Updated Feb 2023
Everyone wants to be successful. It’s probably one of the basest human desires, right up there with food and comfort. And I’m not talking about becoming a multi-billionaire who takes their private jet down the block because they can’t be bothered to walk to 26 feet to the Louboutin store.
It doesn’t matter how you define success. It could be simply working when and where you want, knowing you’ve got financial security while living in your small beach-front home in Costa Rica.
We all want success, no matter what that means to us.
But wanting it is not enough. How do you become successful? How do you break out of the rut you’re in (you know you’re in one – *wink wink*), and reach that point in your life where you can finally say: “Ok, now I’m successful.”?
Is it luck? Sure, that can play a role, albeit a much smaller one than you’d think.
How about money? Mmm. Doubtful. We’ve all heard of billionaires who’ve failed and rags to riches stories of people who had nothing yet now live in mansions.
So what is it then?
Well, I’m sure you’ve heard this before, and you’ll undoubtedly hear it again – because it’s true.
Success comes down to your mindset.
To achieve success, you need to have the mindset that goes with it. There’s just no other way.
If you stumble into success without the mindset (it can happen), you won’t stay there. You’ll fall right back out, and the way back down will be immensely painful.
So how can you get into the right mindset? Well, lucky for you, it’s something you can get into. It’s not something you have to be born with, and it’s not something outside of your control.
Nope. It’s all in you.
If you know how to harness it.
Related: read about 6 easy tips to declutter your mind
Also – if you’re really serious about this, don’t forget to grab your checklist at the bottom of this post to keep on track!
So here goes, 6 ways you can harness that power of the Success Mindset:
1 – Getting up just a little earlier:
I’ve written a couple of posts about waking up at 5 AM, just as so many successful people swear by, and I’m a big believer in getting up early for all the reasons mentioned in those articles.
But as I also mention in there, it’s not for everyone. Some of us are night owls and have a predisposition towards evening.
But even the true night owls can benefit from this – if getting up at 5 AM is just too much for you, get up just a little earlier. Even if you manage to wake up just 20 minutes earlier every day, that’s over 2 hours a week of extra time! And in a year, it adds up to a whopping 121 hours, which is over 5 days of extra time!! (5 days of 24 hours where you’re actually awake!)
Let’s be honest, those 20 minutes of extra sleep won’t make a huge impact on your energy level, but they can make an enormous impact on your life!! Again, that’s 5 WHOLE EXTRA DAYS!
Now, just to be clear, I’m in no way glorifying sleep deprivation. I suffered from a severe sleeping disorder for years, so I know what it’s like and I in NO WAY encourage it!
BUT. I also know that there are probably not that many of you reading this who’ve actually got a sleeping disorder so severe they can’t afford to get up 20 minutes earlier.
If you want to change, and really harness the power of a success mindset, then you need to start here. Get up 20 minutes earlier, and see what a big difference it makes in your life!
2 – Start the day in a positive way
I love starting the day with a smile. The first thing I do when my alarm rings is to smile and tell myself that today is going to be amazing.
It felt a little silly (and hard!) in the beginning, but now it’s a habit. And starting the morning with a smile on your face sets the tone for the day. How often did you wake up telling yourself that this sucks, that you’d much rather stay in bed because today is going to be stupid, and then have the day prove you right? You trip on your rug in the dark, smash your nose on the floor, hurry to the bathroom to wash the blood off your face, turn the water on too hard and it splashes all over you and the floor… Need I go on? Because you’ve only been awake for about 30 seconds at that point… I’ve still got the rest of the day to go if you want!
But my point is this: if you’d started your day with a smile, and grateful for what is to come, you might have sat on the edge of your bed for a minute, stretching. Gotten up slowly, opened the curtains to enjoy the sun shining in, the birds singing.
You wouldn’t have tripped in that carpet, and none of the rest would’ve been set in motion.
Take the time to wake up happy, and I promise the days will live up to it!
3 – Failure is not failure
This is one of my favorite points, and perhaps the most powerful.
It’s shifting the way you see failure.
Many of us have grown up hearing that it’s so important not to fail.
And yet, failure is how we learn, isn’t it? Failure – making mistakes – is how we grow – both as a species and as individuals. We need to make mistakes. Children need to make mistakes, and as adults, we still need to make mistakes to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
So it’s paramount to shift the idea from “failure” to “stepping stone to what I want”.
Because that’s what it is. Failure isn’t an end unless you let it be one – and that depends entirely on you! Don’t let one small (or even large) setback keep you from what you want in life.
After I finished 4 grueling years studying for my bachelor’s degree while working and raising 2 children, I burned out. I developed a serious sleeping disorder, which triggered a severe depression. I couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings anymore, let alone go to the job that I’d worked so hard to get.
