Fast-growing and successful on the outside, inside battling our limiting beliefs. Negative emotions generated by our Judge, Controller, High-Achiever, Pleaser and Perfectionist saboteurs were wreaking havoc. What value did we each contribute? What should we do ourselves or outsource? Adept at leading our clients through these co-founder challenges, we humbly found ourselves stuck.

Enter stage… Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence. Shirzad advocates building our mental fitness, our capacity for handling life’s great challenges with a positive mindset. Similar to the time and energy we devote to physical fitness, our mental muscle also needs focused development. We committed to daily exercises involving scripted workouts to build our Sage mindset powers: Empathy, Exploration, Innovation, Navigation and laser-focused Action. Reframing our Saboteur negative thinking into a positive and creative channel, we powerfully unleashed our Jedi powers to focus upon our desires and choose thoughts that led to greater Ease & Flow. What we think drives how we behave and what we attract in our lives.

Applying these Sage powers, we recognized that our diverse thinking and operating styles generated both client value and wacky fun. We built our mental fitness and practiced bringing our Sage powers into day-to-day situations. Learning to quickly access our right-brain powers of creativity, innovation and possibility mindset, we showed up better to the challenges. We asked more open questions rather than rush to judgment. We looked for possibilities beyond what ideas we’d each come up with. Sometimes a simple visit to our “mental gym” included taking a walk into nature or adopting our fascinating anthropologist persona to remain curious and empathize from a different perspective.

This led to a renewed commitment to our partnership. Cultivating our Sage mindsets shifted us away from the more critical Saboteur mindset of judging, controlling and perfecting what we didn’t appreciate about the other’s style or contributions. With greater awareness of our mental Saboteurs, we became more open and vulnerable discussing difficult conversations.We better identified and embraced our diverse super-powers, and redirected our energy to find creative ways to tackle the tasks we didn’t want to individually do. Prioritizing more of what energized us and less of what drained us, was fulfilling. Our partnership grew stronger, and it reinvigorated our commitment to our Core Purpose, generating more Impact and partnership fulfillment. We still annoy each other, but that’s part of the fun wacky journey!

Being mindful as we shifted from fearful to fierceness in action, allowed us to unleash our Jedi positive powers, our Sage Powers. Juletta and I found more joy and fulfillment in our partnership journey when we strengthened our positive mindset and embraced a Sage path of opportunity, filled with greater Ease and Flow.

What fear-driven negative emotions have hindered success and productivity in your partnerships? What steps do you want to take to embrace a positive mindset, build your mental fitness and navigate towards the sage path of Ease & Flow? Shirzad developed a quick, free Saboteur assessment that I've used to become more self-aware of what negative mindset traps I'm susceptible to. I’m sharing it here in case you’re interested in exploring your unique Saboteurs individually or with your partner, www.positiveintelligence.com/assessments.

Lisa Foulger is a two-time MEA alum, recovered Corporate Executive living in Central America now serving through coaching leaders globally to make the lives of people, our communities and the world a better place! Her company together with business partner Juletta is GOL Global.