Mental toughness demands discipline, hard work and constant application. David Goggins is one of the finest American athletes, who has trained himself to run over 100 mile marathons, served the American Airforce and been an ex Navy Seal. He has learnt to harness the power of his mind to achieve, transform and push limits of what one can accomplish in his life. David Goggins believes mastering your mind plays a great role in shaping the success of every person.

Even Olympic athletes and gold medal winners understand that mental focus, training and discipline plays a crucial role in their success. “What separates the gold medalists from the silver medalists is simply the mental game,” says Shannon Miller, an Olympic gold medal winning gymnast. She was also the first US gymnast to win 2 world all -around titles. Shannon has won an incredible 59 medals at international events.

Success is achieved by mastering your mind and taking control of your life. Here’s a look at the key lessons from David Goggins to master your mind:

1. Accountability Mirror

David Goggins says, “Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.”

Goggins took accountability for his own life by persistent efforts. He managed to develop a strong work ethic, laboured through his days and became comfortable in pain. He says, “The confidence I’d managed to develop didn’t come from a perfect family or God-given talent. It came from personal accountability which brought me self respect, and self-respect will always light a way forward.”

He practices a technique called the accountability mirror. Whether it was raining or snowing, when Goggins looks into the mirror, he gets ready to train. The accountability mirror gives Goggins the boost he needs to get on his training shoes, come what may. He’s pushed through pain, discomfort and derives pleasure from his every day battles. This mindset helps one develop resilience and mental toughness.

2. 40% Rule 

Body and mind are capable of achieving extraordinary feats, when they are driven to their maximum capacity. Goggins says, “Most of us give up when we’ve only given around 40 percent of our maximum effort. Even when we feel like we’ve reached our absolute limit, we still have 60 percent more to give!”

Goggins further elaborates on the 40% rule, “Once you know that to be true, it’s simply a matter of stretching your pain tolerance, letting go of your identity and all your self-limiting stories, so you can get to 60 percent, then 80 percent and beyond without giving up. I call this ‘The 40% Rule’, and the reason it’s so powerful is that if you follow it, you will unlock your mind to new levels of performance and excellence in sports and in life.

When the mind is stretched to the absolute limits, it develops a certain sense of silence, stillness and energy that helps it achieve the extraordinary things.You can literally astound yourself by what you can achieve in your life by pushing your boundaries constantly.

3. Being Present

All great achievers are living in the present not the past. The present moment awareness helps you develop a keen perception, awareness and focus. Great professionals, athletes, & entrepreneurs never take things for granted. They don’t feel entitled to anything, because they have achieved something in the past. They go out there and do things every day of the week that gives them the edge over others.

They take care of their mind to develop a detachment from distractions and comforts around them. They zone into their work routines, practice and do what they need to do. David Goggin writes, “Nobody cares what you did yesterday. What have you done today to better yourself”

Mastering your mind needs present moment awareness. The most notable accomplishments of human beings often come from a still mind and stillness of the mind comes from focus. You have to develop a strong work ethic, where your goal is constant improvement and completing every task to the best of your ability without compromising.

4. Earn Your Victories
Most people wish for things, but never work hard enough to earn them. Wishing and expecting things doesn’t make them happen for you. Great achievers are driven by their efforts, the train, and that is the reason they achieve.

Your mind plays tricks with you and wants to trap you into comfort zones. By training your mind, you can control it. David Goggins says, “In the military we always say we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training,”

Great athletes, military professionals and all top achievers are driven by small drills. These drills are routines and triggers to help them get into action. In the longer run, the path of least resistance creates more problems than it avoids. Great victories are a result of persistent efforts over a long period of time. You can either get better everyday or get worse, the choice is with you.

5. Mind Game

Nothing has more impact on our lives than our mind. Even in the most gruelling and intensely physical activities like sports, the mind has a tremendous impact. A person who learns to understand his thoughts, thinking patterns and mind eventually triumphs in his field.
A person who has mastered his mind can achieve great accomplishments beyond what most people think is possible.

