What About Mindset

A few weeks ago, I wrote about all of us being capable of more than we think we are. I was writing specifically about hiking at the time, but whether it is hiking, quitting a bad habit, establishing new habits, setting goals and following through, or any other action we may embark upon, I still stand behind what I said. We are all more capable than we think we are. Yet, many of us stop striving, quit before we get to the end, don’t follow through on goals, keeping succumbing to our bad habits (whatever they may be), and let ourselves wallow without coming close to our full potential. What sets those that don’t quit and push ahead apart from those that do, the ones that sit around wishing for something good to happen without putting in the effort to make it happen. In my mind, and I would hazard to guess that according to most life or business coaches, it all comes down to mindset; namely, what frame of mind we put ourselves in, how we view ourselves and the world around us, and what attitude we approach life and its problems with. If we fail to have the proper mindset, or don’t spend the time to work on and cultivate a mindset that will move us forward, then we are destined to be left behind, full of regrets, and unable to figure out what went wrong.

Having the proper mindset takes time and work. It takes being honest with ourselves, assessing our weaknesses and strengths, and knowing when and how to adjust our attitudes and frame of mind accordingly. It takes acute introspection to know what we need to fix with ourselves in order to improve and move forward and consequently then involves adopting a broader perspective of how we fit into the larger scheme of things and how we relate to those around us. If we are able to do all this in an honest manner, we can then start working on our mindset and adjusting it for ourselves and who we want to become. Its about realizing what we need for ourselves to make the incremental steps to become better. Everyone is different and there is no “one size fits all” method for doing this. We all have different challenges, different backgrounds and experiences that shape who we are, but a surefire way to figure out what can and will work is to talk to others and read. By finding out how others address problems and their mindset when approaching everything in life, we can gain insight and clues as to what might work for us in our own lives. Sometimes it can lead to an “ah ha” moment when everything just makes sense and fits and we know what we need to do. Other times its a slow process, incorporating one idea until it fits and works and then adding another until we build the framework for our own mindset that will work for us.

However we approach life, whatever we want to get out of life, we should always be checking ourselves and our actions, and most importantly our mindset, to see if we our setting ourselves up to achieve what we want. Everyone wants something different out of life, but most of us want to be happy. True happiness comes from being true to ourselves and in order to do that, we must know who we are and what we want. If we then work on our mindset and tailor the actions in our lives to fit who we want to be and back it up with the proper mindset, we can achieve true happiness. Mindset can be applied to so much more than happiness, but if we start with happiness as our goal, and work on shaping our attitudes to attain happiness, the rest will fall into place much more easily. For me, having the proper frame of mind or mindset every day is imperative. Often times, I fall into a slump or a groove where I need to re-assess myself and my thoughts and actions and re-orient them throughout the day. Some days it just flows easily and my mindset is on point all the time. Its a never ending struggle to keep the proper mindset, but the more I work on it, as with most things, the easier it becomes. These days, when I find the need to re-adjust my mindset, it is a much quicker process than it was years ago. Its because I put in the work and because of that, it becomes easier. Working on mindset is a conversation that I could carry on for pages and pages, but for now, start with introspection and an honest assessment of who you are and what you want. Then tailor your thoughts and attitudes to reflect those needs and desires and you will be on your way to shaping a new mindset for yourself. What is one thing you struggle with that working on your own mindset might help with?