Your mindset tweak for business success and happiness.

I think I’ve figured out why so many of us struggle with feeling insecure:
it’s because we don’t make ourselves genuinely proud often enough.

One of the biggest mental switches that I’ve flipped is only taking actions that I’d be proud of other people seeing.
I’ll literally ask myself,
“If the whole world found out about this action, would I feel embarrassed or at-ease?”

Not that I’m saying we need to live our lives obsessing over what others think about us…
(been there, done that)
but asking yourself this question forces you to consider if you’re doing something that you’re not proud of.

For example:
One of the qualities that I wasn’t proud of about myself was that I would gossip.
I would say things about people when they weren’t around that I wouldn’t have said if they were there.

I wasn’t proud of that quality, so I committed to stopping it.

And honestly, it’s helped me thrive more in my personal life, in building solid business relationships, and in liking myself and feeling happier.

Here’s how I made this feel really easy to stick to…

Some of us were told as kids
“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

If I were mentoring someone, I’d change this to:
“If what you’re thinking isn’t encouraging or helpful—is it worth saying?”

You can choose, starting right now, to never say negative things about people.
Instead, simply talk about ONLY people you think highly of.

This accomplishes two massive things:

1. It forces you to start surrounding yourself with only people who uplift you and make you happier, and

2. It forces you to respect yourself more, because you’re not falling into the pointless, negative act of shit-talking.

Here’s a quote that explains this in a different way:

So, if someone behaves in a way that you would speak negatively of, just distance yourself from them.
Because talking negatively about someone else will end up hurting you more than them.

Here’s how to start practicing this today…

1. Write this down, and commit to it for the 30 days,
   “I am only going to talk about people that I think highly of.”
   I promise you, you will notice who you start to distance yourself from in these next few weeks. Pay attention to that!

2. Praise specifically.
   No matter what someone’s “love language” is, everyone wants to be appreciated for being who they are.
   So, when someone does something that helps you, supports you, or makes you feel happy—tell them!
   “I just want you to know that I really appreciate how you always make time to listen to me when I need to talk. Your support means a lot to me, and I feel lucky to have you in my life.”

3. Criticize generally.
   Warren Buffett will be forever famous for his success in business, and this is a philosophy he’s always followed.
   If you have a criticism of someone, then don’t criticize that person. Instead, criticize the general approach.
   Example:
   “Lately, it seems like we’ve both been distracted by our phones when we are together. It would be cool if we could make an effort to be more present and enjoy our time together without distractions.”
   Talking this way makes it clear that you’re pointing the finger at the problem, not the person.

Flip the switch to only taking actions that you'd feel good about other people seeing.
Only talk about people you have good things to say about, praise people specifically, and criticize generally.

This helps you build better relationships, feel happier, and respect yourself more.

Remember, you can be honest and positive at the same time.

If you’re committed to
working for yourself
AND progressing in fitness,
we’ve just launched our inspired idiots community
to help people like you
network and figure out
exactly how to actually make that happen.