Last year, after embarking on quite a lot of personal development myself, I decided to write my first eCourse on the topic. A couple of hundred people took the course and I’ve enjoyed mentoring, and continue to mentor a few of the people that took it. The time has come to retire the course and make space for new projects. It seemed a waste to just throw it away, so I’ve decided to post it here. I hope you find it useful.
Part 1 – Awareness
Part 2 – Motivation
Part 3 – Your Lifestyle Blueprint
Part 4 – Your Map
Part 5 – Mindset and Your People
Part 6 – Setting and Achieving Goals
Part 7 – Managing Your Money and The Fulfillment Curve
Part 8 – Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
………………………………………….
Sometimes it’s not a lack of time, money or motivation that keeps us from the life we dream. It’s the concern about what others think of us, the barbed comments from people we love, the people who say we can’t or shouldn’t do something. A lack of support from the people around us creates negative energy and saps our motivation.
To understand the power our family have over our beliefs we have to look at how these belief structures are created.
Beliefs are passed from generation to generation. We take things as a given without ever questioning their origin or validity. Have you heard the story about the ham?
A mother was cooking a ham for Sunday lunch with her daughter. The mother prepared the ham for cooking by cutting off each end. The daughter asked why she cut off either end. Her mother said she did it because that’s what her mother did. As kids do, the daughter asked why her granny did it. Her mother said ‘I don’t know, let’s ask her’. Her granny said the same thing, she did it because that’s what her mother did. So they went to great granny and asked her, great granny answered ‘because the pot was too small for a full size ham’.
The moral of the story? Don’t accept other people’s beliefs without questioning them first. If we all did that we’d still believe the world was flat.
Your family can be your biggest supporters, but they can also be your greatest hindrance.
Don’t take other people’s views and opinions as a given. Always listen to the advice and opinions of others and then scrutinise them against your own values and goals. Just because one person thinks you’re mad and taking risks, it doesn’t necessarily make it the truth. Only you know the path you’re on. When people give feedback and opinions they are usually applying their own beliefs and fears to the information, they are considering the impact on themselves, not on you. You have to make a judgement call on whether someone’s advice has any validity when applied to your own situation.
Occasionally you come up against people who are constantly negative about what you’re trying to achieve. There comes a point when the only thing you can do is stop sharing your thoughts with these people, and until you feel a bit more confident, perhaps even limiting the amount of time you spend with them.
The next step is to surround yourself with people that act as a counter to all those who provide only negative feedback. There’s a big world away from your immediate family, there are a lot of people who’ve chosen the path you have. Find these people, learn from them, befriend them. They are the rocket fuel your journey needs.
Find people that have done what you want to do.
Find people that inspire you.
Find out where these people hang out and go and join them.
You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. Make sure the people around you are worthy of one of those five spots. Your happiness and success depends on it.
My experience
For a long time I felt different to a lot of people around me. I didn’t ‘get’ them and they didn’t ‘get’ me. Then I started blogging, and I discovered a whole world of people. Along the way I have found plenty of people who are just like me. Suddenly I didn’t feel so weird. I started to make progress and begun discovering what my purpose was and what I could offer to the world and the people around me.
Some people call this ‘finding yourself’. A lot of people never find themselves because they never explore beyond their own family and community. The internet allows us to create our own society, and in building our community we can then gather with those people offline too.
Make it your goal this week to;
Make peace with whatever feedback you’re getting from family. They are free to have an opinion, it’s your choice whether you accept it as relevant for your situation or not.
Make it your goal to discover people who are similar to you or who’ve done what you want to do. Find networks and communities that you can join.
Think about the five people who are worthy of having the biggest influence on your life.
Related Posts
Part 8 – Developing an Entrepreneurial MindsetPersonal Development Part 3: Your Lifestyle Blueprint
Part 5 – Mindset and Your People
Personal Development Part 4 – Your Map
The post Part 9 – Managing Relationships & Building Your Network appeared first on Littlemummy.com.