WELCOME TO DAY 12

MINDSET ROUTINES

Your mindset is your collection of thoughts and beliefs that shape your thought habits. And your thought habits affect how you think, what you feel, and what you do. Your mind-set impacts how you make sense of the world, and how you make sense of you.

Your mindset is a big deal.

Mindset significantly contributes to your ability to thrive. A simple way to elevate your mindset is to make a habit around putting yourself in the right frame of thought at the start of each day.

FIXED V'S GROWTH MINDSET

According to researcher Carol Dweck, there are two types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their qualities are fixed traits and therefore cannot change. These people document their intelligence and talents rather than working to develop and improve them. They also believe that talent alone leads to success, and effort is not required. According to Dweck, when a student has a fixed mindset, they believe that their basic abilities, intelligence, and talents are fixed traits. They think that you are born with a certain amount and that's all you have.

People with a fixed mindset is to always want to appear intelligent, because they believe that they were born with a fixed level of intelligence that cannot be modified. These people have a fear of looking dumb to people because they do not believe that they can redeem themselves once other people look at them as being unintelligent.

Alternatively, in a growth mindset, people have an underlying belief that their learning and intelligence can grow with time and experience. When people believe they can get smarter, they realize that their effort has an effect on their success, so they put in extra time, leading to higher achievement.

n a growth mindset, students believe their abilities and intelligence can be developed with effort, learning, and persistence. Their basic abilities are simply a starting point for their potential. They don't believe everyone is the same, but they hold onto the idea that everyone can become smarter if they try.

HOW TO DEVELOP A GROWTH MINDSET

ACKNOWLEDGE AND EMBRACE YOUR WEAKNESSES

Maybe you know that you are lazy and tend to put things off until the last minute. Try to plan around that by making modest goals and giving yourself a reasonable amount of time to accomplish them.

VIEW CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES

We are constantly faced with important decisions, such as whether to accept a new job, or signing up to take a new class. Taking on these challenges is a big part of developing as a person. The more we challenge ourselves, the more opportunities we have to learn about ourselves. New challenges equal new opportunities. Embarking on a new challenge may be frightening due to the risk of failure. This may result in avoiding various challenges and continuing down the usual path, holding onto excuses that we tell ourselves so we can remain in our comfort zones. The truth is, staying in your comfort zone because you are scared to venture out can become uncomfortable. If you avoid challenges, you will not be provided with opportunities to learn and grow. Instead, you will be troubled by the sense that things are not just right.

IDENTIFY YOUR LEARNING STYLE

If you are able to identify the best ways that you learn, you can optimize your time while researching or attending classes. Various learning styles can work together for people who have a growth mindset, and learning styles allow students to blend and combine their own bits of intelligence into many different patterns. Learning styles relate to different learning approaches that students find to be the most effective for them, so once these are identified, people can feel that their knowledge is expanding and they are getting better at what they are studying.

BRAIN CHANGE ABILITIES

Your brain forms new connections throughout life that allow it to make adjustments when you are faced with new situations or a new environment. Neuroplasticity explains how your brain can be retrained and reorganized, showing that there is always room to grow. If you are aware that your brain is constantly changing, then you are more likely to adopt a growth mindset. Remember that if the brain is not fixed, then the mind should not be fixed either.

PRIORITISE LEARNING OVER SEEKING APPROVAL

When you are more concerned about getting approval from other people than about learning new things, you are giving up your own potential to grow. Don't worry about what other people think about you, and instead focus on bettering yourself for your own benefit.

FOCUS ON THE PROCESS

People who have a growth mindset are often very in tune with their intelligence and willingness to learn. They understand that any growth is going to be a process and make their own process goals to help them reach the end of the process It is important to enjoy the learning process so you are able to get the most out of it, and be open to the process continuing beyond the expected time frame. One of the most important things about the process of learning is the unexpected lessons that you may pick up along the way.

CULTIVATE A SENSE OF PURPOSE

Students with a growth mindset are able to look at long-term goals and have a larger sense of purpose for their lives. Keep the end goal in mind and always look at the big picture. Ask yourself on a regular basis what the purpose is of the work that you are doing. Are you doing it because you enjoy it, or is it part of a bigger goal? Always work with a purpose so you have the motivation to keep working.

REWARD EFFORT AND ACTION

Let other people know when they are doing something creative or especially smart rather than just telling them that they are smart in general. This helps people strive to continue to do smart things rather than make them feel like they have already accomplished the end goal of being smart.

