by Suellen | Meeting the Challenges, Success, Vision and Goals
Did you know that you can improve your mindset by improving your habits.? Those daily or weekly things you do over and over.
Changing your mindset takes time and work. There’s no magic that will let you do it overnight.
Yet adopting a few habits will make the process easier and take less time.
Let’s look at Five.
1. Create a morning ritual to get your day off to a good start
What makes you feel best in the mornings? What can you do to set yourself up for success every day?
One great habit as a Christian is praying. It’s like checking in with headquarters first thing. Thanking God for your life and that you know Him. Thanking Him for guiding you throughout the day.
Maybe it’s journaling over a cup of coffee or going for a morning run. Maybe it is taking a few minutes to stretch before you get in the shower.
It might even be something as simple as making your bed before you leave for work.
Figure out a ritual that works for you and prioritize doing it every day.
2. Reflect on your day
Every night before you go to bed, take a moment to reflect on your day. What went right? What went wrong?
Did you get done what you wanted to do? Why or why not?
What can you do to make sure tomorrow goes well?
3. Practice gratitude daily
Find at least one thing you can be grateful for every day. No matter how bad things might be going, you have some good things in life you can be grateful for.
Stop and be thankful for them every day. This only takes a few seconds and can be done any time of the day.
4. Always be working toward a goal
Big or small, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you always have a goal. You want to decide on a goal that stretches and challenges you. When you reach one goal, move on to another. Break big goals down into subgoals that will help you see quick progress.
5. Start journaling
Use prompts to write a journal entry about your mindset 2-3 times a week.
Or free write, and see what comes out. You don’t need a fancy journal; a pen and a sheet of paper or a notebook are all you need.
Again, these habits aren’t magic. They won’t change your mindset overnight. What they will do is support you and help you along on your journey.
They will motivate you to keep going when things get tough and to feel your best. That will help you cultivate your growth mindset.
When you change even tiny habits, they add up to make a big difference in your life and in your work.
For More Information about Setting Your Goals, Go Here.
by Suellen | Meeting the Challenges, Online Success, Vision and Goals
Failure!! Ugh!! No one likes it!
Everyone wants to succeed, preferably on the first try. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic. You’re going to fail on your journey to improve your mindset and change your life. You’re probably going to fail many times.
If you are reaching out for growth, you will fail sometimes. Remember the stories. Babe Ruth for many years held the record for most Home Runs in Baseball. (He also held the record for most Strike Outs). Thomas Edison is well known for inventing the light bulb. (What isn’t as well known is that he finally succeeded after 10,000 attempts).
So failure is a stepping stone on the way to success! Think of it that way.
So how should you handle failure constructively without getting frustrated? These tips should help you.
1.) Figure out why you failed. Look at your failure analytically. What caused it? What did you do wrong? Is there something you could do differently next time? Or was the failure outside of your control?
2.) Change things before you try again. Did you approach the problem wrong? Change how you do it next time. Were the conditions wrong, the timing? Were you adequately prepared? These are all things you can remedy before your next attempt.
3.) Ask for help. Don’t be a lone wolf! Life is hard, and challenges often require the input of more than one person. Find someone with more knowledge and experience than you and ask them to mentor you or help you solve the problem. You can find someone to help you with any problem, big or small, from an academic issue to work problems to dating. You just have to ask!
4.) Look at and appreciate the progress you’ve made. Sure, you might have failed, but did you learn something? Are you further along than you were before? Of course. Look at how far you’ve come since you started on this journey. Appreciate it and congratulate yourself before tackling your failure again.
5.) Consider adjusting your expectations. In other words, did you try to go too far too fast? You’re not going to create a masterpiece (or become CEO) overnight. Did you try to improve too much at once? Look at your expectations and adjust them before trying again. Remember the one-percent rule -improving by one percent each attempt will get you to your goal faster than trying (and failing) to make big leaps.
Above all, don’t give up! You can reach any goal you set your mind to. You just need to find the right way. It took Thomas Edison over 10,000 tries to invent the light bulb. He used to say that he hadn’t failed; he’d just found 10,000 ways that wouldn’t work!
You can put this knowledge to work for yourself. Follow the tips above to evaluate your failure, adjust what you’re doing, and try again. You can do it.
For more hints on Goal Setting for you and your clients, go HERE.
by Suellen | Meeting the Challenges, Vision and Goals
We humans are an impatient lot. When we want to do, achieve, or get something, we want it today, if not yesterday. This leads directly to impatience and frustration. It leads many people to give up when they’re on the verge of success.
Success takes time. Achievement takes time. Learning a new skill takes time, even if it’s something simple. Have you ever watched a young child learn to do something you take for granted, such as learn to walk?
Success is halting, uneven, often looks like going backwards, and sometimes involves falling on your backside (or your face).
The same is true of doing more difficult things as an adult. It takes about 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. That’s almost 5 years of full-time work! This is why it’s said that we overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in ten years.
This is where the One Percent Rule comes in. It allows you to make visible, satisfying progress rapidly without expecting overnight success. It’s a simple rule: when you attempt to do something, aim to do it one percent better than before. Or finish one percent more.
If you practice this rule and do so faithfully, before long you’ll have mastered the skill or finished the task. Perfecting something is hard; doing it 1% better or finishing one percent more of a task is relatively easy. It’s a goal you can see and reach almost immediately.
You can apply this rule to anything.
