I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of mindset, and I have seen the power of mindset firsthand for myself in the last couple of weeks. In my opinion, the power of mindset doesn’t get talked about enough, in terms of being a major contributor to success. Because really, the way that you feel about yourself, the way that you think about things, and the way you approach your life all stem from the same place: your mind.

It’s like one of my favorite sayings: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” 

This quote really gets to the heart of the role that mindset plays in informing us on what we “can” and “can’t” do – and also how it assists in our ability to actually DO those things.

Why Does Mindset Matter?

Especially when you have a lot on your plate, or when you experience some setbacks in your life, it’s very easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to make the choice to “check out” when things get tough.

Strengthening your mindset to be able to overcome and push past these challenging moments is an invaluable skill. And the good news is – strengthening your mindset is a totally learnable, growable process. You just have to take the right steps (and take them consistently) to see these results, and a tangible increase in positivity and motivation in your own life.

And the great thing about positivity and motivation is that it’s infectious – the more you work on including these things in your life, the more you will see them in your own work (and the more you will pass them along to other people!)

You’re lucky if you have people in your life who act as your personal cheerleaders – people who lift you up, make you feel good, and inspire you. And you should strive to surround yourself with people like this!

But you also need to be able to become your OWN personal cheerleader – and become mentally strong to be able to provide this inspiration and motivation for yourself. It is one of the top success skills that you will ever develop in your life – I promise.

Honing your mindset is all about making choices. If you choose to keep giving your brain positive, motivational, inspiring material, then your brain will internalize that and help YOU be more positive, inspired, and successful (the brain is an incredible organ, my friends). But it does take some work. So today, I want to share four ways that you can retrain your mindset to be success-oriented.

1. Talk to yourself positively throughout the day

One of the best ways to adjust your mindset for the better, is to talk to yourself in a positive way throughout the day. The way that you talk to yourself, and the way you talk ABOUT yourself matters because:

“What we repeatedly tell ourselves is what we will inevitably think.”

This is why it matters so much how we respond when people ask us about ourselves. Our answer to a simple ask of, “How are you?” can have a greater impact than we realize on our self-esteem and mindset!

If we choose to say “I’m great!”… then we will feel great.

If we choose to say, “I’m tired…” then we will feel tired.

Make the conscious choice to say good things about yourself – both to yourself, and to other people.

Your brain and your body listen to the words that come out of your mouth! So be intentional about the words you choose.

A great way talk to yourself in a positive way, and to make this a habit is to start doing it early in the day. Maybe even to set an intention as soon as you wake up, and spend some time in the morning setting yourself up for success. A great way to do this that I’ve found, is making positivity a part of your morning routine. Whether that’s journaling, meditating, making a gratitude list, or anything else that works for and resonates with you!

Affirmations are a great way to do this too. I like to say things to myself in the morning like, “Today’s gonna be a great day!” “Something great is going to happen for me today!” Because as soon as you put it out there, as soon as you vocalize it as something that you want to happen, and you admit that you want it: it becomes more likely that it’s GOING to happen because you’re LOOKING for it, and you’re being intentional about it.

And keep this in mind as you go throughout your day, too. As your day unfolds, if something happens that you weren’t planning on, choose to respond positively. Instead of saying “ugh, that’s so annoying,” think about a cancelled meeting as “oh, cool, now I have time to do this OTHER thing I wanted to do.” Choosing positively in the micro-moments of your day, adds up to make a big difference in your mental state.

2. Surround yourself with positive messaging

Another great way to become mentally stronger is to surround yourself with positive messaging. And this can take many forms. Usually some form of personal development – like reading a book, listening to a podcast or audio book, or anything else that feeds your brain positive mental protein – will work wonders here. Even inspirational social media outlets, like Pinterest and Instagram can spark motivation and growth within you!

Basically anything that you look at, or take in, and inside you can hear yourself saying, “Yes!” (or “YASSS!”) – do more of that!

Mindset is really almost an osmosis thing – and the more you surround yourself with things that are positive, and uplifting, and things that encourage you to be the way you WANT to be – the more likely it is to happen. It’s almost like a “law of exposures” too; the more you are exposed to the things that motivate and drive you, the more you will keep those things top of mind, and the more positive and motivated you become! It almost becomes a repetitive cycle that inevitably leads you to success.

Doing personal development, and committing to working on your mind the same way you work on your body, can be SUCH a game-changer when it comes to developing a success mindset. Figure out something (or a few things) that work for you, and make them a part of your daily routine!

3. Surround yourself with positive people

According to that classic Jim Rohn idea, you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. So the people that you surround yourself with really matter when it comes to your daily actions as well as your mental strength!

So if you look around and realize that you are spending the majority of your time with people who lift you up, and inspire you to be better – great! If you realize you’re spending most of your time with people who don’t necessarily help you become the best version of yourself – well that could be a big problem.

The other day I was talking with a fellow life coach, named Janie Sterling, a brilliant, motivating woman, and she shared with me the idea of the “female tribe,” and how it impacts our success levels.

She shared a discovery she made – that women (for the most part) have a shared tendency to want to hang with “our girls.” We have our “tribe” of ladies that are our friends who we love and enjoy spending time with. Maybe they’ve been our friends for YEARS and we have a deep bond with them.

But depending on your circumstances, your “tribe” might actually be holding you back. If you’re a very ambitious person with big, audacious goals, and you are FIRED up to go after them (especially if this is a result of a new discovery in your life)… but in your tribe there are women (who you love!), who are kind of content to just… be where they are. Maybe they’re somewhat motivated, or maybe they’re not, and they DON’T have big goals and dreams like you do… then that may affect you at a subconscious level, because you don’t want to leave your friends behind.

As women, and in our nature of being very tribe-oriented and dialed into community, this sort of development can actually hold us back. Because sometimes (sometimes!), it’s more important to “fit in” than it is to stand out.

Now, I’m not saying to break up with your friends (I would never say that!), but just be conscious of who you are spending time with. And if you feel like you may be in this type of situation, use it as an opportunity to A) network with some new connections who inspire and motivate you in a positive way, and B) bring YOUR motivation and goals into your friend group, and become that catalyst for mindset adjustment and motivation in your own tribe.

4. Practice positive visualization (vs. negative visualization)

I actually read about this recently in a book called “A Salary Cinderella Story” – which is a fun fictional application of real-life lessons for fierce females in the workplace. The book tells the story of a woman named El (short for “Cinderella”), and her journey as she moves up the ranks at her workplace, and the lessons she learns. One of the lessons El learns has to do with the power of positive visualization.

El is gearing up for big discussion with her boss, and she keeps imagining everything that could go wrong. Basically, she visualizes a number of negative outcomes, instead of focusing on success. And I think women have a tendency to do this a lot – since we are so practical and we want to be prepared for any and everything that could happen. We have a tendency to always imagine the worst possible outcome – to imagine every negative scenario that could unfold (so we can be prepared for them!)

But the more helpful, or the more success-mindset-based, approach to take is to imagine the scenario going completely, 100% right. So whatever total success looks like for you in that scenario: visualize THAT instead of all the things that could go wrong.

What this does is prime your mind to then expect that level of success. And the more detailed you can get with the positive visualization of success, the better! What are you wearing? How are you standing? What is the look on the other person’s face? (I have used this tactic for auditions recently, and it’s worked really well!) Envisioning success before it happens only makes it more likely TO happen.

With these four strategies, you will be able to proactively reform your mindset to be stronger, more positive, and more success-oriented. Have you seen success with other tactics? Please share in the comments!

Want to hear Alyssa talk about this exact topic? Watch the video on Facebook!