Have you ever felt like your personal and work lives were on the low? Ever felt bored with that lingering ‘business as usual’ type of feeling that bores you out and gets you nowhere? Ever wanted to figure out how to pimp things up and get on the brighter side of things, because ‘business as Usual’ sucks?
The feeling is very common and we all go through it, in cycles, depending on the environment we live in, the personal circumstances that affect our lives, the time we have, and the dreams we try to turn into reality.
For most people though, ‘business as usual’ is a typical mindset that goes in pair with a shrug, and with an unconscious decision to keep doing nothing to change the rules and reshuffle the cards.
We get accustomed to it, we deal with it somehow, and we try to go along the best we can with whatever life throws at us. Back to school. Back to work. Gotta get sh** done. Business as usual. Right?
Well. Not really, no.
Because in the end, like it or not but you only get what YOU tolerate, and that should give you a life-changing kick in the butt.
Your life is yours, and what you decide to do with it can go a lot further than just getting sh** done. Seriously!
You could turn a so-so job into a business, and a so-so business into something that pays for your dream lifestyle.
You could imagine a life that really works for you, not the other way around.
And you could decide to take things into your own hands because that’s actually the best way to get things done your way.
The stake though is to realize that this current ‘business as usual’ mindset of yours is what kills your efficiency, your results and your achievements (personal and professional), and that acting now is the only solution.
5 Good habits to start pimping your ‘business as usual’ mood (& boost your efficiency)
Between you and us, that’s where most people give up.
We know, because as business and life coaches we see a lot (a big lot) of people (grown-up people) using tons of bad excuses (we’re polite here) to try and escape responsibility because that’s a lot easier.
It’s not your fault though! You live a busy life. You have a lot of work. And the kids. Oh, and the dog ate your coaching program application form so you missed the discussion.
Rings a bell, right?
Well, time to think again.
We’re being provocative here, but that’s precisely the point!
Look. Maybe today is the day where you decide to (re)take control of your life. Maybe today is the day you stop working too much to focus more on what’s important to you. And, well, maybe today is the day you decide to coach yourself and set good habits to start ditching that nasty ‘business as usual’ mindset that’s been spoiling your fun for way too long.
The good news is, it doesn’t hurt (we promise). The impact is huge (like, life-changing huge). You can do it (for real). And we’re going to put you on track with these five good habits to start ditching the ‘business as usual’ mindset and pimp your mood (and efficiency). Oh, and these good habits look like this:
5 good habits to ditch your business as usual mindset & pimp your mood
- Reflect often on what ‘business as usual’ actually costs you
- List what needs to change (and why!)
- Set. Your. Own. Way.
- Ban the ‘business as usual’ mindset & decide to take control of your life
- Realize that YOU are in charge, and coach yourself!
Good Habit #1: Reflect regularly on what ‘business as usual’ means and costs you
So, the first tip we’d like to offer is this one: to pimp your mood away from the usual boring routine, try and reflect regularly on what ‘business as usual’ means, and figure out what thinking that way is costing you.
Because, yes, the ‘business as usual’ logic has a cost, and you are paying a heavy price for it.
‘Business as usual’ affects your personal routines and your productivity (for starters), which can make you feel like you are lagging behind and missing the good stuff.
It limits your personal achievements possibilities, because it pushes you to wear blinders and prevents you from dreaming big. That’s a shame…
It also affects the opportunities you could have to challenge yourself (and rock!), If only you dared think outside your own box and allowed yourself to dream big (again).
And it creates a cost of opportunity that really doesn’t play on your behalf.
Ahem.
And just in case you didn’t notice, I’m a polite guy so I didn’t mention the cost of inaction that literally bulldozes whatever’s left of potential in ya’. But you’re not the type of person to favor inaction over action so I didn’t want to suggest that you were lazy, or even ruder, responsible for doing nothin’.
Personal routine costs
Now, routines come first in our little list because the most visible impact of ‘business as usual’ mindsets really is on personal routines and efficiency generally speaking.
Now, ‘routines’ are often perceived as a negative term, but in this context, the word actually has a double feel. Some routines are indeed boring, and they’re the reason why ‘business as usual’ feels bad
BUT! Some routines can be deliberate and fun – like taking every Friday off to go play golf or take comedy club lessons, whatever floats your boat.
For most people though, getting used to a certain pace makes things become repetitive, boring, and flat. If I wanted to be a bit provocative here I would add dull, humdrum, lifeless, monotonous, stodgy, tedious, and tiring to the list – and I’m sure you’d agree with the feeling.
