Let’s talk about mindset and negative mindset. This is not just an abstract point of view on how you feel, this is a palpable and tangible element to one’s success or failure. You know a good mindset when you see it, and a bad mindset when you see it. Mindsets often take logical points of information and use them to justify something. A lot of times the mindset is used to justify why failure is an option, why this thing that you want to do is not worthwhile, and why of all the humans on the planet, you are not the one to succeed at that thing.
A bad mindset justifies why you shouldn’t start if you haven’t already. It justifies why you will fail if you’ve already started. It justifies why you are an imposter even in your own success.
Here’s what it sounds like.
Why You Shouldn’t Start
When you want to get an initiative off the ground bad mindset sounds like this when you talk to other people. It seeps in insidiously.
- Do you really see me doing this?
- I’ve never done this before.
- Other people are better at that thing than I am.
- Why would I even succeed at that.
Now, let’s be real. If you are 5”6’, chances are that you won’t be a superstar basketball player. If you are 6”2’, you are probably too tall to fit into a fighter jet. If you were not born in the US you don’t qualify to be the President under current rules.
But most people aren’t looking at these endeavors. Mindset negativity seeps into more achievable goals, like starting businesses, creating industry changing projects, and organizing events.
To answer these questions:
Do you really see me doing this?
Of course. I’m sure there are a bunch of people with your level of education, at your age, in the same position in life that you are in, or worse, who start the exact thing that you want to start, and they succeed at it. They figure it out.
I’ve never done this before.
Really? You never drove either but you figured it out when you were of age. You never worked before, until you got a job, started, realized you don’t know anything, and you learned. There was a point when you didn’t even speak the language you now speak, but you learned it. There’s a first time for everything, so now it’s about willing it to happen.
Other people are better at the thing than I am.
Sure. True fact! But that didn’t stop you in the past. I’m sure professionally there are people better at your job than you are, but you still do your job. The people who are better at that thing than you are worked hard to get better and become the best. With a little bit of talent and a lot of hard work you can be better than them.
Why would I even succeed at that?
Why not? If not you, who? Why cede this opportunity to someone else. If you determine that you are not worthy of that success that’s in your mind. If you determine that you are worthy of your own success you will make it happen.
If you want it you’ll make it happen. In tomorrow’s post on mindset we’ll address the issues surrounding failure once you’ve already started.
