How Did They Do It?

A former GP and medical director, Bridget is now known as the Chief Unsticker: she helps business owners get unstuck from their unhelpful thinking patterns and create clarity and consistent action instead.

The tool she is employing in this, is called NLP. Neuro Linguistic Programming is looking for the patterns and processes people are using in their heads to get the results they do. It's about modelling successful patterns and getting rid of unhelpful ones in order to get the best possible outcome.

"We all tell ourselves stories. By working out what is relevant for you, lightbulb moments are created". Everything you read, little things you see around you in your day-to-day life, TV programs you watch...it's all content you can use to create your own metaphors about your life.

We are using our memories, values, experiences, language, metaprograms etc to create our stories. But above all, employing metaphors and using stories in your life, should contain an element of fun. If the story you are currently telling yourself doesn't work, all you have to do is re-write the script.

Gurus will often tell you that as a business owner you should be modelling the behaviour of billionaires. If you adopt their habits, routines and processes, you will become a wealthy person too. However, the crucial element that gurus often omit, is that this will only work if these billionaires share a similar purpose and values with you. If the habits and routines you adopt don't suit your purpose, they are not likely to be sustained long enough to create consistent results.

People often start their business careers with huge goals, until negative thinking and the imposter syndrome take over, forcing them to adjust and shrink them. Working through past and present negative experiences that affect your perception and the story you tell about yourself, helps to get clearer on your goals, take consistent action, get the right people around you and get unstuck from negative and unhelpful thinking patterns.

The title of this podcast, are the literal words of the line manager of Shona Hirons, which were spoken to her when she was being reprimanded after having made a mistake at work. Working for a highly competitive law firm, Shona was told that people in her position are not allowed to make mistakes. Just like robots, it is expected that they always provide a flawless performance.

Shona had sent an email to the wrong person after an exhausting 80 hour work week. The email didn’t contain any confidential information, but she was still suspended and reprimanded because ‘it could have’.

This was not the only incident during her law career. Shona was constantly made to feel that she shouldn’t be too ambitious, as women should be at home raising children, instead of competing with men at the workplace. After a serious cycling accident which forced her to work part-time, she was told that she shouldn’t expect any sympathy and that she was still expected to get as much work done as a full-time member of staff in her part-time hours.

Shona has since turned her life around. She gave up her job and started her own coaching business. She runs her own gym, writes books and gives public talks. But the burnout she experienced after years at a thankless, pressured and toxic work environment, is not something she is likely to forget.

In the interview I conducted with Shona, we find out what made her The Bionic Woman. Her story is one of strength, determination and a personal mindset which has turned from negative in the past, to unrelentingly positive in the present:

Yet she is here to tell us her story, and how she turned her life around through relentlessly working on her mindset…for she is the Bionic Woman!

What does it really  mean to find your personal freedom? 

Freedom is a big word nowadays; people refer to it in a number of different contexts, including having the freedom to 'do what they want', not to comply with government regulations etc.  According to Mira,  freedom is about utilizing your whole being, including your intuition, to take decisions and lead your life.

 Applying esoteric tools such as Mongolian stones, Hebrew numerology and Chinese astrology, she helps people to delve within themselves for the answers.  We discussed the importance of vibrations, energy and everyone's quest to find personal harmony, or as Mira likes to put it, their own 'symphony'. 

As a creative musician, I like her use of musical analogy and I agree that being in harmony with our inner energy (whether you call this 'vibration' or something else) is crucial in understanding ourselves. But how do we apply this wisdom and knowledge in our day-to-day life as solopreneurs? 

While Mira speaks of people finding their symphony, I prefer to use a different musical term to describe the solopreneurial hustle.  I often speak of 'one-man' or 'one-woman' bands in this context. As small business owners, we are often the singer, guitar player, drummer, songwriter and producer in the band. This can be a bit overwhelming at times, and take us away from our sense of inner freedom, which is the very thing we sought out by choosing a self-employed existence!  

We often find activities which are crucial for our success, such as showing up regularly online or making sales calls, daunting. While in our heads the problem lies with the 'others' and how they will react to us, in reality our problem stems from our own ego limitations. Being too self-aware and preoccupied with 'what others will say' is a source of stress, anxiety and very often, failure.

 By taking the time to regularly re-connect with the things that 'make us tick', we remind ourselves of our true purpose and our ego retreats with this insight. When our values and purpose are aligned with our goals, habits and daily actions, then we find our inner freedom again. This is how finding inner balance and harmony looks like. This is where we find our inner 'symphony'.

You can contact Mira here: https://linktr.ee/mirareiss

Join here my FREE facebook group for solopreneurs, small business owners, therapists and creatives who want to beat stress and overwhelm and create freedom, accountability and clarity of purpose: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fromvisiontoaction