“Oh, it was ugly. I hadn’t been out singing karaoke in a few months, so when my gal pal Andrea asked me to go to sing recently, I decided to try a song I’d never sung before – you know that rather drippy but beautiful Bonnie Raitt ballad, “I Can’t Make You Love Me?”

It’s a fabulous song when it’s done well. But for whatever reason, I wasn’t on my game…at least not for that song. When I got up to sing, I immediately hit the wrong note, and then realized that I was probably way off key for the first few verses. Yikes! Now, if you’ve ever done karaoke, you know that you are on the stage, folks are watching, and you have the mic in your hand. Sort of one of those sink or swim moments. Just like business sometimes.

You are probably wondering what the heck my botched Bonnie Raitt song has to do with handling the challenges you encounter as a business owner. Well, if you’ve read any of my stuff, you know that I’m a big lover of metaphor. And in my life, there is no better metaphor for me than when I am singing (In fact, you can read a blog post from two years ago when I first started singing karaoke that is pretty funny and quite relevant. You can read it here.)

Let me tie my karaoke story into some examples of what you need to do to create a mindset for business success–

1. Take risks and try new things. It’s all about courage…in business and on the stage. Instead of doing the tried and true songs, I went outside of my comfort zone as I always have a desire to stretch myself. Do you do that in your business? Are you looking for ways to expand your product offerings or create fresh content? If you don’t grow, you become obsolete. It’s that simple. If I gave you the coaching assignment of coming up with three new ways folks could get to work with you, could you do it? Brainstorm that one because it’s a huge growth opportunity. Especially now…quit playing it safe!

2. Observe how you are doing and ‘being.’ Have you ever had moments when it feels like time stands still and you seem to be watching yourself go through life? That’s what it was like for me during the first minute of the song. I was just praying the thing would end, looking around the room for validation, and trust me…not really enjoying it. In business, do you have a way to be able to track or measure how “on your game” you are? Do you take time regularly to ask yourself how you are doing? Have you created trusted advisors or mastermind partners who are sharing their feedback with you? Are your customers invited to give you input so you can tweak and improve your performance? But mostly, are you slowing down enough to really FEEL how you are doing? That’s my request for you. Write up both tangible and intangible measures to observe where you are. Be honest, and do this on a regular basis. When you measure something, you’ll take better care of it.

3. Correct by being connected. After a few moments of really being uncomfortable, I remembered that I know how to sing, so I just willed myself to get out of my head, and into my body. In my head was all the negative chatter, which was making me crazy! When I finally said to myself, “shut up and sing,” I was able to relax, and allow the music to come through me, with much better results. The audience applauded, I was happier, and Bonnie would have been proud!

(This is such a timely article because whenever I prepare a talk, I get a chance to practice what I preach. I’m a speaker for Lisa Marie Platske’s Leadership Success Summit where I am speaking on “Insider Secrets on Creating a Million Dollar Mindset,” so my karaoke experience just helped me strengthen this for myself! Don’t you love how that works?)

Now let’s look at the application to your business. You have to try new things to stay fresh. You are going to fail or at the very least, mess up a bit. Things will break down, and people sometimes won’t love what you do. That’s just the reality when you are constantly pushing the edge of your comfort zone as you continue to grow and expand what you do and who you are. The trick is being able to self soothe. A successful mindset is one where you can observe yourself but not get caught up in whatever is going on. It’s about recalibrating constantly and staying focused on your goal. You have probably heard that an airplane is off course 97% of the time, but the auto-pilot is constantly correcting. The plane always lands at exactly the correct destination, but wouldn’t if it weren’t for the corrections along the way. I believe that the true measure of success is in how you recover from the mini break-downs.

What can you connect to as a way to stay grounded? For most of my business owner clients it’s the “Big Why” as I call it. If you can stand in the place of being connected to why you are in business and why you serve the people you serve, handling the little bumps in the road is easier. You can also connect to your spirituality as a way to remind you of what’s important in your life. And finally, connect with your clients. Pull out those testimonials; remember those stories of the times you made a huge difference in someone else’s life. This is truth with a capital “T” and not the small obstacles along the way.

So my friends, sing your heart out in what ever way you do. Just make the commitment to keep playing a bigger game because we need your gifts in the world!