Three Steps to a Healthier Mindset
What are you thinking about right now? What about when you were brushing your teeth? Taking a shower? Putting on your shoes? Have you ever taken the time to assess the thoughts you allow to swirl through your head on a minute-by-minute basis?
We can all agree that a healthy mindset is critical to achieving goals, attaining balance, and experiencing joy throughout our lives, but what directly impacts whether we have a healthy or unhealthy mindset? And what does it mean to have a “healthy mindset”?
According to Psychology Today, “a mindset is a belief that orients the way we handle situations—the way we sort out what is going on and what we should do. Our mindsets help us spot opportunities, but they can also trap us in self-defeating cycles.”
So, a healthy mindset starts with identifying your beliefs. One great way to identify your beliefs is to evaluate your thought patterns. Do you find yourself often thinking negatively about your workplace? Things like: These people don’t know what they’re doing. That guy is always so rude. These reports are pointless. Those thought patterns can be traced back to identify your beliefs, such as: I am too experienced for this job. I could do a better job than he does. They don’t appreciate their employees.
Of course, no one wants to admit that they might be in a negative-thinking pattern, but until you take time to evaluate what is consistently rolling through your head, you will never know what impact your daily thoughts are having on your overall well-being. And until you identify what it is that you believe about a particular situation, you can’t move towards a healthier mindset. You will just be moving in circles wondering why things are never improving and never going your way.
So, now you’ve taken notice of your thoughts and you’ve traced those back to identify some beliefs you may have established for yourself over the years. Now what? How do you move from an unhealthy mindset—one that creates feelings of stress, fatigue, hopelessness etc.—to one that will move you forward towards your goals?
There are many factors that play a role, but today we are going to focus on three actionable steps you can take to enhance or improve your mindset.
Visualize Success
If you have attended any Lion Shield, LLC training courses, you know that we talk about the importance of mindset. Studies have shown that mentally walking yourself through a situation and visualizing a successful resolution to that situation affects the brain in much the same way that actually experiencing the situation in real life would. I can’t tell you how many times I have mentally rehearsed what actions I would take in stressful or life-threatening situations to prepare myself for the day that those situations occur. And they have occurred. And I found that by rehearsing them beforehand, my mind and body were prepared to react in the very ways I had trained myself to react after rehearsing the situations in my mind.
The same can be said for visualizing success regarding your goals. What is it that you would love to achieve in the next six months or year? Regularly visualize yourself taking the steps necessary to achieve that goal and allow yourself to feel the joy, peace, and sense of accomplishment that achieving that goal would provide. Now, am I saying that simply thinking about something makes it true? Obviously, not. We all know that you must do the work. Take the steps. Put in the time if you want to achieve your goals. But we also know that visualizing success is a very reasonable, motivating step that anyone can take to get started. Having a healthy mindset means having the right belief about something. Believing you can achieve your goal or have success in a particular situation is a valuable first step.
Evaluate Who Has Your Time and Attention
Whether we like to admit it or not, we are all easily influenced by those we spend a significant amount of time with. Who do you spend time with? How do they impact your thinking? Your goals? Are they generally positive and encouraging? Do they always see the worst in every situation? What type of thoughts are circulating in your head after spending time with them?
We all have individuals in our lives that we wouldn’t choose to spend time with if given the chance, but because of a particular situation, work typically, we are regularly in contact with them. Those aren’t the people we are referencing, though you do have some control over what influence you allow them to have in your life. We are talking about the people you choose to spend time with. Entrepreneur Jim Rohn once said, “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” Don’t underestimate the effect your friends, family, mentors, coworkers, etc. are having on your mindset.
Take Care of Your Physical Health
It’s no secret that physical and mental health go hand in hand. It’s difficult to focus on achieving your next big goal when you feel sluggish, tired, or achy. Physical health in general is important to achieving a healthy mindset, but in certain professions like ours (law enforcement, probation, community corrections, court services, security etc.) it becomes even more important to invest time in our physical well-being. In a profession where you could easily find yourself in a serious or life-threatening situation, having the confidence that comes with knowing that you are physically capable of handling that situation can make a huge difference in your mindset.
When you are talking about improving physical health, just as with mental health, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Pick one action you can focus on to improve your overall health. Can you drink more water? Work more steps into your daily routine? Make a breakfast smoothie before you hit the door in the morning? Focus on that action until it becomes a habit. The success of improving that area of your life will give you confidence and motivation, improving both your physical health and your mindset.
As mentioned before, there are many components to building and sustaining a healthy mindset, but taking notice of your thought patterns and beliefs is a critical first step. You can’t control every thought that comes into your head, but you can control which ones get to stay. Be intentional. Visualize success. Practice achieving success mentally with the situations in your life. Prioritize your health. Evaluate who you are allowing to influence your thought life. And be persistent. Establishing a healthy mindset isn’t a one and done philosophy. As we walk through different seasons of life—different jobs, different friendships, different activities—it will be necessary to consistently re-evaluate contributing factors to a healthy mindset. You were created for a purpose. Use the steps above to help you achieve it to the fullest!
