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The human mind is incredibly powerful in shaping our feelings and behaviors, which is why your mindset can make a difference in your level of success and daily happiness. In fact, your mindset also influences those around you through your attitudes and actions. For this reason, mindset is especially important for business leaders, whose feelings and decisions influence the people they lead and the results of their businesses. But changing your mindset requires more than just willpower: It requires regular thoughts and actions.
One of the most effective ways to change your mindset is through the power of habit. Habits come in many shapes and sizes: good, bad, and neutral. Once you establish a habit, it’s easy to continue doing it, which makes it such a powerful tool for influencing your mindset. Here are three habits I use to help me create a more successful mindset.
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1. Build resilience through optimism
We have all, at some point in our lives, been told to adopt a positive mindset, and for good reason. It’s incredibly helpful in not only making you feel happier, but also building resilience, a skill every leader needs to bounce back from challenges and setbacks.
While it may seem more practical to take a pessimistic or realistic approach to challenges, an optimistic approach is often more beneficial because it doesn’t allow you to become discouraged from continuing to search for a solution and overcome difficulties. A positive attitude allows you not to take setbacks personally and to believe in your abilities even when things don’t go according to plan. For a leader, positivity during times of challenge or crisis is particularly important to support team morale and direct them towards solutions rather than discouragement.
Of course, choosing a positive attitude isn’t as simple as flipping a switch when you wake up in the morning. It requires a significant amount of work, but fortunately there are some practices you can use to help you establish and maintain a positive mindset.
I use the practice of gratitude journaling, which has become popular as a form of reflection and as a mental tool to promote positivity. Taking time to appreciate the positive things in your life will naturally make you feel uplifted and happier, so it may be worth establishing a practice like this. Likewise, you can focus on the positives by finding things to appreciate throughout your day. For example, try challenging yourself to give five compliments to five different people every day. Not only will you make someone else feel positive, but you will feel good too.
When you notice yourself having negative thoughts, whether about yourself, someone else, or the situation you’re in, try reframing them into something positive or shift your attention to something uplifting. While this isn’t always possible, the more you practice it, the easier it will become to maintain your overall positive mindset.
2. Practice generosity
Not only is generosity virtuous, but it has a number of positive effects on your mindset. First, and most obviously, it’s nice to do something nice for someone else, which can help you maintain a positive attitude. But if you commit to practicing generosity regularly, you can reap even more benefits. It affects how people see you and the type of culture you create as a leader. And giving regularly to others helps you develop a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity.
At my company we organize an annual week of random acts of kindness, in which all employees participate. We are a remote company, so it might look a little different if you were to implement this. The week gives employees the opportunity to show kindness to co-workers on Monday, their team on Tuesday, loved ones on Valentine’s Day, local small businesses on Thursday and the community on Friday. We post photos on our Slack channel and donate money to a charity.
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3. Create a habit of creativity
Creativity is essential for the business leader to grow your business and is one of your most important functions – something no one else on your team can do for you. But creativity is like a muscle, and the more you practice it, the easier it becomes. By maintaining a creative mindset, I find that I am better able to respond to problems and constantly come up with new ideas. Creativity is never a struggle for me because I make it a habit by creating space in my regular schedule dedicated to creativity.
Turning creativity into a habit starts by simply scheduling time regularly, then showing up and staying focused on your creative tasks without distractions. Your mindset is something you can choose, but it takes work to get there. By establishing habits that help you create the mindset you want and practicing them regularly, you will be able to more easily maintain a mindset that will help you achieve higher levels of success as a leader.
The power to shape our mindset and improve our business is within reach, offering a gateway to greater success and daily fulfillment. As business leaders, recognizing the profound impact our mindset has on those we lead and the results of our efforts is critical. However, the journey to a transformative mindset requires more than just willpower: It requires cultivating habits that fuel positivity, generosity, and creativity.
By embracing practices like gratitude journaling, fostering a culture of generosity, and carving out time for creativity, we pave the way to a mindset ready for triumph. Join me in committing to regularly cultivating habits that elevate not only our success but also the success of those around us.
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