Are You Owning Your Mindset?

Every day you have a choice. In fact, every day you have thousands of choices. Many unconscious, many conscious. You have a choice on what your attitude is. What your reaction is. What your demeanor is. How you treat others. How you respond to the challenge put in front of you.

Our days are made up of moments. And, it’s entirely up to you on how you live each moment. It doesn’t mean things won’t get hard. It doesn’t mean adversity won’t come daily. What it means is that you have to take an intentional stance on how you will respond to anything that comes your way.

So, how do you harness this positive mindset on a more consistent basis?

AWARENESS

First, you have to become aware of it. What triggers you? When do you get negative? When do you start to gossip? When do you complain? If you need to, start writing it down in a journal or piece of paper. Keep a tick sheet of your negative reactions. Both internal and external. I think you’ll be surprised at how many you default to.

OWNERSHIP

Second, you must take ownership of it. If you don’t own your mindset, you’ll get crushed. Our default is to over react and flee when tough things happen. Our brains are wired for survival. The moment something tough happens, our default is to run and hide. To survive. It takes awareness and really owning it to stay the course and keep a positive mind.

INTENTION

Third, be intentional about being more positive. Think before you speak. If you catch yourself complaining, stop and think about how you can take on a more positive stance. This takes time. It won’t happen overnight but if you can get just a little bit better each day…just a little more intentional each day, you’ll be blown away by the results over time.

Remember, we all have a choice every moment of everyday. $–t is going to happen to you. It just is. The better we can get at anticipating this and embracing the challenges we face, the better results we’ll see.

It’s a battle to build a positive mindset. But the more you’re aware of it, own it and are intentional about staying positive, the greater the likelihood for positive results.

I tell you this as someone who’s battled a negative mindset in many facets. From being a college athlete and struggling mightily with mindset after I got benched to losing a big account a few years ago – I’ve been there and I’ve failed. By the grace of God, I surrounded myself with some great influences and learned about the importance of a consistent, positive mindset on a moment to moment basis. I can tell you first hand that you will be stronger for it. Whatever comes your way, take a breath and find the diamond in the rough. It’s in there.

Adversity always leads to opportunity…you just have to look for it.