Do you need to embrace positivity in your business?
Let’s be honest, 2020 has been a really difficult year for many small businesses and it can be challenging to stay positive under these circumstances.
Even without the situation we’re finding ourselves in today, running a business can be exhausting, overwhelming and often filled with uncertainty.
- What if we can’t make enough sales?
- What if we run out of money?
- What if the business fails?
- What if? What if? What if?
And with so many uncertainties, negative thoughts can start to creep into our minds. Especially when we’re going through a rough period, like, I don’t know – a global pandemic perhaps!!
Finding the positives in every challenge you overcome is a great way to increase your optimism, build your confidence and embrace positivity.
Take a look at where you are right now and compare that to where you started out. Chances are, you already overcome some experiences that you thought (at the time) were impossible to resolve.
Studies show that positivity can improve work performance. With that in mind, here are 20 ways you can shift any negative feelings about your business or your work into positive ones…
1. Practice Gratitude
Having your own business has lots of benefits. Think about which of those benefits, you are most grateful for. Whether thats simply being able to work for yourself, choose your own working hours or something more.
2. Create Business Boundaries
Set business hours and stick to them, reserving your free time for yourself, friends, and family.
3. Look for the Good in people
Instead of assuming the worst, look for the good in people and situations.
4. Celebrate your successes
Take notice of your successes, even the small accomplishments. Small building blocks can build into greater things.
5. Schedule Free Time
Schedule free time for yourself in your calendar. Everything else gets booked, so why not also book your free time?
6. Keep your Office Space Clutter-Free
A clutter-free working environment can help you to focus on the task at hand. It prevents distractions and allows you to concentrate on what’s important.
7. Create a Positive Working Environment
Add positivity to your office with personal mementos. Show off your personality or add things that keep you grounded, especially during difficult situations. Your office is a blank canvas – make it an extension of you.
8. Create A Vision Board
Look at your vision board daily to remember your WHY. Stay inspired with these photos of your hopes and dreams. Knowing WHY you’re in this business and what you are working towards will motivate you to achieve great things.
9. Be Professional on Social Media
Don’t post your personal problems on your business social media accounts. Whilst it’s always good show your personal side, you can also attract negative attention, especially if that personal problem becomes a full-scale argument on your public account. Be aware that posts of this nature could possibly put off potential customers who were considering hiring/working with you.
10. Build a Positive Support Network.
We all have times when our positivity is lacking. You WILL have bad days. That’s business. That’s life. But how you respond to those bad days makes a difference. Surround yourself with positive people who support you and who can listen to an occasional rant. Sometimes voicing your frustration is all you need to let it go and get back to work.
11. Limit your time with negative people
Keep negative people and thoughts off your social media feeds. If you keep reading negative posts and articles, chances are high that negativity will start to encroach into your own mindset.
12. Look for the Silver Lining
Find the lesson or silver lining in every situation. Tough times happen to us all and some situations are not always easy to recover from. The key is to find something positive to focus on and keep those negative emotions at bay.
13. Learn from Life
Take the lesson from yesterday and implement it today. We’re always learning, and life lessons are ever-present if we are open to recognising them. Sometimes they may seem small and insignificant, at other times they are like a huge lightning bolt out of the blue. If you make a mistake, look at what you could have done differently and make the necessary changes so that you don’t make the same mistake again.
14. Smile more
It’s difficult to feel any negative emotions when you have a genuine smile on your face. When others see you smile it will subconsciously make them smile and it also emotes a happier tone in your voice when speaking on the phone.
As the song goes….
“When you’re smilin’, when you’re smilin’,
the whole world smiles with you!”
15. Develop Professional Relationships
With customers, colleagues and team members develop professional working relationships. See them for the people they are, not simply for the money they spend or tasks they perform.
16. Set Aside Quiet Time
You could use it for meditation, journaling, praying or just to recharge and get in touch with your own thoughts. As a result, you may discover answers to a problem you’ve been facing or even those long-forgotten dreams of years gone by.
17. Show Your Appreciation
Host small meetups, virtual or other-wise for customers and/or your colleagues. Actions are louder than words when it comes to showing your appreciation.
18. Practice Self-Care
As they say at the beginning of every airline flight, give yourself oxygen first before caring for anyone else. The same is true in business. If you’re not healthy and in a good headspace, you can’t care for your customers the way they deserve.
19. Listen to Your Favourite Music
Listen to the type of music that brings uplifts you. What music perks you up and puts a smile on your face? Music can be a great source of positivity.
20. Use a To-Do List
Ticking your completed tasks off a to-do-list can bring a huge a sense of accomplishment. It doesn’t matter if you prefer the physical or digital format, because simple paper and pen or an online to-do list will both bring the same results.
Positive influences have a trickle-down effect
When we feel positive, our work reflects and projects that positivity. It can systematically spread the effect to followers, customers and anyone else that comes into contact with it.
Start embracing positivity today and notice all the ripples it creates.
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Including how you can get better results for your efforts, how to create your personalised plan and how to implement strategies that will increase your income.
We'll also take a look at how you can use the planning process to improve your productivity.
