How to Cultivate a Mindset for Success.

September 12, 2007

I have a set of hand written rules for being a blogger and one of those rules is never to write about someone else’s blog posts unless it is to present an opposing view point. Today, that’s exactly what I want to do. This morning I was reading the latest post from John Wesley, in which he gives a vague and seemingly thoughtless answer to a reader’s question. Now don’t get me wrong, I generally like what John has to say, but after reading this post I felt I had to put forward a more detailed answer. This post isn’t meant to criticize John or his site, it’s simply meant to provide what I feel might be a more helpful answer.

This is the question sent into John’s site by a reader:

?I have a goal and I am working towards it. But, I am lacking something and I feel that is MIND-SET. Could you guide me to create a strong MIND-SET??

I’m guessing, because the email did not come to me, that the reader is looking to create a mindset that will drive them forward with enthusiasm; that will keep them looking, unwaveringly toward their goals even in the face of seeming failure. If I’m wrong in the interpretation, so be it, perhaps this article can help someone else, but this is what I understand the problem to be. This isn’t an uncommon problem by any means, in fact, most people find this to be true. They have a goal in mind and they work toward it, but they lack the real ?get up and go? they yearn for. This reader is exactly right; without that mindset they can never hope to truly achieve their goal because they will find themselves too prone to giving up or moving on to other things.

The Mindset Itself

This mindset that we are talking about has many names and it’s hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you feel it. It’s like love, you tend not to know what you’re looking for until you experience it first hand, and from that day forward you will never mistake it for anything else. Wallace Wattles and Ernest Holmes called it ?Ceaseless Prayer,? the idea being that your mind is always thinking of, and asking for, that which it desires. Dr. Wayne Dyer calls this mindset, ?Pit Bull Determination,? to go after your desires with such gusto that you’ll bite down and never let go. We call it determination, perseverance and motivation. No matter what you call it, it will always, unfailingly, lead to success.

Cultivating this mindset will be slightly different for everyone, but we are all going to start at the same place. The first step, no matter who you are or what your goal, is to find out why you lack the mindset you seek. The most common reason is that you’ve chosen an ineffective goal. Many people feel uninspired by their goal simply because they’ve chosen a goal that is uninspiring. Hows that for a simple answer? Take a good, hard look at the goals you’ve chosen to pursue. Do you desire them enough to bleed, sweat and cry to achieve them? Would you walk through fire for them? If the answer is no, then you might want to rethink what you’ve asked for. You might find it isn’t something that you truly want. The first step toward creating this mindset of achievement is to cultivate real desire.

This ?Pit Bull Determination? is not just one part of achieving your goal. It is, I dare say, the most important part of achieving your goal. This mindset is what keeps you from quitting when the road gets rough. It’s what keeps you struggling to move forward when you can’t find an avenue that’s open to you. Without this perseverance of mind, you will be more likely to throw up your hands and give up when things start to look bad. Without this mindset you’re doomed to failure simply by virtue of not having the belief that you will succeed at all and your belief in success is everything.

The key to finding, and keeping, this mindset is your belief in your own success. No matter which of the two following methods you decide to employ they both operate under one, all-encompassing notion: You Cannot Fail.

The Abundance Mindset

This is, by far, the most popular choice but don’t be fooled, just because it’s the most popular doesn’t mean that it’s the best. Adopting this mindset means that you firmly believe that you can do nothing but succeed because the true nature of the world is that there is enough to go around for everyone. The world has more than enough money, success, love, what have you, in it to provide for everyone and therefore there is no reason to feel competitive over your goals. Feel abundant and you will soon see nothing but abundance for everyone and you will not have to fight for your share, it will come to you of it own free will. This mindset works very well for many people, though it isn’t my favored option.