Goggins says, “Everything in life is a mind game! Whenever we get swept under by life’s dramas, large and small, we are forgetting that no matter how bad the pain gets, no matter how harrowing the torture, all bad things end.”

Goggins broke the Guiness world record for most pull ups by a person in October, 2020. This was after two failed attempts. Goggins managed to do 4,030 pull ups, despite having serious health issues, skin peeling off his hand and Kidney ailments.

When you master your mind, you take charge of your life and improve your performance in whatever you do. Managing your mind will help you prevail over the pains, struggles and hardships. You can transcend all your limitations, overcome your obstacles and achieve whatever you set your mind to. Your mind is the master key to your success in life.

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The digital channels for sales are being adopted by various companies today. Businesses are using digital demand generation techniques and online marketing to increase their sales. Almost all types of industries and businesses are positioning themselves to sell their products & services using digital channels.

The growing number of social media and digital avenues can make things complex for a business. How many channels does a company need to be effective? Well, the most successful companies on the web take a strategic approach. They experiment with different types of channels, analyse their ROI and invest more in things that work for them. An iterative, experimental and consistent approach can bring in quality leads and sales for a business.

Here we look at the digital channels that are used by organisations for increasing their online sales.

1. Web Data

How does your business look on the web? It has become an integral part of sales strategy today. Your presence on the web affects your reputation, brings quality leads and increases sales opportunity.

The web presents direct and indirect sales opportunities for your business. Is your business well positioned to generate online sales? Is your landing page generating leads? Are your business services bringing customers? Are you investing in developing quality content for your customers?

Businesses can leverage, optimise and continually modernise their web presence for sales. Strong positioning, branding and careful strategy to choose keywords can generate leads that translate into sales for companies.

2. Social Media

Social media is no longer just a place to woo your customers. It can even bring in sales for your business. Businesses, especially those that target consumers are able to sell their stuff using social media. Facebook marketplace, Instagram shop now, etc. can help your business sell directly to customers.

Businesses can use data driven selling options using social media channels. Companies can drill deep into their campaigns and promotional strategy to understand their customer preferences. They can use this data to attract the right customer base for their products and services. Companies are also able to analyse the total revenue generated on various channels for every dollar spent.

3. Youtube Sales

Videos are on top priority for marketers. A study showed 69% of marketers said their video-marketing budget is increasing. Youtube has become the favourite option for marketers and branding teams due to its high engagement. Of all web channels, the average time spent per user on Youtube is the highest. The average mobile user spends 40 minutes on Youtube per session.

You can use Youtube Cards and also display your sales contact details with Youtube videos. It is an effective way to generate quality leads and sales for your business. Many content based companies are monetizing their content, selling premium content as well as increasing sales volumes effectively with Youtube videos.

4. Apps & Subscription Services

Many businesses that are using online options for selling their services online. So, whether you are a car manufacturing company or selling retail items, everything is now sold online. Many industries and businesses are reinventing their business models to sell things online.

Customers can now book and use online services from businesses. Your car insurance, health insurance and food options are all available with online subscriptions. By selling subscription based products and services, your business can generate a new model for generating sales.

5. Auction Marketplace

There are auction marketplaces like eBay, which allow vendors to list their products online. Customers can bid for the products and buy them. These online marketplaces can be used for selling your products. The shipment, delivery and payments etc. are handled by marketplace providers.

It is a very easy and convenient way for vendors to list their products for sale. Infact, auction marketplaces are a great way to sell used stuff for businesses. They can have both options for selling new as well as refurbished items through the online marketplaces. The trust of the customers is already established with the marketplace sites. Businesses can find the customers and let marketplace sites handle everything else for them.

Marketplace portals are a convenient way to expand and reach new customers in different locations without spending to build any new physical or digital infrastructure.

6. Custom or Third party Ecommerce Sites

Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce etc. offer ecommerce portals for businesses to sell their products, manage inventory and all back-end operations seamlessly. Many businesses are leveraging these options to create ecommerce sites for their businesses for selling online.

