Mindset mastery, as an entrepreneurial and life skillset is here to stay.
Answer the Public (a fun SEO tool that will tell you exactly what people are searching about any particular keyword) gave me 125 highly searched questions related to the keyword, “mindset.”
I noticed a pattern amongst many of them.
Let’s see if you notice it, too:
- Can mindset be changed?
- How to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset?
- Can a fixed mindset be cured?
- Where does a negative mindset come from?
- What mindset do I need to succeed?
These questions (among many, many more) point to one of the struggles of mindset:
We know it’s important to have a good one, but we don’t know how to change the one we have.
- Do we just declare our new mindset like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy?
- Do we look in the mirror and “honor the goddess within” to improve our mindset?
- Like, literally, EXACTLY WHAT are we supposed to do to improve our mindset?
How Can We Change Our Mindset?
Such a good question.
And I’m excited because… I know this one!
This Friday marks the 6th time I’ve given my new masterclass: How to Rewire Your Relationship With Time where we dig into the magic (and science!) of neuroplasticity.
What is neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity is the word psychologists and neuroscientists use to describe your brain’s ability to change.
As a cognitive psychologist, I’ve mostly called it by another name: Learning.
Whatever you call it, it’s the process of taking your brain from a state of believing one thing (like, “There’s never enough time!”) to the state of believing something else (like, “There’s enough time for everything that matters.”).
The interesting thing about your brain is that it does not usually “transform” from a brain thinking one thing into a brain thinking something else, like flipping a light switch.
This is because you’ve strengthened your existing beliefs, like “there’s never enough time,” so much that it’s deeply entrenched. It’s tied to tons of memories, you’ve discussed it a number of times with others, and you’ve proven it to yourself over and over again through your lived experience.
So, it makes sense that just declaring a new belief isn’t going to change much.
Change Your Mindset By Changing Your Beliefs
Instead, in order to change your beliefs (thereby changing your thoughts, actions, and outcomes) you have to introduce a competing belief and then intentionally, forcibly, strengthen it.
Consider: How often have you said: “There’s never enough time.”
Probably a lot.
You might say it to yourself every single day!
If that’s the case, you should assume that this thought is deeply entrenched.
If we were going to represent that deeply entrenched belief, it would look like the red one:
That’s a powerful belief.
The yellow belief, sitting unnoticed next to it, whispering “There’s enough time for everything that matters!” will have to be reinforced by sheer force of will for a while, before it can take on its red friend with any chance of success.
But it will!
Tips to Change Your Mindset
If you are making an effort to:
1. Create a life that challenges your beliefs and makes you uncomfortably aware of your limiting mindset (a condition I recommend, aptly referred to as “putting yourself in harms way”)
2. Catch your old belief and replace it with a new one (a process I call, appropriately, Catch and Replace),
You WILL strengthen your new belief until it’s strong enough to be a contender.
I find that it takes about a month of serious effort to balance out the scales on a deeply entrenched limiting belief.
Eventually, (usually about 2 months in) if you stay with it and don’t get too frustrated that you fall into old habits, you will tip the scales in your own mind towards your new belief.
In short, by accumulating this new belief in systematic and matter-of-fact ways, you WILL change your mind.
Thus, if you want to change your mind you literally have to:
- Recognize your limiting beliefs (you can’t change what goes unexamined)
- Put yourself in harm’s way
- Catch and replace your old, limiting belief until your new belief can grow in strength
- Stick with it until it’s your new, dominant belief
This is how you literally change your mind.
If you are thinking, “Wait, there has to be more to it…” you are right.
There is more to it!
If you want to learn:
- The most common limiting beliefs held about time and my recommended reframes
- The most common stumbling blocks on the path to new, more powerful beliefs (I’m looking at you, 30 days in!)
- Critical moments that create high-octane cognitive dissonance that will help you rewire your brain faster
- Tips for massively improving your chances to really change your beliefs, and thus your mindset, and thus your success
You will have to join me in my “life-changing” masterclass.
It’s Free! It’s Fun! And it’s on Fridays!
