by Ann Evanston | Jan 29, 2014 | Mental Mind Shifts
What is your “Mental Toughness” Quotient? Have you ever thought about that? Should it matter when running a business? ABSOLUTELY! There are many ways to test your mental toughness. I think it is best to test it outside your work, and explore it in other areas.
For example, if you’re following my blog, I shared with you recently that my husband and I decided to do a strict six week cleanse. This is a perfect example of Mental Toughness and testing it. It takes a huge mental mindset to commit to eating in a way you typically don’t!
So today is the third day, and I’m definitely detoxing! Caffeine is what I miss the most, and I really don’t drink much of it every day, just my morning cup of coffee, so I really want back. But I committed to the six weeks. The discipline of doing what I committed to doing, even when I DON’T want to do it is coming up for me. I even went into the tea cupboard this morning and pulled a bag of green tea. I looked at it, I debated, I know it has caffeine in it, I argued that it’s not near as much is coffee, and then I put it back and got some herbal tea. Mental Toughness.
That’s what I talk about in my book The Influence Factor and really knowing your true self. I could have had the cup of caffeinated tea. My husband is already gone to work, nobody would have known but me. (The lies we tell ourselves, remember that from the book!) But it was okay it is a small amount there are no calories in it blah blah blah!
No caffeine, that is the agreement I made with myself. For six weeks. Mental Toughness.
My husband is missing salt. Now again, I would argue that we probably use less salt in food than many people do. We cook all our own food–> we don’t buy processed prepackaged food so just salt we add anyway. And last nights dinner looked beautiful as you can see from the picture! And as he said if it had some salt it would’ve been amazing! It would’ve been easy to get saltshaker just sprinkle a little bit on, but we didn’t.
See doing something like this is powerful because if you can have the mental toughness and discipline to gets through something like this. To truly get through it–> no lies, no secrets. When you make it happen you’re showing yourself the ability to achieve something that isn’t necessarily easy. And guess what? Running a business isn’t easy! Being true to yourself and the promises you make to yourself and what you want to achieve isn’t easy! I think running a business takes a huge amount of mental toughness.
What could you do to achieve greater mental toughness? To challenge your mental toughness quotient?
by Ann Evanston | Jan 22, 2014 | Mental Mind Shifts
This is my last cup of caffeine… for six weeks! Yeah sounds crazy doesn’t it! Last year my husband and I did a cleanse for three days and I missed my morning cup of coffee more than anything (even a glass of wine, and if you know me, I love my wine and bubble!). This year we have actually decided to do a very strict six week cleanse. It actually doesn’t officially start until next Tuesday when we return from vacation, but I knew I needed to get the coffee out of the house so I wasn’t tempted! It might not be a good idea to start the withdrawals before we go away, LOL, but I have done it. As I am writing this I am sipping on the last cup.
Why a six weeks cleanse you might ask? Because I believe to hit the next level of success I have to challenge myself: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Some would argue that a cleanse like this is a physical challenge, I would argue that it will encompass all four areas.
Where do you discipline your self to make changes that will be a challenge and allow you to break through to next level success?
Where do you have to have mind over body and spirit in order to achieve something different in yourself and life?
Sometimes doing something this radical and different is exactly what you need to prove to yourself that you are capable of what you want to achieve. I have tremendous excess in my life and business but I want to take it to the next level. I believe that a cleanse like this will help us do so.
What is the cleanse you ask? It’s “Eat to Live” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. You are welcome to take a look it. for six weeks no animal, dairy, caffeine, salt, sugar, alcohol or added fats oils and butters.
What will you do to challenge yourself to get to the next level success? Are you willing to do something truly difficult?
by Ann Evanston | Nov 27, 2013 | Mental Mind Shifts
Why is it so difficult for us to share our accomplishments? The things that we have achieved and done in life? Is that just a feminine thing or do men struggle with it too? Now that I write that, I realize even my humble yet very accomplished husband struggles with it!
I have achieved so many things in my 20+ years since graduating college (let alone what happened before that!) and in my career that allows me to stand where I stand and yet at the same time I rarely share them! I guess it’s because our culture feels that when we share our accomplishments it is some form of insecurity or calls it “bragging” which is inappropriate? It seems silly to me when our accomplishments are what make us credible and allow us the strength and character to what we do.
For example I started in Toastmasters in the seventh grade ok, yes, that is BEFORE college, but relevant to what I do!! The story as to WY I did is for a different time, but because of that I competed in oratory in high school, and in 1985 spoke on the stage with 10,000 people in the Tacoma Dome with the Rev. Jesse Jackson! Since then, speaking has taken me all over the world! I actually made a choice to slow down the amount of travel and speaking I do because my family and being home mattered to me.
Another interesting little thing about me? I’ve always been good at sales, LOL! My first job was as a waitress, and I worked food service through graduate school. Every upsell contest we would have I was one of the top two performers! And in the 90s I was a speaker for Career track, Fred Pryor Seminars, and National Seminars Groups. And I was in the top 1% of sales speakers in the nation for them.(What we called “BOR”, back-of-room sales…sound familiar in the speaking world these days huh?) Fred Pryor seminars even asked me to teach how to “sell with sizzle” to other speakers!
