MINDSET - What Is Mindset and How You Can Change It

by elenakostyugova

What Is Mindset?

One of the definitions I found in Google says

·         A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations.

·         An inclination or a habit.

I disagree with the word ‘fixed’. I believe an ‘attitude’ is not fixed. Sure a lot of people have a certain attitude that’s been there for a long time and seems to be ‘fixed’. But the truth is it can be changed, if a person wants to change it.

That’s pretty much what I do all week, I help people change their attitudes towards certain things. So in my opinion, attitude and mindset are not fixed.

If Google asked me to define Mindset, I would say “It’s a mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations, and it can be changed to serve the person’s needs.”

Wikipedia says that MIND is frequently used as synonymous with THOUGHT, it’s the private conversation with ourselves that carry on ‘inside our heads’. Thus we ‘make up our minds’, ‘change our minds’ or are ‘of two minds’ about things.

The way I read this is if you can ‘change your mind’, it means you can change your attitude. Wouldn’t you agree?

How Can You Change Your Attitude (Mindset)? 

Your attitude is based upon a set of thoughts automatically running in your mind.

Your thoughts are created from your beliefs.

If you hold a belief that you are never going to be slim / be successful in business / be totally healthy / have enough time / have enough money , then every thought you have confirms that negative belief… even the things you pay attention to around you confirm that belief because your brain doesn’t want to appear to be lying to you… so your reticular activating system in the brain is noticing all the evidence that supports that belief, turning it into a perpetual loop.

If you believe that life is supposed to be hard, it will be. If you believe that every person is a bastard, they are. If you believe that you have to work hard to make a lot of money, you do.

If you believe you can build a happy relationship with your partner, you really can. If you believe you can do what you love and make money, you really can.

Don’t they say “You get what you expect”? And “If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you are right.”

It’s true because a person who believes that he is never going to be slim has an entirely different conversation inside his head to a person who believes he can.

One person will be looking for continuous confirmation (internal and external) of how great they are doing losing weight and eating healthy; while the other will be looking for confirmation how it doesn’t work, never worked and will never work.

In order to change your thoughts, you must change your beliefs. 

When you change your beliefs, you change your thoughts, and therefore your attitude.

Most people try to change their thoughts on the level of thoughts. They get to a point where not-changing becomes more painful than changing and they try to switch their negative thinking into positive. It doesn’t work! It’s painful and frustrating.

Positive thinking is on the opposite side of negative and it’s a too far reach for a person who is holding on to the old negative belief that has created the negative thinking in the first place.

Only when you change your belief, you change your thoughts. You will go up the upward spiral and the positive change will ripple out. When you change your belief, you don’t have to ‘try’ to think positively anymore. It comes naturally because it comes from a much deeper place than your thoughts.

Your new thoughts will trigger new emotions and new actions, which will automatically confirm and strengthen your new belief.

If you want to change anything in your life, CHANGE YOUR BELIEFS.