How to level up and change your mindset.

I am a strong believer that success and happiness are all about mindset. Your mindset and belief system affect everything in your life from what you think and feel to how you act and react to the world around you.

In order to achieve your goals, your mindset needs to match your aspirations, otherwise, it might be holding you back from getting where you want to be.

Here are 7 effective ways you can level up and change your mindset:

1. Change your Self-Talk

The conversations you have with yourself are a direct reflection of your mindset. If you are telling yourself “I am not good enough to achieve my dreams”, your thoughts will create your reality and your mindset will hold you back from having the life you want. To upgrade your mindset, change your negative self-talk to an empowerment speech. Sounds cliché, but telling yourself “I can do this” or “I got this”, really works.

2. Change your Language

After changing your inner thought dialogue and the story you are telling yourself, change the way you talk to other people. Avoid phrases like “I am always like this” or “I am always doing this” for encouraging a growth mindset. Furthermore, make it a habit to talk about the things that are going well in your life instead of complaining and talking about your problems. This will encourage a mindset of abundance instead of fear and lack.

3. Determine the mindset you need and act as if

Pick a goal you want to achieve and ask yourself: “Which mindset do I need to achieve this goal?” and “Which mindset do people have that were successful at this goal?”.

For example, healthy & fit people might share the mindset “I love taking care of my body, nourishing it with whole foods and exercising every day.”. If it’s your goal to be healthy & fit, act as if you already HAVE the mindset of a healthy & fit person. This way, you are basically tricking your brain to adopt a new mindset and reinforcing it with action.

4. Learn & Apply

Read books from great minds to understand and adopt their thinking. Read books about how the mind and brain works. Learn from mindset experts through online courses, events, and coaching.

Here are some of my favorite mindset resources:

• Mindset by Carol Dweck to learn about the growth mindset
• Everything from Gabrielle Bernstein to adopt a mindset of abundance and align with the flow of life
• The writing of Thomas Oppong on Medium for great nuggets on improving your thinking
• The Online Courses from Denise DT for upgrading your money mindset

5. Surround yourself with people that match your desired mindset

Want to upgrade your money & success mindset? Start hanging out with people that are very successful and seem to have an abundance of money flowing their way at any time. It is easier to adopt a new mindset when you see that it is already working for other people. Learn how they think and adapt their daily habits to match their mindset.

6. Create new habits to support your mindset change

Integrate powerful habits into your day that help your mindset change and reenforce your thinking with action. If you are upgrading from “fixed” to “growth” mindset, schedule time for learning and start noting down your learnings and achievements every day. If you are upgrading from “destination” to “journey” mindset, practice being mindful, enjoying the present moment and celebrating small successes.

7. Jump out of your comfort zone

If you put yourself in situations that challenge you, you have no other choice than to rise to the occasion and upgrade your mindset. It becomes a necessity to survive.

So ask yourself “What situations can I put myself in that will require me to operate on a higher mindset?”. Basically, the idea is to engineer your environment to train your brain!