I get to meet and hang out with a bunch of people who are teetering on the edge of the entrepreneurial dream.

They know that they want the freedom, wealth and happiness that small business success can bring. Some of them are keen to build an empire!

They also have read books that drill in the “be passionate about what you do” message.

Problem is, these people still end up utterly stuck and frustrated. Sound like someone you know (perhaps really well)?

If you feel like you’ve been there, it’s probably because you don’t know what you’re passionate about!

For me, this is one of the areas the inspirational authors skim over too quick. Not everyone knows their passion as well as Gary Vaynerchuk or Chris Guillebeau – nevertheless, both links are worth clicking to take a look.

A psychologist, when asked to help a patient discover “their passion” would probably try to analyse the activities that created the most pleasure for the patient. They’d figure out what gave your brain the biggest shot of dopamine.

My solution is simpler:

Turn procrastination into a business

You know that thing you do when you procrastinate?

That thing that you love to do – even when you know you don’t have the time (or money) to do it.

That’s your passion. Now just figure out a way to make money from it. It won’t be easy, but you’ll love every minute of it.

A good place to start is by asking a question in the comment section (below). I’ll happily answer any queries (no matter how broad) about turning your passion into a profitable business.

Things going pear-shaped or “the $#*% hitting the fan” are a reality of being in business.

The way we deal with those crisis situations speaks volumes on our character. It is one of the big psychological differences that widens the gulf between successful and struggling entrepreneurs.

This super short article is guaranteed to give you a powerful,”take away” tool for transforming disaster scenarios.

In a crisis situation, from flooded offices to losing that crucial contract, the business owner and entrepreneur relies on their psychological conditioning (whether they like it or not).

When confronted with an escalating, sticky situation our mind tends to naturally start grinding it’s gears. The direction that our “crisis thinking” takes us is what will ultimately determine our results.

For the entrepreneur, it is thinking alone that dictates if she comes out on top… or fails miserably.

That thinking begins with the questions we ask ourselves.

Ineffective Questions to ask during a crisis

• What has gone wrong?
• Why is it important?
• Whose fault is it?
• Why does this happen to me?

These are ineffective questions simply because of the kind of answers they produce.

Mentally answering the first two questions, for example, is only going to create a greater sense of loss and dread… as you contemplate the magnitude of the screw-up or disaster you’re facing.

The 2nd two questions are used by people trying to come to terms with the loss by pushing the cause of it outside of themselves. This kind of thinking robs you of the power to change your situation – focusing instead on blaming others for your plight.

Useful questions to resolve problems

• What (emotional) state would be most useful right now?
• How do I want to remember this in 6 months?
• What can I learn from this?
• What do I have the power to change?
• What resources do I have available?
• What have I got to be grateful for?

These questions demand that you focus on the most destructive part of any crisis: Your personal emotional state.

Secondly, you force yourself to frame the circumstances from a far more useful perspective… Very few disasters have ramifications beyond 6 -12 months.

By focusing on the personal learnings you can make, you reframe any negative situation as a powerful turning point in your entrepreneurial education.

Shouldering the responsibility to make changes forces us to realise the resources that we have – external and financial… or internal and mental.

Use these six questions to avert disaster and transform crisis into something useful.

… mastering this one skill will put you in the same league as the world’s top business leaders.

You can be sure that your business hero didn’t get there by asking “Whose fault is this?” … so neither should you!

My crisis…

Many years ago I lost an enormous corporate consulting contract… at the last minute. Having signed off the deal, I was literally waiting for the first advance payment to appear in the bank.

Like all inexperience entrepreneurs, since I was positive I would get this deal… I had “banked” on it and was relying on the payment to balance my budget.

When a natural disaster (seriously) forced my client to cancel the contract, I experienced a personal crisis of some magnitude. Awake til 4am, I wondered what I would do and where I would find the kind of cash I was relying on.

I personally spent days meditating on the first list of crappy questions. It was an extraordinarily dark time. When a friend (and fellow NLP person) emailed me the list of 6 “useful” questions, it turned things around for me.

The questions gave me the perspective (and necessary change of state) to dig my way out of potential ruin. I lost that particular client, but moved on to others.

In particular, I learnt an enormous lesson about budgeting on dollars that are not in the bank (don’t do it!).

For me, realising that I had so much to be grateful (despite my natural inclination to forget everything good in the world) was the most significant turning point.

Let me know (via the comment section below) when, in your life or business, these questions could have useful for you…

I was recently invited to give a talk on the basics of leadership – at a closed door corporate event which one of my clients hosted for their retail management staff.

It was out in the mountains – I got to fly back to the city while the managers face three days of leadership/team metaphor… a.k.a. Gruelling physical challenge.

The very cool, diverse group of people helped me figure out (and apply real world examples to) the following psychological criteria for exceptional leadership.