The result is bad.
Boring routines lower your mood and they give you even less energy to get awesome things done. In that sense, thinking ‘business as usual’ makes you think ‘usual’ rather than business – and that’s clearly a heavy price to pay to get nothing but inaction down the road.
You start thinking small and you get pushed into a hole you can’t escape anymore.
It’s the beginning of the end, like when Saruman’s bad guys give the final attack on the Helm’s Deep in the Lord of the Rings (eeww, I know right?) and all seems lost because the Rohan King got into a vicious state of mind that makes him lose all perspective on life.
Until of course Gandalf storms down the hill and saves the day with the cavalry and the surviving good guys – for whom of course ‘business as usual’ isn’t acceptable.
‘Business as usual’ as a mindset is a killer, said differently.
It’s really bad for what you have. Whatever you have.
And you’ve got to deal with it because Gandalf only comes to rescue you in movies. In real life, you’re just screwed.
Oh, but wait, we’re here, right? Congratulations, you just got Gandalfed pimped up, Impactified!
Personal challenges
Now, of course, the same goes for your personal life challenges: thinking ‘business as usual’ makes you focus on the usual side of things and totally annihilates the challenging aspects of life that make us move on, and on.
Booooooom.
No more incentive to think big and crazy, no more reason to push yourself and get to that next level of yourself you wish you could achieve – if only you had the time, the money, and the courage to do anything.
That’s bad for the achievements you have on your bucket list, it goes without saying, because ‘business as usual’ means that this list of yours will never become more than a list.
Hm. Do you even have a bucket list?
Ultimately, the worst part is this one: the list stays a list rather than a series of achievements. And that’s totally on you because, again, you only get what YOU tolerate.
Cost of opportunity, and cost of inaction
Now I’ve been cheeky and all that but I’m not done with you – there’s another way to look at the full big picture.
The thing we like the most in the ‘business as usual’ discussion (we’re business coaches and life coaches, remember?) is that thinking ‘usual’ rather than ‘next step’ typically obliterates your potential in terms of opportunities and action.
Boooooooom again.
We talk about the costs of opportunity and costs of inaction here, because the two concepts relate very closely to one another, and they can have a huge (huuuuuuge) impact on your dream life.
On the one hand, the cost of opportunity relates to the cost of making one choice over another.
If I decided to invest in a company that sells orange juice (you now know what I’m drinking while writing this up), I could sell tons of bottles. But perhaps I could also use my money to travel the world and see seven new countries by next year!
Or, I could decide to work freelance, from wherever I am, and that would also give me some opportunities. 65.000 remote job offers were online last time I checked, that’s worth considering beyond making orange juice.
Long story short? A choice creates an opportunity, but it also pushes away other opportunities. And those who think ‘business as usual’ just lose the full thing: the opportunities, the choices, and the benefits of daring to decide to do something different.
On the other hand, there’s also the cost of inaction. If I stay put, then I’m safe, right? Sure. For now.
But in deciding to do nothing, I am also taking the risk of stagnating and losing everything I’m not going to try!
Action, inaction, opportunity choices – whatever the angle, with the ‘business as usual’ mindset, you snooze, you lose!
The costs of the ‘business as usual’ mindset
- Personal routine killer
- Personal achievements killer
- Cost of opportunity (bad)
- Cost of inaction (worse!)
- You snooze, you lose
Good Habit #2: List what needs to change (and why!)
Now that we’ve talked about the risks and that you’ve realized what you are losing when you think the way you do (right?), let’s move to the next step: listing what needs to be changed.
The point is important because it’s the switch that makes you shift from being a victim (not my fault, if only I could, life is sooooo unfair!) to taking control over whatever comes next.
‘Whatever’ can be personal life-related, but it can also be business-related- which we typically call Business Karma. Either way, the logic is the same: look back, assess, look forward, decide what you want, decide to act, and repeat.
Look back, assess, look forward
We talked about the importance of looking back and assessing change needs in a previous article on people working too much and wanting a way out, so we’re not going deep here – the idea is that the best way to create change is to know what needs changing in the first place.
Powerful, uh?
Jokes aside, the point really makes a big difference. So much so in fact that we call it ‘creating your personal success story (tadaaaaa) and we make it a basic exercise for every new life coaching and business client we start working with.
Think about it. How else do you want to make any sort of progress if you have no idea of what’s wrong and what could be a lot better?
Again, you only get what you tolerate!
Truth be told, the difficulty with that exercise is that the things you really want to look at are usually hidden in a Blindspot which means you need to be a freaking genius or have eyes behind your head (we love you anyway) to put your fingers on them without external help.