The problem with the abundance mindset is that it doesn’t work if you don’t believe it. If you’ve spent your life living with nothing but lack and shortage, you’re mind will have a very hard time believing that anything else is possible. What ends up happening is that you tell yourself, ?My world is abundant,? but then you look around, realize that you’ve just lied to yourself and negate any effect that your affirmation may have had. I would suggest that this mindset works very well for some goals but less well for others so you should use your discretion when choosing how to handle your specific needs. The Abundance Mindset can work for you, but let me suggest a slightly less popular idea.

The Warrior Mindset

I know there are many self-help ?experts? out there who will disagree with me on this, but I know that I’m not alone when I say that the Warrior Mindset is the best way to achieve your goals. The Warrior Mindset says that you are going to have to work for what you want. To achieve your goals you are going to have to hunker down in the mud, blood, sweat and tears and be willing to charge headlong into any obstacle that gets in your way. You have to be willing to fight through whatever failure you may face to achieve your goals. This is the “Pit Bull Determination” that will drive you ceaselessly forward, unwilling and unable to accept defeat.

As I said, many people will disagree with me on this because they will feel that this mindset is too negative and indicates that life is a shortage. I say that it isn’t negative at all because you are not fighting other people and there’s nothing even remotely shortage related about it. This mindset says that you recognize that you may encounter opposition or failure along the way, but that you do not choose to let them slow you down. This mindset is about a constant movement forward toward your goals regardless of what stands in your way. This mindset is the ultimate in positive thinking because it is self-empowering. You cannot fail because you do not choose to fail.

Failure is Not an Option

Whatever mindset you choose, the key to building the right attitude is to accept that failure does not exist for you. Decide right now that, if you persevere, you must, at some point in the future, achieve your goal. You must decide that there is no such thing as failure and remove all thoughts of failure from your mind. Accept right now that there might be hard times, some things might get in your way, you may have times when you don’t think you can go on. Accept that while those things may occur, you will never let them stop you. Decide now that you will have everything that you work toward, because you have no other choice.

These decisions are critical to your success because they are going to get you out of your comfort zone and give you a battle plan for the future. Deciding right now to take your life and your success into your own hands will be the most productive thing you ever do for yourself. So start right now.

Decide what you want and decide that you will have it. Not that you can have it, but that you will have it.

How to Build Your Mindset

So now we’ve explored the nature of these mindsets and the role they play in your personal development, now we’re going to get down to the practical steps in building the mindset you need, be it Abundance or Warrior.

1.Set a goal that excites you. If your heart doesn’t pound in your chest when you think about achieving your goal, you’ve set the wrong goal. Don’t censor yourself. Decide to have only what you want, nothing less.
2.Don’t constrict yourself with ?How’s? and ?When’s.? You don’t have to decide how you’re going to achieve your goal, in fact it will only serve to constrict your success. Never give your goals a deadline, they only serve to dishearten you if they aren’t achieved on time. Resolve yourself to having what you want no matter how long it takes to get it.
3.Decide which road you want to take to your success. If your goal is to make more money by starting your own company, or starting an exercise regime, then the Warrior mindset is probably better suited to your needs. If you are looking to find your soul mate, or get a raise at your current job, a mindset of Abundance may help you more.
4.Resign yourself to hardship. It will happen, it always does. Things will get in your way. Realize that these things are coming, but they are transitory and impermanent. Decide that your resolve for success is unwavering.
5.Repeat Step #4 every single day. When you wake up in the morning, you need to be thinking about your goal. When you go to bed you need to be thinking about your goal. If you aren’t doing those things then go back to Step #1 and start over.

Remember that the most important part of cultivating a mindset of achievement is to erase the idea of failure. Believe you can fail and you’ve given yourself an excuse to quit when times get hard. Take away that escape plan and life becomes ?sink or swim,? succeeding because you have no other option. As soon as you can think about achieving your goals not as a question of ?if? but ?when,? you’ll know you’re ready. As soon as you are so unwavering in your knowledge that success is inevitable that you become willing to physically fight for it, you’ll know you’re ready.

Posted in Blog, Determination, Emotions, Fear, Goal Setting, Motivation, Self Improvement, The Mind