Today, I am going to show you how to make the five most important mindset shifts to overcome your self-blockages as a solopreneur and thrive.

Your mindset is one of the most crucial cognitive processes your body performs. It consists of the perspectives, beliefs, and attitudes that shape how you interpret and respond to the world around you, including your one-person business.

Most people believe they are stuck and that their businesses don’t grow because they lack money or other resources.

The reality is different. Their mindset is fixed and focused on the wrong things, lacking curiosity and the capacity for adaptation, improvement and growth.

I will guide you from the despair and hopelessness of your self-limiting and self-destructive thinking and acting patterns to a healthy, high-flying, and positive mindset that will allow you and your business to thrive.

The greatest force is derived from your mindset. The more you work on it, the healthier and more powerful it becomes.

Until you can see and admit that you —your mindset— are the problem, you will not realise that you must be the solution.

The ancient Stoic philosophers preached that we can’t control everything. In fact, we can only control our minds (not even our bodies).

Therefore, the only way to influence your life and work as a solopreneur is to change, refine, or fine-tune your mindset.

Through the years of coaching solopreneurs, I’ve identified five recurring and utterly problematic mindset flaws that kept them back for good:

1. The Imposter Syndrome

2. Fear of Failure

3. Anti-growth and Scarcity-Focused Mindset

4. Negativity

5. No-Boundary Mindset

Let me help you become aware of them and their dire implications for your life and work as a solopreneur. I will then show you how to fix them with a twist—specially tailored to solopreneurs and introverts.

#1 Overcome the Imposter Syndrome

“I am not worth it”, or “Everyone will soon discover I am a fraud”.

This is one of the most common negative self-talk most solopreneurs hear in their heads.

Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, perfectly summarized her experience by saying that “her greatest obstacle was the voice in her head.”

She called that her obnoxious roommate and wished there was a tape recorder in her brain to record everything she told herself. That would help realise how important it is to stop negative self-talk.

That’s precisely how it works. Most solopreneurs know this because they often experience an intimidating internal voice telling them they are a fraud, that everyone will soon find out, and they will be brutally exposed.

This Syndrome is explained by the Cognitive Behavioural Theory (CBT) that confirms that our thoughts influence our feelings and behaviours.

In my experience, feelings and emotions are overrated. They are just our responses to external stimuli—the events in our lives. By changing how we approach life and work situations, we can change how we feel about them. Changing how we think influences our behaviour.

To overcome the Imposter Syndrome,, you need to reframe your thoughts about your feelings and shift to positive, rational behaviour.

The paradox is that there’s something called the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, which is the opposite of the Imposter Syndrome. It’s when you believe you are 100% on top of a job despite being totally ignorant.

Both are negative thinking patterns and can have a significant negative impact on how you behave and act.

No matter your competence in something, you must build confident self-esteem.

There are always things you may not know or be competent in (yet), but there are also many other things you already master.

Therefore, instead of focusing on what you lack, you should refocus on what you already have.

Keep this in mind: You have already accomplished amazing things most people dream of but never get to execute, such as quitting a more stable 9-5 job and becoming a solopreneur. That’s already a considerable achievement.

Yes, there may be things you still need to work on, but here’s a healthy take on that: 

We can’t know everything. In fact, we don’t need to know everything. This healthy mindset can soothe your excessive “I am not worth it” worries.

The more you let yourself stay in the Imposter Syndrome black hole, the more difficult it becomes to escape.

But not all hope is lost. On the contrary, all you need is a simple (yet challenging) mindset shift from self-doubt to self-esteem.

When I struggled with self-doubt and intimidating thoughts, I humbly reminded myself of all my achievements so far. We often choose to focus on what we have yet to achieve instead of the significant progress we’ve already made.

Here is how to shift your mindset from the negative “I am not worth it” to the positive “I am capable and I can do it”.

1. Reflect and acknowledge what you feel. A common mistake is trying to avoid all those intrusive thoughts and discard them as non-existent. That never works because they show up more powerful every time. Instead, you can journal and write down what you think and feel. If you do that, you will realise there’s a gap. Thoughts and feelings are not synced with reality. Clarify them and acknowledge their existence regardless of how odd or intimidating that may feel. Then, dissect them and get to the root cause. Ask yourself, “Why do I feel this way?” “What thoughts trigger those feelings?” “Are there any external stimuli or events that trigger my negativity?”. The more you understand how negative self-talk works, the less power it will have over you. So, next time you catch yourself struggling in harmful emotional black holes, observe and think about what triggered it.

