And get closer to your purpose in life.
What is a mindset and how can it help you discover your purpose in life?
This week we will continue the discussion on shifting your mindset and deepen it with talking about how you can shift your mindset and how important it is in your journey to getting closer to your purpose in life.
What is a mindset? A mindset is the way you process, react and understand the world around you, events in your life and the people in your environment. You can have a positive mindset, which means you perceive the world around you in a positive way such as the things people say and do are viewed in a positive way with understanding, empathy and compassion. A mindset gives you the ability to be mindful of the way you present yourself to the world, to your friends and family, the way you react and how you think.
Your mindset is the single thing that will enable you to live a more meaningful life or inhibit you and continue to keep you in the cycle you want to avoid.
I will share my 10 step process to understanding yourself, your mindset and how you present to your family, friends and community, as well as, how you begin to explore and learn about the type of mindset you want to adopt and how. It is a process which takes time and effort but the benefits of shifting your mindset is invaluable.
10 steps to shifting your mindset!
1. Self reflect!
Self-reflect on who you are, how you react to various situations and scenarios and how you feel. What do you notice about the way you act or behave in various scenarios? Are there certain patterns you noticed? What tends to upset you more? Make you happy? Are there particular words or tones or body languages that affect you more than others?
Self-reflection is the first step to connect deeper with yourself. I talked a lot about self-reflection in episode 3 and wrote a blog post with tons of great information for you to get started! The most important aspect to self-reflection is to be open and honest with yourself. Recognize your emotions, your actions and your mindset in the moment.
2. Journal!
Keep a record of your self-reflection! Writing down the scenarios you reflect upon and your emotions allows you to visually see how you process information and react. Especially identifying and illustrating your mindset. It allows you to review and analyze yourself so you can recognize patterns and perhaps allow you to make realizations that you may not have known to been blind to before. Jackie talked a lot about how journaling helped her in her journey and continues to do so in episode 2. My blog post on journaling also shares tips on how to start journaling for yourself with a list of options at the end of the blog.
Remember I also have a free journaling resource available to you once you sign up for our newsletter!
3. Ask friends and family for honest feedback on you, your mindset – the good and the bad!
Those closest to you see you and know you best! So why not ask them for an honest depiction of how you process information, what your mindset is like and how they perceive you as a person. Some key and very important things to remember are:
- Don’t become defensive!
- Be vulnerable and humble!
- Don’t justify or explain the action or what you said when they are providing feedback
- Listen!
- Write the feedback down in your journal to keep track!
- Thank them for helping you!
It is so incredibly important that you do not get upset, defensive to justify why you acted or said what you said in relation to specific events that your family and friends bring up. They are trying to help you understand and connect with yourself deeper and shift your mindset so you can get closer to your purpose in life. If you start to become defensive, you will miss out on a special opportunity to connect deeper with the person providing the feedback. It takes a lot of courage to give feedback to a friend you cherish so you have to make sure that your friends and family feel comfortable enough and encouraged enough to share openly without a filter.
Receiving feedback is difficult and is not a natural process so remember to be kind to yourself. Write down the feedback and put it away for a few days and come back to it and reflect. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to know how your family and friends may feel or perceive you, but remember you are doing the hard work to become a higher version of yourself and be the best version of yourself for yourself, and your community.
4. Read books and pay attention to your emotions!
Read a variety of books – non-fiction, fiction, sci-fi, romance etc. – and pay attention to how you feel, think, react and the stories you are enjoying and those you are not. Additionally, take note of the characters you are drawn to and those you are not. Which one’s do you like and don’t like? Why? Write down your thoughts in your journal and reflect upon these notes.
Reading can bring to light a lot of feelings and scenarios you may or may not have gone through or will go through so it is a great way to see how you would react, and how your mindset has impacted your perception of the characters or situations. It is a great way to learn new skills, as well as, learn more about yourself!
Next week I will do an episode on the 15 books that changed my life and will link them on my blog so stay tuned!