My ability to teach others to speak and sell comes from a process many would say is “natural” for me. But having it become a system was really the key to teaching and selling it with success. My intuitive ability wasn’t enough…so the accomplishments give me credibility, yet the system is what sells.
Oh my list could go on and on just like yours could, so I’m curious what is something that you’ve achieved, that you should take credit for, that helps you to be successful in your business, that you don’t share?
Let’s share our accomplishments below… I’d love to know!
by Ann Evanston | Nov 6, 2013 | Mental Mind Shifts
Stretching and growing is so interesting isn’t it? Most people don’t believe this about me… probably my closest friends know it best, but I am actually extremely shy. I well up with fear at the thought of being in a room full of people that I don’t know!
Crazy for somebody who has been an international speaker and on stages of tens of thousands to say that isn’t it?!
But that is different from being in the crowd. Stretching myself and going to an event all alone without anyone I know in the room is difficult, and I’m doing that more and more. I’m at an event nervous as hell, to the point of tears about going into that room. Where is the stretch for me today? Its in not energetically shutting down. I have been gifted with amazing energy that people are wildly attracted too…until I am in a room full of strangers.
See, my typical way of behaving in those in the situations is to shut down my charisma, shut down my power, become a wallflower if you will.
People often perceive me as mean, or harsh when I shut down like that as you can imagine. When you are a person with a ton of energy naturally, shutting it down will “appear” mean. And that is definitely not who I am.
So I am committed to showing up in this room full of hundreds of people with all my brilliant power out, stretching and growing to be my best self. I feel fear, oh yes, but am NOT scared, because I am moving through it.
Where are you stretching and growing these days?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
by Ann Evanston | Oct 16, 2013 | Mental Mind Shifts, Women Inspire
This morning I got up for my typical routine.
No not my ritual if you’ve read my blog about the difference! This is the mindless morning that I do pretty much every day! Part of my routine is the COFFEE. I don’t know how you feel about your morning cup of coffee, but it is a very important part of my day.
This morning, like any other morning I ground my beans, put the cold water in the pot, and set it up to brew. No, I don’t own a Keurig
because I love the ritual of fresh ground beans and cold water in a pot. And my coffee pot is old (I got it in college…that was 20+ years ago)! I don’t like those new fan dangled one cup brewers that do it right into your cup because I like super strong coffee with nice warm cream in it. So part of my routine is while the coffee is going I actually heat up some cream to go in the cup.
While doing this I heard a weird sputtering from the counter where the coffee pot is. I knew instantly what it was. I had not set the pot back far enough on the burner to push the lever that allows the water to drain, or stop when you want to pull it out early pour yourself a cup why it’s brewing.
Dang it! Grounds and water are everywhere. What a great start to the morning huh!
Reality is though I have two choices when these kind of things happen. Let it ruin my day, or laugh clean everything up, and still love my cup of coffee…just 15 minutes later.
Routine…Choices, they are just so powerful huh?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
by Ann Evanston | Oct 9, 2013 | Mental Mind Shifts, Women Inspire
Man, some days getting focused is a challenge!
Do you ever get a wild hair? Not a wild hair, crazy kinda cool idea for your business that will help it grow wild hair. But the wild hair where you really intended to do one thing and in the end wind up doing completely something else?
Today I had one of those wild hairs! I just went outside to put something in the mail. And then I thought that I really need to take that spider web down by the mailbox. It was getting kind of crazy and nasty, and tomorrow the ladies come over for wine and networking so it seemed a perfect time to grab the hose and spray it down. But then suddenly I realize that my “babies” needed water. My babies are my little plants that are just starting to grow, if you didn’t know we are year-round urban gardeners so the fall planting has started!
So I water the babies. And then I go over to jet spray this spider nest. And then I realize that there’s lots of spider webs on the side of my house I start jet spraying them to and before you know it, I have water showering down on me and I’m spraying off the garage, and the side of the house, and the camellia bush.
And then I realize my front window is open.
So then I have to go inside and dry off the house. LOL. It did need a mopping.
All I wanted to do was put some mail in the mailbox to be picked up today.
Those wild hairs aren’t always a good idea, and I should’ve just focused on getting focused!
Geez! Do you do this in your business? Go to work on something specific (like maybe some blog writing because it is really good for traffic) and you get a wild hair and end up on Facebook, or working on another project completely. I know getting focused works, what do you do when a wild hair creeps up?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
My husband is missing salt. Now again, I would argue that we probably use less salt in food than many people do. We cook all our own food–> we don’t buy processed prepackaged food so just salt we add anyway. And last nights dinner looked beautiful as you can see from the picture! And as he said if it had some salt it would’ve been amazing! It would’ve been easy to get saltshaker just sprinkle a little bit on, but we didn’t.
