis of do I, don't I? or do I do it or don't I do it? No. Your brain tricks you into thinking that if you just get these things done or just think this through enough, then you'll be able to take a breather or then you'll feel safe.
But that is not true. Your sense of safety comes from trust, from trusting in yourself or in the universe or in the fact that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Finding your grounding point, right? What you can trust can start to change everything. And that is the key to recalibrating energetically.
What can you trust about this specific situation that you're in? Is there something you can trust about yourself or about other people or about patterns in your life or in your [00:21:00] relationship with the universe? If you keep aligning yourself with the areas in which you do already have trust and safety, and then you keep building up the areas that still have some growth potential, this is how you move into a different frequency that creates new circumstances and opportunities.
What you resist persists and what you focus on grows. So let's just give a little window of air time to where you do trust, where it is. It is certain where it is calm and where things are working out and live from that place a little more frequently so that you can look up, gaze around you and absorb this wild, beautiful ride that you're on.
So in this episode, you learn to prioritize what truly matters so that you can free up time to be present in your life and how to remain mindful throughout your workday [00:22:00] so that you can actually counter logically, though it may seem to skyrocket your business and move forward with confidence and more ease.
All right. I hope you have a fantastic week and I will see you next time.