2. Celebrate small wins. That may sound cliche, but it works wonders. Every win, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is worth celebrating it. Record your successes and regularly review the list to remind yourself of your capabilities and progress. You usually make it much further than your negative self-talk allows or instructs you to think. To ensure you record and celebrate your wins, plan them - instead of leaving them to chance. When you plan for your work and set goals (intentions instead), set the proper milestones. Those milestones will be the reference points for your small victories and mental “parties”.

3. Ask for feedback. I had a friend who suffered from Imposter Syndrome a lot. She felt she was not worth anything and that she had failed with her life and work. Whenever this negative self-talk took over, I reminded her how far she had gone and how much she had achieved. In the low self-esteem rabbit hole, we can’t turn our heads up to see the light. We look down to the abyss. When reminded of our successes - smaller or bigger - we reinforce a positive view of ourselves and our capabilities. It’s perfectly okay to seek feedback from others more objective than yourself. That’s not only normal but imperative to do. Understanding that others see your value can help counteract your feelings of inadequacy.

#2 Embrace failure as a learning tool

As an introverted solopreneur, I’ve often struggled with failure. Even the slightest hint of failing made me feel uncomfortable (to say the least). I felt intimidated by the possibility of making mistakes or outright failure. That fueled procrastination - I could declare myself a world champion.

No matter how hard we try to make failure look and feel good, it’s not. Trying to approach it in a positive way is not of much value. Failure feels bad, and we want to avoid it because we associate it with negative feelings. Those negative feelings are triggered by a flawed mindset that tells us that every little mistake or failure is a personal defeat and downgrades our worth.

Mistakes are part of life. You can only avoid mistakes if you avoid taking any action altogether. You don’t want that. 

We feel intimidated by failure because we take it personally. This is a manifestation of our ancient survival mechanisms, which try to protect us by instructing us to avoid anything similar in the future to avoid failure and risk and keep us safe.

We also usually focus on our failures while neglecting our wins. The famous basketball player Michael Jordan once brilliantly reflected on this. He said, “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Every failure is a step in the learning and self-improvement process. It’s not a personal failure. It’s a cognitive win.

Failures are data. Approaching them this way can help you take them objectively (not personally). The more often and quicker you fail, the more data you collect about what works and doesn’t. Every failure is a lesson.

You only have two choices:

• Have a blank failure book and be proud of it (but feel stuck with no progress recorded)

• Have a complete learning book and frequently record smaller or greater progress

Opting for the latter is healthy. Failure-aversion is a utopia and can lead you nowhere.

There’s another scientific theory that can help you reframe your thinking about failure. According to the Growth Mindset Theory, developed by psychologist Carol Dweck, people who believe their abilities and skills can be developed through effort are more open to trying new things and accepting risks and failures as part of their growth process.

The less you fear failure, the more you embrace challenges that help you grow yourself and your business.

Here are three ways to develop a healthy rational approach to failure as a learning tool.

1. Conduct post-mortems of your failures. Every time you record a failure, analyse it. Write down what happened and why. What was the root cause? Ask yourself Why at least 3 times to arrive at the core. What were the consequences? Were they that destructive, or did you survive with ease? What can be improved next time? Document your insights and use them as a manual for the next time you iterate the same task or activity. I would go as far as creating a personal “Book of Learnings”. After any significant (or more trivial) setback, write down what you learn and accumulate data and wisdom.

2. Practice mindfulness. It’s not about meditation or yoga (only). Mindfulness is a whole area of knowledge and healthy physical and mental insights that can help you deal with life’s adversity. Practising mindfulness can help you become more grounded and stay in the moment, even during a seemingly stressful situation (where a failure is imminent or has already happened). Take deep breaths, focus on and observe the physical environment around you (use your senses to become present by observing what you see, hear, smell, or touch in your immediate surroundings). Failure always has an emotional impact, and your goal is to build resilience so you can lower that impact and recover quickly to get on with your life and work. 

3. Share your failures. That may sound uncomfortable, even intimidating (especially as an introverted person). However, sharing your personal stories allows you to unload a lot of burden from your shoulders. It’s a way to express your emotions and release negative thoughts. Make a social media post about a recent failure or write a blog post with your latest learnings (acquired through surviving failure). Make your failures public. It’s incredible how many people have gone through the same. You are rarely the only one in the world to face the same struggles and make - the same - mistakes. Keeping your failures private can accumulate emotional burdens. Unload it. If you feel more comfortable doing it offline (not online via your social media or blog), be my guest. Pick a person you trust who knows and cares about you, and share your failures. I can guarantee they won’t even consider what you did a failure. But even if they did, you will still feel better because no failure is really the end of the world.