Savvy customers build their custom ecommerce sites designed & developed specifically as per their business needs. Tesla is a great example of this model. It uses the ecommerce portal to sell its electric cars, solar and clean energy offerings. The platform is tailored for the customers to choose their options, see their monthly subscription options & order things online.

Businesses can either go with traditional ecommerce providers like Amazon and list their products to sell through them or build custom sites tailored for their customers. Ecommerce is no longer an option that can be ignored for generating sales.

7. Chats & Messengers

Of late, the chats and messengers have become very popular with most brands. The chat and messengers offer business support and features for companies to serve their customers. Users can place orders, transfer money and avail the products/services from business providers.

Businesses can use the chat and messenger options like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, & WeChat for increasing their sales effectively. The online wallet options, location based tagging and home delivery options etc are also included by businesses to generate sales for their business.

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There have been many great companies and founders, but not many have captured the imagination of the world like Steve Jobs. The Steve Jobs approach to product management was one of the reasons why Apple went on to produce blockbuster products one after the other & became the most valuable company on the planet. Jobs was obsessive about quality, excellence and minimalism. He had the instinct of an artist, creativity of an inventor and inspired men to build products that ruled the world.

Here’s the Steve Jobs approach to product management:

1. Minimalist

Focus was the mantra that ruled the life of Steve Jobs. He was a master craftsman at figuring out what products to focus on and which ones to eliminate. More importantly, he also paid absolute attention to the features each of these products had.

Steve Jobs returned to Apple when it was in disarray in 1997. The company had been building too many products and none of them were breaking the ice with the consumers. Jobs started the consolidation work by cutting down on the products. He had four products and categorized them as per their market demands. Apple could focus on building fewer products with greater quality and the rest is history:

Products
iMac
iBook
PowerMac
PowerBook

Steve Jobs did an excellent categorisation as per the end users and market demand. The four by four matrix was the start of the resurgence for Apple computers to become the most valuable company in the world:

Product & User Categorisation
Desktop/Consumer
Portable/Consumer
Desktop/Professional
Portable/Professional

2. End to End Responsibility

Jobs was obsessed with the products he was involved in. He literally drove people mad. He cared for the users more than anyone could imagine. He had an intuitive sense of what users would like. He was probably the first product manager to understand the end to end experience of a product.

Jobs understood that end to end experience can be created by taking control of the hardware, software and building integrated systems. Apple created an ecosystem where they build things end to end. When Apple built the iphones, they struck a deal with AT&T for mobile networks. Steve Jobs was always thinking ahead, Apple took control of the design, manufacturing, packaging and marketing of the iPhone. They also had deals with mobile network operators and ensured best experience for their customers.

All great products make users’ lives easier. Steve Jobs wanted things to work smoothly and make things simple for them. Jobs and Apple understood end to end experience much better than others and even went out of their way to partner with other industries to take care of their customers.

3. Think for the Users

iTunes was a great example of end user thinking from Steve Jobs. When the product was conceptualised, there was no easy way for users to license songs on their devices. Apple solved this problem for the users. It provided them an easy and elegant way to purchase songs of their choice and listen to them on their devices anytime anywhere.

The design of the iphone with touch screen was another remarkable feature. Steve Jobs wanted to rebuild the complete mobile experience and make it extremely intuitive for the users. The delivered iphone, which became one of the highest selling products of all time. It changed the way people used their mobile devices.

4. Captivating Designs

“Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them
all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And everyday you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.”
                                                                                                                                               Steve Jobs

The way a product is designed can either make or break it. The first experience of a user with your product goes a long way in shaping their perception about it. Jobs was a connoisseur of great designs. He had a great repulsion with anything that wasn’t captivating and brilliantly done. He could spend countless hours and iterations to make things intuitive and simple.

