Positivity Is Infectious

How do you wake up every morning? Is it with a glass half full feeling?

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a morning person. Finding me happy and chirpy with an “isn’t life wonderful” outlook is not going to happen, not until I’ve had at least three coffees.

No, I’m talking about something simpler than that. “I can” instead of “I can’t.”

Why This Matters So Much To Me

Indulge me in a little history. Thirteen years ago, I hit an absolute low. At my worst, getting out of bed was an achievement. Positivity simply did not exist for me. I struggled to survive. I had to, because of my children, but I hid the true severity of what I was feeling from almost everyone. Being a performer came in handy for that. Few people knew the real extent of what I was going through.

Running a studio doesn’t leave much room to fall apart quietly. You’re the one everyone looks to, staff, parents, students, and you’re expected to walk in every day with a smile and an answer for everything. So that’s exactly what I did. I put on the show, taught the classes, smiled at the door, and fell apart the moment I was alone. If any of that sounds familiar, I want you to know you’re not the only studio owner who has felt it. Most of us just don’t talk about it.

I did everything I could to help pull myself out of it, in whatever small ways I could manage. I built myself a positive playlist and put it on the moment I felt myself sinking, before I’d even had time to talk myself out of it. I stopped watching the news altogether, because news is mostly negative, that’s how it sells, think shock tactics, and it would only feed the spiral. I put a positive quote on my screensaver so it was the first thing I saw every single time I picked up my phone, dozens of times a day, whether I wanted to see it or not. None of these things fixed anything on their own. But stacked together, day after day, they slowly changed the direction I was facing.

Thirteen years on, I am a different woman. I don’t think the anxiety will ever fully leave me, and I’ve stopped expecting it to. I manage it now instead of being run by it. I am happier, more confident and more self-assured than I have ever been, and I run my business from that place rather than from survival mode.

So why the detour into my own struggles?

It’s simple. Positivity, even when I didn’t feel like saying it, even when I didn’t believe a word of it some mornings, is what helped me turn my life around. Not because I woke up one day and felt better, but because I kept choosing it, in small deliberate ways, until it became true. So here are a few things that can help you bring positivity into your own life, and your business, even in the darkest of hours.

Say Thank You

Every morning, say thank you. To who or what is entirely your choice. Be grateful to have another day on this beautiful planet, to have your health, your family, your students, whatever you choose to be grateful for in that moment. On the hardest days, this might feel like the last thing you want to do. Do it anyway. It doesn’t need to be big. Some mornings mine was as simple as “thank you for coffee.” That still counts.

Reverse Your Words

“I can’t” becomes “I can.” “I will achieve” replaces the doubt. For me, at times, that meant something as small as getting out of bed. Notice how often “I can’t” slips into your language around your business too. I can’t put my prices up. I can’t ask for help. I can’t take a day off. Start catching those sentences and flipping them, even when you don’t fully believe the flip yet. The believing catches up later.

Say “I Can Do This”

Four simple words, and they carry real power. Say them every morning. Make it a habit, the same way you’d brush your teeth. You don’t even need to finish the sentence, you don’t need a plan attached to it yet. Those four words alone will start your day on the right foot, and over time, they start to shape how you walk into every difficult conversation, every tricky parent meeting, every moment you doubt yourself.

Remember: It’s Often a Storm in a Teacup

There will always be things we don’t know, don’t understand, or still need to learn. Things that stress you, or that you keep putting on the back burner because you can’t find the heart to start. Life throws curveballs, running a studio throws you plenty of its own, and sometimes it’s genuinely hard to see the wood for the trees.

But as someone once told me, “this is a storm in a teacup.” Many things are. The parent complaint that feels enormous at 9pm on a Tuesday. The staffing gap that feels impossible to fill. The bill you weren’t expecting. Most of it passes, and things do get better, even when you can’t see how from inside the storm. In the moment you’re in the thick of it, finding even a small element of positivity will help you through, and it will help you think more clearly too. Panic rarely solves anything. A clear head usually does.

Keep Chipping Away

Take those challenges. Tackle those goals. Keep chipping away at them, one small piece at a time rather than waiting to feel ready to take them on all at once. “I can do this.” I know you can, because I’ve watched studio owners do exactly this, again and again, often while convinced they couldn’t. Set your mindset to positive and things will work in your favour more often than not. Trust me, I have that t-shirt, and I wear it proudly these days.

Want More?

If any of this resonates, you don’t have to work through it alone. Why not join me in The Den, where we talk money, mindset, profit, marketing and so much more. It’s a room full of studio owners who understand exactly what you’re carrying, because they’re carrying it too. Take a step in the right direction and push your business, and yourself, to the next level.

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