Learn why mindset is everything! Your frame of mind affects your thoughts, feelings, emotions, choices you make and the goals you set in life. Learn to control your mindset so you can take charge of your life.
Today I take a look at what mindset is, what it means, how it impacts your life and what to do to change it.
What is Mindset?
Your mindset is the sum total of your thoughts, beliefs, and how you see the world and your own place in it.
For example, if your mindset is negative, you will have a negative attitude towards life.
Whereas a positive mindset will lead to a positive attitude about life, a more can-do approach and a willingness to try new things.
A person with a negative mindset is unlikely to be a happy person, as happiness is a positive emotion requiring a positive set of thoughts, beliefs and attitudes.
You can also think of it as your mental inclination or disposition towards life, or your frame of mind.
I like to think of mindset as how I see the world around me, and how I see my place in the world, what I think I can do or achieve, and what I’m willing to give a try whether I think I’ll fail at that or be successful.
Why is mindset important in life?
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you are right!
-Henry Ford
Your mindset is important as it sets the tone for how you see the world around you and your place in it. It influences and creates feelings and emotions, and helps to define your attitude towards life or others.
In other words, your mindset absolutely influences every part of your daily life, how you see your past, and the goals you set for your future.
Your mindset will lead you to make assumptions about what is possible in life, or what you can and cannot achieve.
If you think that you will never succeed in life or in your career, then it will hold you back from asking for a promotion, or a pay rise.
If you think that something is too hard, you won’t even try to do it, or you will give up at the first hurdle.
So your mindset, your frame of mind, is very important in all areas of your life.
What are good mindsets?
The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.
– Anonymous
In 2008, Carol Dweck wrote a book titled “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” where she talks about a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
People with a fixed mindset believe that they were born a certain way, whether that’s intelligent, good at maths, athletic or even pretty or lucky.
It clouds all their beliefs about themselves.
It also means that when they encounter failure, or even just when something becomes too difficult, they give up.
Think back to when you were in school. Did you think you were good at maths? Or bad at it? How about your friends? And how did that influence how you approached maths lessons, or your choice of career after school?
Even now, as an adult, I encounter a lot of people who simply believe that they were not born with whatever magic ingredient it is that make you good at maths, or good at sports.
It affects many decisions they make at work or other areas of their life.
On the other hand, a growth mindset is when when you believe that anything can be learned, and that failure is just an opportunity to learn to do something better.
People with a growth mindset are more likely to give new things a try, because a mistake is just that, a mistake. It’s not a life defining characteristic.
Most people are a combination of both mindsets.
I have a growth mindset in about 70% of my life, but I have to be honest, that the other 30% is very fixed.
For example, I am quite good at trying new things. I find that rather interesting.
But in some areas of my life my mind is very fixed and I struggle to break out of it.
Either way, if you think you can’t do something, you won’t try to do it.
If you don’t at least try, you’ll never actually achieve anything.
Which means, you first have to at least THINK it can be done, and that it can be done by you.
In other words, mindset is everything! If you don’t have the right mindset you will not achieve anything in life.
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What is a successful mindset?
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
– Michael Jordan
Are you failing or are you learning?
Because a mistake is just that, a mistake.
It doesn’t define you.
If you are afraid of mistakes, you won’t try, and without trying you won’t succeed.
So first you must believe in yourself enough to think that you might be able to do something, then you try to do it, then you learn from your mistakes, repeat enough times and eventually you will succeed.
Any mindset that won’t try, or that gives up at the first sign that something is too difficult, is the wrong mindset for success.
Again, it comes back to mindset. Mindset is everything!
A person with a growth mindset won’t be afraid to give something a go, and when they make a mistake, they’ll simply understand that it’s an opportunity to learn.
They also understand that learning takes time, which means that they are less likely to give up when it becomes harder, or when it takes time to accomplish a task.
For example, I am trying to write a book about Positive Thinking.
For a long time I did not think I was good at writing, or that I even enjoyed writing.
I simply did not think that I would ever attempt to write a blog post, never mind a book.
It was a fixed type of thinking that caused me to make many assumptions about my life.
Somehow I have since discovered that I really enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts, my life and my feelings and emotions.
That realisation has helped me change from a fixed to a growth mindset.
I now genuinely believe that not only can I write a book, but that many people would enjoy reading it as well.
That change in self belief has changed the goals I set. I now regularly set higher and higher goals for myself and what I want from life. I believe that if I focus and persevere, play my cards right, and keep my thinking positive, I will eventually find success in any task I start.
Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.
– Chris Grosser
It makes me feel I have control over my life and my happiness and what I can expect from my future.
In other words, that change in my mental attitude from a fixed mindset to the growth mindset that I now have is directly affecting the future I believe I can build for myself and my loved ones.
I think, feel and believe that I have real control and power over many aspects of my life, my health, career/business, standard of living and my happiness.
I’m not afraid of failure, or making mistakes. I don’t worry about any challenges that I might face.
Like I said, mindset is everything!
Conclusion – It’s true, mindset IS everything!
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
– Mahatma Gandhi
So now you can see that a growth mindset is far more healthy than a fixed mindset.
And that what you believe you are capable of directly impacts the goals you set for your life, and the things you can achieve given enough time, focus and effort.
If you want to learn more about mindset and how to change your thoughts, mindset and frame of mind, then check out this in depth article I wrote where I give the exact steps I’ve used to become more positive.
