In the previous lesson, you learned that having a vision in each category of your life is like punching in coordinates or a destination into a GPS device and that the resources you need to realize that vision will naturally gravitate toward you. Now, let's talk about having the mindset for creating your best year ever.
Creating your best year ever will mean different things to different people. However, success – whatever it means to you, along with living an extraordinary life filled with joy and happiness, is largely limited by your own level of thinking and personal growth. What does that mean, exactly?
It means you must work on yourself, develop your mindset, and expand your thinking – all of which (compounded) will translate into positive expectations, positive thinking, and ultimately positive results.
Average thinking produces average results.
As you live your purpose and work toward bringing your vision to reality, one of your priorities should be focused on personal growth and feeding your mind material that sparks a different level of thinking – a success level of thinking.
Become growth-focused, and work on it daily.
While many people focus on the "how" (the mechanics or technicalities of life), when you have clarity, which we discussed in the first two lessons, and focus on growth, the "how" generally works itself out.
Thankfully, this is colossal information I learned early-enough in life.
Following my time in the military, I was introduced to personal growth through a program by internationally renowned speaker Brian Tracy.
Under Brian's mentorship, I learned the importance of developing yourself and creating your own "luck" so-to-speak.
Working on my own personal growth has served me well, and I have no doubt it will create exciting results in your life and your business, provided you remain consistent.
But how do you grow?
Growth doesn't just happen. It happens outside of your comfort zone, and it is something that must be made a habit through certain activities you choose to do every single day.
There's a book called: "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol Dweck, where she suggests that everyone has either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
A fixed mindset meaning that you see yourself as… you are who you are, your talents and abilities are fixed, and you go through life, avoiding challenge and failure.
A growth mindset, being that you see yourself as one that can be molded, a work in progress. And as you go through life, you welcome growth and opportunity.
So, in order to learn and continually grow and become the best version of yourself and create your best year ever, you have to shift your mindset to that of a growth mindset, and embrace challenges and put in the effort, and see the obstacles in your way as part of the path to "mastery".
As opposed to avoiding difficulties and having a tendency to give up or to say NO right away to opportunities that might contribute to your growth.
In every area of your life, if you value that area, and something comes up that might seem like a little bit challenging, or may seem like an obstacle or something that might require a little bit of work to get through… See that as an opportunity for growth and know that once you get through those circumstances, that's where the growth happens.
Instead of staying where you are and having that "fixed" mindset, when you go through challenges and obstacles, and you take criticism and learn from it, and you look at others who might be doing better than you in that area, and you see that as inspiration instead of being intimidated by the success of others…. You grow – and you become a better version of yourself, and you reach a higher potential.
THAT is having a growth mindset.
As a next action step for this lesson and developing the growth mindset for creating your best year ever, decide to accept 100% responsibility for where you are in life and where you are headed. Decide to give up all blaming and complaining and excuses.
Take every opportunity and even look for opportunities to challenge the status quo – to get out of your comfort zone, to start that new business, to grow that business, to connect with more people, to push yourself in the gym, to contribute to that charity, to read more, to give that presentation in front of people… to show up early, attack the day, make things happen – winners make things happen… people that have a growth mindset make things happen, they don't wait for things to happen to them…. they GROW wherever they can grow, and they do it intentionally.
In our next lesson, we'll explore how to put this into practice so that you can create an environment that supports having your best year ever.
