Welcome to another episode of Thriving Thursdays with Amelia! Today I’m talking about one of the topics I’m most passionate about: mindset. To watch the video version, scroll down to the end of this post!
As a high performance coach, I work with driven professionals to optimize their health and happiness so that they can discover their full potential in their career and life. My six month program isn’t about a temporary fix, it’s about creating a lifestyle that fills you with energy, focus, productivity, confidence, and success for life. Regardless of my client’s goals, mindset is the single most important aspect to address in order to overcome challenges and weaknesses and set yourself up for sustainable success.
Our mindset can either control us and make us believe that certain beliefs we have about ourselves are fixed and out of our control OR it can be shifted to seeing that we have control over our beliefs and success. This is true regardless of the topic. Whether your focus is on eating healthy, fitness, relationships, career, money, or productivity it all comes down to mindset. Let’s go over some examples.
Eating healthy
Are you trying to lose weight but constantly saying, “I hate healthy food” or “I can never stick to a diet”, or “I can’t lose weight because I have a slow metabolism”? These statements aren’t exactly constructive or setting you up for success.
If you keep saying you hate healthy food, then you’re probably going to be right. You’re treating the statement like a fact and not leaving opportunity to prove it wrong. But what if you step back for a moment. Let’s try shifting your perspective.
Do you really hate ALL healthy food? Maybe you just haven’t been shown a delicious way of preparing better options. Or maybe you haven’t been introduced to healthy food swaps that align with your food preferences. If you start to be open to trying new foods without anticipating that you’ll hate them you’re far more likely to discover that there are truly delicious nourishing foods out there.
Another big thing I focus on with all of my clients is shifting away from focusing on the foods that you can’t have and starting to pay attention to how amazing and energized you feel when you fuel properly. If you’re fixated on the fact that you can’t have a cookie, all you’re going to think about and crave is that darn cookie. But once you indulge there’s a good chance you’re going to feel guilty, lethargic, and generally not your best self. Try instead to focus on the new healthy swap that you discovered. Note that you don’t feel bloated at all and actually have amazing energy levels all afternoon. Those observations are going to make you naturally start choosing the healthy option more often.
Stress
Mindset is everything when it comes to starting to take control of stress and anxiety. It makes all the difference between letting stress control you versus taking control and utilizing that feeling for success.
Imagine you have a super important presentation and all of a sudden you’re overcome with stress. Let’s go over two scenarios.
- Scenario One: You feel out of control and start worrying that you’re not going to be thinking clearly. Your hands are going to be shaking and you spiral down a path thinking how much you don’t want to do the presentation.
- Scenario Two: You notice that you’re starting to feel stressed. You recognize that’s normal before a presentation, and you feel grateful that your body is preparing you for optimal performance. You know that the stress response is increasing blood to your brain so that you can think clearer and it’s giving you energy so that you can be focused and on your A-game.
By making a small shift in perspective you go from feeling totally out of control to becoming empowered to utilize your emotions for an awesome presentation.
Fitness
Let’s go over one more example: starting a fitness routine. This can seem super intimidating especially if you like to state that you “hate working out”. Let’s dive deeper. What have you tried? Do you really hate EVERY SINGLE form of movement? OR is it possible that you haven’t discovered the type of physical activity that works for you.
- Maybe you hate running, but have you tried kickboxing? That can make you feel like a bad-ass.
- Hate following a strength training regimen and forcing yourself to the gym? Try rock climbing.
- If you’re crazy stressed out and always on the go try yoga.
Now it is true that if you’re starting out running the first few runs may not feel super awesome. This is when it’s really helpful to focus on the WHY. Why do you want to start working out?
- Are you tired of feeling winded after climbing the stairs?
- Do you want to feel confident and strong in your body?
- Do you want to have enough energy at the end of the day to play with your kids?
Focus on why it’s important to you to make this a part of your routine instead of focusing on how much you don’t want to run.
Mindset is the difference between waking up feeling motivated and ready for the day or dreading the day.
You can focus on the things you don’t want to do or you can focus on what you’re going to do to still make the day enjoyable.
It’s so important to me that you know that you have control over so much more than you might think. By simply making these small mindset tweaks you can start to feel so much more motivated to tackle your goals, boost your motivation and happiness, and get on the fast track towards sustainable success.
Are you feeling inspired to start taking action today? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you a copy of my FREE guide, “5 Health Hacks to Jump Start Your Success in 7 Days or Less”.
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