It's important to note that mental health problems result in over 70 million workdays being lost each year in the UK, costing employers almost £45 billion annually. This highlights the critical need to reassess our approach to mental well-being, emotional strength, and intentional behavior, especially within leadership roles.

To achieve lasting success, business owners, CEOs, and driven professionals must focus on controlling their thoughts and emotions to take intentional actions. Utilise a robust framework that incorporates daily routines, clarity, and the benefits of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and hypnosis to stay aligned with your objectives and strengthen your mental fortitude.
1. Thought, Emotion, and Action: The Triad of Success
Every result we see in our businesses starts as a mere thought. Research in cognitive psychology shows that our thoughts shape our emotions, and our emotions heavily influence our actions (Feldman Barrett, 2017). When we cultivate high-quality thoughts daily, we build a positive mindset that empowers confident decision-making.
From an NLP perspective, we see that language and mental imagery reinforce these thoughts, becoming "anchors" that stimulate certain feelings. This interconnected triad—thought, emotion, and action—is the essence of effective leadership and sustainable personal growth.
Actionable Insight: Begin your day by consciously setting positive intentions that align with your goals, thereby anchoring your thoughts to actions that reflect your long-term vision.
2. Establish Daily Rituals and Non-Negotiable Time
The most successful leaders dedicate time each day to specific rituals—activities that foster focus and reduce decision fatigue. These might include meditation, exercise, journaling, or visualisation. In hypnosis and NLP, these activities are termed "state control techniques," enabling you to maintain the ideal mental and emotional state for peak performance (Bandler & Grinder, 1976).
Non-negotiable time for mental resets can dramatically increase resilience against stress, resulting in enhanced productivity. Implementing even 10-15 minutes each morning to centre yourself can significantly enhance your ability to make clear, purpose-driven decisions.
Actionable Insight: Schedule "non-negotiable time" daily for mental resets. It could be as simple as a 10-minute mindfulness practice or journaling session to realign your thoughts with your purpose.
3. Clarity on Goals: Your Roadmap for Success
Without clarity, even the best intentions can lead to scattered effort. Leaders who invest time in clearly defining their goals are far more effective in creating actionable steps to achieve them. NLP and cognitive restructuring techniques encourage individuals to "chunk down" their big-picture vision into manageable, actionable items that maintain focus and momentum (Dilts, 1999).
Hypnotherapy has also shown efficacy in helping clients visualise goals with heightened clarity, providing an essential mental rehearsal that can improve confidence and focus. Visualisation primes your subconscious mind to work towards a desired outcome, increasing the likelihood of goal attainment.
Actionable Insight: Set aside time weekly to review and refine your goals. Use visualisation techniques to mentally "rehearse" the steps you’ll take, reinforcing these goals in your subconscious mind. I prefer to write mine on a whiteboard personally, but do it anyway you find most effective.
4. Regularly Reset with Purpose-Driven Activities
Building a sustainable approach to mental health involves scheduled resets that realign you with your core values and objectives. Purpose-driven activities—those aligned with personal and professional values—are proven to boost emotional resilience and motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). This means actively engaging in tasks that recharge your spirit and reinforce your larger purpose.
Leaders who build regular "purpose reminders" into their schedules can significantly reduce burnout and increase focus. Whether it's mentoring a team member or attending to a personal hobby, these activities serve as reminders of "why" you do what you do, providing fuel for sustained ambition.
Actionable Insight: Set a weekly "purpose reminder," a task or activity that reconnects you with the "why" of your journey. This could be as simple as a brief reflection on your achievements or a quick check-in with a mentor or coach (if you have one).
5. Harness the Power of Your Mind
Hypnosis and NLP reveal the mind’s incredible ability to influence behaviour, showing that through repeated affirmations, visualisation, and suggestive techniques, we can "reprogram" our mental frameworks to work in our favour (Kirsch, 1996). For executives and leaders, this means cultivating habits that reinforce a growth mindset, using neuro-linguistic tools to guide you towards constructive beliefs and behaviours.
Aligning your mental strategies with your goals will build resilience, making it easier to manage the inevitable challenges of high-pressure leadership roles.
Actionable Insight: Incorporate affirmations or self-hypnosis exercises into your daily routine. These should be specific, positive statements that reinforce your values and commitment to your goals. As a coach I aim to make these affirmations client specific and personal, remember you must focus on positive words so the statement is uplifting and stay away from statements that imply "not what you desire" or "less of something" you want to avoid.
Final Thoughts
Success is not just a result of action but of alignment between thought, feeling, and purpose. By establishing mental resilience through structured daily rituals, intentional goal-setting, and purpose-driven resets, you create a roadmap for sustained focus and growth. The mind is a powerful asset; when harnessed correctly, it becomes the greatest tool for your journey.
At MTR performance coaching, I endeavour to guide you through all of the above with practical application with our one-to-one sessions so that you can understand your values, needs and how to organise these effectively to build healthy habits both in your personal and work life.
Remember, the journey to focus starts within. With commitment to these practices, you’ll find clarity, energy, and the resilience to achieve any ambition.
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Enjoyed this post...Leveraging the Power of Focused Thought for Lasting Success
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Author: Mark Tanchoco Reid, Founder of MTR Performance Coaching
References
1. Mental Health Foundation. (2020). “Mental health in the workplace.” (https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk).
2. Feldman Barrett, L. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Pan Macmillan.
3. Bandler, R., & Grinder, J. (1976). The Structure of Magic I: A Book about Language and Therapy. Science and Behavior Books.
4. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). "Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions." Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67.
5. Dilts, R. (1999). Strategies of Genius, Volume 1. Meta Publications.
6. Kirsch, I. (1996). "Hypnotic enhancement of cognitive-behavioral weight loss treatments—Another meta-reanalysis." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(3), 517-519.
7. Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). "Self-regulation, ego depletion, and motivation." Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1(1), 115-128.
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