From Ordinary to Extraordinary: How to Start Building a Stronger Mindset and Create a Better Life

Have you already given up on this year’s resolutions?

Most people have.

I was the same.  Year after year.  I kept setting goals to get a business running, to hit money targets, to get in shape, etc.   Sometimes I had success, but over time, my success would disappear along with my motivation.

Long-term, I was failing. 

It took a long time, but after trial and error, I realized that I was always working on the wrong things.  I was focused on wanting to have a comfortable life.  On having freedom to do what I wanted.   I was focused on the end goal.  I was chasing money and objects.  I realized that if I wanted to have long-term, sustainable success, there is one thing that I would have to do first.

I had to create a stronger mindset.  

Setting specific goals is great, but I found that my achievements would not be ‘permanent’ if I didn’t have the right mindset.

I had things such as fears, limiting-beliefs, sabotaging behaviors, that I needed to fix in my life.  I found that even when I hit some goal, I often became too complacent and went back to my old ways.  If I could better understand myself, then achieving goals and making them permanent would be easier.

It meant that I would have to face my truths and be as honest with my situation and circumstances as possible.

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I started viewing my life as a pyramid.   

At the top of the pyramid, I saw my dreams and ultimate accomplishments.  At the top were the intangible needs I wanted to obtain such as freedom, happiness, and self-satisfaction.

In the middle of the pyramid, I saw good health.

When I was a teenager, I was involved in an auto accident that left me with two shattered, upper leg bones (femurs).  It took a long time to recover, and I am lucky it happened when I was young and in good shape.

It made me realize that without health, everything we want to accomplish becomes much harder.  When you are sick and not in good health, your energy goes down.  It is harder to get motivated and stay focused for a long time.

Without good health, even if you obtain some things at the top, they will be harder to enjoy.

With good health, you have more energy, you can focus longer, you have the strength and agility to do many things.  Furthermore, good health is essential for a healthy brain.

At the bottom of the pyramid, I saw mindset. 

Mindset is the ‘foundation’ for everything else. 

Without a strong mindset, everything up above is harder to achieve and harder to keep.

You might be successful for a short time, but it can go away quickly.  You might also be successful but not be happy in different areas of your life if you do not have the right mindset.

• With a strong mindset, it makes going through the ups and downs of life much more manageable.
• Setbacks are easier to overcome. It’s easier to stay focused and on track.  Instead of letting your emotions, feelings, and primitive brain dictate your life, you are in charge.
• You also better understand yourself. You have faced your truths and, instead of worrying about what others think, you are self-confident because you are secure with who you are.
• Building this mindset can help you overcome being a victim, self-sabotage, fears, and limiting beliefs.

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How do you build a stronger mindset?

At first, I wanted to go from 0 to 100 as fast as possible, but I soon realized that I had too many bad habits and old programs to overcome.  I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

I listened to and watched others talk about how they constantly challenged their mind and became stronger.

One common theme was that they pushed themselves to do more.  They challenged themselves to overcome those urges to delay, put off, to quit, to give up.   The more they were able to do so, they stronger their mindset became.

You are probably thinking that you can’t push yourself to do more, but you can. 

If you start to recognize and acknowledge your feelings and see them as subconscious programming keeping you back, you can then decide to keep going and to push yourself even further.

I started to do this.

Every time my monkey brain urged me to use my old programs to put off, to give up, or to avoid, I would use that as a chance to make myself stronger.  I did this by changing how I looked at these urges.

Instead of dwelling on why I couldn’t get things started or done, I started telling myself that, by overriding these urges of the monkey brain, I would be making a stronger mindset. 

This minor shift in thinking made it easier to start and easier to continue with what I was doing.  When I was finding myself delaying to get started with something, I would remind myself that it was a chance to create a more disciplined mindset, and I would start.

When I was in the middle of working on something and felt I had done enough, I would urge myself to go further; it was an opportunity to become stronger.

The beginning was tough, but the more I practiced, the easier it slowly became.  This led to me feeling better about myself, and I became more confident.

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If you want to create a stronger mindset:

1. First, change how you think of tasks. Don’t look at them as things that need to get done.  Look at them as an opportunity to become mentally stronger.
2. Second, when you are in the middle of doing something and feel the urge to give up or take a break, push yourself further. Don’t let the monkey brain get you off track.  The more you push past your limits, the stronger you will become.
3. Third, set some rules for the day. Set some rules that you have to 100% follow.  I will not snack today.  I will exercise for at least 30 minutes.  I will complete one article and publish it today.  When you can set rules and keep them, you become mentally stronger.
4. Fourth, challenge yourself to do some things you normally wouldn’t do. Take a cold shower, go for a run, have a no snacking day, don’t watch TV, etc.
5. Fifth, consistently practice. The more you do this, the stronger you will become.  As you start to do more, your confidence will go up.

I did the above and found myself getting more things done.

After I became better at overriding the urges of my primitive brain, I then transitioned to a more specific plan using some techniques above along with other things that I learned.

You can read the plan I created, click here.

Start today to beat those urges and to strengthen your mindset.

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