The ONLY 2 Things You Can Control in Your Business

Janine: [00:00:00] In the unpredictable tides of life and business that many of us are currently operating under, there are only two things that you can control. Your effort and your attitude. My 16 year old son Carter recently played as part of an under 16 squad [00:01:00] at the rugby state champs. And part of their preparation included a session with a mindset coach, Mark Zimmerman.

Mark Zimmerman is a coach for many professional sporting teams and some of our top sporting individuals and works closely with them to develop the right mindset for it. to ensure peak performance in their particular sport. Now, when a teammate asked Mark about how do you manage game day nerves and anxiety, especially if you're up against tougher teams, Mark's response was a lesson in simplicity and power.

He said, you can't control the weather, the opposition, All the things that are going around you or even your teammates performance, but you can always control the effort you put in and the attitude you bring. You can only control your [00:02:00] effort. And your attitude. Now, this philosophy isn't just vital on the rugby field.

I think it's crucial in the business arena too. Right now, there's a lot happening around us, isn't there? We've got rising costs of living. We've got increasing interest rates. We've got ballooning inflation. Decision making is slower than ever before. Budgets are being cut and the cost of doing business keeps climbing.

And with all of these external pressures It's really easy to feel overwhelmed. But remember, amidst this chaos, there are only two things within our control. Our efforts and our attitude. So, today I wanted to break these two things down and I want to start with efforts. Effort is about showing up every day.

Not just physically, but fully with intention and focus. It's about doing the hard yards, the background work that no one else [00:03:00] sees. It involves perseverance, resilience, and sometimes doing that extra little bit of effort that will set you apart. It's about doing that extra 1 percent that nobody else does.

People often say to me, Janine, how do you manage, or how did you manage to write three books? Well, I'll be honest with you, writing has never been easy for me. It's not a natural thing. I stopped studying English at 16. But I knew that if I made a plan, If I followed that plan, if I put in the effort that the results would follow, and that's exactly what happened.

The first manuscript I had to, submit to my publisher within three weeks, and I did it because I knew that I had that one chance to get that publishing deal. And thereafter, same publisher, Did book two, book three, and the results show for themselves. Effort is about commitment. It's about persisting when things get tough.

[00:04:00] And often it is about doing the boring stuff. So it often is about doing the grind. To enhance your effort, maybe start by setting some clear and achievable goals. Break those goals down into daily tasks. Prioritize those tasks by focusing on high impact activities that align with your goals. Don't focus on the shitty stuff that's taking you off plan, you know, getting lost and scrolling through social media or getting lost on whatever platform you're playing on or tweaking that bit of artwork.

Focus on the high impact activities that align with your goals and focus on completion of those high quality activities. It's also about tracking your progress and celebrating those small wins because those small wins will compound into bigger successes. With my Elevate and Encircle clients, we work on 90 day business plans.

Now. Corporately, I used to work for a [00:05:00] Japanese company and I remember in that company we had to do 15 year plans, but I think the world is moving way too quick for that style of planning now. And if you think about 90 days from now, or even 90 days that have already gone, how much has changed?

So I think 90 day planning is perfect for actually making sure that you're moving the dial on your business, that you're focusing on doing things that are going to change in your world. So we meet every single quarter where we review and celebrate the quarter that has been, and we share those successes.

But the most important part of this 90 day planning process is resetting for the quarter ahead. This isn't just a plonk down on a list of paper, a whole list of things that you're trying to do this quarter. This is about getting really focused and really intentional. It's about the discipline around where do I put my focused [00:06:00] energy and my efforts?

What is the next right thing that I am going to commit to that will shift the dial commercially in my business and that will allow my business to scale? Often it's less is more because actually what I find is too many of us set ourselves up for failure by taking on way too much. And the result of that is we get overwhelmed.

We can't get on top of our projects. and we fall behind and we end up getting nowhere very fast. One to two key projects with accountability and measurement to shift the dial is what we do. Every 90 days, and we doubled down on that effort by, building buddy groups to keep us focused every week.

And by sharing every single Monday, what the tasks are that we're working on that week, and we, uh, feedback on our progress at the end of the week. We do this in our elevate and in a circle, mastermind groups, [00:07:00] because I know that the biggest thing between success and failure is is the attention and the focus on the activity that we're doing on the effort and ensuring that we're saying yes to the right things and no to the wrong things.

So maybe have a think about what you can do to bring 100 percent effort into your business every single day. Now let's talk about the second thing that Mark mentioned. Attitude. In a world where fear is a constant companion, where we're being bombarded every single day by headlines that are breeding anxiety, your attitude is the thing that will become your shield.