I got fired.
I was at my worst, and I felt like I had failed at everything.
I’d lost my job.
I had failed my family.
I had failed at life.
I was at my worst, and every single morning I would wake, truly disappointed that I had woken up. It was bad, and I could see no way out.
Then, after almost 2 years of trying everything I could think of, I tried what I saw as my last chance – hypnosis.
It changed everything. Though I still have the sleeping disorder to this day, it no longer controls my life.
After that little push from hypnosis, I completely changed my mindset. I have seen the most incredible results in my life in just a few short months. I felt like losing my job was the end, but I realized that it was actually a blessing, as it gave me the opportunity to start my own business, which had always been my dream.
Had I not been fired, I might not have had the courage to do so.
I now value my health above all else – something I didn’t when I was healthy before.
Anyway, long story (or longer story… 😀 ) short, I made it.
But there’s not a doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t shifted my mindset.
Sometimes when all you see is everything you’ve failed at, all you may need to do is shift a little. Take a step to the right and change the way you’re looking at it. It may be a blessing in disguise.
Failure is not failure unless you let it be.
4 – Practice self-confidence
Self-confidence is a key component to a success mindset, and the key to self-confidence is to quiet the critical voice we all hear inside our heads.
Indeed, that little voice is the one we hear most often, and the loudest among them all.
Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us, that little voice is more prone to criticism than to praise.
We all hear it chime in, saying “boy, that was really dumb” when you drop a glass because you were carrying too much. Or say “Hah! There’s no way in hell you can do that, why even try?”
That little voice is our biggest obstacle to a success mindset, yet it’s also our constant companion.
So how can you overcome that obstacle?
By becoming aware of that little voice. Of every single thing that it says to you. By acknowledging it, without accepting it as your truth. Then, consciously, replace it with positive thoughts.
Learn to be your biggest cheerleader.
At first, it will feel foreign and strange, very artificial.
But soon it will become more natural, and before long it will be a habit.
You will have replaced that negative little voice with one that is constantly cheering you on.
And that, my friend, will be your most precious ally in your quest for success, no matter how you define it!
5 – Know yourself
Self-awareness is critical to a success mindset. Indeed, to achieve success, you need to know what you want, right? But how do you know what you want, if you don’t know who you are and what’s really important to you?
And here is where many people make a mistake when they delve into their deep selves: they ask themselves why. Why do I feel this way? Why does this make me upset?
While it may seem like a good approach at first, it’s actually not that great, and here’s why (haha, see what I did there? 😀 ): when you ask yourself “why”, you’re placing yourself in a passive place. What I mean by that is that you’re basically looking at what had an impact on you and your life. But you’re not looking at how you can change that, how you can act on it, which is where the change will happen!
So try this instead:
Ask yourself “what”, not “why”.
This means that when an event occurs that makes negative emotions rise and you want to better understand them, instead of asking yourself “why do I feel this way?”, ask yourself “what can I do so that I don’t feel this way again?”
Asking yourself “what” instead of “why” empowers you. What is an action you can take, something that will directly impact your life. You’re looking towards the future.
When you ask why, not only are you taking that power away from yourself, you’re also looking to the past, to something that is beyond your power to change.
So change your habits, and instead of asking yourself “why”, ask yourself “what”!
6 – Take action
Yep.
Thought you’d be getting away without doing any actual work?
Nope!
There’s no magic here. No amount of thinking, visualizing or positive emotions will conjure success into your life. These things will help put you in the right mindset to get them, but there’s still real work involved. You need to get up off your butt and actually do the things that will get you closer to success.
I know, crazy, right?
But there’s no such thing as getting something for nothing.
You need to bust your ass off to get results. But here’s the thing: once you’re in the right mindset, once you’ve shifted your thoughts and killed off all the negative self-talk and all the rest, the actions become easy. It becomes who you are.
Success looks different to everyone. To me, it was getting out of the darkest place I’ve ever been in my life, and knowing that I will never go back there. It’s spending quality time with my family, all while living my dream of working for myself, from the comfort of my home.
Am I a millionaire? Nope, not even close.
And yet, I love my life – and that to me is success.
But I had to do actual work to get here. No amount of positive thinking could have done what my actions actually did. Getting up off my butt, and actually doing the work.
It’s tough, but there’s nothing in life that’s worth working towards more than your success, right?
Don’t forget your checklist below this post – take a real step towards change!
What about you?
In your opinion, what’s the most important aspect of a success mindset? What do you do every day to get you there? Do you think mindset is important to success?
Let me know in the comments, I’d really love to hear!
Hope to talk soon 🙂
Take care,
Jen
P.S. Don’t forget to pin this for later!
