Virtual Assistant Mindset: Transforming Your Thoughts, Beliefs, Habits and Decisions

I recently spent three days in Toronto at Pat Mussieux’s Wealth Makers Toronto 2014 event. I had a great time and took lots of notes. I’m going to talk about the mindset portion of it first and how it applies to your future as a virtual assistant. Many of these points I had heard numerous times before, but it’s always helpful to have them reinforced or explained in a new way. I thought I would share some of my notes with you.

Thoughts and Beliefs

Beliefs are formed by the way we speak to ourselves and from what we internalize when we listen to what others say about us. Some examples might be, “I’m not smart enough, I’m such an idiot, I’m so stupid, I can’t do it, I’m too fat, I’ll never be able to…” What other people think of you is none of your business. Your value doesn’t decrease by someone’s inability to see your worth. You change yourself and your life by changing the way you think and how you talk to others.

Challenge your beliefs about what you are and are not, what you can and cannot do, what you do and do not deserve. What do you want for your life? What would it look like without the negative beliefs you hold?

You need to learn how to select your thoughts because you become what you believe. You have the power to choose your thoughts and, if it’s something you’re not used to doing, it may take some practice to make this a new habit.

Worry is negative goal-setting. If you’re familiar with The Law of Attraction, you attract what you focus on. Energy goes where your attention flows. If you are worrying about what might happen and what-ifs, you are setting yourself up for those exact things to happen, and you will allow them to happen to complete your belief that they will (or that they could) happen.

Failure is everywhere. At some point you are going to fail, and you have to fail to learn and make progress. Learn from your mistakes and failures, and move on. Courage is being afraid and doing it anyway.

Habits

Habits move you away from what you want or closer to what you want. Are your habits setting you up for success or failure? What are you doing every day, in both your life and your business, that is moving you toward your goals?

Example #1: Are you spending all day watching soap operas or playing on social media? These are my favorite time-wasters. Of course, save these favorite time-wasters for your much-needed down time. Don’t let these time-wasting activities take you’re your day. You’re not going to grow your business and make money that way.

Example #2: Are you making yourself busy on work-related activities, convincing yourself that you are working, but you’re not getting paid for those hours and they are not even moving you closer to getting paid or signing a contract with new clients?

For virtual assistants or aspiring virtual assistants, this may look like spending time on marketing activities that are not really benefiting you, setting up your business in the wrong order, or putting off offering your services because you think you are not ready and you need to learn more first. Hey, I’m still learning! I love to learn new things (that I’m interested in) and I’m a perpetual student. That’s great, but don’t let that get in the way of you finding clients and making money. You can keep learning and adding appropriate services as you go. Start with what you know, or learn one skill well, and then go from there!

So, how do you deal with these habits that aren’t moving you closer to what you want, closer to reaching your goals and making more money? If you want a different life, you need to make some different choices. You either change the goal or change the habit.

Decisions

Are you making decisions based on emotion or on business? Watch where emotion is getting in the way of making decisions, charging what you’re worth, etc.

Those who want success badly enough don’t make excuses. When you make the decision that you want to succeed and that you will succeed, you set that in motion and nothing can stop you. You will find a way, no matter what. Success occurs when your dreams get bigger than your excuses.

Okay, so which of these impacted you the most and what are you going to do about it? What changes are you going to start implementing when it comes to your virtual assistant mindset? How do you see this benefiting your life and your business? Comment below!