positive mindset

Your mindset plays a huge part in how you view yourself and the world. With thousands of thoughts in your head, you essentially talk to yourself more than anybody else.

The mind houses our emotions, judgments, worries, and secrets.

Because the mind is such a powerful place, it’s important to constantly grow and adapt your ways of thinking. Work on shifting your mindset to embrace new perspectives.

In this post, I’m sharing some mindset shifts that have positively improved my life. Keep in mind that I am no master of these things. But I can usually pick myself up from a bad situation and turn it around with the help of these mindset shifts.

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Cultivating Your Positive Mindset

1. Trust that better things are coming

I’m lucky that I’m naturally quite optimistic. No matter what happens to me, I’ve always been able to keep moving forward. Part of this is my belief that better things will always come to me if I work hard and don’t give up.

When I was at a job that frustrated me daily, I found other ways to keep myself sane. I went for walks and listened to music or podcasts. I started a blog. I also made an effort to try harder at work so I would spend less time complaining about it.

I wasn’t going to be there forever. Things fell into place and I was allowed to create my dream job. Better things always come along if you’re open to the possibilities.

2. Increase awareness of your current mindset by seeking feedback

Seek feedback from those whose feedback you trust will be truthful and fairly objective, and ask them about what positive and uplifting energy they might experience simply from you being you. Also, ask if they can provide examples of how they feel your mindset hinders you rather than helps you.

Asking others for feedback can be a challenging step. By doing so you’re showing you’re considering change. Beware that friends and family can often be bulls in a china shop eagerly dishing you advice and criticism from every angle. If you’re not ready for this, your soft, tender emotional belly will become an unwilling punching bag.

Remember that you’re not looking to solicit judgment or opinions. You’re asking them to share their observations and experiences. This exercise is purely to help you gain heightened insight and choose where you might start practicing making changes.

Thank them for their feedback, and park it into a box that you will go back to and review later.

Your afterthought might well be to simply empty the box! However, there also might be some truth to the messages they’re giving.

3. Recognize unhelpful thoughts and language and practice reframing them

Don’t hesitate to catch yourself mid-sentence and work on reframing your words and language. Being able to catch yourself is a skill but you can become nimble with practice.

Go back to the unhelpful thoughts you came up with. “I can’t do this” might gently become “I feel like I can’t do this.” “That will never happen for me” might become “It hasn’t happened for me yet”.

Pay attention to the difference that different words make you feel. Notice how different sentences make you feel and look for the difference it makes to how others respond to you. Asking yourself if you would speak to a friend or child in the way you speak to yourself can draw incredible self-awareness of how your language works against you.

It can take a few training-wheel sessions with a coach or therapist to help you develop reframing techniques. Applying them long enough for you to start feeling and noticing a difference. The investment is well worth it. The benefit of this skill not only charges your positive mindset; it also has a vicarious flow-on effect on those around you.

4. Carefully choose situations to plant the seeds of your positive mindset

Keep it simple to start with. Only choose one or two contexts where you could practice more positive behavior and/or language changes.

Choose wisely, though. Avoid starting with situations where you feel – or have been told – you should.

‘Should’ is a word weighted with expectation. It also implies you need redemption because you made a lower-handed choice in the first place. You knew what you could do, be, or say and chose not to. That’s heavy stuff! It’s not the best starting point to try cultivating a positive mindset. Trying to develop from situations tarnished with the stamp of reprimand always feels harder.

Avoid trying to make a massive mindset turnaround in a short space of time. You’ll be met with raised eyebrows. Not being annoyed when your mother-in-law comes around unannounced and stays for hours yet again, might be too big a mindset challenge.

Like a tree seedling needs a foundation of good soil to have a fighting chance, a neutral situation will give you a good foundation to practice and grow your positive mindset.

Consider a simple situation that is likely to repeat itself in your everyday life:

  • Greeting people at work when you arrive.
  • Picking up your coffee at the same café each morning on your way to work.
  • You and your partner’s morning routine before you both head separate ways to earn your living.

Choose contexts where you are emotionally and mentally indifferent and where you could – not should – test simple behavior or language adjustments. You’re looking for calm steady waters you can set sail on to test new positive mindset strategies, and then observe how people respond to your changes, without pressure, and expectation.

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If you could start with just one mindset shift today, where would you start? Remember, like any shift, creating new shifts to cultivate a healthy mindset takes time. Your brain will need time to adjust to new shifts.

I want to hear from you. How will YOU cultivate a positive mindset?