10 Tips To Improve Your Mindset For The Better

Investing time and effort in improving my mindset has been one of the best things I’ve ever done! And if I knew how easy it was to improve your mindset, I would have started years ago.

It does take some effort though. Your brain runs the way it does for a reason; usually to protect you. It keeps the mindset you’ve always had because that’s how it knows to survive. But it’s crucial to understand that you can change your mindset!

You’ll know it’s time to improve your mindset when you find yourself stuck in your current patterns, whether that’s a cycle of negativity or complacency. You’ll want to improve your mindset if you have massive goal you want to accomplish, or relationship you want to fix.

Related: 9 Practical Tips To Stick To Your New Year’s Goals

So here are some easy tips you can follow to change your mindset for the better!

1. Recognize Your Thoughts

The first step in improving your mindset is to recognize the thoughts that you already have. Depending on where you look, humans have between 6,000 and 70,000 thoughts per day. How many of those thoughts are not helpful to you? Recognizing the thoughts you have is the first step in achieving mental awareness.

You may start to realize that some things you thought were facts are actually just thoughts. Did you think a client was rude to you at work? You might think “that’s a rude client” but actually you’ve formed a thought about that client. You can’t PROVE by any definition of science that the client is rude, so you realize that it’s the thought you have about them that makes them rude.

2. Write Down Your Thoughts

It’s so much easier to do this by writing down your thoughts. This allows you to see your thoughts broken out into individual lines. You can look at your thoughts more neutrally this way. Writing out your thoughts can also be a very therapeutic way to relax and create mental awareness. Your thoughts won’t seem quite as jumbled once you have them on paper.

Related: 25 Empowering Journal Prompts For Personal Development

3. REALIZE ALL FEELINGS ARE OK

With as many thoughts as you think in a day, some of them are bound to cause feelings that are not pleasant to you. However, when you resist experiencing negative emotion, it only makes the experience that much worse. Isn’t it better to know how to handle any and all emotion human beings are capable of having?

When you set out to improve your mindset, you may believe that your goal is to only feel positive emotions. Not only is this not possible, but it’s not practical! There are many situations in which feeling a positive emotion is just not appropriate. Letting go of resisting negative feelings will make it much easier to process all the thoughts and emotions you have.

4. Let go Of Judging Yourself

Once people start becoming aware of their thoughts, particularly ones that are problematic for them, they start beating themselves up for thinking this way! Remember, your brain thinks the way it does for a reason. Don’t judge yourself for thoughts, feelings, and patterns that you are programed to have. You’re working on changing them and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Humans (and women in particular I find) tend to be too hard on themselves! We judge ourselves all the time for any number of things! By recognizing your thoughts that are judgemental about yourself, you can gently tell your brain that it doesn’t need to do that.

By the way, don’t judge yourself for judging yourself!

5. Choose The Best Case Scenario

I love this tactic when making decisions! Ask yourself “If everything turned out 100% exactly like I wanted it to, what would I choose to do?” And then do that! Of course, being aware that it’s entirely possible you’ll hit road bumps along the way, but it allows you to make decisions from a “best case scenario” position.

A lot of times we feel that it’s responsible to be cautious about everything that can go wrong when making decisions, but this doesn’t provide us with the opportunities we really want to take! Sure, everything could go wrong, but everything could go right too! Being committed to believing in the best case scenario attitude can really improve your mindset! Plus, since you know how to handle negative emotion, you’ll be ready for the road bumps that come along the way.

6. Talk To Yourself LiKe Your Best Friend

Like we touched on, we tend to be extremely hard on ourselves. Much harder than we would be on anybody else! So a good way to change your mindset towards yourself is to commit to treating yourself like your best friend. If you’re truly a best friend to yourself, you’ll want the best for her, but be kind to her in the process.

Sometimes this can come in the form of being your own hype-woman. You know the drill; shouting in the mirror “You’ve got this!” and “You’re killing it!” and “Your butt looks amazing in those jeans!” But this can also come in the form of giving yourself what you need. Maybe you need more time to rest, or more time off from work. Sometimes you need more veggies, or to get rid of toxic friends! Treat yourself like your best friend by giving her what she needs.

7. Practice Thoughts You Want To Have

Practicing the thoughts you want to have can be a very powerful tool that can get you far! Say you want to be the next American Idol, but you can’t sing. You’ll want to practice thoughts like this:

-I am an amazing performer

-I sing like an angel

-I am super confident singing in front of people

Some thoughts you wish were easy to think may be very hard for you to have right now, but practice makes perfect! The more you practice the thoughts you want to have, the more your brain will start to believe they are true about yourself. You might not even be aware that any change has happened, but then one day you can suddenly walk into an audition and 100% kill it!

By the way, I find writing down the thoughts you want to practice much more effective than just thinking about them.

8. Decide Everything Has Gone Exactly As It’s Supposed To

Especially with the last year we’ve had, this is a bold belief! However, this has been one of the best things I’ve done to improve my own mindset. I’ve decided to firmly and boldly believe that everything has and will go exactly as it’s supposed to. I recommend you do the same!

Think about it: if there are things that have gone wrong in your past, you wouldn’t become the person you are today without those things happening. It’s all a part of your story, and you get to decide what it means. Committing to this belief takes the pressure away from lamenting about the past. Instead you can use it to feel empowered.

9. Commit to Positive Intake

There are SOOO many things we can consume that are just yucky for our heads. The news, violent video games, offensive music just to name a few. You don’t have to cut these things out to have a positive mindset, but you should consciously be consuming things that will help improve your mindset.

Positive intake can come in many forms! This blog for one, so congrats on consuming it! You can also read motivational books, watch inspirational films and videos, listen to a personal development podcast, or music that really inspires you. Giving yourself time to be creative can create a positive mindset as well! Taking the time to color a picture, write a poem, or jam out on the guitar can fill your brain with positive creative vibes.

Related: How To Stay Creative When You Don’t Know What To Do

10. Realize You Can Do Anything

This is my favorite believe to inspire a positive mindset: I can do anything. And once you improve your mindset from a fixed one to a growth mindset, it’s completely true! If you can change your mindset from what it currently is to what you hope to become, anything is truly possible for you. You’ll have the tools to grow into whatever you want to become. That’s really exciting!

Committing to these tools can take you anywhere, so don’t forget to share them with others so they can feel the same. If you’re looking for more positive intake, follow me on Pinterest for more personal development and lifestyle content.