Again, that’s a typical exercise we really enjoy going through with our coachees, and we’ve actually made those topics and questions available in our toolbox with a life SWOT and business SWOT you should have a look at.
In case you’re wondering – SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strength Weakness Opportunity and Strength and in its most basic shape, it looks like a matrix where you identify your strengths, weaknesses, and the rest – usually on your own.
Not very precise and not constructive at all, so we turned that into a fun questionnaire and a report you can turn into something tangible and super actionable – give yourself a chance, coach yourself.
Give them a look and see what’s coming out off the process. You’ll probably be surprised, and you’ll gain a new perspective on things for sure.
Decide how you want things to be
So, the stake is to decide what needs changing and I just pointed you to tools to help you do that. Still, you can’t really create change without asking yourself how you want things to be next, can you?
Nope. Cannot.
Mostly, that goes back to writing your own personal success story and setting very personal targets for yourself (we have tools for that too, by the way).
These give you a direction to follow, and they create a very powerful way to affect your behavior by bringing a super-duper impactful self-conditioning dimension into your life, that’s going to create the change you’ve decided so.
Pssss… ever heard of Napoleon Hill, people?
Decide to act, act and repeat
The next step, said differently, is to decide to act, to act accordingly, and to repeat the whole logic of assessing, revising, and deciding to move ahead.
Again, the idea is powerful because it creates a pimping loop that breaks away from the ‘business as usual’ mindset and negative loop we’ve been talking about.
In coaching terms, it’s relatively easy to make a decision to do something, but it’s a lot more complicated to realize that doing nothing also takes a decision. A decision to do nothing, but a decision nonetheless.
The point relates to the cost of inaction discussion we had above: decide to make a change, or decide not to make a change, but decide.
Creating change in 3 steps
- Look back, assess, look forward
- Decide how you want things to be
- Decide to act, act, repeat
Good Habit #3: Set. Your. Own. Way.
Now if you’ve read everything so far you probably see where I’m going: another good habit to put into place to regain control is to set your own way, and to give yourself a frequent opportunity to make sure what you’ve defined as “your way” happens your way.
As before, there are a few tips you can use here to turn things to your own advantage and implement what we have been talking about. In short: think GPS, set a pathway your pathway, monitor, and take things into your own hands.
Think GPS (have a direction)
First? Put your GPS on.
Write that personal success story of yours and use it as your personal direction.
Set what your Business Karma ought to look like, and use it as your business direction. And of course, the same applies to non-business, life-related matters!
All roads lead to Rome? Sure, but why go to Vladivostok, the Easter Island, and Tristan da Cunha on the way? (The last is Earth’s most remote place by the way, we checked on Google).
Jokes aside, tourism is fun, but as far as your mood and personal achievements are concerned, why take the risk of losing yourself in the unknown instead of heading straight to a determined point that represents your goal in life?
Again, the decision is yours to make.
Food for thought, just saying…
Set your pathway (have a favorite route)
Of course, the next step is to set the pathway to getting where you want to go – and there again you can leverage a few ideas.
One, what milestones need to be met on the way? Those can have a very functional role (getting a degree in animal life to become a vet and save elephants) but they can also be very inspirational and motivational for those who really believe in their own dreams and targets. That’s you, and that’s also the people around you who might happen to believe in your dreams.
Two, how would you get there from a behavioral perspective? Are you ready to step on people to get what you need? Will you get there at all costs? What values do you want to live by? How is that going to influence your way of thinking, acting and achieving?
There again, the point is rather technical and motivational at the same time, which gives you the signs on the side of the road AND a message you can use to get other people on board.
Compared to the ‘business as usual’ kind of logic you can easily be trapped into, these thinking and acting habits will give you wings. Again, it’s on you to decide whether to use them or not!
Monitor, adapt, anticipate, take things in your own hands
Of course, those who live in a ‘business as usual’ mindset never monitor, let alone adapt, anticipate, let alone take things into their own hands, because they merely follow and react to whatever happens.
Tell me though, where has that mindset taken you so far?
To pimp your mood and turn your ‘business as usual’ list into bucket list achievements, you have no choice but to reflect on the progress you make on a regular basis.
Again, pinky promise, the thing doesn’t hurt!
In fact, during a break in a nice coffee shop and with the right tools, the exercise is pretty interesting to do and inspirational because it gives you a new perspective on things (not to say a hell of a boost).
