You need to be conscious and deliberate as the architect of your own destiny, particularly about how you programme, develop, maintain and protect your positive attitude.
Here are six attitude enablers to get your compass on track.
1. Become what you think about all day long
Some of the most important conversations you have are the ones inside your head, with yourself. It’s critical to pay attention and truly listen to your inner voice and the quality of the internal conversations taking place. The mind is such a powerful force and no matter what programmes you’ve previously run or what thoughts you’ve given greatest attention to in the past, the great news is that you can override even years of poor programming with the right focus.
2. Failures are just stepping stones to your ultimate success
There are two types of people: those who failed and stopped and those who failed and tried again. It’s all about attitude. Do you see failure as an end result or merely as a stepping stone on the way to success?
Reframe each failure as just another step on your glorious path.
A key part of programming your winning mentality is to reframe each failure as just another step on your glorious path. You change your mindset; you change the game. Success is simply the ability to go from one failure to the next, learning and growing as you go and never losing enthusiasm as you keep the end goal in the front of your mind.
3. Dynamic language is everything
The things you say and words you use have equal power to shape your thoughts. Be aware of your choice of words, what they mean and the impact they can have on yourself and others. Choose dynamic language and lean into it. Use positive, action words and thoughts to drive your actions because they will empower you, not disempower you. If you catch yourself falling into the trap of the shoulds and maybes, take a moment to re-anchor back to the ‘why’ of what you’re doing. If the ‘why’ is strong enough, the language will reflect your commitment to making it happen. When it’s a ‘must’, you’ll figure out the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.
4. Who you spend time with is who you become
You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends - choose wisely. Pick people who want to celebrate your success and whose friendship and support make you want to celebrate theirs as you build your buildings higher and higher.
Pick people who want to celebrate your success and whose friendship and support make you want to celebrate theirs.
Beware those who would rather knock the foundations out from under your feet even as they look you in the eye and smile.
5. Nothing’s as bad as you’re making it out to be
The framing technique or reality checker, AKA ‘get a grip’, is that nothing’s as bad as you’re making it out to be. There are people in the world who face real adversity, real challenges, whose life is so difficult every day that you wonder how they manage to cope. Then in the very next thought, you slip into a really bad mood, depressed, angry or fed up because something small and comparatively insignificant hasn’t gone quite the way you wanted. To develop a great winning mentality every day, you’ve got to overcome the natural human tendency to blow small things out of proportion. Work on having a rational amount of perspective about things.
6. Override derailing thoughts with incantations
An incantation or enchantment is a set of words, spoken or unspoken, which are considered by their user to evoke meaning and purpose. The difference between an affirmation and an incantation is that when you ‘affirm’ something you’re just repeating it over and over, but when you ‘incant’ an idea it becomes hotwired to your physiology, your entire sensory experience, your whole being. If you are running a negative programme through your intalk like ‘I’m always late’, the way to overcome it is to run a positive, empowering incantation in its place. The mind is a powerful force and the reality is what you say will be the way. Even if you have been running a negative derailing programme for years, you can still override it.
A winning mentality is not only critical to your success – it’s entirely yours to choose. If you’re not yet practising a winning mentality every day by conscious, deliberate choice, start now. It’s not an overstatement to suggest that it can literally change everything.
Interested in this topic? Read How to develop optimism in challenging times.
