It is not current conditions that shape your life or your business – it is the decisions you make. Leaders and managers are faced with making new and better choices every day. When times are difficult, it is easy to focus on avoiding what we are afraid of. In fact, during unstable times, risk assessment is an important activity to undertake. However, we need to be careful that it stays ‘in its box’. As you go about thinking in detail of all the things that might happen in detail, it is important not to get bogged down in this negative state – remember, where focus goes, energy flows. If you spend all your time focusing on negative states, then this is what you are most likely to attract. And – your life will be a bundle of stress

If you focus on what you can influence – you progress through a sense of achievement. Start by changing your internal world. You can plan to do all you want – but if you are not in control of your inner emotional fitness you will not carry out. The second thing you can do is to change your blueprint.

Changing Your State

Our decisions are largely influenced by our internal state of mind. We each tend to focus in different time dimensions. Some people only focus on the past, some only on the future, some only on the present. If you are fearful and stressed you will act differently and do differently than if you are excited and curious.

A moment of anger will result in a different decision on how you will treat someone that walks into your office right now – it will be more from a state of frustration. If you had just had a big win – you would be more open and willing to listen.

Changing Your Blueprint

Our vision and strategy defines our beliefs and expectations as to what we are aiming to achieve and how we will get there. When the world changes, our blueprint needs to be updated. Many of the assumptions used in setting our strategy are no longer real, or don’t apply to the current environment, or will limit us in some way.

Changing your state, changes the decisions you make in defining your blueprint. Changing your blueprint changes the way you perceive events that determine whether you are successful, or not.