It might seem contradictory, but did you know that you can achieve more in your business by doing less? Studies have shown that if you slow down and use mindfulness strategies to keep yourself centered you will be more productive and more able to manage your business effectively.
In this article we’re going to share four really 4 simple mindfulness tools for self-employed business owners that will help you embrace mindfulness as part of doing business. The mindfulness tools we will cover are meditation, journaling, being in the moment, and turning a negative into a positive. Read on to learn more about these tools and how you can use them to improve your business.
“Remember, no one can control the past or the future, but we can choose to live in the now…“
But before we dive right in, let us introduce ourselves in case this is your first visit. Welcome to The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur blog. We’re Jen and Elke Clarke, a mother and daughter team who will support you to set up a long term and profitable online business.
Over 10 years ago we searched for the perfect online passive income business so we could ditch our 9-5 jobs. Now we each have our own million dollar online e-commerce businesses that give us the financial and time freedom to live our dream lives.
The Creative and Ambitious Entrepreneur blog is for you, if you want to set up a business that you can use to create passive long term income, whether you are creative or not. We share actionable steps that you can take to make money in your e-commerce business using a platform called Zazzle. In each article, we will take you one step closer to achieving freedom with your time, location, and finances.
We believe that a perceivable, passive, profitable™ e-commerce business is what opens the doors for you to start living your dream life if you work smarter, not harder, use the right tools and follow the proven roadmap. We are here to start the conversation on how we will help you achieve your dream life by supporting you to set up a long term and profitable online business.
Let’s get started!
The business framework that we developed and used to build our million dollar Zazzle businesses is built around the 3 Pillars: Perceivable, Passive, Profitable™. The “perceivable” pillar is all about mindset.
We dive in deep into mindset in The Creative CEO Mastermind™ coaching program, and we always see a visible change in our participants. We love to see their shoulders go down as the weight is lifted when they discover how simple it is to use mindfulness tools to overcome obstacles they see in their business. This has resulted in our mastermind participants going from zero sales to millions of dollars of sales in their Zazzle businesses.
In this article we’ll give you an insight into how you can use mindfulness tools to improve your own business.
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The first mindfulness tool we want to share with you is meditation.
Can you remember the last time you sat still and did absolutely nothing? In today’s busy world where we’re always connected via our phones and social media it’s more difficult than ever to shut off from the outside world. A regular meditation practice can help you to do that.
Meditation is often tied to religious practices, but in reality it is as simple as a method to help you find awareness in your mind and body and bring yourself back to your center.
When you think about meditation you might conjure up an image of incense sticks, yoga mats and zen gardens. You don’t need any special equipment to meditate.
All that you need to meditate is time and willingness to sit and be still.
Start with baby steps when you add mediation into your daily practice. It will be easier to sit for a minute at a time rather than plan to meditate for 30 minutes or more on day one.
To start your meditation practice, find a quiet place where you won’t be distracted. Sit cross-legged on a mat or comfortably on a chair. You can put your hands on your lap but the focus is more on stilling the mind than what position you are in. Focus on breathing slowly and evenly. Try to quiet your mind by focusing on your breathe. Try using an app on your watch or phone that will guide you with the breathing rhythm needed to help you focus.
Don’t beat yourself up if you find that your mind begins to wander, this is a skill that will take some time to master. Over time you will find that it becomes easier to switch off your thoughts and meditate more effectively for longer periods of time.
If you feel yourself becoming stressed or overwhelmed during the day you can use meditation as a way to bring your thoughts and body back to a calm, centered state. Then you will be better equipped to tackle the obstacle you are facing either in your everyday life or your business.
The second mindfulness tool we want to share with you is journaling. Writing or drawing in a journal is another great way to clear your mind and help you focus more effectively as a self-employed business owner.
There are many different types of journaling and you can choose to do one or several of the following on a daily basis:
If you are a creative type don’t think you have to limit your journaling to just words. Your regular journaling practice can include using your camera or your art supplies as a medium to explore your thoughts and emotions.
Journaling as a mindfulness tool can help you put things in perspective when you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper allows you to take a step back and see things in a different light.
Like meditation, journaling is a skill that takes time to practise and perfect. So set aside some time every day if possible to journal in some form. If you journal on the good days when you feel positive about your business it will be easier for you to journal on the bad days. When you feel stressed and need to figure out how to tackle the obstacle you want to overcome journaling can be a powerful tool to become mindful.