LEARN TO GIVE AND RECEIVE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

Think of criticism as a way to learn. If you have an area of weakness and someone is able to point that out to you, think of it as a gift that makes you aware of your faults so you can focus on them to improve. It is important to not take constructive criticism personally. Often, people are trying to help, and are therefore doing you a favor rather than trying to cut you down.

NEED TO IMPROVE DOES NOT MEAN FAILURE

Just because you need to improve in one area does not mean you have failed. It means that you are on the right track, you're just not quite there yet.

LEARN FROM OTHER'S MISTAKES

You don't always want to compare yourself to other people, but it is important to see that other people have the same weaknesses as you. When you see someone make a mistake and recognize how it should have been done correctly, keep that in mind for the future when you are in their situation. You can even put yourself in their shoes for the moment and pretend that it was you making the mistake, and try to learn from it first hand.

LEARNING IS BRAIN TRAINING

The more you learn, the more you are training your brain to act a certain way and make various connections. You want to train your brain as best you can, which equates to continuing to learn throughout life. Your brain will have to be trained and retrained as the world evolves and things change, so it is vital to be open to the idea of manipulating your brain to keep up with current trends.

MINDSET DAILY ROUTINE

The routine is simple: each morning choose one or more of the exercises below (don't make it a chore — do only what you feel like doing). Spend 15 minutes on the exercises and keep track of any change to how you begin to approach each day over time.

SET INTENTION FOR THE DAY

The goal is to be mindful about how you want the day to go. In addition to visualizing the course of the day, make any necessary adjustments to your schedule and calendar to align it with your vision. I personally notice that I get a bit frazzled when I don't have an idea of what I want to get out of the day. In addition to committing to a more formal daily routine, sometimes simply clarifying to yourself what you want to accomplish works wonders. Having a game plan helps you work up more positive energy than haphazardly passing time without purpose.

TAKE INSPIRED ACTION

There are two ways you can do this. First, as mentioned, align the activities in your day with what you want to get out of it. The second is to incorporate feel good moments into the day. Sometimes we get so caught up in work, errands, and what's going wrong that we forget we have some control over our day-to-day experience. Make space for fun and indulge in simple pleasures. Commit to doing at least one thing you love or that inspires you each day.

ELIMINATE ENERGY DRAINERS

Fix your nagging issues — the annoying and outstanding things that may be mentally or physically bringing you down without you realizing it. There's no scientific consensus about the emotion of annoyance but what we know is that it is a negative, unpleasant feeling. As a result, nagging issues are energy zappers because they sit in the back of your mind begging for attention. It's better to just fix the situation than allow it to fester.

KEEP A GRATITUDE JOURNAL

The act of journaling is taking the time to practice gratitude and to recognize what's going well in life. Gratitude has a number of scientifically proven benefits including improvement in your psychological health and mental capacity. When you start to feel a bit low this is an especially important activity given its ability to boost your happiness and overall feelings of well-being.

HAVE INSPIRING VISUAL AIDS

Use physical objects as a reminder of the good you have and the good you desire. Humans have a special relationship with our possessions and we should be mindful to maintain a healthy balance with these things. Just like we can go too far and end up hoarding a bunch of clutter, we can also strip away so much that we have nothing to self-identify with (a warning to fellow minimalists). Our possessions allow us to express ourselves and can also serve as visual reminders of the good that has passed and the good that we want to bring forth. No matter if it's a special image on a vision board or a small unassuming memento, select objects can help us tap into positive emotions that elevate our mindset in the process.

SHIFT NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Negative thoughts is an unhealthy habit of so overly fixating on a negative thought that it leads to anxiety and eventually depression if not put in check. A special feature of rumination is that there is no completion to the thought — it just keeps going round and round your head with no resolution. Sometimes when we wake up in the morning we carry over the burdens from yesterday. One way to stop these things from depressing us, before we even walk out of the door, is to try to view them in a more positive light. Shifting our perspective helps us exercise emotional maturity and exert more control over our thoughts.

USE INTERROGATIVE SELF TALK

Interrogative self-talk is a substitute to affirmations particularly for those, like me, who don't seem to have much success trying to convince our unconscious that reality is something other than what it is. Instead of making a declaration that is in direct conflict with reality (and can make your unconscious mind put up a resistance against it) you use positive inquiry. Research shows that asking instead of commanding is a better way to bring about change. So instead of declaring "I am" when you're not, ask "how might I become" which turns off your inner critic and turns on the part of the brain tasked with solving problems.