Resilient Entrepreneur Meditations Entrepreneurial Intention – The Story of Self During this meditation we're going to focus on our intentions to start or grow a business.
Together we're going to work on strengthening that intention.
We will embrace the mindset of the resilient entrepreneur.
Starting or growing a business isn't easy.
It takes hard work,
Focus and perseverance.
Like many of the entrepreneurs who've come before you,
You're going to face hardships and setbacks.
How you respond to this adversity is the essence of entrepreneurial resilience.
A helpful technique in building resilience is the practice of autobiographical reasoning.
It involves reflecting on the meaning and significance of past events.
Unlike autobiographical recall,
Which focuses on recounting the details of past events,
Such as asking yourself where you were,
What you were doing,
Who you were with,
How you got there,
Etc.
Autobiographical reasoning encourages us to dig deeper.
It forces us to examine our emotions.
How did we feel when that event happened?
What did we learn?
How did that significant event help you establish the values that are most important to you?
Did that event set you on a different path or trajectory?
Studies have shown that this exercise is an integral part of developing and maturing our self-identity.
This is an important step for entrepreneurs because we need a clear understanding of why we want to be an entrepreneur in the first place.
Every entrepreneur needs to embrace their origin story,
Or their story of self.
It gives us a solid foundation to refer back to any time the road gets rocky.
Every entrepreneur has a backstory that led to their decision to enter into business for themselves.
Through this meditation,
We will work toward uncovering your story of self.
Let's start by getting comfortable.
Put your phone or other electronic devices away,
Completely out of sight and out of mind.
We want to be in a distraction-free environment so we can focus all of our attention on uncovering our story of self.
Before we reflect on the past,
Let's first ground ourselves in the present moment.
Find yourself in a seated position with your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Let your palms rest facing downwards on your lap as you close your eyes and slowly and gently breathe in through your nose and out through your nose.
Focus in on your connection to the surface on which you are seated.
Feel your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Notice your body is balanced on both sides.
Focusing on the straightness of your spine and the groundedness of your posture.
Breathe softly and gently as you feel yourself anchoring into this moment now.
Letting your breath guide you,
Knowing that if any thought emerges that is not related to this very moment,
You can just let it enter in and return your focus to these words as the thought continues to pass by.
Do not judge yourself for having any thoughts.
Just continually bring your focus here on this very moment.
As you imagine now,
An anchor dropping down from the bottom of your sit bones and pulling you down all the way down to the center of the earth.
Feel it landing clunkily.
Feel the anchor landing hard,
Firm,
Connecting you not only to Mother Earth but also to this moment.
Feel yourself grounded,
Secure,
Present.
On your next inhale,
Breathe in deeply and hold your breath at the top,
Letting any tension build at the top of this breath and as you exhale with a sigh,
Feel yourself sinking into this moment even more.
Anchoring yourself into this moment now.
Return to breathing softly and gently in through your nose and out through your nose throughout the course of this meditation.
Now let's gently move backward from the present moment and explore our past.
Take a moment to think about the first time you were exposed to entrepreneurship.
It doesn't need to be a business in the traditional or formal sense.
It could be that time you sold something for a school fundraiser,
That first babysitting gig or maybe even the time you did yard work for some extra cash.
As you think back on your first entrepreneurial experience,
Think about what you liked most about it.
What didn't you like?
What did you learn?
How does that experience relate to the entrepreneurial journey that you are on today?
Now,
Thinking more broadly,
Not necessarily in the context of entrepreneurship,
I want you to think about a difficult situation you encountered when you were younger.
What was that situation?
How did you deal with that challenge?
In what ways did you respond well?
In what ways do you wish you would have responded better?
Was there a special person in your life that was there for you during this challenging time?
How did they help you?
What did you learn from them?
Finally,
Let's take a moment to reflect on a time that you worked really hard to achieve something.
What were you trying to achieve?
How was it that you were able to persevere toward that achievement,
Especially when you might have otherwise wanted to quit or take a shortcut?
How did the hard work pay off?
What did you learn from this experience?
How did you learn from this experience?
What was it that you learned from this experience?
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