What’s more important when scaling a business: strategy or mindset?

Each one uses a different part of the brain.

You use the more advanced thinking part of your brain to learn and understand strategy. This part of your brain focuses on the future and what’s possible.

Delegate.
Differentiate.
Systematize.
Create recurring revenue.

That’s strategy. It makes sense.

But the older, more primitive part of your brain is what influences your mindset. It makes decisions based on emotions and survival. Its focus is on the past and avoiding danger in the immediate present.

It’s much stronger and more powerful than your thinking brain.

That’s why you can know WHAT to do and still not do it.

It’s why you doubt.
It’s why you hesitate.
It’s why you try to control.
It’s why you keep searching.

You may believe these behaviors keep you safe, but the opposite is true. They keep your business small, which means you add less value to the world, make less money, and have a greater risk of not succeeding.

The primitive part of your brain says things like this:

“I don’t know.”
“It won’t work.”
“I’m not ready.”

Most of the time you believe these thoughts are facts. You think you’re being careful because you have EVIDENCE from the past that things go wrong.

This is because the brain assigns more importance to negative events. It’s part of our survival mechanism. You remember and focus on the negative more than the positive.

What you think of as proof of danger is really just a matter of focus.

You can just as easily find evidence to the contrary if you look for it or create it.

Your current experience of business (and life) is coming from your past thoughts and beliefs. They form your mindset.

What you want is in the future.

Your past thoughts and beliefs will not get you there because if they could, you’d already be there, now.

Override the primitive brain’s hyperactive survival mechanism that runs on autopilot. Chances are your life is not literally on the line every day, although it feels that way.

Instead, decide who you will be today and what you are creating in the future. Decide intentionally. With the thinking part of your brain.

Then use that decision as the evidence you feed to the primitive part of your brain.

Because you say so. Because you decide to.

Train yourself to believe you’re either winning or learning every day. That’s the mindset for scaling.

The way you think and feel when you execute your strategy is what will influence the outcome.