Reframing Your Mindset

How we approach our careers matters, not just what we do but how we think and believe. You must believe it to achieve it. Mindset matters.

There are many ways to put yourself in the right mindset. In the movie High Fidelity, Rob Gordon explains how he does it:

"I'll use music as fuel, you know? Not like as inspiration but as fuel, like if I need to get into a certain mindset, I know there's certain songs that I can turn on that'll just... that's the gas, and that'll get me right where I need to go. Or if I need to get out of a certain state, put on this song or that song, and it just propels you."

Your mindset is your set of beliefs, values, and attitudes about yourself and the world around you, including how people will react if you act a different way and what will happen if you take action. If you think that taking action won't work or that people will judge you, you will most likely not be successful.

That is why you must embrace a more positive and growth-oriented mindset.

To shift your mindset, stop looking at life as an all-or-nothing situation. Often changing your mindset happens in small increments. Sometimes all it takes to change your perspective forever is the smallest, two-millimeter shift in how you see your career. For example, if you sail across the Atlantic to England and make a small change in direction, you can end up in Africa.

Small changes can lead to large results, and successes build on themselves.

Here are 5 tips to reframe your mindset.

Tip 1: Understand and Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs

All of us hold on to limiting beliefs that stop us from realizing our goals. If you can challenge and overcome those beliefs, you will go on to attain your objectives. However, if you continue to live in negative patterns – you will be stuck, and often, you don't even realize why.

To challenge these beliefs, you first need to identify them and understand when they arise. Limiting beliefs are the stories we tell ourselves about who we really are: shy, unable to find time for, or undeserving of success. They aren't true, and you can replace these negative beliefs with empowering thoughts.

By understanding your beliefs, you can understand what is holding you back from embracing opportunities head-on and doing something different that will propel you forward. When we give into limiting beliefs, we turn away from new actions to familiar, limiting patterns because they are more comfortable.

By rebuilding a positive set of habits that help you move toward your goals, you can reach new levels of success at work and in your personal life. One way to reframe these thoughts is with positive mantras and different self-speak when you see yourself returning to your old ways.

Tip 2: Modify Your Self-Talk

When thinking about how to change your mindset, do you find yourself automatically swimming in negative thoughts? If you do, focus on your language to change your mindset. Change your self-talk, starting with how you begin your day. If you plant positive language in your head at the beginning of the day, you'll feel more energetic. And the more often you do this, the easier it becomes to change your mindset. It is effective to make a mantra for yourself, depending on how you're feeling, or even in music, meditation, or exercise to get you in the desired mindset.

Initially, you may need to shift your mindset to address negative self-talk often during the day. As you become better at it, it will become easier. And remember, it is okay if you take a backstep. We all do. Bounce back from setbacks by reminding yourself why you want to change and what that change will mean for your life or career.

Tip 3: Change Your Perspective

Changing your mindset can seem impossible, but it isn't. Sometimes all it takes to change your mindset is the smallest shift in how you view the change. You choose what a switch can mean to you and your career. If you decide that a change will mean that people will view you as a "brown nose," that will lead to one result. If you choose the change to mean you are on the path to financial freedom, that leads to a different result.

Your choice will give meaning and impact to what you try. Do you see challenges and changes as obstacles or as opportunities? Again, these shifts do not always happen overnight, so give yourself grace as you go through the process.

Tip 4: Face Your Fears

Often when we embark on a new approach or a change, we come from a place of fear. When you tackle challenges with this perspective, succeeding is more challenging.

Many of us stay put because we fear failure. So, seeing possible setbacks instead of opportunities will prevent you from taking action. By understanding where fear arises and how to leave that fear and see where the opportunity goes, you will be in a better and more productive place.

Fear is a destructive emotion most of the time, and you do not need to accept it. Overcoming your fears is a major step toward changing your mindset for success.

Tip 5: Don't Go It Alone

If you are unsure how to reframe or change your mindset, working with someone, either a mentor or professional coach, is helpful. By partnering up with someone who has already walked the path to success and knows the best strategies to execute to reach it, you, too, can become wildly successful in your life.

By changing your mindset and redirecting your energy and actions toward meeting positive goals, you will attain more of your goals and dreams.

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