Living life as an entrepreneur can feel like you’re split between inspiring, limitless creativity and the reality of the tireless work it will take to manufacture it. Yet there is a savvy common denominator that may just be your phenom fuel. It’s self-improvement that pays handsome dividends on the intangible rewards and puts the sexy back into working hard, both in your business and yourself. Jim Rohn, infamous for his leadership training preached, “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job you’ll make a living, if you work hard on yourself you can make a fortune.”
Known for incentivizing top sales women with a pink Cadillac, entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash led her empire with an enthusiastic mantra, “You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” Even way back then, Mary Kay was a firm believer in encouraging business women to always keep improving themselves. It is from this feminine spirit that creates the fearless frame of mind others want to follow. Not just for their know-how, but for their heart.
Paula Marshall, CEO of Bama Co. believes a corporation should be run with your heart, not your head. She took her Grandmother’s meager pie company, that was created out of a need for money to feed her children, to becoming the biggest supplier of frozen bakery goods across the planet. You’ve seen those tasty hot apple pies at the golden arches? That was her Daddy’s idea, and Paula has since run with it, expanding the family business into International markets for the last thirty years.
She believes providing self- improvement training in the workplace allowed her company to be based on ‘People helping people be successful.’ Paula says, “I have to be willing to go into my worksite tomorrow and be willing to change who I am for the good of the workplace.” That is where she and personal development greats like Stephen Covey agree. He says, “Private victories precede public victories. You can’t invert that process any more than you can harvest a crop before you plant it.”
It takes courage to ask yourself, “how can I improve the way I think, feel and act? Am I emotionally attuned to what may be limiting me?”
The study of neuro and behavioral science teaches us, when it comes to self -improvement we mustn’t underestimate the unaware stimulus of the subconscious mind. A study in developmental psychology indicates that decision making results from a dynamic mixture of conscious and unconscious processes. It’s a well-crafted cocktail of thinking, actions and feelings based on both conscious thoughts and unconscious influences that make up the habits you need to succeed. That means, the cruel bullying you may have experienced in high school or the tumultuous rough patch of your parent’s divorce may still influence your decision making today, even though you consciously believe, “I’m past it.”
When a woman lacks leadership action in her business, or even her body for that matter, it may be deficient self-understanding that’s stalling her success, not just access to financial resources or personal trainers. Dr. Joseph Murphy, author of the Power of the Subconscious Mind says, “As a person thinks, feels, and believes, so is the condition of his or her mind, body, and circumstances.”
With self-improvement at the helm of your business, you can learn to enrich the relationship between cognitive thinking and the deep well of emotional and creative intelligence that resides within your subconscious. The yield will be ultimate joy. Authentic fulfillment. Deep, non-judgmental connection to other people.
“A successful team beats with one heart”, says Payfirma CEO, Michael Gokturk. This is the approach you can take to bring emotional economy into your bottom line and run a company that truly showcases the heart of who you are in your business, singly and collectively as you grow.
De’Anna Nunez is the Founder of Vitalmind, a Peak Performance firm on a mission to wake you up from your current thinking and innovate your success in business and healthy culture. To start strengthening your business right now, invest 3 minutes in the Circle of Power exercise at DeAnnaNunez.com. Connect with De’Anna on Twitter @DeAnnaNunez.