Jobs was perhaps the best product manager ever who had a knack of producing excellent products. The product design played and shaped much of Apple’s success. Whether it was Mac, ipad, ipod, iphone or Macbook, it is hard to find a better designed product in the market. Designing a great product requires stripping away everything that is unnecessary. It helps users focus on what they need to do and makes things intuitive for them.

5. Innovate Business Models

Product managers need to think ahead. They need to understand the business models and the context for their products today. You cannot build products that don’t compare favourably with your competitors, at least in some cases.

Jobs developed great business thinking where he connected business, technology, design and the consumers perfectly. He knew what they needed to build, for whom they needed to build, at what price and how it would reach them. He showcased this business model thinking into iTunes, iCloud, and several other string of successful products developed at Apple.

6. Push Boundaries

Debi Coleman who worked on the original Mac team said, “We did the impossible, because we didn’t realise that it was impossible.”

Steve Jobs’ approach to product management constantly pushed boundaries of what was possible, they defied the odds and built world brilliant products. Innovation demands great efforts and the best product managers know what to focus on.

When the Mac team was working to build the computer, they put in a crazy number of hours at the office. Many of them regularly clocked over 20 hours on 7 days a week for months at a stretch. The pushed boundaries in every which way. The Macintosh computer was the first successful mass consumer computer to have a graphical user interface, mouse and built in screen.

7. Staying Ahead of the Curve

Jobs once said, “customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.” He reminisced what Henry ford said long ago, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’”

Product management is about figuring out the needs and expectations of your customers before they can understand it themselves. It is about figuring out the unarticulated wishes of customers. This is what great companies do. When you are building products, it takes time to develop and ship the products. If you are only building things as good as the current ones in the market, it may not meet the expectations.

The best product managers understand, anticipate and innovate their way forward. They have a vision for the future. They develop skills to guide their teams from the present to the future.

8. Understanding Marketing & Supply Chain

Steve Jobs was one of the most fascinating leaders of our times. He understood marketing better than any of his peers. Apple campaigns stood out and made it a noticeable brand in the early years. Jobs perfected his delivery and launched products with enthusiasm and energy that attracted followers around the world.

Jobs was a storyteller par excellence. He knew how he needed to connect with others. Whether it was his teams, vendors, customers, or distributors. He reimagined the supply chain for some of the products that Apple built. For e.g. launching an Apple Store and even charging developers for launching their apps on it. It was a great example of how Jobs could reinvent the way apps were developed and distributed. And Apple made a lot of money too.

9. Insanely Great

“When we finally presented it at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone in the auditorium gave it a five-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe we’d actually finished it. Everyone started crying.”
                                                                                                                                                       Steve Jobs

This is what Steve Jobs said when they finally finished the MacIntosh. Everyone who worked on the Macintosh team remembers as the product of their lives. Jobs himself said that he had never worked harder on anything. The team had worked countless hours for 2-3 years and finally they could deliver a masterpiece that is treasured in the echelons of time.

Steve Jobs led his team to build products like iTunes, iPod, Pixar Animation films, iPhone, iPad, Macbook etc. But one thing that defined each of these products was -they were insanely great. These products were built by people who were passionate and loved what they were doing. The Steve Jobs mantra for building products or whatever you’ve chosen to do with your life – it has to be insanely great.

Businesses around the world have had their share of challenges in the recent past. Over four million small and midsize businesses in the US were permanently closed after the lockdowns. Virtual accounting services for businesses have emerged as a strong pillar for companies to manage compliances, regulatory reporting and effective management reporting.

Navigating the challenges and complexities of the business world gets harder, if you are not well prepared. When your business is growing or looking for ways to improve, accounting helps you track things. It helps your business assess where and how the resources are spent. It helps you track avenues for growth, opportunity and progress. However, access to strategic finance and accounting data is not always easy. Entrepreneurs and business owners often need to spend a significant amount of time in accounting to stay on top of their company needs.

Virtual accounting services can be a good alternative for small and medium sized businesses to keep their financial operations, regulatory compliances and bookkeeping in order. It can save time, money and strategic insights for business growth. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of virtual accounting services for your company. 

