Leverage your mindscape for sustainable impact on your business and your life.

Mindset proficiency is the No. 1 differentiator for driven, accomplished advisors. It is a thrive requirement and a game-changing advantage. Why? Because how you think and how you show up in the world has a profound impact on your business results, your quality of life and the engagement of everyone around you.

As a “personal bester,” you have high capacity and unquenchable thirst. At a mature stage of business, you have likely built complexity into the structure of your financial advisory practice as well as other areas of your life. Your core business feasts on your time, resources and mental clarity, and yet you are driven to do things better and better. The pulse of change demands that you step back and think strategically, and yet you continue to execute tactically on the day-to-day with excellence. Your growth plan insists that you be the self-driver of your personal productivity, and yet you influence those around you with positive leadership. But that’s not all. Your personal best lifestyle of choice has you leaning into multiple adventures that matter deeply to you, such as other businesses, philanthropic activities or a family office as you continue to savor your family and community life. All of this takes energy and focus.

What is the evidence?

When you are on top of your game, your mind is clear, you prioritize the right activities and you are able to execute on decisions with confidence. When you are vulnerable, distractions and self-sabotaging behaviors can tease you and bring you to a place of stuck.

If you leverage your thinking processes, you will engage in thrive behaviors. Test yourself:

• Can you clearly describe why you are doing the things you are doing right now?
• Do you have time blocked off on your calendar every week to think about your business?
• Does your calendar align with your strategy and marketing plan?
• Do you offer your personal best to all parts of your life?
• Do you say no to distractions and feel good about it?
• Do you consistently avoid or mitigate self-sabotaging behaviors?
• Would you describe yourself as physically and mentally vibrant?
• Do you feel essentially fulfilled by your life?

If any of your answers are no, or if you feel stuck or like you are running hard but not getting to where you want to go, equip yourself with a few simple techniques so you can naturally and consistently think in a productive way on an all-the-time basis.

What is your mindscape?

Think of this as your mental landscape where your beliefs, assumptions and thinking patterns roam and dictate your behavioral choices. How you think shows up in real life as an observable, measurable set of behaviors. This means that you can learn how to think in a specific way, teach others to do likewise and embed these same thinking processes as a sustainable system in your practice and other parts of your life.

Keep in mind that your mindscape is fertile ground for bold characteristics, so it is vital to grab hold of your thoughts because they can either work for you or against you. Your mindscape is loud and contagious. It fuels your thoughts and beliefs that lead to how you choose to communicate, make decisions and execute on tasks, which influences everyone around you. It is hungry and demanding. How you behave infiltrates every morsel of your professional and your personal life. It is relentless. Your thoughts keep you up at night and can quickly get sloppy, rebellious and sometimes mean. It is also generous and adoring: When you nurture your mindscape with productive attention, it instantly gives back, expands and props you into a position of “choicefulness” so you can be at your best.

How do you groom a healthy mindscape?

1. Make a conscious choice

Consider this: If you are committed to personal best, chances are that you value taking care of your physical health. Maybe you take your body to the gym, give it a workout, feed it nutritious food and invite it to rest on a comfortable bed. Why do you do this? Your physical wellness regime provides you with vibrancy, strength, longevity and a positive outlet for stress or the need to compete, so you make it a priority. Plus, you enjoy it. Keeping your mindscape robustly healthy is the same thing. These muscles are worth grooming, stretching and scrubbing clean because when your mind is sharp, you can make better decisions and stay the course.

Declare your mindscape as a zero-tolerance zone for thought rogues that have malicious intentions to take you down. It is absolutely vital that you rigorously protect and develop your mind. Declare your mindscape as open for business for productive thoughts only. Hold yourself accountable to this commitment.

2. Do one thing to gain momentum

Realistically, you have a lot on the go. Distractions and self-sabotaging behaviors can tease you when volume, challenges beyond your scope of control or fatigue make you vulnerable. So, assess yourself. What are your vulnerable moments in a typical week? What specifically takes you off your game? What self-sabotaging behaviors do you fall back on?

Counteract these with one simple action that will allow you to shift immediately into productive momentum. What is the one thing you can do that will have the highest impact? Examples:

• Block one hour every Friday morning to think about your business.
• Start every morning with a five-minute breathing exercise to clear your mind.
• Replace one unhealthy beverage with one glass of water.
• Every single time you sit down, ask yourself, What is the best use of my time right now?

3. Position yourself as a value hub

List your top strengths that you know you can rely on. Think about your qualities (what makes you resilient?), your professional skills (what is your highest talent?) and your personal values (what would you fight to protect?).

Take a piece of paper, and draw a circle in the middle of the page. Put your name in it. Now, draw smaller circles around this representing each key area of your life, such as your family, your practice, other business ventures, foundations and community commitments. Given your strengths, what is the highest value you can contribute to each area? How much time do you choose to invest in each? Maybe it’s time to redefine your time and value contributions.

4. Think shift

Your thoughts carve pathways in your brain and will choose the path of least resistance every time, just like water flowing down a mountain. Repetitive thoughts create deep ruts, so eradicate them by deploying “thought stopping,” and replace them with new productive thought paths using “think shifting.”

For the next 24 hours, objectively observe your thoughts. If an unproductive thought emerges, stop it in its tracks and consciously replace it with a completely new thought by asking a shifting question, such as, “What is trying to happen here? How can I make this possible?” It may help you to stand up the moment you perceive that your thinking is unproductive and physically move to a different spot.

For example, imagine that you are ruminating about your team. Unproductive thought rut: My team constantly makes mistakes. I will never find competent staff. Think-shifting questions: “What else might be happening?” “What system is not working?” It could be a poor communication system, lack of clear priorities, insufficient training, no process template, no cross-check system, wrong people or undefined roles.

Embed think shifting into your business. For example, when people come to you with a problem, ask them a shifting question to change their perspective. Add “productive mindscape” to your lived values with performance expectations of what it means. Build shifting questions into your conflict resolution process. Put mindscape barometer on your weekly team meeting agenda and ask, “What worked well for you this week? What opportunities for improvement did you look for and act on?”

Play with new ideas. Stretch your brain. It’s healthy.

Michele Gervais, BA, has worked in-depth with top advisor practices across Canada since 2011 and brought leading practice management tools to life at many industry events through her business experience and professional background as a facilitator, coach and instructional designer. Prior to joining Canada Life, Gervais was the principal of a strategy consulting practice for more than 20 years. She has built professional development and accreditation programs in the areas of entrepreneurship and client service for clients including Tangerine Bank, Investors Group and the Business Development Bank of Canada.