Change your Mind; Change your World!
* This post may contain affiliate links that I receive a small commission off of (at zero cost to you).Please see my full Disclosure policy for any questions. I always appreciate any support to keep this site running!
Thank you!*
Do you often feel stuck in a rut of stress, constant complaining, struggling to find a positive outlook on your circumstances?
Don’t feel alone in this. We all have times in our life where everything seems to be going wrong, making us feel down and overwhelmed, but we’re not trapped in this place. We simply need to find our way out.
How do we do this though? We learn to master our mindset.
Let me tell you…
If you learn to master your mindset, your whole world will change.
The greatest thing about our minds — which we commonly forget during tough times — is that we are in control. We have the control over our thoughts and there’s true power in that fact.
I know it may sound crazy but, if you feel like you’re always complaining, feeling insecure, embarrassed, or asking “why me,” your brain has actually been trained to find things wrong in your life, relationships, and world.
I know, you’re probably saying “No, I didn’t train my brain to think negative all the time, this is how I genuinely feel.”
Whether you realize it or not, you’re constantly telling your brain what chemicals to make, look for, and how to feel. This also means you have the ability to turn things around and guide yourself in the direction of your dream life.
To be honest, before I started blogging – I dealt with so much anxiety and fear of putting myself out there. I’d keep a brave face for so long then one night just have to lay on my bed and let out a really good cry. Not about anything in particular, but just because I’d exhausted my mind so far that it needed one.
I had to work on my mindset, and after I did – everything changed.
I’m not going to lie and tell you that it was an instant shift and all was good in the world the day I started making changes. It takes time, effort and honesty to change your thoughts and beliefs that are so deeply rooted in your mind.
Changing the way you view your environment is vital to changing your mindset & getting the results you really want in life.
Here are 10 powerful mindset hacks that will change your life.
1. YOUR THOUGHTS SHAPE YOUR LIFE
The thoughts you say to yourself before you ever speak a single word to others are where it all begins.
I found in my own journey to change my mindset, that the first things I said as I woke up had a profound effect on the rest of my day and direction of my thoughts.
I was struggling with grief and decided to wake up each morning saying “good morning, I love you,” to the ones I’d lost and over time realized I was starting my days with more happiness and a better mindset overall.
Those simple words held so much meaning for me to heal, but more than that, the first thing I heard every single day was positive and fulfilling. Try to imagine a better way to wake up than to hear the most precious words we say to others and rarely enough to ourselves.
Waking up and instantly saying a loving, positive statement (even when it originally was meant for another) began to take hold and become a belief.
I even went as far as painting the words on my ceiling once I realized the power they had. Now I wake up and go to bed seeing this positive statement — instantly feeling calmer and happier.
Everything you do in life, your achievements, failures, etc. is shaped by thoughts in your mind. When you change your thoughts, your feelings and the way you take action follows. Everything is connected.
2. IDENTIFY YOUR THOUGHTS
Take a few moments to focus and identify your current thoughts.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Are my thoughts negative or positive?
Do my current thoughts support the results I want in my life?
Can my current results be traced back to a thought?
If negative, what can I think instead?
How do I want to feel?
Write down how you’re feeling right now, and ask yourself what is the thought behind this feeling.
The same way you can trace a thought that created a negative feeling, is how you can see the power a positive thought has. Thoughts spread like wildfire and we get to decide if it’s going to brighten our lives or burn them.
Write down the results you want in your life and work your way backward the same way you would plan a trip. Find the thoughts that support the destination you want to reach and repeat them every day, every time you feel yourself struggling, each night before you go to sleep.
Allow yourself to be fully driven by the positive thoughts that fuel you, rather than fill you up.
3. YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE PAST
As much as I wish we could, you can’t change the past. What’s done is done.
We’ve all had something happen in our life that we wish we could change, but unless someone invents a time machine it’s not going to happen. Sorry!
But having the right mindset about those past experiences which play such a large part in making you who you are is more important than changing them.
Dwelling on the past only allows you to live in it forever.
Running from the past doesn’t make it better, just unresolved.
Learning from your past allows you to process your feelings, adjust your mindset & make different decisions in the future.
You can also find comfort and power in knowing that what happened is out of your control now. You may have played a part in what happened before or none at all, but you can find release knowing there’s nothing you can do about it now and can move forward stronger & more knowledgeable.
4. DRESS FOR SUCCESS
Take pride in how you look throughout your whole day. We’ve heard the saying “Dress for Success” many times, but in regards to getting the job you want or being taken seriously.
I want you to start thinking of that saying for every outfit of your day.
- When you go to the gym wear a cute outfit that makes you feel good
- Working from home & still want to wear yoga pants and no bra? Same here, but I wear something cozy/professional that I still feel cute and successful in
- Wear the makeup you want to wear to feel confident, not the trend everyone’s doing that you’re not too crazy about
- Go to sleep wearing something you feel good in and you wake up starting your day in an outfit you like
The way you present yourself has a lot of effect on us and how we feel about ourselves, not just how others perceive us.