5. Take inventory of your environment!
Taking an inventory of your environment is something a lot of people don’t consciously do but can honestly make a huge difference in you life, your mindset and where you want to go.
Take an inventory of everyone in your life, those close to you, those you have had a falling out with and those who you interact with in your life. What are their traits? How do they react in situations? What is the mindset that each of these individuals carry? How do you feel around the people around you? Are you comfortable sharing deep thoughts or emotions?
Write it down in your journal. Keep track of the traits you are drawn to and those you are not. For the people you are close to, ask yourself why you are close to them and how you feel about your relationship. For those you are not as close or have had a falling out with, ask yourself why? What happened? How did you react?
Remember! It is key that when you are self-reflecting, taking inventory and shifting your mindset that you do not analyze other people. This is only about you and you are the only person in control of your happiness. Do not blame others for your relationship but rather look inwards to ask yourself what and why you had a falling out, how did you contribute and would you want to reconnect?
This will be a blueprint of the environment you have currently and the one you want to create as you get closer to your purpose in life. Surrounding yourself with encouraging family and friends is key, but more important than that is to surround yourself with people who are not shy to share their honest truth with you about how you are reacting, feeling or how you can shift your mindset to better approach a situation. Those people are the golden key to success.
6. Listen to podcasts on self-improvement.
Podcasts have grown in popularity over the past few years and there are so many great podcasts to listen to and learn from. Listening to podcasts is to learn about the characteristics and mindset that others have and how they process information that you would like to learn to apply in your own life.
The podcast does not have to be only about self-improvement but can be anything that interests you and the trick is to pay attention to how the person is processing the information and reacting. What traits, mindsets or behaviours do you admire? Which mindsets do you wish you could have? Keep track of these stories so you can go back and reflect when you need to.
My favourite podcasts for improving myself are:
- On Purpose by Jay Shetty
- Highest Self by Sahara Rose Ketabi
- Side Hustle School by Chris Guillebeau
- Unruffled by Janet Lansbury
- #MOMTRUTHS with Cat and Nat
- Wrongful Convictions
And of course! How did you learn to do that? Podcast is a favourite hehe!
7. Connect with people who have shifted their mindset already and you admire!
Reach out and connect with people you may know or may not know but you admire their mindset. Learn from these people by asking questions about how they shifted their mindset and what tools they used that may be valuable to you too. How has shifting their mindset changed their life? Learn as much as you can from people who are further along in their journey.
I am always happy to chat with anyone that reaches out to learn or connect, so please feel free to reach out to me!
8. Get a life coach!
A life coach can be a professional life coach, a counsellor, a friend, a mentor or anyone that can coach you through life. A life coach is someone that helps you navigate your world and life during good and bad times. It is someone you can contact when you have had an argument and want a neutral perspective without judgement and awkwardness the next time you see them with your partner or whomever you had argued with.
Life coaches are rising in popularity because of their value in helping you get through life with the knowledge and tools to learn how to create the space for yourself to be happy and enjoy life.
9. Try it out!
Practice applying all the skills you have learned and the mindset you have created for yourself. Connect with someone from an empathetic and genuine place! Try reaching out to someone you know you have difficulty speaking to without becoming upset, apply the skills you have learned and shift your mindset using the tools you now have and see how the interaction goes. Write it down and reflect upon it. Practice again and see how it goes. Keep trying!
10. Be the most encouraging person you know!
Pay it forward! Be the most encouraging person you know in any room you are in! Encourage others to explore and connect deeper with themselves. However, ensure you are compassionate and do not force anyone to do this work unless they are ready to!
As you begin to shift your mindset, continue to work through these 10 steps and you will begin to start noticing the difference.
Reflect! Learn! Apply! Repeat!
How did you learn to do that? Podcast
The How did you learn to do that? Podcast shares stories of people who have made small daily commitments that have changed their lives. It has helped them discover their purpose, increase their level of happiness and become a higher version of themselves. Investing in yourself has the ability to catalyze your life from ordinary to extraordinary. Join us weekly as we explore the stories and lives of those around us!
Join us weekly as we explore the stories and lives of those around us!
