“A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” ~ Arthur Fletcher
The mind is a powerful and extraordinary thing. And, your mindset shapes your happiness, success and ultimately the direction and destination of your whole life.
Essentially, “mindset is a way of thinking; it is a habitual opinion or attitude that affects thinking”, explains Aaron Jarrels, a Licensed Therapist, and Certified Motivation & Mindset Coach. “A strong and growth mindset is confident, focused, determined, and maintains a desire to learn.”
Your life is a reflection of your habits and thoughts, and habits and thoughts are driven by your mind. Thus, the mind is everything… you become what you feed to it and what you focus on.
By developing the right mindset you can achieve almost anything. A growth mindset on the other hand, rewards those who want to get better at something. When you believe that you are capable of learning to do something, it sparks hope in the future.
Thus, it’s important to design your mindset and life for growth, learning and continuous expansion and improvement. Here are several steps:
1. Positive thoughts and outlook. Use positive thoughts and words to evoke feelings of strength, confidence, courage and success about yourself. Practice being kind and loving to yourself. You need to be able to keep yourself encouraged. Focus on the traits and skills that you like and that are productive, because what you focus on expands. Direct your thoughts towards the belief that you will succeed and achieve your life’s goals. But if you fail, embrace the failure, analyze, learn and grow from what went wrong. Give yourself credit and kudos for having the courage to try.
2. Build systems and a routine. Before you can permanently change your thoughts, you have to change your habits and behaviors. You must take responsibility and be accountable for you actions and behaviors. Discipline, patience and long-term perspective breed a positive mindset because you’re motivated by results and concentrating on achieving your goals. Delayed gratification is a key trait of successful people, states Jarrels. If you cannot control yourself and your desires, you will always be a slave to your impulses. When you develop the ability to maintain self-control, you conquer your biggest foe, your impatience. Owning your faults and how you respond gives you the power to change them.
3. See beyond today and maintain a long-term perspective. What the mind believes, the body achieves. Believe you can win. Visualize and focus on the end result, creating a mental image of the future you’re striving to achieve. Visualizing the desired outcome allows you to begin to accept the possibility of achieving your desired outcome. Perception is reality and the brain can be positively hacked with this simple strategy. And, be mindful of your tongue. If, you catch yourself saying “I can’t” you should stop immediately and replace it with “How can I?” Doing this will prime your mind and brain to look for possible solutions that were not imaginable prior. By asking “How can I?” you are creating a place for the desired outcome as well as the path to get there.
4. Step away from safety and liv outside your comfort zone. Operating in an stress free environment and using a limited set of behaviors won’t increase your performance or growth. It’s facing your fears and dealing with your challenges that allows you to realize your goals and to grow mentally, physically and emotionally. If you take risks and are willing to accept and learn from setbacks, nothing can stop you! Remember, if it scares you and makes you uncomfortable, it’s probably the right course of action to catalyze some next level personal growth.
High performance and growth is not realized when you’re comfortable and steering clear of stressful situations. You’re restricted by your self-imposed limiting beliefs. Becoming abundantly successful in whatever goal you want to achieve is simply a mindset shift away.
Developing a strong mindset takes the decision not to give up. It takes a willingness to grow and become more than you currently are now. It takes a strong determination to focus on what’s good, what’s going well and what’s positive in your life. It takes living a life of faith, rather than a life of fear.
Additionally, a strong mindset is one that sees, what others call failure as lessons and successes as steps along the way.
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” ~ Buddha
References:
- https://aaronjarrels.com/how-to-develop-a-strong-mindset/
- Peter Oakden, There’sNo Such Thing as Luck: 4 Steps to Abundant Success, Muscle and Health Magazine: The Wealth Issue, Fall 2022, pg. 89.
- https://www.setquotes.com/a-mind-is-a-terrible-thing-to-waste/