I was on my way to tennis with Simon when I noticed a circle of people in the park early Saturday morning.

Eight adults. Eight dogs. Every dog and every owner perfectly still, waiting for class to begin.

“Look how committed they are to training their dog,” I remarked to Simon. “I wonder if they’re half as committed to training their brain.”

We focus on what we can see. Revenue. Expenses. Our dog’s behavior around the home or at the park.

But most of us never learned to pay attention to our own state of mind. Nobody teaches us how.

Here’s a line I often tell clients:

Our state of mind is an invisible line on our P&L.

It doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet.

But it shows up in every decision you make, every conversation you avoid, every read you get wrong before you notice what’s driving it.

An untrained mind works a lot like an untrained puppy. Left to its own devices, it follows its own priorities, which may not align with yours.

Your mind runs 24 hours a day. It never clocks out. And, unlike dog training, there’s no Saturday morning class for your brain.

So what does it actually look like to train your brain? Three things I keep coming back to:

Notice. Catch the moment you need to shift your thinking. The tell is in your language. You’re using words like always, never, can’t, everyone, no one. That’s black-and-white thinking, and it’s rarely true.

Pause. Breath is priceless. Three slow breaths change the chemistry of your brain. Give yourself that before you respond to anything that just knocked you off balance.

Name it. When a thought shows up dressed as a fact, like “this deal is dead” or “I’m not cut out for this,” add four words in front: “I’m having the thought that.” It doesn’t change what you’re feeling. It changes your relationship with it. A thought is harmless unless you believe it. A fact is already decided.

The founders I work with who handle pressure well aren’t the ones who never spiral. They notice sooner, so they recover faster.

Those dogs in the park aren’t training themselves. Their owners show up every week and work with them.

What would it look like to show up for your own state of mind the way a good owner shows up for their dog?

Until next time,
Margalit