In part one of this seven part series, I introduced the concept of mindset being of fundamental importance in successful entrepreneurs.
This article focuses on the important issue of comfort.
Perhaps the only advantage of paid employment is the fact that you know that at the end of the month there will be a pay-check deposited into your bank account, guaranteed.
In some senses this can provide a level of comfort: as with all regular patterns in life, we feel more secure when know what is coming next.
Uncertainty is uncomfortable.
For successful entrepreneurs however, the opposite is so often found to be true: The adventure, in other words the uncertainty, brings a sense of thrill or excitement.
This by no means applies to all successful business owners, but it is an important factor to consider if you are either considering running, or have already started a home based business.
So how can you embrace being uncomfortable - how can you get comfortable being uncomfortable? To develop this core mindset value, you must allow your perspective to be changed.
It requires learning the skill of re-framing your current uncomfortable circumstance in the light of some bigger picture.
In a later secret of success, I will be examining how to gain the bigger picture, but for now, I want to grapple further with another aspect of being uncomfortable, and it's this: A feeling of comfort is by and large associated with a sense of familiarity.
If you have watched the behavior of small children, you will see that they become distressed and upset when faced with the unknown.
So what happens to adults? Why do we not become so distressed? By studying brain patterns of volunteers, psychologists have discovered that in fact we do show signs of the same physiological stress as children.
The main difference is that as adults, we learn coping mechanisms to help us deal with such emotions in a more constructive way.
As I mentioned above, learning the skill of re-framing your current situations can help, but so too can gaining the ability to become accustomed to unfamiliarity.
Almost certainly the easiest way to do this is to put yourself in situations where you have to meet and talk with people who you don't know.
Being able to engage with new people on a regular basis conditions your mind to accept unfamiliarity.
Exactly the same thing happens when fighter pilots are trained to cope with high g-forces in training sessions.
Initially the experience is nauseating, but after a relatively short while, the trainee had their mind to condition the discomfort, so that it no longer has such a big impact.
There is a now famous story of a new, very shy home business owner who applied this same idea to gaining confidence in talking with prospects over the phone: he worked in a telesales department for a few weeks, making 200 plus cold calls every day.
His discomfort never completely disappeared, but he has conditioned his mind to cope with the feelings, so that now he appears effortlessly confident.
In summary then, get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Find relevant business-related situations you can put yourself in, such as joining a local chapter of BNI, or your local chamber of commerce, and meeting new people every week.
Practice being the first person to introduce yourself to others, rather than waiting for an introduction.
Volunteer to do something new in your business, like giving a presentation or webinar.
Do this on a regular basis.
Condition your mind.
Seek out being uncomfortable.
You will be amazed with the long-term results.