by Bob Craig
The word ‘mindset’ has been kicked around a lot lately, so much so that I think we get kind of confused on what its role in our success actually is.
Our current mindset is the accumulated result of our past to present thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and habits. It’s the fruit of everything we’ve thought, done, experienced, seen, heard felt, smelled, touched, and tasted. More accurately, it is the meaning we’ve given to all of the things we’ve experienced from the list above.
You’ve surely seen instances where two people experience the same thing but come away with two totally different perspectives on the experience. You know, they went to the same party but came home with two different stories. One had a great time and thought it was lively, the other was bored and never had such a dreadful time.
Its all about perspective. And the cumulative effect of the experiences we’ve encountered in life has colored our perspective.
In the case of success we have the added challenge of defining what success means to us. That is a process beyond the scope of this article but read the ‘homepage’ article Success Puzzle for a bit more info on that.
A success mindset is a mindset that is geared to going after whatever we’ve defined as success for ourselves. The mindset is the ‘autopilot’ that keeps us on track toward our ultimate goals. Now, this autopilot can work for us, or it can work against us.
Our conditioning holds the key to this. If you’ve been conditioned that money is the root of all evil and you don’t want to be evil, woe be it to your money making goals. Your conditioned mind will sabotage you at every turn. Just when you’re about to have a big breakthrough, whamo! Your protective mind will pull back and save you from the unthinkable…having that filthy lucre and becoming an evil miser!
I’ve also heard it called one’s ‘financial thermostat.’ Just like your home thermostat, when it gets too hot, the air conditioner kicks on, when it gets too cold, the heater jumps into action. It is a real phenomena not just some mumbo-jumbo new age thing.
Same thing with money, relationships, health, weight, almost anything. If I see myself as 20 pounds overweight, and I manage to lose 5 pounds, if I have a conditioned mindset that says I’m 20 pounds overweight, something inside will get me down to McDonalds for 4 BigMacs and a shake. And later I say, “I don’t know what made me do that.” It was my ’20 pounds overweight” mindset!
If you’ve had challenges in certain areas of your life, go back and really look at them. Look at them from the angle of taking responsibility for them. Look real deep and honest. Ask yourself, “how did I cause this to happen?” Its a surprising exercise and a good one too, as we often see that we have had a lot more control over events in our lives that we previously thought. This is really empowering if we look at it from the perspective of “I caused it, I am responsible for it, therefore, I can fix it!”
Now that we can see how this works, the next question is, “Am I stuck with my conditioning?”
The great news is, absolutely not!
There are techniques to replace or reprogram our subconscious beliefs. There are literally thousands of books, courses, seminars and methods that claim to reprogram the mind. I’m sure you’ve heard of hypnosis, subliminal recordings, meditations, affirmations, NLP, and many, many more.
I tried many of these and have known people who have tried many different techniques, mostly with very limited results I am sad to say. Many times the technique falls short and many times the person using them just can’t seem to do what it takes to make it work. Both are due to flaws in the system.
I have found one method that works hands down better than anything else I’ve used and seem people use. It is called the Release Technique. Instead of trying to “stuff” more, new or different ideas into our already overloaded brains, it is based on releasing negative thoughts and feelings as they arise and by doing so, it disperses the emotion and lightens it up for us, eventually ridding us of our negativity.
It also has exercises where we can consciously bring up issues and areas that we want to work on. Its really amazing in how it works, but at some point in the process, it all just really makes perfect sense. I can really spend a lot of words talking it up but the best thing is if you are interested, is just to try it out.
One of the neatest things I like about it is, after using it, I am able to play tennis at a much higher level than before. That fast moving ball just seemed to slow down for me. And I did not get tired as fast. I notice that playing basketball also. Kind of an ‘in-the-zone’ thing. That part is fun for me, and at 53 going on 54, I need all the help I can get! I’m sure it would work for any sport.
Here is the link to the site: www.AbundanceCourseReview.info
1