1. Regulations & Compliance 

Every business needs to stay compliant with local rules and regulations. This is often a tedious task as the laws and rules keep changing. Businesses need to spend a lot of key resources and management time to stay compliant. Not to mention the stringent penalties, legal, criminal proceedings involved in neglect of regulations and compliances. 

Virtual accounting services can provide end to end compliance as per the laws of the land. They can help a business focus on their core operations and let the virtual accounting teams take care of everything else. So, when it comes to filing income tax returns, regulatory and compliance reporting, the virtual accounting team prepares and files the reports as per applicable laws.

2. Strategic Financial Data

When your business is growing, you need access to key financial metrics at your fingertips all the time. This is important for raising capital, taking loans and planning your company expansion. The virtual accounting services can help you with real-time updates and data whenever you need it.

In addition to managing your monthly bookkeeping and financial data, they can also provide you structured reports for assessing your business. Virtual accounting takes care of things like financial budgeting, planning, cost benefit analysis, fixed asset analysis, resource costs, tax structuring etc.

Good understanding of the financial data is key to running a successful business. Virtual accounting provides in depth expertise to reduce overhead costs, plan and operate the business with better financial measures. 

3. Online Bookkeeping Services 

Virtual accounting services can help a business manage its bookkeeping with ease. The online bookkeeping services can provide management with monthly reconciliation reports, track all incomes, expenses, assets and inventory etc.

The bookkeeping services provide all assistance for preparing financial reports like income expenses, profit & loss, cashflow, trial balance & balance sheets. These are automatically sent to the management with up to date reporting.

Virtual accounting not only provides the company with all financial reports, but presents an overall picture of the organisation. It helps the company track its data for interest paid on loans, pending principal amount, track ROI on projects & assess overall books for the business with greater accuracy.

4. Better Financial Insights 

Financial insights can make a huge impact on the overall health of a business. The virtual accounting team with its expertise in finances often provides invaluable insights. These insights are often driven by automation, data analysis and deep knowledge of finance & accounting.

If a company is reporting a loss for a specific quarter, the software can report the loss proactively and also the reasons for the loss. For e.g. Company ABC is expected to report a loss of $200,000 in Jan-Mar quarter, the reasons for the loss are outlined as below:
i)   Penalties due to delay in Mining project
ii)  Man power unavailability due to Corona
iii) Upfront Capital expenses

The insights can be based on data and industry expertise. Infact, the software driven insights can also provide remedial suggestions for businesses. The software and virtual accounting acts like a virtual CFO for the company providing it real time strategic inputs for increasing cash flow, profits and overall financial health of the organisation.

5. Vetted Processes

The virtual account team provides organisations with vetted processes and complete support for business management. They have predefined account calendars for companies. These can help companies with taxation services for employees, improve tax planning, manage state and federal compliances and assist with end to end needs for business management.

The virtual accounting team uses the latest tools and technologies to manage your business accounts. As a business, you don’t have to worry about bills, vouchers and documents, the virtual team takes care of all this for your business. Timely and accurately preparing financial reports can save a lot of money as well as company resources. A full time accountant for a small & medium size business often costs more than virtual accounting services.

Cons of Virtual Accounting Services

i) Data Privacy & Confidentiality 

Financial and accounting data needs a lot of transparency and security. When a virtual accounting team takes over, having the confidentiality agreements and security for your business is paramount. It is imperative that your company’s data remains private, confidential and never shared with third parties. A trusted virtual accounting team must be able to assure these aspects.

ii) Vendor Lock Ins

It may be possible that your virtual accounting team has a lock-in period. You may want to clarify at the beginning your long term horizons and needs. If you are not satisfied with the expertise of the virtual accounting teams or their services, it should be easy for you to switch to some other service provider. In case of switching, you should be able to get up to date accounts and data for your company.