Are you trying to learn to live by a budget? Aim to do 1% better each month.
Are you trying to increase how much you save? Increase it by 1% per month until you reach your ultimate goal.
You’ll see the progress every month but not feel a lot of pain from it.
Do you want to improve your self-talk? Set a goal of achieving 1% improvement every week or month.
Trying to start and keep an exercise routine? Once you get the habit down, aim to increase it by 1% a week.
Using a software program to learn a new language? Make your goal completion of 1% of the program every time you log on.
The uses of this rule are infinite. It’s one of the best ways to improve your mindset and achieve the personal development you want. It will fulfill your brain’s desire for immediate gratification and simultaneously fuel your long-term success.
by Suellen | Meeting the Challenges, Vision and Goals
O.K. We don’t like to hear this, but it’s true! Growth happens outside of our comfort zone.
If you want to experience personal growth, any growth, but particularly massive growth, you’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone. You can’t grow while you stay within your comfort zone.
Hint: They call it “comfort zone” for a reason! Makes you think of a big pillow, a warm blanket, and a mug of hot chocolate.
When you’re in your comfort zone, you’re comfortable. You may not be happy, but you’re not going to be totally miserable. And you’re static. There is nothing to challenge you or push you. Things are rolling along as normal, and you’re caught in the normal day-to-day flow of life.
This is a fine state of affairs if you’re happy with life, but what if you’re not? What if you want to grow and change and find a better way to live?
In the latter case, staying in your comfort zone means stagnation. It means life passing you by until one day you wake up to find yourself too old to live the life of your dreams and you wonder what happened. If you don’t want this to be you, you need to step outside your comfort zone.
Discomfort isn’t pleasant, but it’s where growth happens. Your brain and body have to respond to challenges (discomfort) and this catalyzes new growth and development. You can cause personal development and deliberately change your mindset by challenging yourself. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the response, and the more personal growth that happens.
That doesn’t mean you should schedule skydiving lessons for next weekend, however! Going too big too fast can also backfire on you. This is particularly the case if you’ve stayed in your comfort zone for a long time. Start small. Take a new route to or from work every day for a week. Try a new restaurant. Shop in an unfamiliar store.
Next, make a list of experiences you would like to have and things you would like to do. Start marking them off. Plan these things, commit time and money to them, and even tell other people you’re going to do them so you’re less likely to back out. Start planning for the biggest thing on your list.
Mark had always dreamed of rafting through the Grand Canyon. So one day, he decided to stop just dreaming, and start doing.
First, he planned the trip. He booked it for a couple of years away. So it was on his calendar and his deposit was paid, He was cammitted. In 24 months, he was going to be floating down the Colorado River.
That was a big, scary challenge. Certainly those “what have I done?!!” voices started. Yet he was committed.
What next? Mark scheduled rafting lessons. He went on local day trips. Then short camping trips. When the time came, he was ready.
You can do this no matter what the goal. Think about some big dreams you have for your internet or writing business. Then commit to them – maybe by telling others. Then plan for a year or two ahead. And begin the preparations you need to do to make this happen.
Step outside your comfort zone, challenge yourself, and change your life!
by Suellen | Meeting the Challenges, Vision and Goals
Janet was offered a promotion at work. – a promotion which would have brought her a greater future. However, acquiring some internet skills would be required, and she knew that she couldn’t do the job.
Janet had never been “techy.” She figured that her mentality was geared more toward arts and not tech.
So she let the promotion pass her by.
Janet was suffering from a thing called “fixed Mindset,” and this attitude caused her to let many opportunities pass her by.
There are two basic types of mindset: fixed mindset and growth mindset. Of the two, growth mindset is the preferred one, but that’s not to say there is anything inherently wrong with having a fixed mindset; it’s just a different way of viewing the world.
And that mindset can limit you just as it did Janet.
Furthermore, few people have a pure fixed or growth mindset. Most people have a combination of the two, and they might have different aspects of each in different parts of their lives.
A person’s mindset is also changeable and changes naturally through time or due to conscious effort.
See how you can Overcome Limiting Beliefs and share these ideas with your community.
All of that said, what is a fixed mindset? A fixed mindset believes personal qualities and attributes are fixed at birth and aren’t able to be changed or improved upon. An example is intelligence; someone with a fixed mindset sees that as a fixed quantity bestowed upon a person by the genetics.
Other things someone with a fixed mindset sees as fixed include things like skills and natural talent. For example, a fixed mindset person might say “I’m just no good at sports” and downplay the possibility of improving their skills through practice.
Skills are given from the fixed mindset viewpoint, not earned.
People who have a fixed mindset often seek safety rather than opportunities for growth.
They see challenges as obstacles rather than learning opportunities.
They also tend to take constructive feedback as a personal attack rather than using it to improve their skills and performance at work and elsewhere. After all, if skills and attributes are fixed, why try to improve?
A fixed mindset leads people to give up on things they’re not immediately good at and to move on to other things that come more naturally. Some also give up when they feel frustrated.
One final disadvantage of a fixed mindset is that it can lead to a tendency to feel envious of or threatened by other people’s success.
There are two big advantages to a fixed mindset, however.
The first is that it forces people to embrace reality.
The second is that it avoids problems with unrealistic optimism.
People with a fixed mindset are usually the hard-core pragmatists and realists who keep other people on the ground.
Again, most people don’t have either a purely fixed or growth mindset.
And if you don’t like your current mindset, guess what? You can change it!