Looking in the mirror and saying to yourself that you love your body and feel confident is easier and feels more like a genuine thought when you give it the ability to be believable. If you tell yourself these things but then don’t give yourself a sliver of effort they feel like empty words and have less impact on your growth.
5. STOP WORRYING SO MUCH
Worrying is totally natural but letting it take over causes us to make decisions driven out of fear.
Eckhart Tolle said it best – “ Worry only pretends to be necessary, but serves no useful power”
I’ve spent so much time worrying about things I cannot change and have no control over — I can only imagine how many opportunities I missed out on by not even putting myself in the room of chances. It’s a waste of energy that could be used so much more productively.
Now, I understand you’re not going to read this and say “great, thanks! All my worries are gone. That was easy!”
It takes work and I constantly have to remind myself to stop doing it, but recognizing you’re doing something that doesn’t benefit you in the moment is a huge part of the battle.
We can all look back and find things we regret worrying about but we never realized we were losing time and missing opportunities as we were doing it. Learn to realize when you’re worrying about something, take a deep breath, close your eyes and ask yourself:
What am I really worried about?
What is in my control?
What steps can I take next?
Here’s some ways to shift your worries and actively change your mindset in the moment.
“I can’t afford that!”
What can I do to earn money to afford this?
“I hate the way my body looks”
What can I find on YouTube to help me start working out?
“I can’t stand doing everything on my own”
What do I have to do right now? Who can I go to for help with working on these tasks?
You had the answers all along, you just had to stop and find them within yourself.
6. EMBRACE WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL
Now, we’ve been talking a lot about control, but recognizing exactly what we are in control of can be tough when we haven’t stopped to focus on it before.
A huge mindset win is focusing on the areas of your life that are within your control.
These are the things that you have the power of changing.
Career & education
Health choices
Environment
Finances
Love life
Family values
People you surround yourself with
Your response to emotions
Words you choose to say to yourself & others
7. CREATE A STRONG FOUNDATION & GOALS
Ok, so you’ve learned about the power in your thoughts, how to actively recognize them, accept your past and start doing things to feel better about yourself.
These are all amazing steps that most people don’t take so be proud of yourself for already getting to this point!
The next step is to create a solid foundation of the goals for your life. How do you want your life to look and feel? Visualize it so clearly that you can perfectly picture it.
When you picture yourself as positive as you’ve ever been what do you see? What is making you happy? Who is making you happy? What does your morning and nighttime routine look like? What job do you have and love? What do you look like?
Creating a vision board for yourself is an amazing way to set your goals and keep them fresh in your mind. I love setting mine on my computer, laptop and iPad desktop but I also printed it out and posted it the wall next to my bed. From the moment I wake up until I go to bed I see the goals that are important to me.
This is my current vision board and I simply switch out the calendar each month:
8. OUTSIDE INFLUENCES ON YOUR MINDSET
As you saw in the list of things in your control, the people you surround yourself with is a big one! They have a lot affect on your mindset and life overall. You’re not in control of them, but you are in control of the time you give them — how much access do they have to your life & your mindset?
Being mindful of the people you bring into your life can be difficult, as it will mean letting some people go if they’re not willing to respect your boundaries & mindset.
At minimum, the people in your life should want you to feel your best & be supportive. If you get pushback on these very simple requests, you shouldn’t feel bad about having to make the choice of letting them go.
Quality over quantity!
Do an evaluation of the people you have in your life — including who you follow on social media. Unfollow anyone that doesn’t reflect or respect the values you have for yourself.
Social media has its pros and cons. It allows us to connect with loved ones and communities of people we’ve never met who share the same vision as us. However, it’s also one of the leading triggers of a negative mindset when used without boundaries.
Be selfish, think about you, the people you love, who loves you back and supports you.
Say goodbye to any toxic relationships — but let them know that if your values can align in the future you’re happy to be there for them the same way you’d want them there for you.
9. ASK YOURSELF THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Shifting your mindset around requires you to ask the right questions. Questions that have answers that positively support you.
For example:
How can I feel happier today?
How can I achieve my goal?
What relaxes me?
What excites me?
What am I capable of?
How do I want to see myself?
Who do I want to be?
What can I do today to move forward?
Start getting in the habit of allowing your mind to work FOR you, not against you.
10. ENJOY THE RIDE
A common mistake we all are guilty of when setting goals and working towards them is putting in so much effort that we forget to enjoy the journey.
There are a lot of miles between where we start and where we end up. Plus, often times, things turn out differently than we planned and change our lives in ways we didn’t even imagine — giving us more room to grow & forge new paths that didn’t even occur to us at our starting point.
It’s important that we enjoy the process, look at our progress to see how far we’ve come, be present in our lives, and enjoy the ride.
ACTIVITIES THAT CAN HELP SHIFT YOUR MINDSET
Meditate
Journal
Yoga
Long walks
Reading positive mindset books
Inspirational podcasts
Thanks for reading & we wish you the best!
Let’s do BetterTogether!