As an entrepreneur, you know that personal growth is a constant process. You work on yourself, your business, and your entrepreneurial mindset.

However, no matter how much progress you make, there are always moments that can trigger old limiting beliefs and negative thoughts.

It can be frustrating to feel like you’re stuck in the same old cycle, your goals always out of reach, somewhere ‘out there’ in the distant future,  but it’s important to recognize that these triggers are actually a sign of growth.

In this blog post, we’ll explore why triggers can be a sign of growth, and how you can use them to become the best version of yourself and reach your goals.

Recognise Triggers as a Sign of Growth

Triggers are situations or events that cause a strong emotional reaction. They can be positive or negative, and they often relate to past experiences or beliefs. When you experience a trigger, your body responds with a physiological reaction, such as an increased heart rate, a tightness or contraction in your chest, you may feel it in your solar plexus.

Triggers are often associated with negative experiences, but they can also be a sign of growth. If you’ve been busy taking action in your business, while working on your personal growth and mindset, you will be on a trajectory of expansion.

This inner expansion creates tension – your subconscious mind is being triggered to warn you that you’re stepping out of your comfort zone!  It’s like a warning alarm alerting you that you’re heading into unknown, unfamiliar, and therefore unsafe, territory!   Consciously, you desire this growth and expansion, but the nature of it’s newness means your subconscious mind feels threatened by it.

Whenever I, or my clients, feel overwhelmed with either negative stinking thinking, or negative emotions, then I know it’s a sign that we’re on our path, and the most important thing to do is to stay conscious.  This means practicing detachment from the negative thoughts and feelings, and just observing them and letting go.

For example, let’s say you’ve been working on your money mindset for the past year. You’ve overcome limiting beliefs around money and started to see financial success in your business. However, when you receive a large bill, you feel triggered. You might think, “Why am I feeling this way? I thought I had overcome my money issues.”

The difference now is how you handle this situation.   You recognise the emotion.  I’d go so far as to say it’s worth celebrating the fact that you’re asking this question “Why am I feeling this way?”  Because that’s a sign that you’re not being dragged into the rabbit hole completely – you’re observing what is happening.    Reflect on your progress.   A year ago, this bill would have sent you into a full-blown financial crisis.  But now, you have the tools and mindset to handle the situation with confidence.

Compare your current reaction to a previous point in your life, and you’ll likely see how much you’ve raised your own bar, without even realising it.

Use Triggers to Become the Best Version of Yourself

Once you recognise triggers as a sign of growth, you can use them to become the best version of yourself. It starts with deciding who you need to become now in order to handle this next level situation.  What needs to happen now to serve your highest good and everyone involved?

One way to use triggers to become the best version of yourself is by reframing the trigger itself.  Instead of seeing triggers as setbacks and feel bad that you’re “Still being triggered“, see them as messages about where your next level growth is going to come from.

For example, let’s say you’re an introverted entrepreneur who has been working on your public speaking skills. You’ve made progress, and you’ve been doing great with live-streaming on social media.   But when you’re asked to give a talk to a large audience, you feel a sense of dread and fear.

Instead of letting these emotions control you, actually welcome them!  They are presenting to you the limiting beliefs that were hidden from view and are being triggered by the next level opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.

As the saying goes new level, new devil.

You can handle this by reassuring that fearful part of you by saying “Thank you, but I’m good.  I’ve got this.  It’s safe for me to do this” Visualise yourself giving a confident and inspiring talk, and then take the necessary action to make it happen.

Don’t let feeling triggered stop you from advancing forward and achieving your goals but equally don’t be under any illusion that there will come a time when you’ll never feel fear again.

Fear comes with the territory.  If we never felt the discomfort of growth and expansion, we would just go around in circles, never stepping into the highest and most powerful version of ourselves at any one time.

Don’t avoid your feelings.  Yep, even the icky horrible ones.  All feelings just wanna be felt.  When we avoid them, distract ourselves so we don’t have to deal with them and push them down, we get to keep them!

When you allow them to be felt, you lean in and you relax your body and breathe in the face of the negative feelings they can be transmuted and dissipate.

Love

Sanae

I hope you found this helpful.  I have a playlist on YouTube dedicated to mindset work and mastering your entrepreneurial mindset for greater success.  Check the videos out by clicking this link: Mindset Mastery: Slaying Your Fears and Busting Through Self Sabotage