These Mindset Shifts Will Transform Your Life Forever

As the saying goes, football is a game of inches. For all of you football fans, you know exactly what I mean by this. Some of the biggest and most painful losses throughout the course of my football career came directly from either being a second too late, a second too soon or an inch away from a favorable outcome of the game.

Just as football is a game of inches, so is winning in life and in business. If you want to start living life on a new level, then you will need to make some crucial mindset shifts. How we think largely determines our destiny. 

The quality of our relationships, business success and happiness among so many other things boils down to our mindset. We are all talented at something, and while I think there are quite a few different variables as to why others are more successful than the next person, I strongly believe that mindset ultimately separates the best of the best from everyone else.

Here are three mindset shifts that will transform your life forever.

1. Grow through the tough times instead of just going through them.

One of the most important mindset shifts that could instantly open your life and business up to new possibilities is to grow through the tough and discouraging times of life instead of just going through them. There is nothing easy about this mindset shift, and it will take a lot of intentional effort on your part to fully execute this, but the results will end up changing your life.

I talk about this mindset shift a lot in my upcoming book, Winning Plays: A Top Athlete’s Advice For Tackling Adversity and Achieving Success, and how it completely changed my life forever. Some of the biggest failures and adversities in my life ended up becoming some of the biggest blessings and opportunities -- all because I chose to intentionally grow through them instead of just casually go through them.

2. Fuel your faith, not your fear.

We all have faith and fear to some degree, however, where it becomes a major stumbling block for most is when you fuel your fears more than they fuel your faith. Fear is normal, and even the best of the best experience it from time to time, but what they do differently is they re-channel it. When they feel fear, they face it head on by acknowledging it, and then shift their mindset to instead fuel their faith.

What you give energy to will likely manifest. When I refer to fueling your faith, I am referring to seeing yourself beyond your current circumstances and flirting with all of the possibilities for what could go right instead of paying attention to what could go wrong.

This small and simple mindset shift will not only help you get to where you want to go, but it will ignite a fire deep inside of you and help you to push through all of the discomfort you will experience along your journey. There is absolutely nothing positive that could come out of fueling your fears rather than your faith.

3. Love the process more than the outcome.

I have never met an incredibly successful entrepreneur, athlete, business executive or any other high achiever who has reached a level of greatness in their life that didn’t love the process. So many people would rather focus on the desired outcome and destination instead of savoring the process that will get them to that destination.

The obstacles, the challenges, the sleepless nights. That pathway to success is what builds champions. You don’t just put together a football team and go out on Sunday’s and win a Super Bowl. You don’t just hire employees and expect to have a thriving organization right from the get go. You don’t just come up with an idea one day and fall into fame and fortune. In all three of these scenarios, a process is required.

The best of the best absolutely love the process and journey no matter how difficult it may be at times, because they know that’s where the real value is at. Of course, you are going to get inspired, motivated and excited about the destination or end result of something that you are deeply passionate about, but believe it or not, the value is minimal there.

The growth, strength, perseverance, skill set and courage that is instilled in the greatest men and women in the world all came from the savoring the process, not from the destination or end result. If you can learn to love the process, you will give yourself a competitive advantage in life and in business, that does a whole lot more than pay you monetarily.

Matt Mayberry

5 Self-Sabotaging Mindsets That Undermine Entrepreneur

Success is what every business person and entrepreneur desires from the very core of their being. They have a dream, a genius idea and an initial excitement to make it happen. Having a great idea and building a sustainable empire, however, are very different things and many, if not most, fail. To rank among those who succeed you must master certain disciplines to avoid sabotaging your own success.

1. How you think.

Your thoughts color the way you see all of life and ultimately determine your destiny. To be successful take a hard look at your idea of yourself, how you perceive yourself, your potential and what you believe your ability to succeed is. Keep it positive.

Negative thinking is easy. It takes zero effort and it creates assumed or imaginary roadblocks to your success everywhere you turn. You are not likely to succeed if you let negative thinking rule your mind. You must not tolerate this type of thinking. Instead, call upon your more innovative thinking. Negative thinking is rigid, unmoving and works against the flow of life. To be successful you have to train your thoughts to be flexible, hopeful and inventive.  

