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Unleash Your Potential: The Power of Mindset in Achieving Your Dreams (+ My Story)

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The power you hold in your brain to change your life is astounding. Learning how to change your mindset to change your entire life is honestly a transformative journey and will have a profound impact on your ability to achieve your dreams. The belief in your own capabilities shapes your actions, determines your choices, and ultimately paves the way toward your success. Let's explore the captivating connection between your mindset and your achievements, revealing the self-fulfilling prophecy that awaits those who dare to believe in themselves. And I'm going to throw in a personal example, so read on for that.

The Mindset Shift: From Doubt to Belief

Embracing the Power of Belief:

A positive mindset sets the stage for growth and opportunity. When we truly believe in ourselves and our abilities, or even believe in the future you desire, we unlock our potential and open doors to new possibilities.

The Limiting Effects of Self-Doubt:

Self-doubt hinders progress and stifles potential. When we don't believe in our capabilities, we hold ourselves back from taking action and exploring our full potential.

For example, I, like most of us, always wanted to own my own home. But I always worked low-paid jobs and had trouble saving money, so I believed I would never be able to save a deposit. Everyone says you need like $80,000, $100,000, something crazy like that. That would take me decades of saving and the price of houses would be going up while I saved, pushing the goal posts further away. If I chose to save for a house I would be putting off holidays, going out with friends, buying anything nice for myself forever. I wouldn't be able to live in the present in order to save for something for the future. Was owning a house really that important?

Because I didn't believe I could ever achieve it, I didn't save for a deposit, which consequently meant I would never buy one. A self-fulfilling prophecy, you could say.

Cultivating Self-Belief:

Developing a strong and resilient mindset is key to fueling your journey towards success. By adopting empowering beliefs, challenging self-limiting thoughts, and building confidence, you can harness the power of belief and achieve remarkable things.

Back to my example: I always wondered how some retirees, with no income and therefore a limited amount of money that will run out one day, some of them could afford to go on annual international trips and live quite well.

I deduced: it's because they owned their home outright by retirement so their superannuation income wouldn't be eaten away in the first few years purely through rent or mortgage payments, and leaving them on the poverty line for their twilight years.

The 2016 Census showed that older women were the fastest growing group to experience homelessness in Australia.

I did not want to be a part of that statistic, and if having a paid off home by the time I retire was the way I prevented it, then I wasn't maybe going to buy a house: I was definitely going to. I had to. And I had to do it now.

I whole-heartedly believed it was going to happen which set me into action to find all the ways I could make it happen.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: When Belief Becomes Reality

The Cycle of Belief and Action:

Our beliefs shape our actions, which in turn impact our outcomes. When we believe we can achieve something, we are more likely to take the necessary steps to make it happen.

The Impact of Negative Self-Talk:

As you saw in my example above, negative self-talk creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. I didn't believe I could, so I didn't even try.

Overcoming self-doubt and embracing positive affirmations, such as telling yourself with confidence that what you desire is yours - can help rewire our minds for success.

Harnessing the Power of Positive Affirmations:

From the outside, positive affirmations sounds a bit woowoo, it sounds like junk science, something only illogical people do. But hear me out.

By intentionally using positive affirmations, we can shape our reality and reinforce empowering beliefs. What you focus on becomes your reality: If you're thinking about red cars, you're more likely to notice cars that are red than someone who is focused on buses, or not even focused on vehicles at all. The same goes for how you think about yourself, your abilities, your future.

If you think you are not good at something, then any time you make a mistake will feel like evidence that you are not good at it. You'll dismiss the times you succeeded as having been luck, or because of some other factor. It couldn't have been your own skills!

Thinking like this doesn't make you feel good and will likely lower your motivation to even try at all. But if you think more positively, tell yourself that you try hard, that mistakes are all learning opportunities, and that you improve every day, your mind will start seeing those successes more, the red car, which increases your confidence and motivation to keep going.

Affirmations truly serve as powerful reminders of our capabilities and fuel our motivation to succeed, because you truly start to believe you will.

As I started to believe that I was definitely going to buy a house soon, I started investigating how to make it possible, and new way of accessing funds without painstaking, long-term savings appeared before me:

I learned about a first home owner's Grant for my state,
I learned that building a house needed a much, much lower deposit than buying a house outright,
I discovered I could withdraw some of my superannuation I had been topping up and put it toward my house deposit,
Out of the blue, I was contacted by a publisher I had worked with before to write another book for them, and received the advance for that,
Due to the closure of the construction industry during Covid-19 lockdowns, my state government created a grant for new home builders signing contracts during a specific time period - right while I was signing my contract.

I believed I could own a home, so suddenly it was possible. And now I do!

Embracing a Growth Mindset: The Key to Unlocking Potential

The Growth Mindset Philosophy:

Embracing challenges, learning from failures, and continuously seeking growth are core principles of a growth mindset. By adopting this mindset, we open ourselves up to endless possibilities. We might still fail at times, but it no longer stops us from persevering.

Nurturing Resilience and Perseverance:

Obstacles and setbacks are inevitable on the path to success. Developing resilience and perseverance allows us to bounce back, learn from where we went wrong, and keep moving forward.

The Art of Learning:

A growth mindset fosters curiosity, open-mindedness, and a love for lifelong learning. By embracing a mindset of growth and constantly seeking knowledge, we unlock our potential and continuously evolve.

Rewiring Your Inner Dialogue: Building a Foundation for Success

Recognizing and Challenging Limiting Beliefs:

Identifying the beliefs that hold us back and reframing them for positive change is crucial. By challenging our limiting beliefs, that negative Nancy who tells you you can't so don't even try, we create space for growth and new possibilities and frankly, achieving our wildest most ambitious dreams.

Counteract Those Limiting Beliefs:

Cultivating a kind and supportive inner voice to fight back against the negative Nancy is essential. By practicing self-compassion, we nurture our self-belief and overcome self-doubt. Tell the negative voice to shut up and do the thing anyway.

That's a lot you've taken in so far. So how do you change your mindset from limiting beliefs that tell you you're not capable of everything you want, that you'll fail, to believing you can do anything if you try?

Unleashing Your Potential: Action Steps for Transformation

Setting Inspiring Goals:

Defining your vision, breaking it down into actionable steps, and celebrating progress are key components of goal setting and keeping yourself motivated and focused on the journey. Reward yourself when you do the hard things!

Embracing Challenges as Opportunities:

Stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing challenges as opportunities for growth is essential. By pushing our boundaries, we expand our skills and capabilities. Sometimes roadblocks are there for a good reason! The path we wanted to take might not have been right for us, but the detour leads to even better opportunities.

Building a Supportive Network:

Creating an empowering environment and surrounding ourselves with like-minded individuals (like those of us who enjoy The Happery!) who uplift and encourage our growth is vital. Positive influences fuel our motivation and reinforce our belief in what we can achieve.

That is the core reason The Happery was founded in the first place!

So, believe in yourself, banish self-doubt and tell the negative voice to eat rocks, keep your mind focused on the good around you and on your goals. You never know what you'll achieve.

What are your big dreams that you keep telling yourself you can't achieve, that it's not for you. It's for other people, but not you. Shut up, Nancy.

We know you can do it. Let us know when you do!