Changing your mindset to get the results you want
I have just returned from an amazing trip to the Middle East where I was invited so speak at the Women’s Peak Performance Summit on changing the mindset. Set in the beautiful surroundings of the Anantara Eastern Mangroves and Spa in Abu Dhabi and lovely warm sunshine, a truly lovely experience.
It was a great trip in many respects, one because I was returning to the country where I lived in for 28 years and where I established a very successful business and made wonderful friends along the way. Secondly I was breaking through my own fear barriers of public speaking by changing my own mindset.
The talk went incredibly well and it felt incredibly empowering to finally push that old obstacle to success out of the way once and for all and I am left feeling excited and inspired to do more public speaking events.
The mind can be a prison or it can a garden that flourishes, all depending on what you choose to feed it with our expose it to. You can choose to grow weeds or you can choose to grow flowers, and it all comes down to the thoughts you think, the words you use, and the actions you take (or not).
A mindset focused in the right direction gets the results you are looking for. There are two mindsets; the growth mindset or the fixed mindset. In the growth mindset there is a lot of energy and action taking.
A person operating from a growth mindset will generally not perceive failure as failure but as an opportunity to learn, improve and do it better next time. They are genuinely happy for other people’s success, and they truly believe that if they put their mind to it they can achieve it. People operating from the growth mindset tend to get the results they want.
On the other side there is the fixed mindset. There isn’t much happening there, and it is all rather stagnant and flat. A person operating from a fixed mindset tends to give up as soon as they feel they have failed, they may also feel slightly threatened by another person’s success and they also do not tend to thrive as well as a person operating from a growth mindset.
Why not take a moment to reflect which side you may be operating from.
So what do you do if you find yourself in the fixed mindset too much? First of all, let go of judging yourself as to why you are over there in the first place. There are many reasons for this.
Let’s take a look at ways to move you towards a growth mindset.
WORDS
The thoughts you think and the words you use in your vocabulary have energy, impact and power behind them. Words such as can’t, won’t, try, should, impossible are all limiting words. The word but, for example, is normally followed by a negative statement: I would love to apply for that job BUT I am not clever enough, I would like to eat healthily BUT I haven’t got the willpower.
The same applies to the word don’t, the more we focus on what we don’t want, the more we attract it into our lives. If I were to ask you “don’t think of a purple elephant???, what are you thinking of right now?
Become more aware of the thoughts you think and the words you use. In communication and dialogue use words such as; can, now, will, possible, ready. There is action and movement in these words.
BELIEFS
Some of the beliefs you have are not necessarily useful or helpful for you in present time. They may not be your own and may come from what you have been taught to believe as a child. Maybe a teacher told you that you were stupid, or dumb, or someone told you that you are not good enough.
Some of the beliefs I have heard in my work with many people are “because my family are all diabetic then I will be too, or everyone in my family is obese so I will be too.??? These beliefs are not helpful for you in your life and as such may be impacting and sabotaging all that you are working towards becoming who you want to be.
Take time to reflect on what your own programmed beliefs are, and take steps towards letting them go and embracing new beliefs that support your growth, development and potential.
SELF TALK
It may be time to challenge the little voice inside that whispers “you are not good enough, clever enough, pretty enough??? and so on. You are enough, you are more than enough. Begin to acknowledge all of your achievements in life so far. Challenge that voice within by asking “is this really true???? When you hear “what if I fail???? Challenge with “what if I succeed???? Negative self talk will sabotage your goals and dreams.
Start today to implement new mindset behaviour to help to get you to where you want to be. Work with the three step process provided. Yes, change can be scary, yet it is incredibly empowering.
