5 Powerful Strategies for a Positive Mindset
When you start a new journey – business, entrepreneurship, goal, fitness – if you don’t have a positive mindset, we may have already lost.
What does this mean? It means:
- how do you respond after the initial excitement wears off?
- what do you do when obstacles present themselves?
- how do you feel when a curveball is thrown your way?
A positive mindset will allow you to maintain your systems, motivation, and grit during the Highs – when you build your mindset – and during the Lows – when the resilience of your mindset is tested.
Throughout my coaching practice, a few strategies have presented themselves. Let’s get into it!
1. Practice daily gratitude
This is a big one. When we practice daily gratitude, it shifts our minds from what is going wrong or what we don’t like to what is going well, what is going right, and even what a less-than-ideal situation can still offer us.
Implementation:
Gratitude journal – write down three things you are thankful for each day.
Tell one person in your life why you are grateful for them each day.
If you are in a less-than-ideal situation – bad job, bad manager – write down each day because you are still grateful for that job.
For more check out this article about other ways you can be grateful.
2. Understand your Why.
This one can take a little more time. When you understand your Why, you have your internal compass that will guide you through harder times or more difficult decisions where there isn’t an obvious answer. It keeps you focused and zeroed in on what truly matters, helping you stay optimistic and motivated.
To get started ask yourself these questions:
- What motivates you? (i.e. goals, family, achievements etc.)
- What do you love to do and why do you love it?
- What brings you fulfillment in life?
- When do you feel the most alive and energized?
- What are you willing to sacrifice or work hard for?
For in-depth reading – Start with Why by Simon Sinek
3. Surround yourself with supportive people
“Show me your friends and I will show you your future.”
“We are who we surround ourselves with.”
“If you hang out with 5 successful people, you will be the 6th.”
You’ve heard similar phrases many times. They are all saying the same thing – the people we surround ourselves with matter significantly to our mindset.
Do the people around you lift you up, encourage you, help you grow, support you, allow you to be vulnerable? If not, that doesn’t mean you need to cut people off, but maybe you need to start moving a few new social circles.
For more, check out this article about the power of healthy relationships, or this one about the importance behind a strong business network.
4. Revisit goals regularly
Revisiting goals is an easy one to overlook. People talk all the time about setting good goals, using the SMART system, breaking them up, rewarding yourself, but we need to revisit our goals too. This allows you to keep things in focus when things get tough.
A great way to start with this is to dream long term – what could things look like in the next 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
Practice – pretend you are being interviewed, write this down as if its 5 years from now, get so detailed you can see, hear, feel, these dreams, then spend 15 minutes each week to reread these dreams (read goals)
- I know you have had some incredible accomplishments! I was reading the article that was just published about you in Forbes. Incredible stuff!!! What does your typical day look like now and what are you most proud of?
- What do you feel like has been the thing you’ve done that has had the most impact on either your team in general or on your immediate family and friends?
- From what I have read, all the things you have done have been incredible, but you don’t take all the credit. You give a lot of credit to your team and your collaborators. I’m curious, who is all on your team that helps so much and of all your collaborations, who were you most excited to work with? And why?
For more, check out this link
5. Develop Resiliency and Adaptability
All these strategies boil down to creating resiliency and adaptability in you. Meaning when things hit the fan, how do you react, and what is your mental health like?
One of my favorite strategies for resiliency and adaptability comes from the Stoics, ancient Greek philosophers. Called Premeditatio Malorum – Premeditated Sadness. This strategy causes you to consider the worst outcomes, determine how you will react, and what you will do as a result. This may seem odd. But it lets you sit in the emotions of a bad situation without actually being in it, and plan accordingly.
If the worst were to happen, what would you do?
Try it out:
- What is a goal that you have?
- What are 3 possible worst-case scenarios around this goal?
- How would you react IF each of these were to happen?
- What would your plan be IF each of these were to happen?
For More, check this article out about Premeditatio Malorum.
Building a positive mindset isn’t about ignoring challenges; it’s about preparing yourself to face them with confidence. These five strategies—daily gratitude, knowing your Why, surrounding yourself with positive influences, revisiting your goals, and building resilience—are simple but powerful. They keep you grounded when life throws curveballs.
Start with one and watch how it shifts your perspective.
Which one will you try first?