Overall, more businesses are relying on outsourced expertise for accounting. Virtual accounting increases reliability, creates structured processes and improves the overall coordination for regulatory reporting. It is a way businesses can focus on building the core value proposition and grow their business, leaving accounting and compliance matters to the experts.

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Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher

Reinvent Yourself is a series of interesting, short stories with many nuggets of wisdom. You’ll learn about the importance of listening, improving yourself every day, persisting through challenges, and adding genuine value to the people around you.

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Most people fancy themselves as leaders. However, not many people are endowed with leadership ability to be effective. Leadership is a tough job, it requires you to be able to connect, inspire and produce the results that matter.

So, how to measure the effectiveness of your leadership? Are you a good leader? Jack Zenger & Joe Folkman researched this & studied over 300,000 leaders to understand the characteristics that made leaders great for their teams. Intriguingly, Zenger analysed that results-focus and people-focus weren’t the characteristics that produced great leadership on a consistent basis.

But, leaders who were able to bring about a balanced approach to focus on results as well as people were perceived great. A study by David Rock conducted on this found that this quality is found in less than 1% of all leaders. Leaders who are able to strike a balance between people and results are a rare breed, 72% of the employees perceived them as leaders.

In isolation, these characteristics often backfire, the people-focus often leads teams to be in a disarray not producing the results. The results-focus can create a cold atmosphere which is too tense and counterproductive in the long run. But a formidable and balanced approach combining the two characteristics produces great leadership.

An effective leader takes a pragmatic approach where he is concerned about people, but doesn’t lose sight of the big picture. He is driven towards the goals as well as the people driving these goals. Here’s a look at some of the characteristics that make effective leaders, according to research:

1. Leaders Deliver Feedback

In his book, ‘The One Minute Manager’, Kenneth Blanchard mentions a very systematic approach to feedback. It is actionable and fairly simple. The approach goes something like this: when a teammate reports a task to you, as a leader your job is to deliver feedback. When you want to reprimand the person, use 30 seconds to tell the person what he has done wrong & spend the next 30 seconds telling him how he can correct his mistakes.

If you want to praise a person for doing a task well, spend time praising and telling people what they did right. It takes only a minute, but goes a long way to encourage your team.

2. Set Daily Goals

The best leaders use the morning time to communicate with their teams. They spend 1 minute to discuss goals with individual members, not to get into the unnecessary details. But a high level overview of what needs to be achieved.

They ensure that their teams spend their work time effectively aligned to their goals and priorities. With the growing complexity and volume of tasks, sometimes teams are unable to prioritise. When your leader spends a quick minute, it helps you zone into the right things to start your day. The right focus requires leadership.

3. Leaders Produce Results

The job of a leader is to create results that matter the most. The best leaders in the organisation are able to achieve prolific results, much better than others in the same position. The most effective leaders are able to combine the acumen, energy and strengths of their teams to achieve astonishing results.

These leaders develop competencies that help them analyse and solve issues with their teams. They help their organisations champion changes through hard times, take ownership and responsibility to drive the results.

4. High Ethical & Moral Standards

Leaders who display high ethical and moral standards are the ones who command respect. They are able to win the confidence of their teams. While leadership effectiveness is driven by various competencies in different industries. Integrity and honesty are traits that are common across industries.

People watch their leaders and take cues from their behaviours. A person who displays a high degree of integrity and comes across as authentic establishes trust. It makes the other person more comfortable and willing to do his best.

Of all leadership competencies, high ethical and moral standards were rated as the top most competency by 67% participants.

5. Nurtures Growth & Development 

The top leaders are driven by progress and development of their teams & organisations. Business leaders more than ever need to show an appetite for learning and growth. When employees feel that their managers care for their development, beyond the routine tasks, they become more productive and efficient. 

The best leaders are also aware of the areas in which they need to improve. They solicit feedback and inputs from others. They help other people as well as seek help from others. The strength of the team lies in the collaborative approach where everyone is trying to help and achieve shared goals.