Being in the moment, or being mindful is another important tool you can use as a self-employed business owner.
All too often you might think that you are focusing on the task at hand, but really your mind is being sabotaged by things that happened in your past, or worries you have about the future.
Being in the moment might sound a little like meditation but the key difference is rather than trying to clear your mind you want to focus it on what is happening to you right now.
Do you have a favorite snack or treat? Chocolate? A bag of salted pretzels? Next time you eat, really focus on the experience. What does the food taste like on your tongue? What does it sound like when you bite into it? How does it feel if you touch it? Being mindful and in the moment is about using all of your senses to focus on what you are experiencing right now.
How does being in the moment help you as an entrepreneur? As a business owner you probably find yourself inundated with ideas for new niches you can explore, or new designs you can create. Being mindful and in the moment can help you to sift through those ideas and make decisions effectively. It can also help to rid your mind of distractions and sabotaging thoughts.
Remember, no one can control the past or the future, but we can choose to live in the now. When you regularly practice being in the moment, you will master being present and effective at running your business.
The final mindfulness tool you will want to have in your arsenal is the ability to turn a negative into a positive.
As much as we would all love to live a permanently happy life, bad things will happen, and there is nothing you can do about that. What you can control is how you react. You have the power to take a negative experience and reframe it, or decide that you will learn from it for the future. This doesn’t negate or dismiss your experience in any way.
Instead, it allows you to reframe the negative experience so that it does not affect you any more. As a daily practice take your negative thoughts and reframe them into positive thoughts.
For example, imagine that you are driving somewhere with a friend or family member and you find yourselves stuck in a traffic jam. You might find that your mind begins to fill with negative thoughts about how you’re going to be late, and you wish you’d left earlier, or taken a different route.
Negative thoughts can spiral out of control and leave you feeling frustrated or angry. Instead you can reframe those negative thoughts into positive ones like: “I’m grateful to have this unexpected time in the day for us to spend together, listening to music, chatting about our plans for the weekend or laughing as we play I Spy.”
When you focus on the positives in a situation obstacles that feel like mountains turn into easily navigable mole hills.
When you are busy running your own business you might not think you can spare the time to practice mindfulness. Remember though that YOU are your business’ most important asset and your business will suffer if you feel chronically stressed and distracted.
You now know about four different mindfulness tools for self-employed business owners that you can use to increase your effectiveness. They are:
When you practice these mindfulness activities on a regular basis you will be able to ground yourself so you can show up for your business in a more effective and powerful way!
“Align” is the fourth strategy in The 5 Strategies™ that we developed and used to earn $1.5 million dollars on Zazzle. We teach you our proven productivity techniques and how to align your goals and mindset with clarity and direction in our signature course The Profit by Design Academy™. We invite you to join our growing community of academy members who are creating successful businesses using Zazzle and living their dream life.
They say you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Let us be in your inner circle of influence to help you become the successful e-commerce online entrepreneur you want to be. Follow us on Instagram @msjenclarke @elkeclarke Let’s DM and chat on IG.
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Check out The Creative & Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcast
In this post, we are talking about how to earn $1,000 a month on Zazzle. People ask us this all the time, because initially what everyone says is, “I just want to earn a certain amount on Zazzle,” but eventually they want to turn it into something consistent…
In this post, we have a very special guest, one of our own clients. Her name is Wendy. She’s going to be talking to us about her journey through Zazzle…
Jen and Elke Clarke are a mother-daughter duo that empowers women entrepreneurs to make money online. Through courses and coaching, Jen and Elke help women (and men) become successful creative entrepreneurs on Zazzle and e-commerce. Combined Jen and Elke have earned over $1.5 million combined through their businesses on Zazzle. Jen and Elke have influenced and transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with their free content, paid and private coaching.
They are international, award-winning authors. Click the links to purchase their books through Amazon: Earn Around The World and Create Online and Grow Rich.
Jen and Elke Clarke have been featured in Yahoo Finance as TOP 5 e-commerce coaches in 2020 (June 2020).
If you want to see how Zazzle can change your life, gain more free time, work from anywhere, and have uncapped income potential — join now.
