No matter what industry you specialize in, the type of business you run, or the colleagues you surround yourself in, one constant will continually surround everyone—stress.
Stress is, unfortunately, inevitable—especially when it comes to running a business. Despite the endless rewards, infinite opportunities for growth, and accolades you might receive, stress is always going to be there, rearing its head and attempting to anguish you. As your companies grow, so do your responsibilities, and with those responsibilities, stress comes hand-in-hand.
Stress—and stressful situations—never truly disappear, no matter how successful, big, or accomplished your company is.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to combat stress.
No, things won’t always go as planned. You’ll face disappointments, rejections, frustrations with colleagues or clients, anxiety about accounts (and, of course, you’ll have the occasional case of Monday-related stress, too). Every one of these factors is unavoidable, and unfortunately, they fill us each with negativity.
When we internalize this negativity, when we stew on these negative thoughts, it’s easy to let the stress consume you.
In our agency, we’ve established ways to combat that stress—to put it in its place so it’s not all-consuming for our lives. We know there needs something to counter-balance that negativity.
The secret? A positive mindset.
This helps us learn to keep a well-maintained balance between productivity and wellness, a core component of our company’s culture.
The work we do is important, and, of course, is incredibly rewarding. But we know that work is more than that, it’s challenging and taxing and stressful. That’s why we do everything in our power to ensure our team is prioritizing their wellness through an understanding and focus on mindset.
Here are a few ways that we incorporate a positive mindset into our agency, feel free to implement these into your workplace, too! You’ll likely notice a dramatic shift in your company’s productivity, but even better, a shift in your company’s mindset.
Practice Gratitude
Practicing gratitude looks different for everyone because it’s such a personal thing! Essentially, when it’s boiled down to the core, practicing gratitude simply looks like writing down or recognizing the good things that have happened to you. This can be a cumulative practice where you survey your entire life, your entire year, your entire month—or, this can be a daily practice.
Our team members are encouraged to write down a list of at least six things that they are grateful for on a daily basis. This daily reminder to practice gratitude helps to boost a positive mindset.
Reframe Every Situation as a Learning Opportunity
Everyone makes mistakes, right? At our agency, we fully recognize that everyone makes mistakes—and that’s not merit of failure. It’s just a mistake. Instead of looking at these little errors as enormous failures, we do our best to reframe them as learning opportunities.
We encourage our team members to be aware when issues arise, but to also focus on what went well, not just what went wrong. Focusing solely on what went wrong is just going to burn out someone’s energy and optimism, which are exactly what you need to change a situation. Instead of focusing on the bad, pull your strength toward focusing on the positive and realize what you can learn from a situation.
Journal
Journaling is a wonderful way to implement a positive mindset. By journaling, people are encouraged to open up and let out those negative feelings—this way, they don’t have to bury them away and keep them locked up. When someone journals honestly, it’s an active choice to release that negativity and make room for positivity. At our agency, we encourage our employees to express themselves with journaling every day.
Meditate
Meditation is one of the best ways to practice positivity because it allows you to focus, re-center, and focus on your well-being rather than the chaotic factors of your day. Meditation is a way to be kinder to yourself, to improve focus, and to breathe away all the negativity in your day. Want to learn more about how to meditate? Check out this article here for introductory tips and instruction!
Stress and negativity are natural tendencies—no matter how much we want for these things to dissipate, the reality is, they’ll always exist. Learning how to combat them and to focus on your wellness, especially within the walls of your business, is the key to a balanced, well-maintained life. Overcoming these natural tendencies for negativity are going to boost your positive mindset by miles every single day. Take small steps, realize it’s a learning process, and stop being so hard on yourself. These positive mindset habits aren’t formulated all at once—they take time! Each small effort is a step in the right direction toward cultivating and maintain a positive mindset and a better overall sense of well-being.