Entrepreneurship, Female Authenticity, and Hacking Happiness
Kristina Mand-Lakhiani is a serial entrepreneur, international speaker, artist, mom of two, and much more. She started her career in a government office in her native Estonia, and by her mid-20s achieved a level of success mostly known to male politicians at the end of their careers.
It was shortly after that Kristina and her husband Vishen founded Mindvalley. From a small meditation business, operating out of the couple’s apartment in New York, the company quickly grew into a global educational organization offering top training for peak human performance to hundreds of thousands of students all around the world.
Kristina helps her students to virtually hack happiness by taking them through her unique framework. Her personal life is as rich and plentiful, if not more, as her professional life. Whether it’s singing to her two children to sleep, playing the harp or immersing herself in classical literature, or going offline in Amazon jungles, Kristina is set on taking in every moment and invites us to do the same.
What We Discuss with Kristina Mand:
- Kristina talks about her personal journey of self-acceptance
- Dealing with the pressure of perfectionism and getting out of that box
- How to figure out what message to convey to your audience
- Kristina’s thoughts on parenting and dealing with your emotions
- How to move forward with your self-consciousness
- Anchoring your awareness on even the small things
- The power of curiousness and truly seeing yourself
- Some powerful insights into self-acceptance and self-love
- How to keep going with your business by going back to your why
- How the world is mirroring who you are
[02:45] Kristina’s Desire to Help People
Kristina made a successful career and happily married to a big personality in the personal development industry. By 40, she did the right thing by anybody’s measures.
She was living the “perfect” life until she was starting to feel incomplete. She discovered that such life didn’t glue to her.
When you see the things you don’t want to see, the next step is to start accepting them and still love yourself for what you are.
Kristina wants to translate this journey into a method that would help people stop living by someone else’s measure of what success is.
[05:45] Overcoming the Pressure of Perfectionism
We have an idea of what a perfect woman is and women are struggling with this. For men, perfectionism is about being strong.
If we don’t feel we fit this picture of perfectionism, we usually feel ashamed. Shame is one of the lowest emotions anyone could feel. It’s one of the most damaging emotions.
With all the photoshopping and filtering happening in people’s lives, perfectionism is a huge curse.
People love to compare themselves with others and this leads to misery.
We all have different roles. It’s natural that some are more important than the others. What’s not good is when you pretend to do a primary role that you feel isn’t.
[09:05] How to Figure Out What Message to Convey to Your Audience
Understand who you truly are and when you see yourself clearly and you accept yourself and love yourself for what you are, creativity stops being a question.
The easiest thing to be is to be yourself.
When you do what you love, everything just comes naturally.
[12:10] Conscious Parenting
Children do not forget what their true essence is. But the moment they go to school, parents tend to forget their role in their kid’s life. They think the school has to teach the kids everything.
We have to be conscious as parents. If parents forget to enjoy life and go to work they don’t like, if they put on those masks, they cannot teach their children anything else.
[14:10] How to Move Into a Life of Consciousness
Awareness
Be more aware of what you’re doing. We do a lot of things on autopilot. Start paying attention to what is going on.
Switch off your autopilot. For instance, put your toothbrush in another hand while you’re brushing your teeth. Then you start to notice things you haven’t noticed before.
When you’re eating, spend a minute to look at your food. Smell it and actually notice it.
These are little anchors that you place to remind yourself of consciousness.
Curiosity
The next step is curiosity. First, notice. Then be curious about why it’s happening. What does it mean? Where does it come from?
Consciousness is something you have to do on your own. It’s not as complicated as it’s scary. Just notice what you think and feel. And ask yourself why are you doing it.
Fear is what stops us and courage is what we need to go on this journey.
Self-Acceptance & Self-Love
The third step is to accept yourself and love yourself for what you are. This is the hardest thing. We tend to judge ourselves first and the rest follows.
As long as you’re doubting yourself, you can’t translate your truth to the rest of the world. Be clear about what your value is.
Whenever men show anything less than being alpha male, there’s a lot of potential for pain.
[25:55] Keeping the Faith and Hiring the Right People
Kristina had her fair share of business struggles. But going back to her why was what kept her faith. Just keep trying.
Try to find golden nuggets in your team through time and experience. These are those people who stick and manage to survive the hard times.
Look for people who take ownership of who they’re doing. The world mirrors who you are.
Don’t be afraid of being selfish. Selfishness comes from the void in ourselves. Understand that there is no such thing as too much love for yourself. You first have to learn how to love yourself.
Episode Resources:
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