If you want to create a sustainable mindset, you will find three short, snappy but effective tips in this article to improve your Attitude and focus on opportunities, possibilities and solutions, and thus on actively shaping the future. If you would like to delve deeper into the topic of „Aligning a sustainable mindset“, you can find detailed background information in my article „Mindset - What it is and why it is so important„.
Shaping a sustainable mindset - but how does it work?
If you have ever read a book on the subject of personality optimization, then sooner or later you will come across the advice to shape your mindset. To develop it further and transform it from a static mindset into a Growth Mindset to change. It sounds easy on paper. But how exactly does it work in practice? And above all: are the Changes be permanent?
Even though the process behind it is of course very complex and extensive, it can be broken down into three simple (not easy!!) steps, which I would like to present to you in this article.
An important note here: The whole thing will only work if you approach it as a long-term project and plan a lot of time for training, practicing and developing habits. Unfortunately, creating a sustainable mindset doesn't work at the snap of a finger. But if you are ready to grow into your new self, then these three tips will soon serve you well.
Shaping a sustainable mindset Step 1 - Analyzing the current mindset
Only if you know where you currently stand and how your mindset is aligned can you implement the necessary changes in a targeted manner. This means that you need to take a courageous look in the mirror at this point and be radically open and honest about whether your current Mindset is more negatively or positively oriented. To give you a few ideas for your analysis, here are the most important characteristics of people with a negative mindset.
People with a negative mindset...
- See life as one big battle
- Focus on problems and always know what is not working
- See themselves as victims of external circumstances
- Think they are „finished“ and already know and can do everything
- Are masters at making excuses
- Complain a lot and give up immediately if something doesn't work out
- Thinking in terms of scarcity and believing that there is too little of everything
- Imagine in the brightest colors what can go wrong
- React passively to external events
- Make other people small
People with a positive mindset, on the other hand...
- See life as a great gift
- Focus on solutions and think in terms of possibilities
- See themselves as creators of their own reality
- Consequences of the philosophy of lifelong learning
- Take responsibility. For the good and the bad results
- Accept things that are out of your control and make the best of every situation
- Thinking in abundance and that there is enough of everything for everyone
- Dream big, set challenging goals and do everything to achieve them
- Embrace change and actively shape the future
- Make other people great
Have you got a rough idea? The next step is to ask yourself where you would like to make changes. Where do you see the greatest leverage? And which areas offer the best quick wins? Once you have made these decisions, you can move on to step 2 to make your mindset sustainable.
Shaping a sustainable mindset Step 2: Defining clear goals
„If you don't know the harbor, no wind is right for you.“ This quote from the philosopher Seneca describes this step perfectly. The more precisely you can formulate your goal, the more likely you are to achieve it. Or to be more specific: the more precise and detailed you work out your new mindset, the more sustainable the results will be later on. The following questions can help you with this:
- Which strengths would I like to build on?
- What exactly should my new mindset look like?
- Which beliefs can support my new mindset?
- Which area do I want to focus on?
- How will I recognize that my mindset has changed permanently?
In the final step, we now want to make sure that your new Attitude is deeply anchored in your subconscious. This is achieved through continuous practice and the formation of habits.
Shaping a sustainable mindset Step 3 - Conscious integration into everyday life
Focusing your mindset on positivity, recognizing opportunities and developing solutions for a day is relatively easy. But what about a week? A month or even several years? This is where the wheat quickly separates from the chaff. The third and final step is therefore about maintaining your newly designed mindset in the long term. And the best way to do this is to consciously integrate it into your everyday life.
If this happens long enough, then over time the conscious process will become an unconscious automatism that will do its loyal (and positive!) work for you from then on. How long does this take? This varies greatly from person to person. But on average it takes 66 days to create a new Habit (explained in detail in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear). So give yourself at least that long. However, it's even better if you don't see the sustainable shaping of your mindset as a short-term project, but as a lifelong task that never ends. This is the principle of lifelong learning, the internalization of which leads to real breakthroughs.
And if you would like a more detailed explanation of the ideas in this article, why not watch the accompanying video?.
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