It shapes how you perceive challenges and how you respond to that external environment. Attitude is about the mindset with which you approach challenges and opportunities. A positive attitude is not about ignoring problems, but it is about facing them with constructive [00:08:00] perspective. It's about resilience, optimism, and the willingness to learn from every situation.

Now I think there's a few things that you can do to improve your attitude. The first thing, in terms of improving your attitude, I think is to practice gratitude. At the end of every single day, reflect on the day that you've had, and think about the things that have been positive in your work day that day.

Think about the little things, the little bits of magic, the things that have gone well for you, the conversations that you may have had, the tasks that you have completed. No matter how small, take a moment to be grateful for the opportunity. Awesome things that have happened each and every single day.

What are you grateful for? What are you thankful for? This will transform your view of that day and of the challenges that day. I think another thing you can do to [00:09:00] help your attitude is to surround yourself with positive influences. Seek constructive feedback and maintain that learner's mindset. You know, remember you are the average of the people you spend the most time with, so make sure you surround yourself with positive people who uplift you and push you towards your greatness. Those people that will encourage you to become more. And if you've listened to any of my previous podcast episodes, you'll know that this is one of the things that I am so passionate about.

The power of intentional connection. I've written a bestselling book called it's who, you know, and the 12 key people that will help you transform your success. Those 12 people fall into the four categories. Of promoters, of butt kickers, of teachers, and of pit crew. And when you need an attitude lift, it's so key to check in with this power network, those people that have positivity, that see [00:10:00] opportunity, that aren't your negative Nellies, but are much more, into having curious and positive conversation where you can be inspired and be interested.

I think the other thing you can do to give yourself an attitude lift is to be curious about learning. I was recently in New York and I went to a seminar by a lady called Edie Weiner. She's the CEO of the Future Hunters. And she said the challenge that humanity faces right now is that many of us are suffering from educated incapacity.

Think about that. Educated incapacity, i. e. we're not prepared to give up what we know or what we've learned. And her view, her hypotheses, is as a result of humanity struggling with being educated, suffering from, sorry, educated incapacity, that's going to make it It's very difficult for us to navigate the [00:11:00] future.

Her suggestion is that we need to keep learning. We've got to learn different things. We've got to relay the tracks in our brains. So learn something that you wouldn't normally look at. It could be learning to cook or do art or carpentry, whatever it may be, but learn something different, listen to new music, read something different to lay down new tracks in your brain.

Something that we did actually recently on a retreat I ran for my Inner Circle clients, we intentionally made the experiences very touchy feely, very hands on because I wanted my clients to get out of their heads and into a different space so that it would unlock the innovation. It would unlock the conversation.

So we did things like coral restoration. Uh, we learned how to weave from two amazing, indigenous ladies. We did a painting by the ocean, these things that actually trigger off a different [00:12:00] neural pathway in your brain and can actually unlock that inspiration, that joy. This is all this stuff that changes the attitude.

so think about how you can get that attitude shift. The final idea I've got here is you could keep a win journal. What about if every single day you wrote down a positive outcome that you've achieved or you've learned that day? This will reinforce that positive framework for viewing your efforts and it can actually dramatically shift your mindset over time.

Now, I have something, let me just reach over here for those of you that are watching this podcast on YouTube called my brag box. And I keep this under my desk. This is actually jammed, if you can see. It's jammed with letters. I've even got. something here from a federal member of parliament.

I've [00:13:00] got, awards for programs. I've got little thank you notes. printed off emails as well, telling me about, something I might have said or done that's changed somebody's world. Essentially that brag box for me is the thing that I go to when I need an attitude lift.

I literally pull it out and I start looking through it and reading it and, taking on the positivity that other people have gifted to me that we always forget about when we're feeling pretty negative about something. So why don't you set up your own brag box, so that you can use that to help you bring the right attitude into your work every day.

Now, remember. While we can't control every aspect of our, our environment, we can always control our response. Both effort and attitude are a choice, choices that define us, choices that can lead us to success or choices that can leave us floundering in the wake of challenges. Effort and attitude [00:14:00] are in our hands. They are the only thing we can control our effort and our attitude, and they can be really powerful tools when we harness them effectively.

So thanks for joining today's episode. I hope you're inspired to take control of your effort and attitude, transforming your challenges into stepping stones for success. Please stay proactive, please stay positive and unleash that brilliance within you. I look forward to catching up with you on the next episode. Of unleashing brilliance. And until then, remember your effort and your attitude are your truest powers, and they are ever only the two things that are always in your control. Have a great week. [00:15:00]