How your subconscious mind is sabotaging your business success

Did you know we are 95% driven by our subconscious mind? Our thoughts, patterns and behaviours are habitual and run on autopilot, so we might not even be aware of our harmful and sabotaging behaviours.

Our mind takes in external stimuli filtered through our reticular activating system (RAS) and with that information our subconscious mind creates both positive and negative beliefs and forms habitual patterns of behaviour.?

This mainly happens in our pre-conscious years in childhood, up to about the age of six. We filter in what we see, hear and experience from our caregivers; parents, teachers, peers to our siblings and society. From this we create meaning about our world and continue to look for evidence to support the beliefs that we’ve created.

That is until we turn the unconscious into the conscious and reprogramme outdated beliefs and behaviours. But until we do that, our subconscious mind will sabotage our success. Effectively we need to rewire our mind for success, not just survival.

How does your mind sabotage your success?

Self-sabotage can play a big factor in the life of any business owner and can be seen through the eyes of perfectionism, procrastination, analysis paralysis, overthinking and over committing plus so much more. Effectively what our subconscious mind focuses on becomes our reality.

Let me give you an example. If a young child experiences bullying in the school playground, a form of peer rejection, they’ll notice other forms of rejection in their life and to protect themselves their subconscious mind will do all it can to avoid putting them in that or similar situations again. As a business owner we’re always going to be faced with rejection from a ‘no’ on a sales call to a failed launch.

As your mind wants to protect you from going through these feelings again, as you did in childhood, it forms patterns of self-sabotage as a form of self-protection. Maybe you’re telling yourself that you don’t have time, but is this really true or an excuse? We all have the same amount of hours in our day and it’s about prioritising what is important to us.?

Often our subconscious mind feeds us excuses as to why we can’t do something or now is not the right time. But the ultimate truth is our subconscious mind is enabling these behaviours as a protective mechanism to keep us safe.

Why understanding your past and joining the dots is so important

To be able to reprogramme your beliefs you first need to understand the origin story by joining the dots to your past. Beliefs become patterns of behaviour, and when we unravel our original beliefs from the past, we are in a more powerful position to break free from old patterns of behaviour. First though we have to identify our current day behaviours, those things we do on repeat, automatically every day, and identify the beliefs behind them.

For example, if you find that you chronically fall into procrastination in your business, what is it that you are trying to avoid? Ask yourself when you first noticed this pattern in your life and what was it protecting you from??

Maybe you put off doing something as a child because you knew once you’d completed that, you’d have to face something that would make you feel uncomfortable. It could be as simple as eating your dinner really slowly as your Mum wants you to do the dishes and you don’t want to as you see it as a form of punishment and would rather be outside playing.

Rewiring the mind for success (not just survival)

Our mind is programmed for survival to protect us from negative experiences but we also get to rewire it for success so that we can thrive in our life and business. Your subconscious mind is going to do everything it can to protect you from the unknown and what it sees as a potential threat to you. That threat may be as simple as going live on Facebook and your mind protecting you from the deeper emotions of shame and embarrassment.

When you focus on rewiring your brain for success, the starting point is to focus on how you do want to feel, not how you don’t want to feel and what you want to avoid. When you step into those joyful feelings it gives you a shift in perspective and literally changes the chemistry of your brain as you step into better feeling emotions.

As Gabrielle Bernstein says, choose again. If you find yourself focusing on a thought that is creating fear and self-doubt, stop and reach for a better feeling thought. It’s time for you to rewire your brain for success and to focus on what you do desire.?

Reimprinting new beliefs for a thriving business

Decide what you do want. How do you want to feel? What do you want to believe? Get into the habit of flipping the switch on your negative thoughts and reach for the next best feeling thought. You don’t have to climb the mountain in one giant leap, just reach for the next best feeling thought, until it becomes so natural to you that your mind believes it to be true.?

Remember, the brain doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality so flood it with positive words and images to rewire it for success. This might look like practices such as visualisation, meditation to calm negative thoughts or a vision board of how you’d like your life to look.?

Having positive affirmations around your home are also powerful anchors to support you in rewiring your brain. Change your passwords to the goal you want to achieve and the feelings you want to evoke each day. Set a screensaver on your phone and desktop with a powerful reminder of what you want and where you’re going. Stay focused on your desires and shift your internal negative language by interrupting that thought pattern and replacing it with the next best feeling thought.

Hopefully what I’ve shared with you today will give you the support and inspiration you need to live an empowered life. To receive more support take the entrepreneurial confidence quiz and receive customised results with personalised action steps for your next level of personal growth. To learn more about working with me and the services I offer, book your free clarity call today.