You Might Be An Entrepreneur, But Do You Think Like One?

How to Evolve Your Mindset for Limitless Success

I’ve been an entrepreneur and full-time writer for two years, but sometimes I still catch myself thinking like an employee.

What do I mean by that?

For one thing, I still think that time = money. If I work forty hours a week, I figure I should be able to make a living wage, which is about $26,000 a year where I live.

That’s not a lot of money. In fact, by definition, a living wage is:

“the minimum income standard that, if met, draws a very fine line between the financial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or suffer consistent and severe housing and food insecurity.”

That’s a pretty frickin’ low standard. And it comes from my previous experience of working in the service industry and making $8 an hour with no benefits.

I’m used to working my ass off and making very little money from it. But that’s not what’s in my future. At least, if I can help it.

Now, I write online for a living. And I’m researching passive income streams to support my bottom line. Passive income requires work upfront and then you reap the rewards.

But to tap into the benefits of passive income, I need to change my mindset. Otherwise, I’ll limit myself and my potential based on past experience.

In this story, I’m sharing four ways to move past an employee mindset and into an entrepreneurial mindset.

Review & Contextualize Your Past

Don’t do what I’ve done. Don’t project your past onto your future. At least, not if you want your future to be any different from your past.

I graduated from college during the recession. Out of a desperate need for cash to pay rent and my bills, I took a series of low-paying jobs for which I was truly overqualified.

This went on for a few years. Finally, I decided to go to grad school because I didn’t know what else to do professionally.

Just to give you an idea of where I’m coming from, one of those low-paying jobs was at a call center. I got paid $10 an hour (with no benefits) for two whole weeks before I quit. I couldn’t handle the stress of having people call in and cuss me out. (Does this happen at all call centers?)

Needless to say, after a few years of working low-paying jobs, my morale was low. I didn’t think the economy could support my needs. If it could, I figured, I’d have a “real job” with a salary and benefits.

Now, I write for a living. I’ve had good months and not-so-good months, financially. But the future is bright because I’ve learned a lot along the way and I’m more focused now than when I started my writing career.

If I want my financial future to be different from my past, I need to put my past in context. It’s important for me to realize that the crappy jobs I held during the recession are not comparable to what I do now for a living.

Today, my workplace is the internet and my earning potential is truly limitless. I no longer trade hours for dollars; I invest time into doing what I love. And it’s paying off.

Identify Your Limiting Beliefs

While it’s important to not project your past onto your future, I do find it helpful to review my past to identify any limiting beliefs and where they come from.

For example, here are some limiting beliefs I’ve had about money:

• Earning a decent living requires more luck than anything else
• The circumstances have to be just right to allow for real income to come in
• I am powerless to control my income
• I’m at the mercy of the economy

Those are some pretty negative and debilitating beliefs, but it’s easy to see where they came from.

When it comes to limiting beliefs, awareness is your friend. Because when you’re aware of your beliefs, you can make different choices. Today, I choose better thoughts that lead to better results.

Use Affirmations to Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind

“Use affirmations” is a really popular refrain in the self-help industry. And there’s a good reason for that. They work.

Looking above at the limiting beliefs I identified, I can turn each of them into an affirmation by simply stating the opposite, like this:

• Earning a decent living is about aligning with the energy of money
• Circumstances are just one part of the equation; it’s important to have the right mindset too
• I have the power to create multiple streams of income
• The economy is large enough to support my relatively small desires (when compared to the whole economy)

These affirmations are based on the law of attraction, which states that everything is energy and if we align with our desires, they will manifest into our reality.

Even if you don’t believe in the law of attraction, using affirmations is helpful according to positive psychology.

Either way, it’s worth the time it takes to identify limiting beliefs and rewrite them into positive, empowering statements. Your thoughts create your emotions and determine your actions, which create your results. Let’s make the effort to think good thoughts about our lives.

Have Faith in Yourself and in Your Future

This is something I’m working on every day. I practice “faith” by staying committed and consistent with my writing routine.

If I didn’t have faith in myself or my future, I wouldn’t write anything. Why would I? Without faith in the process, there’s no need to go through the process.

When I find myself doubting whether or not all this hard work will pay off, I gently remind myself that there’s only one way to find out: keep going.

Becoming an entrepreneur and full-time writer has been a dream come true. Even so, some days I still find myself full of doubts and indecision. On those days, I remember to:

• contextualize my past and remember that it’s in the past
• use awareness to make different decisions
• repeat affirmations that are uplifting and empowering
• have faith that everything will work out for the best if I remain committed

I hope these methods help you too.