3 powerful tools to overcome a negative business mindset

Running your own business can be a wild ride of amazing highs and some spirit-crushing lows.

When I left my marketing manager job at the end of 2019 to start this business, I was excited about the freedom I was stepping into and the opportunity to make more money than I’ve ever earned before. I was definitely ‘glass half full’! 

For the most part, entrepreneurship has suited me, but even enjoying success in my business by hitting my financial goal of replacing my corporate salary and being able to walk my daughter to and from school everyday, there are still tough days! 

I had no idea that alongside learning how to run a business, how much my mindset would affect my success.

I’ve had to learn how to overcome a negative business mindset. Being able to switch on positivity has been the biggest influencer in terms of setting and reaching my business goals.

When I started my business, I never considered I would need to do mindset work!
In this blog, I’m sharing a recent example of feeling tired and sad before sitting down to start my working day and how I overcame that negative business mindset.

As a certified Positive Psychology Coach, I use positive psychology to increase my positive emotions to become productive and motivated at work.

What to do when you’ve starting the working day with a negative mindset

Here’s some background on why I got to my desk on this particular morning feeling low, unmotivated and tired out.

We had just returned from a gorgeous week in sunny Ibiza and the post-holiday blues were hitting hard. It was cold and soggy here in Nottingham and my husband, 5 year old daughter and I were all a bit tired from travelling home the day before. 

Doing the school run, I had to walk my daughter right up to the classroom door because she wouldn’t go in without holding my hand. She went into class crying and I felt tears well up as I walked back through the playground after kissing her goodbye.

As I left the school gates, I decided to work from home so I could deal with three suitcases full of laundry in between catching up with work. I didn’t feel like driving to my office that day. When I got home, I tuned into how low I was feeling. 

I was facing a busy few weeks about to relaunch my group programme, Electric Email, with an exciting new offer bundled in and I’d set myself a stretchy financial goal for October.

I knew I wasn’t going to achieve much sitting at my laptop feeling like getting back in bed and flicking through photos of Ibiza on my phone. 

I don’t have time to feel unmotivated and I don’t like wallowing. So I took action.

The positive mindset tools I use to boost my mood and motivation at work

When I did my positive psychology coaching certification, I learned a myriad of interventions to support myself and my clients to succeed at business and enjoy the process. 

On this particular day, I selected the following three mindset tools from a long list of positive psychology interventions at my disposal.

Mindset Tool #1 for Business Owners: Meditation

As I sat at my kitchen table with my MacBook open, trying to focus on where to start with my work, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to pause and reset the day for success.

Meditation is a powerful way to get clarity for your working day and become productive.

I find it helps to slow the whirling ‘to do’ list in my mind and creates the feeling that I have enough time to accomplish the important things that day.

Because I was feeling low and unmotivated, I selected a short meditation from my favourite meditation app, Insight Timer. It’s like a pick n mix of meditations!

I chose this meditation by Kenneth Soares: 6 Minutes of Courage, Confidence & Positive Energy. 

As I was at home, I laid down on my bed, put in my noise-cancelling AirPods and focussed n Kenneth’s words. Sometimes I mouth along with his words to add extra power!

The meditation did the trick - I felt more positive after only 6 minutes. Let me know in the comments if you try this meditation or if you have a favourite one that I can try.

Here’s what I did next…

Mindset Tool #2 for Business Owners: Tap into your Character Strengths

During the Summer of 2022, I took the VIA Character Strengths Survey to learn more about my positive qualities and discover tools that will help me put my strengths to work in business and life. 

Of the 24 character strengths, my top strength is Humour!

I confess I was a little disappointed in this at first because I couldn’t see how Humour would lead me to becoming a super successful entrepreneur.

It turns out that by creating more opportunities to laugh and have fun in my business, I feel more engaged with my work and motivated to succeed.

On this gloomy day, I took a couple of minutes to re-read about my top strength of Humour and consider how I can add some into my day.

I had a client call and a group call for Electric Email coming up, so I made a note to find some fun on those calls and have a giggle if possible.

I also set myself some homework to reflect on my Humour strength every evening for the next 7 days and become more aware of when I use it at work and how this helps me to feel great about the work I’m doing.