Best of all, it’s a acronym (who needs another numbered list anyway?):

G – for “Great Beliefs”

Before you lead any group of people to do something extraordinary, it pays to equip them with a set of awesome, empowering beliefs that allow them to get the job done.

Inspiration and motivation are irrelevant here – before we start playing with those Jedi mind tricks, you must first instil the beliefs that make the job possible.

Great, useful beliefs include:

“It’s possible to change things”

“My actions can and will make a difference”

“I already have or can find the resources (resourcefulness) I need”

R – “Reasons to Act”

Basic rule of behaviour psychology: No one, not even someone already on salary, will take any action unless they have a sufficient “reason why” providing psychological leverage.

Equip your team with multiple “reasons” why they can, must and want… to take action. Scary asshole bosses traditionally go nuts with threats when it comes to “Reasons to act”… and they may even get results! However, the best (most consistent) results happen when there is healthy balance of carrot (cos positivity is cool) and stick (cos we live in “reality”).

Ask yourself and your team questions like:

“What is the cost of not doing this?” … and…

“What is to be gained by taking action now… as opposed to next month?”

O – Outcome Clarity

This gets included simply because most folks forget the important parts of goal setting. Tangible measurements of success… plus, total certainty of when, where and with whom (more important than you think) are what well-formed “outcomes” are all about.

This is the stuff that makes “The Secret” work.

Practical approaches to turning a lame “goal” into a laser-precise “outcome” include asking:

“What will it look like when I have this?”

“Where will I be/What will I be doing the moment I realise I’ve achieved my goal?”

The more vivid and emotionally compelling the better.

W – Wilful Action

Simultaneously the simplest and the most regularly overlooked “essential ingredient” in the recipe for leadership success. Wilful action is getting up and doing it – once you’ve got all the other stuff.

Many times, people with the right beliefs, reasons, outcomes and even skills (see below) will still sit around waiting for someone to go first!

This is where you, the one who doth utter “Simon says”, stands up and leads! It isn’t called leadership for nothing.

S – Skills

This is where the technical training and real life “school-of-hard-knocks” stuff comes into play. Don’t bother leading folks who are incompetent. Invest time (and money) in first giving your people all the know-how required.

They don’t need to be masters – that comes with the actual “doing” part.

The best leaders are always already masters – they lead with so much more integrity by being able to say:

“Come, follow me down this road… I know the way.”

Got a question? Think something is missing? Want to know how this could apply to your specific leadership situation? Reply in the comment section (just scroll down) and we’ll figure out the answers together…

As a Master Practitioner of NLP I get to meet a lot of people who have jumped on board the self-development/human-potential movement. More often than not, these people are big believers in “the power of positive thinking”.

What they don’t know is that, at a psychological level, positive thinking and affirmations can cause major damage to your thinking and ability to get motivated. Ultimately, positivity can damage your results – in life and business.

Read on to find out the one technique that eliminates this problem – it’s roughly thirty times more effective than positivity…

The secret is simple: Instead of affirming positive “beliefs” try asking yourself questions that produce positive answers.

A huge number of people discover pop-psychology and start practicing the worst kind of positive-thinking.

They tell themselves they are healthy, wealthy and fulfilled. They repeat it as a mantra, over and over. The idea is, through repetition, to slowly drill the message into one’s unconscious in the hopes that results will be forthcoming. 

Problem is, while they’re busy affirming good stuff, they’re not actually doing anything. I’ve never known a single person who has been hit on the head by a bag of money while meditating.  

A nasty incongruency begins to develop: The unconscious mind receives repeated messages about how happy, healthy and wealth you are, but knows that it isn’t the truth.

Talk about internal conflict! Your unconscious mind isn’t stupid. All it’s going to do is learn to tune out the un-true affirmation chatter and get back to focusing on reality.

Second bad news: In the meantime, reality isn’t going so well. Positive thinkers bottle up their frustrations and sit around thinking happy thoughts. Smart go-getters use negative emotion as leverage to take immediate action.

Ask better questions!

By asking oneself clever mental questions, you can actually direct your unconscious mind to come up with clever, positive and empowering answers.

A mental dialogue of empowering, unconscious Q & A lends itself well to action and then results.  

Example:

By internally asking, every morning: “How much positive impact can I have on the bottom line of my business today?”

… you are forcing your unconscious mind to focus on positive, practical actions that will improve your results.

The secret is in the question and the presupposition it implies: By asking “how much” you force your unconscious mind to quantify… zero or “nothing at all” simply isn’t an option!

You could ask yourself:

How much fun can I have today?
How much have I got to be grateful about?

All questions like this will transform your state of mind and the results you produce. Rapidly. Positive thinking takes years of frustration to apply properly and doesn’t even come in close in terms of effectiveness.

Smart questions beat positivity every time. You heard it here first.