#3 Cultivate a Growth Mindset

I’ve already touched upon this above, but let me elaborate on it now, starting with what the wise Buddha said.

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” This statement has far more implications than you may think and exposes two crucial aspects of the right mindset.

First, your mindset is crucial for your growth. Your skillset is a set of abilities and competencies acquired through education, training, practice, and experience. Your mindset, on the other hand, is the set of your attitudes, beliefs and thought patterns that reflect how you perceive challenges, setbacks and opportunities for growth. Your skill set can help you grow only when it empowers you to apply a healthy growth mindset. Plain and simple, your skills are not enough to help you grow without the right mindset.

Second, if you don’t think, you can’t become anything. That is directly linked with the concept of depth. Buddha said you can become what you think, but what if you stop thinking? Unfortunately, most people today outsource their thinking to mass media and technology. Even solopreneurs outsource their thinking and writing to AI now. That is a substantial obstacle to growth. Thinking is essential. Deep thinking is even more so.

Per Carol Dweck’s theory, abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication: no effort, no skills, no growth. Avoid sitting on your couch after a dreadful 9-5 job every evening. Make the most of your days by learning new things, building a mindset focused on identifying growth opportunities, and acting upon them.

The right growth mindset is also a skill and can be acquired with training, practice and intentional experience.

Neuroscience has proven that engaging in challenging tasks promotes your brain’s neuroplasticity. The more effort, energy, and focus you spend on something, the more neural connections are made.

That’s how you change your brain physically (literally):

• Opting for action (versus inaction and passive consumption of pretty much anything low-value, like news, social media, and junk food)

• Learning new skills (versus letting entropy downgrade even your current skills)

• Expanding your knowledge zone (versus believing you know everything or being disinterested in any learning altogether)

• Overcoming obstacles (versus finding excuses not to act or playing blame-games)

Learning and effort are key components of a Growth Mindset.

Here are three ways to cultivate it as a solopreneur:

1. Embrace challenges. Instead of playing safe, accept the challenges that come your way in your personal life or with your solo business. View them as opportunities to either grow or fail and learn. Either way, you win. You always lose when staying away from challenging tasks or activities that expand beyond your current level of mind. Take on projects that may push your execution or creative limits (but still fall within your life’s purpose and your work’s scope). That’s how you expand. View growth as a positive expansion, not an opposing force that makes you uncomfortable.

2. Invest in learning. Most solopreneurs prefer to spend money on tools and ads than investing in themselves. You can’t expand if you don’t invest. You need an abundance mindset. Approaching learning as a cost is limiting your growth. Viewing it as an investment that will pay off can fuel your growth. I use a 3-level method to invest in learning. I read a lot (daily). Every month I learn a new microskill (that is relevant to my personal and business goals) by using free resources (like YouTube videos or tutorials on the internet) or paid resources (like a short course or seminar). Every 6 to 10 months, I invest in a high-ticket learning opportunity (like a long course, Mastermind or masterclass). I schedule everything so I don’t leave learning to chance.

3. Develop a Learning Environment. Learning is a personal activity, but without positive influence by like-minded people with the same intentions and aspirations, you can miss the mark. It may sound weird, but you have to surround yourself with growth-minded individuals who value and actively pursue learning and growth themselves. Unfortunately, you also need to let go of people you don’t sync with regarding learning and development. They can drag you down when you need people to lift you instead. I am not saying to reject or discard people from your life because of their growth or learning level per se, but how can you find the time and energy to invest in your learning if you spend most of your time with people who prioritise Netflix, going out late at night and gaming? There’s nothing wrong with these activities per se; they are simply not growth-compatible.

#4 Practice gratitude and positivity

During the early months of my solopreneurship journey, I was caught in a negative loop that I struggled to escape. In fact, I did not even realise I was inside it.

After the excitement of the new start of creating my own one-person business, I quickly drowned in negativity. My first client stopped investing in content marketing after a few months and had to cancel our contract.

I thought going solo would be easy. I felt that as easy as I found my first client, I could find the next one and the next one. Things were completely different in reality.

I had no lead generation process in place, and that hurt. “Is this how I am going to live from now on?” I wondered. “Perhaps I was too quick to quit my 9-5 job. Now what?”. Self-doubt had crept in.

I had no contract, revenues, leads, or prospects to work on. That was it. I was screwed and doomed.

