Change your mind to help your grind: How to cope with change in a business environment

With a background in Psychology and having working in mental health, our Volunteer Lexine has penned a guest blog on the importance of mind over matter when running your own business! 

Dealing with change is an inevitable aspect of life. Whether it be your toffee nut latte taken off the menu, an investor pulling out of a deal or the ideal partner who turned out not to be ideal after all. 

Whatever the scale, change can be difficult in both little and large ways. Lack of management of our temperamental minds, can lead unforeseen (or seen) change taking you on one hell of a ride. Looking practically at change, here are some key tips and tricks to help you to tackle change whether encountering them in business or elsewhere.

• Do not catastrophise. The worst activity to play along in a situation faced with difficulty is to over amplify each aspect of the negatives in your situation. Use logic to find a positive contradiction for every negative thought imagined. This will be arduous at first, as the mind can much more quickly and efficiently seek and store negative information. However, this skill can be learnt (if someone out there can execute a Rubik cube in 30 seconds, you can do this!). Keeping a perspective journal: split your page, one side your negative thought, opposing side the positive contradiction. Do this in the moment for best results, to gain real time perspective and to lead you away from disaster thoughts. 

• The opposite of catastrophising leads to grounding. Grounding is anything that keeps your mind back in reality rather than with the goblins and demons you’ve envisioned your future to be colliding with. Ground yourself by getting back into realistic perspective: speak to a supportive friend, reach out to family or online forums, have a gratitude journal, and in that moment of overwhelm seek the stability in connecting back to the real time perspective, even if that means stepping outside and listening to the birds, or observing how your breath sounds.

• Seeing change as a positive learning experience is what enables business minds to develop and strengthen. It’s sounds cliché but if we think in terms of fitness, there is naturally a stage that an individual will plateau (no weight change or perceived aesthetic improvement). If a fitness enthusiast was to throw in the towel at this point the outcome would be obvious… all progress eventually reversed to square one. If we look at this change in the sense of possibility, solutions could be: trying a new course, sport, gym or mentor to help improve the outcome. We could gather which experience would lead to learning new skills, lessons, networks and potentially very enjoyable experiences. Apply this to your own self in exercising your mind and scouting to what solution could be used as a positive learning tool.

• Find your positive outlet, your go-to that naturally aids you. This can be as creative as you want it to be. Change can be the absolute best for you and your business, but this doesn’t necessarily mean it will feel good during. Being mindful about bringing the positive to your situation, whether this be in the form of relaxation, comedy shows/films, friendship, love, make priority for this during your transition. Not only will it bring equilibrium to an otherwise stressful period, but it will reward and give you extra motivation to keep working hard. Don’t punish yourself for the experience of change, be mindful and make it your best ally. 

Thanks Lexine! Find out more about our Lexine on her 'meet the team' blog here.