As individuals surrender more control to employers, digital corporations, governments and external parties through technology and coercion - I increase gratitude daily for my independence as a business owner.

As a business owner I get to decide who I work with and how much I get paid for my product or service.

I decide on what I do today, this week, this month and this year.

I decide how many hours I will work, what I work on and where I work.

Within the virtual world - the 24-hour news media cycles, streaming services, email, social media and endless notifications constantly bombard us with toxic noise.

Within the physical world - family, friends, business partners, employees, customers, suppliers and community members can also bombard us with toxic noise.

One of the positives of last year’s lockdown was the opportunity to quiet ourselves and reflect on who and what we value.

By hopping off life’s merry- go-round for a while there was an opportunity to block out much of the toxic noise that invades us. This noise often prevents us from being the version of ourselves we wish to be.

Let’s do a stocktake of toxic noise and what we can do to tune in to our ideal frequency.

Author Steve Pressfield’s excellent book The Artist’s Journey presents one of life’s most incredible choices to us.

Pressfield outlines the typical path of our first journey, The Hero’s Journey. This journey is our initial career which is typically a planned and unspectacular progression down a ‘proven’ path.

Pressfield then presents us with the paradox of a second journey, The Artist’s Journey. Here the individual feels a pull or yearning towards another path – one quite different and challenging – requiring the individual to step away from the comfort or familiarity of life’s current position.

Let’s challenge ourselves to understand Pressfield’s proposition.

Many years ago, I was introduced to affirmations as a tool to enhance performance.

Affirmations accelerate your goal achievement based on the cognitive process of ‘Think. Say. Do.’

Think of a behaviour or attribute that you want to demonstrate or possess.

Say it (literally speak it out aloud) in the presence tense as if you demonstrated or possessed it now.

Do it. The combination of thinking and saying that you possess this attribute now, causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissidence is a state when your mind can’t hold two competing beliefs at the same time. It causes a feeling of mental discomfort or imbalance. The mind then gets drawn to one of the two competing pictures to restore balance.

It is foolish to think you will miraculously produce great work from a small sample of your offerings.

Soon your work will be supported by a congo line of raving fans.

Right?

Wrong!

To produce the ‘Hits’ you have to produce many ‘Misses’.

To get noticed in your niche, you have to be prepared to produce work prodigiously. There are no shortcuts in mining the fields because you don’t know where the diamonds are.

To demonstrate, let’s look at some of the greatest performers.

There is no doubt that 2020 taught us we don’t truly control anything.

The pandemic has taught us how little we control. In fact, the real lesson is that we only truly control our attitudes in responding to us losing control - the way in which we perceive, react and reflect upon the circumstances presented.

I’ve never seen or experienced so many of us facing mental health challenges and we are not out of this yet by a long way.

So what can we do for ourselves, our co-workers, friends and family to help us deal with challenges to our mental health?