Get in the right mindset to be successful

When we think about success and how to be successful the first thing that comes to our minds is all the things we need to do to get there. To be and feel you are successful you don't need a to-do list, what you need is to adopt the right mindset.

From my point of view a Success Mindset looks like a square with four sizes.

1. Growth mindset: If you haven't read the book "Mindset" by Carol Dweck, I really recommend it. In her books she explains two mindset: the fix mindset and the growth mindset. On episode 49 of the Leading Yourself Podcast I talk more about these two mindsets. You might also want to check out this blog post I shared a few months ago.

2. Abundance mindset: The contrast of an abundance mindset is a scarcity mindset. A scarcity mindset is seeing success as a finite pie, so that if one person takes a big piece, that leaves less for everyone else. On the contrary, an abundance mindset is the belief that there is plenty out there for everybody.

3. Greatness mindset: John Maxwell defines three levels of success. Success: How well I have done for myself. Significance: How well I have done for myself and others. And the highest level of success, greatness: How well I have inspired others to do well for themselves and others.

4. Win-Win mindset: Which basically means that we belief and pursue solutions are mutually beneficial.

We all have different definitions of success, and I believe that in order to achieve success we need to own our own definition of success. Once we know what success means to us, adopting a growth, abundance, greatness and win-win mindset will propel you towards achieving that success. You can be the best planner in the world, you might have invest hours in setting goals and tracing your roadmap to get to them, but unless you have a success mindset, you will eventually give up on that plan and those goals.

All of that may make sense to you, but I am sure you are asking yourself; how can you develop that success mindset. Well, let me share a few tips that can help:

1. Always stay curious

Curiosity is a superpower. Staying curious basically is the desire to learn or know about anything. I would add to that, the desire to learn abut ourselves.

A few ways to stay curious:

- Ask questions, specially why and how questions

- Learn a new skill

- Seek for feedback

2. Be grateful

I believe gratitude is one of those keystone habits that have a ripple effect in all aspects of our lives. I recommend you listen to Episode 43 of the Leading Yourself Podcast to learn more about gratitude and how it can help you develop a success mindset.

3. Watch you Language

The most important conversation we have are the ones we have with ourselves. The stories you tell yourself and the language you use when talking to yourself and others has a direct impact in our mindset.

• I am a success vs I might be a success.

• I am failing with I am learning.

• Add yet to the end of your statements ( For example: I am nor successful, yet).

4. Build your self-confidence

Check out Episode 14 of the podcast: The power of self-confidence, to learn more.

5. Challenge your limiting beliefs

Many times, we are the only thing holding us back, slowing us down or even stopping us.

This comes from our limiting believes. what are the things that you believe as truths in our lives, of the things that we think we are or we are not capable of? Our limiting believes drives us to accept things without challenging them. Our limiting believes are thoughts that were installed on us early in our lives through society, religion, family, school, etc. Ask yourself, what are your limiting believes, where do they come from and question if they are true and relevant today for you. You have the opportunity to reframe your limiting believes into empowering believes.

6. Define who you need to become and show up as that person

Visualize what is the type of person that you need to become to achieve your goal. Then identify how that person shows up every day, what are the skills, habits, and behaviors that characterize that identity and start to show up as that person every day.

7. Stay positive

If we want to develop this success mindset, we need to stay positive. There are always going to be challenges, setbacks and roadblock. Instead of allowing those things stop us, we need to look at every one of those setbacks, roadblocks and setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow. I believe there is always a positive side in every situation. When you get in the habit of finding that positive side in every situation, you are in your way to develop a success mindset.

8. Prepare yourself

Preparing yourself is to think two steps ahead, visualizing where you are and where you want to go, identifying the skills and competencies you are going to need two steps ahead and work in prepare yourself for that moment.

9. Think in terms of possibilities

View challenges as opportunities. I personally believe that one door closes, another opens. When we are in the middle of a challenging situation is easy to get frustrated and give up.

When you think in terms of possibilities you are constantly looking at what opportunities might come in the future as a result of today's challenges. When we think in terms of possibilities, we create options for ourselves, it allows us to persevere and sparks our creative.

10. Develop / Cultivate grit

One way to think about grit is to consider what grit is not. Grit isn’t talent. Grit is not luck. Grit is not how intensely you want something. Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals. When you cultivate grit, you are cultivating a success mindset.

11. Acknowledge and embrace failure

Failure is the price of entry for success. We are either winning or we are learning. We only fail when we give up. To change our perspective and mindset around failure my best advice is to go, take risk and fail and reflect afterwards on what you learned form that failure.

To learn more on this topics, listen to Episode 5 of the Leading Yourself Podcast - A different perspective on failure

12. Stop seeking approval

To learn more about this listen to Episode 45 - Stop Caring About What other People Think.

13. Fall in love with the journey vs destination

We tend to get fixated with the outcome and we are miserable on the way to reach our goals, only to get there and don't feel any different. The excitement of having achieve a goal fades away quickly but the reality is that we spend most of the time on the journey.

14. Emphasize growth over results.

This is related to the prior point. Many times we only think about reaching the goal and we forget about to pay attention to how much we grow just in the journey.

15. Celebrate wins (yours and others)

We hear about celebrating wins all the time. We hear that we need to celebrate our wins and focus more on our accomplishment because our human nature is to focus more on the things that can be improved, the things that did not went well. Is important to focus on the accomplishment and celebrate not only your own wins, but other people's wins.

If you have a scarcity mindset this will be a challenge, because when someone else wins you believe you can't win. You might need to fake it because it comes second nature, but the more you practice celebrating other's wins the closer you'll be to developing an abundance mindset.

16. Apply the 1% rule

I came across the 1% rule on the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. Basically the idea here is to become 1% better every day. I recently wrote a blog on this and how to apply it to personal growth. You can check it out here.

Remember, the path to success is not a to-do list but your ability to adopt the right mindset