“I wondered what a man I had encountered the day before on the plane en route to Chicago's O'Hare airport would have made of this. As he tried to push through a crowded aisle, he said loudly: "Life is never easy. And it's never pleasant." I couldn't let this go. I looked up at him from my seat and said, "I do hope life gives you cause to change that opinion. Otherwise you may find that opinion walking ahead of you, giving you more and more reasons to believe it.”
― Robert Moss
The more you develop your mindset the greater the mental toughness you will have. We are what we think.. regularly. It’s been said before but it’s worth remembering regularly. Because our predominant thoughts are recycled day in day out and that’s what essentially creates our world. A recent study suggests we have over 6000 thoughts per day.
To start I want to define what I mean by the term “mindset”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mindset as 1) “a mental attitude or inclination” or 2) “a fixed state of mind”. Our mindset is what dictates how we see the world. It’s the filter of perception that we use to make sense of our world. Here’s a story that I love that best eplains the concept of mindset:
[This] is an ancient fable about a farmer in a small village.
One day, the farmer’s only horse ran away.
His neighbors came over to console him, saying “We are so very sorry, this is horrible news! You must feel angry and sad.”
The farmer said “We’ll see. Who can know what’s good and what’s bad?”
The next week, the farmer’s horse returned, this time with a dozen wild horses following behind! The farmer and his son wrangled the horses up.
His neighbors commented, “Wow, what good fortune! How joyful you must feel!”
Again, the farmer said “We shall see. Who can know what’s good and what’s bad?”
The following day, one of the new wild horses trampled the farmer’s son, breaking his legs.
The neighbors then said, “I’m so sorry for you. You must be upset with this terrible happening.”
To which the farmer replied “We shall see. Who can know what’s good and what’s bad?”
Shortly thereafter, the country went to war, and every healthy young man was drafted to fight. But due to his injuries, the farmer’s son was not drafted. It was a horrible war. Almost every soldier died.
The farmer’s neighbors again congratulated him, saying “You must be so happy and relieved that your son did not go to war!”
The farmer replied “We shall see. Who can know what’s good and what’s bad?”
Taken From: Mindful Ambition - The Power Of Perception
We don’t choose our circumstances, we can’t control the world and its various happenings. What we do get to play with though is how we respond to the world.
We don’t dictate what cards we are dealt but we do get to decide how we play our hand. This is what we mean by mindset. It’s deciding, despite what life throws at you, to embrace it fully and to move forward despite its challenges.
It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
Epictetus
So with all this in mind, I will share my top 6 mindset hacks in the hope that they might serve you the same way they serve me. These are some strategies I use or concepts I think about to build a strong mindset that empowers me daily.
Strategy #1: Success leaves clues. The leaders you look up to have leveraged their minds to reach success.
Use that knowledge as an opportunity to learn from them, to see where and how they succeeded and failed. Read books and articles and watch videos that share the thoughts of your role models. Gain insights into what their mindsets were. How did they think? What was their thought process? With a bit of curiosity and research you can find the tools and resources that each of these leaders used to build their own mental toughness.
Strategy #2: Be grateful for your current mindset - it’s gotten you to where you are today.
Why is this important? Because ultimately the idea is not to bash yourself for how you see the world. When we were growing up our parents would buy us a pair of shoes. And eventually, a few months later we would outgrow them. We didn’t get angry at the old shoes because they didn’t fit anymore. We just acknowledged that growth had taken place, that our feet were now bigger, and that those old shoes had served their purpose. That’s how we need to look at our current mindset. It has served us in the past and serves us today and we can (if we so decide) be grateful for that. This acceptance gives us the freedom and the openness to explore other possible mindsets.
Strategy #3: Changing your mindset is about flexibility and being adaptable.
This strategy will require you to be willing to be pragmatic about your beliefs and how you view the world. This is so important for improving your mindset. It all starts with letting go, surrendering, your deepest beliefs so that you can make space and explore new ones that might serve you better. And it’s not saying you can’t come back to your original mindset or view about something. But it is about giving yourself the time to explore something new, to gain a new perspective, and to evaluate other options that could serve you more.
If you’re enjoying this article let’s connect on Twitter. That’s where I also share more of my thoughts and ideas on mindset and personal growth.
Strategy #4: Accept the discomfort that comes from changing how you view the world and the new habits you take on as a result.
Realize and accept that you will likely feel major resistance if you are attempting to take on a new view or belief of your world and rewiring your mindset. If for 5 or 10 years you’ve held as a belief that “Most people can’t be trusted and they are out to get me!”.. it might not be so easy to switch that belief off straight away and replace it with another belief that says: “Most people are kind and caring and want what is best for me.” Which leads me to the next point.
Strategy #5: Choose empowering stories that will support you in your life.
It’s not about your beliefs being right or wrong. Instead, it’s about choosing the type of story you want to tell yourself about what’s happening. This is a huge concept so read that again.. slowly. A mindset is created via a set of thoughts repeated over time that becomes your core beliefs. In basic terms beliefs are a lot like opinions. Two people can have conflicting opinions about exactly the same person or event. Just like the farmer and his son in the story above, when it comes to mindset, it’s less about the exact facts and more about how you spin a story around the happenings of your life. Which takes us to the 6th and final point.
Strategy #6: Be open and receptive to new ideas and remember that the mindset that serves you today may no longer serve you tomorrow.
A breakthrough or epiphany is a specific moment where a piece of information meets you at the right time and creates some massive change in your life for the better. We tend to latch on to these moments, to see them as the one and only solution, because that’s how it feels in the moment. Remember to always be open to new ideas and concepts that might blow even those old brilliant ideas right out of the water. Let your mindset always serve you and upgrade your mental software regularly with new and innovative ideas.
If you follow the 6 mental toughness strategies outlined above I can guarantee you will see your mindset grow daily. Over time you will gain more inner strength and you will develop the capacity to deal with challenging situations. As with everything, practice makes perfect so start implementing these tactics today and see yourself strive.
What are your thoughts?