E04: Your Mindset is a Habit

One of the most important intangible habits you can start developing now is your mindset. It also is one of the most difficult habits to make and break. Don’t worry, this episode helps you set yourself up for success!

I was so excited for this topic because I am all about creating healthy habits, or swapping out low-energy habits we’ll call them. I even created a Habit Tracker Guide!

Mindset is something I’ve been studying for years. Ever since I took an interest in yoga and meditation, I have been obsessed and mesmerized with the power of our thoughts.

The Manifestation Formula

This is a formula that allows you to bring anything and everything into your life. And it starts with your thoughts.

The formula goes like this:

T = F = A = R

Thoughts create feelings, Feelings lead to actions, and Actions create Results

Our thoughts are SO INCREDIBLY POWERFUL because thoughts create things!

Think about it for a second. Everything, ever created, started as an idea, as a dream or as a vision. Someone out there had to think about every tool, every service, every invention – EVER came from someone’s mind. Still following?

Okay, so we believe in developing our growth mindset, and we understand that our thoughts are powerful, now what?

Now, you start where you are.

Like any habit, you want to track what you are currently doing. For the purpose of today’s episode let’s bring awareness to our thoughts/mindset.

In the spring of last year I hopped on the Bullet Journal bandwagon, and every day for at least three months I recorded my mood/emotions. If you remember back to the Manifestation Formula, our thoughts lead to feelings. So here I was, recording my feelings and I started noticing patterns in my moods. I was also meditating consistently at the time and I was very aware of my thoughts.

Over those three months I noticed that I slowly started entering a very dark place in myself mentally and emotionally. For simplicity's sake, I’m going to call it a Scarcity Mindset. This scarcity mindset was like a black hole for any gratitude, positivity, or good vibes I had. I was focusing on scarcity – which was everything I didn’t have, everything I wasn’t good enough at or for, and everything I couldn’t do.

This slow decline lead to mild depression and anxiety and emptiness. This went on for a couple more months until I DECIDEDthat I wasn’t going to tolerate this feeling anymore.

I remembered a quote that I wanted to share with you by John C Maxwell:

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is in your daily routine.”

I would consider modifying this quote to say, “the secret of your success is in your daily thoughts” Because I knew that the one thing I could change was my mindset/attitude. It’s the one thing we can control.

So I created a plan to learn about an Abundance Mindset and I focused my thoughts on what I could do, and that I was good enough, and all the things I did have. And within 30 days of practicing this new mindset habit, things really started to shift for my mind, emotions, and life.

I want to emphasize a keyword here: 30 days of PRACTICING. Shifting your mindset from Scarcity to Abundance really is a daily practice.

Here are the steps I took to do this.

STEP #1: KEEP IT SIMPLE

You always want to make plans and decisions when you’re in a good mood. You don’t have to be in a great mood, or feeling your absolute best, but don’t make decisions when you’re angry or upset or sad.

When you’re feeling good, take some time to think or write about how it is that you want to feel. You could go into detail about how you want to feel, or you could simply write the word down. For example: HAPPY or ABUNDANT or FREE or LOVED however you want to feel.

This feeling you choose is usually something we’ve felt before. After you’ve written your feeling word, make a list of all the experiences or things that made you feel this way in the past.

Example: FREEDOM

Sleeping in on weekends
Travelling
Standing in front of the ocean
Being able to buy whatever I want on the menu
Fresh air
Floating on water
A really great yoga class
Putting my phone on airplane mode

Even the act of writing out a list of 5-10 ways you’ve experienced “freedom” begins to raise your vibrational energy to meet that of the feeling of freedom. You will probably notice that your body feels a bit lighter, and your thoughts are focused on feeling good.

STEP #2: START WHERE YOU ARE

Now that you know how you want to feel and a few ways you’ve felt that way in the past. Consider how you can start incorporating your feelings of freedom into your present day. In the example one of the items was travel, and another was fresh air. You may not be able to book a trip today, but you could certainly take yourself out for a walk to the local park or around your neighbourhood for some fresh air.

Perhaps today your action is to write out your feeling word on a piece of paper, or paint it or whatever, and hang up your word somewhere you will see it daily. Keep your feeling word in sight and front of mind.

STEP #3: GET ON THE RIGHT TRAIN

You’ve heard of the phrase: train of thought, right? This is the way we reach a conclusion. If you follow a negative or scarcity thought, you could possibly end up in a black hole. However, you can choose to follow your abundance train of thought and end up at your desired feeling of freedom.

Awareness is how you get on the right train. Bring awareness to your thoughts. Slow down and notice your thoughts. When you start to notice your scarcity thoughts, or your negative thoughts: pause, acknowledge the thought for what it is: unnecessary. Then take a few deep breaths. Anchor into how you want to feel, and be real with yourself. It’s OKAY to be upset or angry or frustrated, just don’t take that train of thought. You can feel certain ways but you don’t need to KEEP feeling this way.

This doesn’t mean lying to yourself and replacing your negative thought with a positive thought, because honestly, this creates distrust with yourself (we can save that for another day).

STEP #4: KEEP YOUR COMMITMENTS

“Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you.” – Darren Hardy

In my self experiment with my new abundance mindset, I told myself I was going to practice this every day for 30 days. There were days where i wanted to call “bullshit” but I continued any way. There were days where I wanted to say “yep, today is a great day, I don’t need to keep doing this anymore” BUT as you probably already know, that’s not how our mindsets work! We have to keep showing up every day for what we want, even when we’re not in the mood.

My experiment was 30 days, but I like to think that I practice a growth and abundance mindset as a daily habit.

STEP #5: KNOW THAT IT’S ALL GOOD

I said before, it’s okay to feel less than your best. If you get off track and take the negative train of thought, that’s okay too.

We are human, we are complex beings with complex thoughts and emotions and we’re not mindful 100% of the time.

Give yourself some credit for noticing your thoughts, good or bad. Start fresh the next day, or get off the scarcity train while you can. Sit with your feelings, be with your thoughts. Use this as information from your brain and body, and journal about the lesson in the messiness. You’re going to be okay!

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Val Lavigne Life Women's Empowerment Podcast

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!