My homework task was to write down 3 times that day where I had experienced humour and to write about why it happened. I chose to do this to give myself a boost over the coming week as I adjust into work life after holiday.

How can you utilise your character strengths in your business?

Your first step is to take the VIA Character Strengths Assessment here and make a note of your top 5 strengths.

Keep this list next to your work area and look at it daily. Where can you add more of these top strengths into your work?

Utilising your strengths is key to raising positive emotions - this is scientifically proven. Your strengths are characteristics that help you connect with people, overcome challenges, find success, and enjoy life.

Whatever you want to accomplish, your character strengths can help you.

So far I had spent less than 10 minutes boosting my mood before getting down to work. I had a final mindset tool to banish the negative mindset completely.

Mindset Tool #3 for Business Owners: Movement

Usually I get some movement in every day before work by walking my daughter to school. It’s just over a mile trip for me so I get plenty of steps in and fresh air before 9am. 

On this particular day, we drove to school because we were late getting ready and it felt freezing outside after spending a week in Ibiza!

I knew my final piece of mindset work was to move my body. I didn’t have time to go for a walk before my first call of the day - what to do?

I put on some Bassment Jaxx and danced around my kitchen! By the time I’d worked up a healthy glow dancing to Rendez-vu, I put on the kettle and continued the kitchen boogie to Romeo while I waited for it to boil. 

The key to this mood-boosting dancing is do it like nobody's watching!

I throw my arms up in the air, wave them around and even pogo up and down on the spot. Safe to say I won’t be busting out these moves in public but they make me feel full of zest and joy!

I visualise shaking off the low mood and replacing it with light and happiness that the music is giving to me.

As I pour the boiling water on the teabag, I feel like a new person. I sit down to get ready for my first client call of the day and guess what… we open the call having a giggle! That’s my humour strength coming into play.

The results of doing three positive mindset exercises before work

It took 15 minutes for me to move from a low mood and wanting to go back to bed to feeling positive, excited about the day and more awake.

I believe being able to shift my mood like this is what enables me to get so much done working just 20 hours a week. 

I’ve hit 6-figures in annual revenue this year and I credit working on my mindset DAILY as an important factor in reaching this milestone with my small business. 

My clients also benefit from my mindset work because I can show up as a great version of myself and I’m able to serve them with a clear mind and laughter (thanks to my Humour strength).

When I started my business, a setback or a down day would leave me procrastinating, feeling frustrated and like a failure. This is what pushed me to start looking at addressing my negative business mindset.

I knew I needed to do something to help me carry on working towards my goals when the going gets tough.

This is mindset work for business owners is at its basic level - overcome the negative feelings when they arise. 

The next level (which I’ve learned through Positive Psychology) isn’t just about keeping going when things feel hard, it’s about thriving and experiencing true joy and engagement in your work.

The consequences of not working on your negative business mindset are lost opportunities, feeling stressed and sacrificing your happiness and even health to keep your business going.

I feel very strongly that mindset work is non-negotiable when you run your own business!

Recap of the 3 powerful tools to overcome a negative business mindset (with links)

If you’ve scrolled down to here, this is a list of three powerful mindset tools you can use to move from a negative mindset and low motivation to happiness, laughter and boosted productivity in just 15 minutes:

1. Meditation. You can listen to one of my favourites for free on the Insight Timer app here: Kenneth Soares - 6 Minutes of Courage, Confidence & Positive Energy.  

2. Use your top character strengths. I reviewed mine and worked out how to build this into my day for more fulfilment and happiness. You can discover your top strengths by taking the VIA Character Strengths Assessment here.

3. Move your body. I danced around my kitchen to some banging tunes! Moving my body helps shift the low mood and gets me set up for success. On this particular day, I started with Bassment Jaxx - Rendez-vu. Tuuuuuune!

Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires you to build in some mindset work to your busy day running your own business. I’d love to know what you’ll try from my list - let me know in the comments.

These are three quick mindset tools I used on this particular day to get me back in the zone after holiday. If you have a little more time, head on over to watch my free Masterclass - The £100k Marketing Plan Mindset. 

I’ve got over 14 years’ experience in marketing, so I know what it takes to create and execute a winning marketing strategy. This masterclass shares three practical mindset tools to get you in the zone to succeed in your business. 

Get free instant access to The £100k Marketing Plan Mindset.