I wasn't aware of this until a friend told me,, “Hey, you’ve made leaps in the last couple of years. Why are you treating yourself so badly?” That shook me.

She told me I was being pessimistic. Indeed, nothing would come easy peasy, but that’s life and business. I had to learn my lessons and quickly recover.

Gratitude and positivity go hand in hand. I was not grateful for what I had achieved and became fixated on my desired outcome. That mindset was flawed.

How can you move forward if you never appreciate what you already have and celebrate what you already are?

Most solopreneurs face this dual challenge. They fail to be thankful for their achievements and go into a negative emotional spiral that paralyses them.

I was paralysed. I remember not doing anything to reverse the situation. My heart beat fast. I had “butterflies” in my stomach - that feeling produced by stress and anxiety.

The moment I said,, “Stop and change!” was defining. I allowed myself a week to regroup.

During those 7 days, I reframed my mindset from negative to positive and from arrogant to grateful. 

It’s usually our ego that messes with our hearts and minds. We believe we are the best and know everything and the best is yet to come (without much effort).

Shifting to gratefulness and positivity can help you transform your thinking and motivate you to meaningful action.

Be grateful for the good things in your life. Going solo took courage that many people lack. Give yourself some credit and remember to accept things as they come, just like you did before, which helped you get to where you are now.

With gratitude comes positivity. Research has proven that with gratitude comes less stress and anxiety, better mood, and resilience. With positivity even comes a stronger immune system and better sleep quality.

This mindset shift can help you change your attitude toward challenges. Instead of approaching them with fear or as something negative, you can reframe your approach as positive and see them as opportunities to explore with curiosity.

Fear is a negative emotion. Curiosity is a positive one. You need positive emotions to guide your efforts (in life and work).

Psychotherapist Barbara Fredrickson proposed the Broaden-And-Build Theory, which suggests positive emotions broaden self-awareness and foster exploratory thoughts and actions.

With time, this mindset shift helps you build valuable skills and psychological resources that can help you survive and thrive.

Not being grateful and focusing on negativity can lead to limited, survival-focused actions. This won't help you break free from autopilot mode.

Here are three ways to foster a more grateful and positive mindset as a solopreneur:

1. Create a Book of Gratitude. Remember when I suggested keeping a book to write down your failures? In that same book, you can also note three things you're grateful for each day. It's simple and easy to do, but it can have a big impact. Without taking time to reflect, we can lose awareness in our busy lives. Spending a few quiet moments to think about what you've achieved, big or small, can boost your positivity and resilience. When things get tough, open the book and read about your successes. It will lift your spirits and help push away negative feelings.

2. Limit negative influences. To succeed, you need to shape your surroundings just like you do when learning. Constant exposure to negative things, like bad news and social media comparisons, can sap your positivity. The same is true for being around negative people. If you're surrounded by people who see challenges as disasters, effort as something to avoid, and growth as a burden, it will be hard to stay positive and thankful. Avoid negativity and toxic influences in any form.

3. Celebrate small wins. It might sound like a cliché, but it really helps. Every day, you achieve small victories, even if you don't notice them. We often focus on what we haven't done instead of what we have accomplished, no matter how small. Recognize your small improvements and progress to boost your confidence and stay motivated. Here's what I do: every evening, I think about my day and write down things I'm proud of in a special section. This could be a breakthrough at work, a moment of clarity, a nice experience during the day, or a kind word from a friend or client. Keep acknowledging these moments.

#5 Set healthy boundaries and respect them

Success is about priorities. I recently read something the famous author Stephen Covey said encapsulates the essence of boundaries. He couldn’t have found a better way to express this.

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically- to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by knowing what your highest priorities are”. 

The keywords are priorities, courage, and saying no. Being a people pleaser does not serve you, and being a self-pleaser does not serve you either.

You can’t focus on the right things that matter the most if you can’t say no to things other people ask for from you. You can’t find harmony if you can’t say no to wants and desires your perfectionist mind instructs you to do.

My mom grew up always trying to make others happy, believing she had to meet everyone else's needs, even if it hurt her.

Back then, saying no was seen as rude and selfish. I often tell her that people will always ask for things, and that's just how it is. I want her to understand that agreeing to everything isn't just short-term.

The more you say yes, the more people will ask. Without setting limits, it can negatively impact your life, success, and well-being.

As Stephen Covey said, it takes courage to set boundaries, but it's completely worth it.

Boundaries are essential for both your work and your overall life.