When leaders care for their employees, they reciprocate in kind. They push themselves to go the extra mile and help their teams. Great leaders create environments where everyone is constantly encouraging and pushing each other towards their growth. Leaders help their teams understand that by increasing their competency, skills and quality of work, they are setting themselves up for success.

Human nature is rooted in wanting more than you already have. People are constantly trying to push their boundaries to achieve more. More so, if you are an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs who use gratitude to take their success to another level.

You are expected to run an enterprise, build systems and grow your entity to serve larger interests of people around you. It takes hustle and running around your goals day in day out. So, when does one get the time to thank for all that is going well in your life.

Gratitude is a powerful force that helps you connect with others, look at the brighter aspects of life and take a break from a relentless pursuit of your goals.

Here’s a look at how entrepreneurs can use gratitude to build more purposeful companies and become more balanced in their day lives.

1. Gratitude is a Mindset

Your perspective of things matters in business. You may be presented with a challenging situation, but practising gratitude can help you reassess things in a pragmatic way. When your key employees leave, it could be a time to groom a younger employee and in some cases take ownership of things yourself.

By taking an approach of gratitude, you can focus on the good things and thank those who are responsible for them. It creates a difference, your mental energies are system work the best when you are joyful, according to scientific studies. So, when you adopt an attitude of thankfulness, gratitude and joy, it helps those around you to focus on their work too.

2. Make a List

As humans we are hardwired to count things that are not going well for us. Entrepreneurs are driven by lists and todo items to meet their day to day needs. However, a simple list of items that worked well and things that you’re thankful for could give your brain a boost.

Creating lists forces your brain to think of the pleasant & positive things in your day. It helps you release chemicals in your brain that create a feel good factor. Entrepreneurs need to see possibilities and writing down 3 things everyday for which you are grateful can do miracles for your well being.

A habit of writing a gratitude journal everyday is a powerful tool used by many successful entrepreneurs.

3. Impact on Relationships & Health

Taking care of relationships and health is one of the top priorities for an entrepreneur. When you maintain good relationships with your customers, employees, vendors and others around you, it certainly helps you build your business better.

A habit of practising gratitude leads to positivity in a person. It helps them connect with others and see things in a broader context. A study was conducted at the University of California by Robert A. Emmons to understand the effects of gratitude. The impact of gratitude was studied on health, psychological well being & relationships. Here’s what Robert & his team found:

Physical Health
Stronger immune system.
Better handle aches and pains.
Lower blood pressure and stress.
Exercise more and take better care of their health.
Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking.

Psychological health
Higher levels of positive emotions & healthy attitude.
More alert, alive, and awake.
More joyful, optimistic, happiness, and pleasure.

Relationships with Others
More helpful, generous, and compassionate.
More forgiving.
Feel less lonely and isolated.

4. Doing What You Love

Entrepreneurs are building and doing things they love most of the time. It is a rare privilege. It has its own hurdles and challenges, but the most important thing is that you are doing what you always wanted to do.

Every job has certain elements that you don’t like. Entrepreneurship is no different. The successful entrepreneurs learn to be grateful for the things that have worked for them. While sales quota can always be higher, the teams can always ship better quality products & do them faster, but so many things worked well. So many people spend their lives running away from things they are doing. Yet as an entrepreneur, you have escaped from that trap.

5. Team

71% of the American workforce don’t feel motivated at work. Employee disengagement is one of the biggest hurdles for modern businesses. Preston did a study and found that feeling unappreciated is one of the top reasons for employee disengagement at work.

Gratitude has a positive impact on employees. Psychological Science conducted a study and found that employees feel more trusted, are more satisfied, perform better & practice more loyalty, when they are appreciated.

When your team misses a deadline, it is natural for you to be disappointed. You may shout and display your anger at them. But this is a moment that separates the ordinary entrepreneurs from the extra-ordinary ones. The best entrepreneurs back their team, they thank the employees for trying their best and all the work they did instead of rebuking them for missing the deadline. Employees feel empowered and energized when they have a leader who practices gratitude. Gratitude can help you build great teams that go out of the way to support each other.