How many times have you either said or heard “What a sh*& year” this year? If 2020 has been one thing, it’s easy to say it’s been that. But has it really?? We mean, REALLY, has it? Has there not been something to come your way this year that you can bump up the list to outshine the bad?? 

During a ‘regular year’ learning how to shift your perspective in business when you are facing challenges big or small can help you to overcome them and continue forward. This year, however, taking moments to shift your perspective in business is a critical tool to ensure you are covering all angles in moving things forward. When all that you see are the negative impacts that this year has brought, you are limiting your ability to see growth, opportunity, change, and even simply the chance to be grateful. 

A simple shift in your perspective can help you change that “What a sh*& year” to “It’s actually been a good year” or maybe even “What a great year”. We’ve pulled together 7 simple strategies to help you make that shift and expand your view. 

Strategy 1: Self-Awareness 

Learning to recognize what’s going on with you is the first and most crucial step in shifting your perspective. It’s so easy to get caught up in everything else around us and not see what’s actually happening inside us and right in front of us. Activities you can do to increase self-awareness include meditation and journal writing, taking self-assessments to help you understand your personality,  preferences, and priority (check out our Set Yourself Straight Self-Assessment!), and asking people you trust for honest feedback about how they see you. On a daily basis, check in with yourself on how you are feeling, what is happening in your day, what you have accomplished, and what you need to accomplish. 

Strategy 2: Ask Questions 

Never be afraid to ask questions. Why did something happen? How did it happen? What does it mean? Asking questions help you to better understand, learn, and grow. Whether you are asking yourself these questions, asking the people involved, or asking for an outside perspective, digging around will reveal more information that you can process and do something with. 

Strategy 3: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone 

This one can be a tricky one as stepping outside of your comfort zone often requires you to push yourself farther than you want to. But sometimes even just a tiny nudge past that line can bring forth new awareness and new opportunities. Our comfort zones are easy and well, comfortable. That’s why it feels so good to stay there. But imagine what can happen when you push out a little farther to see what else is out there. And once you’re outside of that zone, looking back inside, you just might see things from a new perspective. 

Strategy 4: Find A Champion 

There is nothing quite like having a cheerleader at your back to encourage you to keep going. Find someone who you can rely on to have honest and open conversations, someone who will support and encourage you, and – most importantly – someone with a good BS radar who isn’t afraid to say what is what. When you are tripping up on challenges and hurdles, that champion can help you navigate your way around it by getting you to talk about things from several angles. Their outside perspective might just be exactly what you need to open your eyes to see your way through. 

Strategy 5: Learn From Failures 

We all make mistakes. That is part of being human. But we don’t all learn from those mistakes. Every failure behind us is a lesson on what not to do. If you are feeling like 2020 is littered with failures, we encourage you to examine them more closely and ask yourself what you learned in each experience that will help you to move forward. Maybe we’re overly optimistic, but we’re pretty sure you are awesome and that no matter what happened this year, you learned something pretty special about yourself and your business…you just have to look for it. 

Strategy 6: Be Future Focused 

Learn from the past – yes. But don’t dwell there. Take the lessons and apply them going forward. Focus on what is ahead and start charting out the plans to get there. From a present-day perspective, recognizing what needs to be done and how, is critical to making things happen. Shift your perspective from what was (the past) to what can be (the future). 

Strategy 7: Document Your Wins 

Get into regular practice of documenting what is going well for you. Your wins can be big or small, count them all! In terms of your business, look at things like making a sale, signing new clients, winning a new contract, getting that post written (haha, totally our win for the day!!), finally signing up for that work-flow-management tool, answering all your emails, saying no when you should be saying no...you get the idea! When you get into the practice of consistently recognizing what is positive in your business and life, soon it will become easy to make the positive the first thing you see. 

Engaging in even just one of these strategies will help you learn how to shift your perspective. The more you can mix it up with these strategies, the better. We want you to roll into 2021 feeling good about this year. We don’t really know what 2021 has in store for us, but if you can feel good about having some tools in your back pocket to help you shift from feeling ‘meh’ to feeling ‘heck yeah’, then you’re definitely ahead of the game. 

PS Not sure you can handle a brand and social media audit on your own? We’d love to help! We offer Brand + Social Media Alignment Audits that come with a jam-packed report full of actionable items you can start doing asap to boost your brand and gain traction on your social media channels. Contact us today to learn more about it!