The power of your mindset: Unlocking your true potential for success

Hopefully you had a chance to read our recent blog about how important it is to have the right mindset, skillset and toolset. If you haven’t, you can read it here. You might have thought about how you harness these, but have you considered how your mindset alone can hinder or excel your success? This can be both positive and negative.

Your mindset plays a crucial role in determining success. Your mindset is your beliefs, attitudes, and thoughts, which influence how you perceive and respond to the challenges and opportunities that come your way. Success is a subjective concept that can have multiple connotations, ranging from professional achievements to personal goals. In this blog, we will explore the power of your mindset and how it can influence, or hinder, your journey towards success.


Growth mindset

Having a positive and growth-oriented mindset is essential for achieving success. When you have a positive mindset, you believe in your abilities and act optimistic about your chances of success. A positive outlook helps you approach challenges as learning opportunities and maintain resilience in the face of setbacks. Similarly, a growth mindset is characterized by the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and learning. With a growth mindset, you embrace challenges, persist in the face of obstacles, and view feedback and criticism as valuable tools for improvement.



Unhelpful, fixed and automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) mindset

On the other hand, an unhelpful or fixed mindset can hinder success. An unhelpful mindset is characterized by self-doubt, fear of failure, and limited belief in one's abilities. This can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where your negative beliefs and attitudes become barriers to reaching your goals. A fixed mindset, which involves the belief that abilities and intelligence are fixed traits that cannot be changed, can also limit success. When you believe your abilities are fixed, you may shy away from challenges, fear failure, and avoid taking risks.

We’re all human, so we will all have automatic unhelpful thoughts at some point. Some more often than others. Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) are negative beliefs that occur habitually. They are involuntary responses to certain situations that are based on the core beliefs we hold about yourself, others, or the world.

ANTs can lead to feelings of anger, self-doubt, depression, and anxiety. They have a strong influence on our mood and depending on if you choose to accept or ignore them, it will then have impact on your success. You cannot directly control ANTs, but you can control how you react following these thoughts.

Examples of ANTs are:

  • ● Always feeling negative
  • ● Makes you feel bad about yourself
  • ● Self-limiting
  • ● Believable because you are stuck in an unhelpful thinking spiral
  • ● Biased because you have a distorted perception of reality

These types of thoughts are very normal. However, it’s how you deal with them that makes the difference in your success. 90% of all thoughts are repetitive, so if you repeat something enough, it creates a neural pathway in the brain. So, if your unhelpful thoughts get repeated enough, they become habitual. If not recognised and dealt with, these thoughts impact our resilience and leave us fragile. The worse thing about these thoughts is that a lot of the time they aren’t real or aren’t as bad as our brain makes out – they get distorted by our own lens.

We’ve put together an example of this in action…

Meet Sarah

Sarah is about to do a presentation to the leadership team. Although she a subject matter expert, she can’t help but feel nervous. What if she forgets what she is going to say? What if someone disagrees with her? This leads to thoughts like: “I’m not good at this. I’m rubbish and I shouldn’t be doing this job; everyone is so much better!”.

As Sarah goes into the meeting her legs are shaking, her breathing is shallow, and her hands tremble. She goes to introduce herself and stumbles over her name. “Noooooo! What is wrong with me?”. She looks at the faces staring back at her and says to herself “They think I’m stupid. I bet they wonder why I’m even employed here.”

Sarah gets through the presentation at super speed, the main goal is to get out of that room!

After the meeting Sarah feels frustrated and upset. She tells herself that she’s never going to be seen as someone that can progress and is going to get overlooked. These thoughts become a daily occurrence and her behaviours follow in line with the thoughts – she no longer puts herself forward for things as she is convinced that she will mess it up. As she has no evidence to prove her otherwise, because she’s not taking any opportunities, the negative thoughts continue.

Sarah’s automatic unhelpful thoughts can be categorised into different thought distortions such as labelling, catastrophising and mind reading to name a few.

We see many people whose mindset holds them back from their true potential – sales people who struggle with challenging the status quo, learners with a fixed mindset and lots of other scenarios.

So, how do we change these ANTs into positive ones?

1. It is important to recognise and isolate the thought.

  • ● Stop and pause!
  • ● Pay attention to your body and emotions (emotional self-awareness)
  • ● Isolate and focus on the unhelpful thought and separate it from who you are.

2. Write the thought down.

  • ● Think about what the thought is really about and write it down.

3. Identify the distress level – on a scale of 0 = calm to 10 = extreme

4. Next, try and identify what thought distortion it is. This helps you to recognise a pattern and, in the future, will help you to identify these thought distortions more quickly in the future.

5. Challenge and reframe the thought.

  • ● Look for evidence for and against the thought.
  • ● Modify internal language.
  • ● Replace negative distortions with positive healthy thoughts.
  • ● Write down the more reasonable reframed thoughts.

6. Re-evaluate the distress level.

  • ● If the distress level has not decreased, consider repeating the exercise again.

The skill of reality testing helps us to see things how they really are, not how they look through our own lens. This enables us to change thoughts that aren’t serving us well and making us feel distressed into thoughts that enable us to move forward.


The importance of positive thinking

Positive thinking is not about denying reality but rather approaching challenges with optimism and resilience. Positive thoughts can drive motivation, inspire creativity, and enhance problem-solving abilities. By focusing on possibilities rather than limitations, you can attract opportunities and maintain a sense of self-belief during difficult times. Cultivating a positive mindset can help you maintain focus, overcome obstacles, and persist in the face of setbacks, ultimately leading to success.



The Importance of Self-Belief

One of the most significant factors influencing success is self-belief. If you do not believe in your abilities, it becomes challenging to achieve your goals. Your mindset shapes your beliefs about yourself, and a lack of confidence can hinder growth and limit your potential. Building self-belief involves acknowledging your strengths, celebrating your achievements, and setting realistic goals. By developing a strong sense of self-worth, you can overcome self-doubt and take confident steps towards success.



Embracing a Resilient Mindset

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from challenges and persevere in the face of adversity. A resilient mindset enables you to navigate uncertainty, embrace change, and adapt to unforeseen circumstances. It involves viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth and maintaining a positive outlook during difficult times. By developing resilience, you can overcome obstacles, learn from failures, and maintain the momentum needed for success.

Your mindset is a powerful tool that can either propel you towards success or hold you back. By cultivating a growth mindset, embracing positive thinking, building self-belief, and developing resilience, you can unlock your potential and achieve your goals. Your mindset influences the way you approach challenges, learn from experiences, and ultimately grow as an individual. In summary, having a positive and growth-oriented mindset allows you to approach challenges with optimism, embrace growth and learning, and persevere in the face of setbacks. This mindset can significantly enhance your chances of achieving success in various areas of your life.

At HiA, we work with a wide range of coaches that are certified in emotional intelligence, resilience, motivation mapping and lots of other areas that can help you with your mindset as well as your behaviour. Get in touch with us today for an exploratory call.