A coach will typically make you do that, and they will have the right questions and concepts in mind to get you there efficiently.
Alternatively, you can also do it on your own with the right set of tools and videos – just coach yourself and see! As long as you take control, you should be fine!
3 tips to set your own way
- Set your direction (think GPS)
- Set your milestones (think steps)
- Monitor, anticipate, take things in your own hands
Good Habit #4: Ban the ‘business as usual’ mindset & decide to take control of your life
It all comes to a question of mindset, in the end, and the powerful thing about mindsets is that they are totally yours to control – which is not easier said than done! Still, the next tip is simple: ditch that mindset once and for all!
Realize the importance of thinking outside your own box
First off, realize that thinking outside your own box is super, duper, important.
Note that I didn’t write “thinking outside THE box” here.
I wrote “thinking outside YOUR OWN box”.
Why? Because everyone’s box is special and depends on very personal perceptions that make us who we are. That’s a topic for some other time though.
The point is, identify your own box with its own parameters, and constraints, and limitations, and then get out of it.
Go back to your personal Life SWOT. Go back to your Business SWOT. Figure out what makes you YOU, and start building a pimped-up mindset for yourself that turns you into the person you want to be, with the life you want to live.
Kaabbbooooom!
Take responsibility
Living the life you want to live gets me to another extremely powerful concept that – between you and me – has changed a few lives (including mine) – it’s called taking responsibility.
The concept is often difficult to grasp for people but it’s a lot simpler than it sounds.
Taking responsibility is not a question of fault or guilt, despite what people think. It’s a question of (i) figuring out what you can influence and (ii) of acting on it specifically.
The opposite to it is victimization, by the way.
“I can’t do anything about it, it’s not my fault if they refuse!” Victimization.
“They block me and I can’t control it. But I can try and influence that other part to see what difference that makes.” Responsibility.
“So unfair, they’re mean, I’m so pissed at them!” Victimization.
“So be it – I’ll put my energy on that instead.” Responsibility.
Can you see the pattern here?
Victimization works perfectly with ‘business as usual’ mindsets because the focus is on the usual, not the challenge.
Taking responsibility, however, gets you on track for business and success story achievements, because… well, you see where I’m going.
Replace being reactive by being proactive
Speaking of mindset, the logic I’m pushing for could also make you want to replace being reactive with being proactive – and I’m not playing with words here.
Reactive sounds like the perfect thing to put on a CV, but the reality is that it cries “please hire me!” and it shows that you are exactly like all those people who feel like being reactive to ‘stuff’ makes them look good.
Reality? “I’m reactive” means that I’m so stuck in the ‘business as usual’ mindset that the only way I have to make the most of life is to react to whatever sh** life throws at me.
Think again.
How about pimping things up?
How about becoming proactive instead? How about having a full big picture and calculating your next moves based on what you want to achieve next? How about a mindset that puts you in charge of your own ‘stuff’?
Again, just saying…
Condition yourself
The ultimate trick here is to start tricking yourself. Period.
One of the fascinating things about psychology is that the way we act and think is conditioned by our subconscious mind, which is itself conditioned by all the experiences life has thrown at us.
And we have no clue.
We act in fear when that thing happens because we had a bad experience before, or we’re super excited when that other thing happens because it felt great the first and the second time.
Either way, we behave in reaction to factors that got us pre-conditioned and we have no real awareness of it.
Yet again, dropping the ‘business as usual’ mindset is a chance we have to start conditioning our mind, our experiences and our lives differently, to enjoy things we want to achieve.
It’s not a matter of obstination, it’s a matter of intentionality (know what you want), perseverance (keep trying) and resilience (adapt).
In the end, the combination of those three character traits is what gets you to your next step, and it’s probably the most powerful way to ditch the usual and pimp your own mindset.
Again – just saying!
Pimp your mindset in 5 steps
- Think outside YOUR OWN box
- Take responsibility
- Drop reactive, think proactive
- Condition yourself
- Coach Yourself!
Good Habit #5: Takeaway? Realize that YOU are in charge and coach yourself!
You probably didn’t notice, but I finished my previous point with five bullet points when there were only four tips in the discussion – that’s because the last is what closes the loop.
Let me repeat myself for a second. It all comes to a question of mindset, in the end, and the powerful thing about mindsets is that they are totally yours to control.
The difficult part is realization (that is, the ability to move an issue from Blindspot to plain sight) and of course action – which comes to a simple call to action that we love at Impactified: Coach Yourself and Thrive!
But you know that by now, and you have no excuse – give it a try, start your self-coaching journey free!