This is what I do every day:

• I set my own work hours and days. I usually don't work on Fridays, and sometimes not even on Thursdays. I stop working by 6 or 7 pm at the latest.

• I've learned to say no to p out of 10 things people ask for. If I later realize that something I said no to is actually important to me, I can always change my mind and say yes.

• I create healthy boundaries with clients. Both sides should know their territories. Trespassing is not allowed. I’ve stopped working with clients even if they were low-effort and high-pay because they kept breaching my boundaries (which I made clear to them). I’ve also told a client they have come too far intervening in my daily schedule and work. They know their thing, I know mine. 

Setting clear boundaries is good for you. There isn't much bad about it, except that some people might not like it, and it can be a bit uncomfortable when you have to say no firmly.

As Michelle Obama famously said, you need to (and can) do a better job putting yourself higher on your own to-do list.

Here are three ways to cultivate a healthy boundary mindset without taking everything personally:

1. Define your work time and place. Don’t leave work to chance. Set time and location boundaries so your brain gets wired to respect them without missing out on productivity. Decide which days of the week you work. Define your daily work hours (when you have to clock out mentally). Create a dedicated workspace (any other area is not designated for work). Schedule breaks and rest time and follow up on them. Decide on your connected and disconnected time (when you will be online or offline to dive into deep-focus work). Define your quiet hours (with no or minimal distractions) and your open-for-business hours. That’s how you can achieve a healthy work routine that caters for both productivity and depth.

2. Frequent priority check-ups. Boundaries are about priorities. But priorities change over time. Your needs and wants change over time. Therefore, it’s essential to schedule regular check-ups to make sure your priorities are well-defined and documented. Write them in your diary or keep the list as a digital note on your phone and regularly browse it to ensure it stays relevant and updated. I have my “5 Life Words” list with five top-level priorities for me (as a person and solopreneur) and sub-priorities under each one of them that define where I need to focus or expand. I revisit the document each month for my monthly self-reflection to ensure I follow up on them or add/remove subpriorities based on my changing needs and wants.

3. Prioritise self-care. That’s a vast topic, and I will touch on it here. Self-care is about all the actions and practices to maintain and enhance your physical, mental and emotional well-being. There are universally accepted self-care practices (like eating healthy, exercising daily, mindfulness, self-reflection, etc.) and customisable things (i.e. things that are on you to decide based on your wants and needs). Life is more than work; research has found that the less you work, the higher your productivity and the better the results—schedule time and energy to focus on your physical health. Do the same for your interests or hobbies (see more on Creativity 2.0 here). Schedule time for relaxation (even boredom can be beneficial in healthy doses). Self-care won’t be self-cared (pun intended). You must actively and intentionally pursue it and set boundaries to safeguard it.

Wrapping up

If you change how you think, you can improve your work and life.

Most of the time, what holds you back in your business is not a lack of resources but your mindset.

Once you realize this, you can see that the solution lies in how you approach things.

As a solopreneur, you face challenges every day. You have to do many different tasks without a team to help you, which can be stressful. Stress and pressure aren't helpful; they drain your energy and time, leaving you with little to focus on important actions or improving your mindset.

The key is to look within yourself. If things aren't going well, consider how your mindset might affect the situation.

• Does that thing not work per se? 

Or

• Is your mindset flawed, and you approach it the wrong way?

In most cases, it’s the latter, directly influencing one's ability to navigate challenges successfully.

A strong, healthy and adaptable mindset can significantly boost your resilience, productivity, success, and well-being.

When in doubt, opt for:

• Humble confidence

• Growth and abundance

• Gratitude and positivity

• Failure as a learning tool

• Clear and healthy boundaries

Fixing those five mindset flaws and turning them into positive mindset shifts for success will never fail you.

What’s next?

It’s all about mindset. As ancient Greek and Roman philosophers taught, we can only control our minds, thoughts, and actions. Focusing on this can help you avoid unnecessary struggle, get unstuck, and move forward faster.

If you need guidance getting unstuck and making those crucial mindset shifts, I can help, especially if

• you want to quit your 9-5 job and create your one-person business but are too afraid (or don’t know how) to redesign your lifestyle and transform your life

• you are a currently struggling introverted solopreneur (stuck in a wrong mindset)

• you are an introverted person struggling to leverage your introversion and unique superpowers and create your ideal lifestyle (that feels natural)

DM me on LinkedIn, and let’s explore how Mindset Coaching can help you move forward and claim what you desire and deserve for a life with purpose, meaning and enjoyment.