Sara Sheehan discusses the importance of conquering mindset to overcome fear and define success in today’s episode. She splits the conversation into three key parts, touching on How to Stay Driven and Motivated, Overcoming or Minimizing Fear, and Defining Success as a Leader. In each part, Sara examines why mindset is such an important component of success and how to master each step by asking important questions and paying attention to goals.
Sara shares the inspiration she drew from a continuing education course by James Garrett, called “Brain By Design” and points out that sometimes teaching can continue to reveal new insights as we revisit it over and over. How do we master dread? We confront it to get more comfortable with the thing we dread. How do we take risks? We start with the courage to put ourselves out there. Mindset determines the direction of our energy and action and Sara offers guidance on how to change and develop our mindset in new ways.
This quote from Carol Dweck sums up the episode nicely: “A growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable. Nothing is fixed. That we can change anything from intelligence to creativity to athleticism through persistent and adaptive effort.” The words we need to keep in mind are mindset, consistency, commitment, courage, and success. Practice what we fear and consider success as something that grows and evolves in ways Sara highlights in this episode.
This episode is step 2 from my free ebook on my website: 7 Steps to Thrive in the New World
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Transcript:
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Welcome to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today, I would like to discuss the very important topic of conquering your mindset and how to overcome fear and define success. I’d like to start with a quote that I love that really speaks to my heart by Carol Dweck. A growth mindset is the belief that all abilities are trainable. Nothing is fixed. That we can change anything from intelligence to creativity to athleticism through persistent and adaptive effort.
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:40] Today, I will split the conversation up in several parts, and I’ll dive in first with, ‘How to Stay Driven and Motivated’. During my career in business, I’ve worked with some of the largest consulting firms and Fortune 100 clients, mentoring and developing senior leaders and designing organizations and business strategies, managing change, optimizing talent and leadership development, and solving complex human performance problems. As you may imagine, I have often had to overcome the fear of standing on the edge of the unknown waters and define success for myself within the space. How did I do this? By being very consistent in the actions that I take on a weekly basis. Planning out my week, my calendar, and my time so that I have time to focus on marketing. I have time that’s set aside to be creative, and I have time set aside to reach out to potential and new clients, as well as existing relationships to test out my programs in market research conversations. Because I became consistent and thoughtful in my activity, fear hasn’t been an overwhelming factor for me in a long while. This is possible for you, too. Invest in setting aside time to do mindset work. This is absolutely critical for anyone who is a business owner, leader, or in a scenario where your role will bring you in contact with managing and mediating between different people, temperaments and challenges. It helps you show up better in every meeting and every conversation, and it serves as your special energizer. Once you’re in a conversation and you see that it’s going well and it’s successful, it’ll motivate you for the next thing on your calendar. It’s a situation where it feeds off of itself.
Sara Sheehan: [00:02:38] Part two, ‘Overcome or Minimize Fear’. Your mindset is critical. A strong mindset keeps you in your best energy. Additionally, planning your day around your mindset can be a very useful approach. Let’s explore an example. When I plan my day, I look at scheduling difficult meetings during the time of day when I have the best energy. It helps me stay mindful about setting 5 to 7 priorities for each day, and working the list until it’s done. Overcoming fear is really about mindset, consistency, and focus. Those three things make a huge difference. It’s also important to step into and practice what you fear so that you can move from fear to growth to mastery.
Sara Sheehan: [00:03:27] ‘How Brain Science Helps in Business’. Overcoming fear takes practice. According to a significant number of research studies, this is something that is hard to get your head around. I learned a lot about overcoming fear in a recent continuing education course I took by James Garrett, ‘Brain by Design’. Garrett has put together one of the best brain science courses I have ever taken. I can’t recommend his course enough. The reading list associated with the course is the best I have ever seen. He has curated the most important research in psychology, sociology, and medicine and truly stands at the intersection of brain science and business. His ‘Brain by Design’ course is built on four modules: Habits by Design, Productivity by Design, Fearless by Design, and Happiness by Design. His course impacted me so much that I’m still referring back to the content in it, and I am still listening to modules again because I’m picking up new things. That’s an absolutely glowing review if you know me.
