The Mindset and the effect it has on a happy life:
When we have a static mindset, this means that our personality, our intellect and creative characters won’t ever change, and this will stunt our growth and prevent us from living a happy life. We continuously strive for perfection, trying our best not to fail, as we have been brainwashed into believing that failure is an indication that we are not intelligent or skilled enough to succeed in life. Is your mindset holding you back from living a happy life?
Believing that your mindset can never change and that your personality and values are concrete, is like being on a hamster wheel going nowhere! Where you feel you need to justify who you are, and you feel that you have to prove yourself over and over again in your career, in your relationships, with self-evaluation and this will begin to consume you. In a static mindset, imperfections are frowned upon, especially if you do have talent. Parents will often make the mistake (with the best intentions in their hearts) that their children are smart when they succeed. In turn, they may believe as adults that smart means they have to succeed and that failure means they have failed or are not intelligent enough to succeed. What we should be telling children is that being smart actually means being able to adapt and learn – and that is a success on its own – and in turn, the best mindset to have. As a life coach, I have seen this way too often with adults.
On the other side of the spectrum….
We have something known as a growth mindset. And this mindset is a lot more liberated, where challenges are welcomed, our outlook is almost always positive, and failure is a gateway to growing emotionally and professionally.
The growth mindset is really about the hunger to learn more rather than seeking approval or setting unrealistic expectations of yourself. It is about having a deliberate mindset, a focused mindset, that harnesses your creativity, your relationships and your career choices in a positive way, allowing yourself to live a happy life. This mindset is great because it is a blank canvas for you to create, develop and reach your full potential! This means you can take your most intrinsic values and ideas and these can be nurtured and developed through you making that effort. Everyone has the capability to change, learn and grow.
Here are a few of my tips for you to change your mindset:
1. Focus on what you can learn and improve:
It is pointless trying to prove that you are worthwhile when actually, you could focus on your future and BE better naturally, by investing in your life and your happiness. It just takes a little bit of work, a change in mindset, and I would suggest investing in a life coach to guide you through the process of change.
2. Get rid of what slows you down:
Why choose people who only stroke your ego, but don’t challenge you enough to grow? Yes, it can be unsettling being out of your comfort zone, but this zone is where you stagnate. Limiting beliefs and harbouring past negative experiences that have scarred us can also hinder our growth mindset. You need to be able to let go of the past and to change your beliefs. This is key in letting go of what is holding you back.
3. Get out of your comfort zone:
The only way you can change is when your mindset is in the growth stage and leaving your comfort zone behind. There is a quote I love by Neale Donald Walsch “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. Do something you have never tried before. You have everything to gain, and nothing to lose.
The static and growth mindsets, which we adopted at a very early age, have a lot to do with how our behaviour develops as we reach adulthood, how we deal with our relationships, and how we tackle failure in all aspects of our lives, which in turn, will affect our ability to lead a happy life.
It really is down to the power of changing your mindset, both consciously and unconsciously, and how changing even the simplest of them can have a profound impact on your happiness and your pathway to success, and using a professional life coach is one of the best ways to unleash the power to make these changes.
