Episode #276: How To Have A Positive Mindset

How do we set up a positive mindset? More importantly how do we set it up from morning when we awake and when we start work? What are we feeding our mind? What things are occupying our thoughts? How do we control what we allow into our mind? Who has influence over our mindset? Are we in control or are we being controlled?

Usually, our start of the day begins with a quick scan of our email or social media to see what has happened overnight. The problems of yesterday and the one’s we will be facing hereafter are brought straight into the brain from the start of the day. We then access the media in some format or other, but the content is consistently the same – predominantly bad news!

Is this the best way to get us into a positive mindset? It is reality and we are unlikely to change the need to access our email or to check on world and local events. We could just ignore it all, but in this fast paced world, that is a luxury that we won’t be enjoying anytime soon.

We can’t shut it out, but we can balance it out a bit better. Accept that the start of the day is already working against having a positive mindset and accept that it is going to be like this forever. We need to take some countermeasures. We need to create some time at the start of the day to get ourselves into a positive frame of mind. The start of the day is key because once the day get’s going, the chance for any type of personal reflection is absorbed by crises, meetings, email deluge, phone calls, etc.

We shouldn’t expect that somehow this positive mindset pivot is going to happen by itself. We need to schedule an intervention. Schedule is the key word here because time is all we have and how we use it means everything. If we want to become more positive we need to take action. That means scheduling time to allow that to happen. It might mean that for the commute we are listening to podcasts on educational or motivational topics that get us thinking and positive. It might mean we start the day by reading something on the train or bus that is pouring positive sentences into our brain. It might mean we are reviewing our goals and our WHY.

Most people don’t have concrete goals. They have wishy washy wishes, masquerading as goals. They are usually high level and aspirational – I want to be successful, rich, happy etc. These vagaries are suspended in the ether as well, because they are not written down anywhere. Real goals are concrete, written down, have timelines and milestones.

What about the reset for our values everyday? Have we pondered just what it is we stand for? Have we distilled our True North? If we have spent time thinking about what type of person we are and want to be, we will need to have a internal conversation about what are our values. Writing them down for review everyday helps us to reconnect with what we believe in and our best self.

So setting aside time, before the work day really gets frantic, to review our goals and our values provides us with clarity about our purpose in life, our aims and direction. How long would this take? Probably less than ten to fifteen minutes depending on how deep we want to take the process. Is that a massive burden? This re-connecting with who we are and what we want is a way to get us organised mentally to make sense of what is happening everyday. The alternative is we are a rudderless mind, being blown off course at the whim of outside forces. Leaders are supposed to be the best organised because they have been put in charge of the direction of the company. Often, however work sucks up all the time and our personal needs are sacrificed. We have company needs and our own needs. We need to vigilant because it is too easy to get that balance wrong. Start the day by ensuring a positive mindset and the balance will be assured.

Action Steps

1. Create time at the start of the day for you
2. Review your goals
3. Review your values
4. Make time to inject positive information into our brain