Sara Sheehan: [00:04:36] ‘Get Comfortable With What You Dread’. In ‘Fearless by Design’, James talks a lot about how you have to actually put yourself in the position you dread to actually get more comfortable with it. He demonstrated this by putting his hand in a large plastic bin near a live scorpion, practicing surfing while at the beach, and by showing his young daughter getting comfortable with things she suddenly developed a fear reaction to after being so very open to nature. Garrett talks about how people get into a worry and anxiety loop, and how draining it is when they don’t deal with what they fear. Worries and anxieties, when left to fester, can become insurmountable and truly distinct conditions. So how do you get out of this situation? You have to practice. What scares you? It’s the practicing part that gets so many people. ‘Really? I have to do what I dread?’. If you want to move through fear to comfort, yes, you need to practice what you fear. The intriguing part is that this is the route to creating good habits and mastering a skill.
Sara Sheehan: [00:05:45] ‘How I Used Courage to Achieve Mastery’. Over the last two years, I’ve really put myself out there from a marketing perspective through activity and social media, writing, producing videos, conducting podcast interviews and more. When I started, everything took a lot more work, attention to detail and energy. Now that I have spent so much time working on these skills, I look forward to it, it makes me smile and it takes a lot less energy. Recently, one of my friends told me that it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there. Upon reflection, I thought his choice of words by using courage was very well stated. Courage. The conversation left me with a smile, knowing that I’ve moved through difficult times to mastery. Do you have the courage to overcome what you fear?
Sara Sheehan: [00:06:47] Part three, ‘Define Success as a Leader’. Success is not a destination, it’s a very dynamic thing. Look at success as something that grows and evolves with you during your lifetime. Most leaders want to make a difference for their teams. They want to make a difference for their clients. They want to build tremendous relationships with their clients that bear fruit for years to come. How would you define success as a leader? What types of accomplishments would you like to achieve? What kinds of roles would you like to serve in? What kinds of special projects would you like to lead? What skills or areas of specialization would you like to accrue? What defining characteristics would you include in your definition of success? Spend some time focusing on defining success. After you define success as a leader, you can set goals that will help you achieve your vision for success. Set at least three goals that will propel you forward to your vision of success. It can be extremely helpful to set goals with an executive coach where you can make sure they are pithy, succinct, and inspiring. After you set three goals, start to build out a plan to achieve them with actual strategies and actions. The critical part of a good plan is that it has to be tangible and measurable, as well as based on where you currently are in life. The bottom line here is to include strategies and actions that you could do this month in the role that you currently hold, without lots of obstacles. Choose things that are accessible to you and you’ll be more likely not only to follow through, but achieve your goals. It’s also important to stay healthy and vital as you navigate this process. So yes, success is dynamic and however you choose to define it, it should light the way to living your best life and doing your genius work.
Sara Sheehan: [00:08:56] Key takeaways from conquering your mindset. First, consistency. Be very consistent in the actions you take on a weekly basis. Plan out your week, your calendar, and your time in a mindful way. Set aside time to be creative, time to reach out to potential clients and time to nurture your existing relationships. Second, mindset. Your mindset is critical. A strong mindset keeps you in your best energy. Overcoming fear is about mindset, consistency, and focus. Those three things make a huge difference. Third, courage. In his course, ‘Brain by Design’, James Garrett talks about putting yourself in the position you dread to get more comfortable with it. Practice what you fear. This is the route to creating good habits and mastering a skill. Finally, success. Success is not a destination, it is very dynamic. Look at success as something that grows and evolves during your lifetime. It’s important to frame success in the light of your genius work. It’s also critical to set goals and create an action plan to achieve them. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Subscribe today and never miss an episode.