Become conscious of your thoughts to direct them properly. When you are in control of your thought process there will not be an obstacle you cannot creatively bypass. If you want to be successful you must eat, drink, sleep and think about success. Infuse your thoughts with hope, passion, positivity and trust. Do not entertain defeatist thoughts because actions follow thoughts. 

A negative mind is a success killer. Let the way you think be your greatest asset, rather than your toughest obstacle.

2. Lack of commitment.

You cannot fulfill your dreams if you are unsure and only half-way committed to getting where you want to go. Never assume the climb to success should be easier than it is. Assumptions of ease of effort will derail your success nearly immediately. When things end up more challenging than you expect, frustrations and resentments develop that kill your drive.

There is no greater a success killer than frustration backed by resentment.

To live your purpose you must know, without a shadow of a doubt, what you want. Sustainable success requires a deep and dogged commitment to a detailed and solid plan of action. Having a clear commitment cuts through the confusion and doubt when you face obstacles on the road to success.

Without a genuine and unwavering commitment to your larger purpose your goals lose their importance and value. A lack of commitment creates delay, chaos and frustration poisonous to any living goal.

Be in to win it, no matter what it takes. If you want to succeed at elite levels you must be willing and able to sacrifice.

3. Lack of self-regulation.

To be successful focus on developing the skill of self-regulation. Learn to understand and control your own emotions so they don’t become turbulent and derail your success.

Whether you are emotionally high, low or in between, be acutely aware of your state of mind and conscious of when it is good to make decisions and not. Decisions made from fear or anger take you off course and often ruin potentially successful relationships and connections. Decisions made at the peak of excitement can lead to impulsivity which doesn't best serve your mission in the long term and may leave you with regret. However, it is in the flat or bored emotional times where the most danger lies because these times may cause you to put things off and coast when you really need to be moving forward.

To succeed you have to show up and do the work. You cannot win today’s game based on yesterday’s points, and nor do you stop being innovative or hard working because you have some future deals or meetings to look forward too. Show up to each day calm and resolute. Make sure to be rational before making big decisions. Stay conscious of the fact that erratic emotions lead to poor decisions.

4. Lack of time management and structure.

Being an entrepreneur you will have a lot of freedoms you may not have otherwise. You have the freedom to set your own schedule, decide when you go to work and how much you work. Freedom is wonderful if you have self-discipline. If you are not a self-starter or self-disciplined this could lead to laziness and the failure of a genius idea. 

Too much freedom placed in the hands of an undisciplined and unorganized person will not show positive results. The inability to manage time leads to poor decision making, an inability to prioritize and other success-killing habits. This type of behavior doesn’t allow an idea to even take off.

Time can be a daunting and oppressive energy to manage when there is too much of it on your hands.
Create a schedule like you would have if you were working in the corporate world. You are your own corporation now and all corporations need organization, scheduling and time frames to serve as guideposts for goal achievement.

If you can’t keep up with time you will not keep up with your competitors. You have to do better than your competitors in time management and organization if you want to get ahead. As you schedule all your time you will come to find the busier you are the more true free time you have to enjoy in your personal life.

To be a successful entrepreneur it takes more than a big dream and a great schedule. It takes a huge amount of self-discipline, pristine organization and the willingness to work.

5. Lack of patience.

As an entrepreneur you can have the greatest ideas in the world but without patience you are not likely to see them manifest, no matter how genius they may be. To be successful, learn patience. Patience is something you do, it is not something you have. Patience is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more successful you will become. People without patience give in to frustration and give up too easily. Lasting and sustainable success is not based in instant gratification. True success is a dynamic process built upon change, challenge and growth.

Patience gives you the determination to stick to a goal despite the odds. It helps cultivate persistence, acceptance and hope. It allows you to see the big and small picture giving you a sense of control over your mind and impulses when things look bleak. When you are patient you greatly increase your odds that you will make your personal dreams come true.

Success is an art and a discipline, not just a sought after ideal. For this reason, many people chase an ideal without the necessary skills to get there, but rather, only armed with a great idea and big dream. Without being able to discipline your thoughts, manage and organize your time, control your emotions, be completely committed to your cause, and have the patience to get through your challenges, further fueling your hope, you cannot reach the desired outcome you seek. You will get trapped in negative thinking and aggravation. Frustration trumps patience and before you know you it, you have sabotaged your dream. Don’t let this be you.

 Sherrie Campbell