Mindset is the starting point of making any kind of life changes.
In this blog Belle shares her 5 tips for finding a balanced and focused mindset to help up-level your life, and make it one that is extraordinary. You’ll be surprised to learn it isn’t complicated or fancy – just consistent.
Mindset is everything – you can push yourself for a time, but consistent, focused moving towards your goals comes from a very different place than sheer will. A shift in Mindset needs to come from first making a decision that things need to change – an actual conscious decision to live life a certain way – otherwise everything will be haphazard and not have a purpose or meaning attached to it.
You wouldn’t start a business and drop $1M into it without having a plan for the business – right? So why do we tend to approach life with no plan attached?
Call it a goal? A dream? A vision? Call it whatever you want, but if you want to start living life on your terms and begin living the life You want, then you need to have the right mindset to get you there.
Now you could be the kind of woman who loves affirmations. That’s a positive mindset.
Or you could be the kind of woman who likes a set order and structure to follow. That’s an organised mindset.
You might like to just do what feel right in the moment. Honey, that aint no mindset, that’s a habit of laziness.
Let me explain.
Most people say they want their life to be a certain way. They allow themselves to dream big, they get into the good feeling space, and they ride the good feeling wave of imagining themselves having the things they dream about. But if there are no choices, no decisions, no structure and plan in place about how to get there – then there will probably be nothing coming to fruition, unless you are holding on to luck and crossing fingers and toes.
So how do you come to that place when you are so focused, so determined and so committed to making things happen in your life?
The Answer? When the pain of living “this” way get sooooo incredibly unbearable that you simply MUST take yourself in the direction of your dreams.
Most women I work with only make the moves when they are in crisis. Including me. My past is full of moments like this. I remember a time in my life when I was literally sensitive to every food you can think of. My body was in total crisis, every food – wheat, dairy, soy, salicilates (that’s a ahcemical in EVERY single fruit and vegetable) – I would react to with hives, asthma, body pain, weakness and severe anxiety. Life was a nightmare, cos I had no idea it was the food I was eating making my life so incredibly hard. A friend said to me “what will it take before you stop eating chocolate if you know it makes you bloated and gives you tummy pain when you eat it?” I responded “It would have to give me diarrhoea before I stopped.”
Guess what happened soon after?
Yup. You guessed it. And it was intense. I had to stop taking the train cos I couldn’t last between stations and I have an aversion to public toilets! (ultimate pain right there!)
My life had to get me to a point of incredible pain discomfort before I would make a healthy – wise – choice for my body. (Don’t get me started on how unhealthy my thinking, my abuse of my own body and my blatant disrespect for myself was – I was 29yrs old at the time, and I really needed a mentor to support me but they really didn’t exist back then.)
So why not make a decision to re-focus your mindset on the things you really want in life, before it is either too late, or the pain becomes unbearable?
Life is whatever you focus on, and if you are focused on set backs, disappointments and regreat, then that’s probably what is in store for you in the future.
Are you ready to change it NOW?
Let’s do it…here is my 5 step guide to getting focused on what you want NOW:
1. Focus on changing your physical state. The way you sit / stand when you are sad, ashamed, depressed, anxious is VERY different to how you sit/stand when you are feeling unstoppable.
So whatever you are doing right now….STAND UP….shake your body out ….feet hip distance apart, feet turned out 45 degrees ….put your hands on your hips..…tits out / shoulders back …chin up…..squeeze your butt muscles and breathe deeply 10 times.
Research has shown that 2mins in the “Wonder Woman Power stance” will increase strong feel good chemicals in your brain which will flow to your whole body. You will then feel clearer and more decisive. This is what you want if you are going to change your life!
Do this every morning for a week….and see how you feel.
- Focus on the food you eat….and stop those sugary, processed, fat laden foods entering your body. Just for 5 days. And see how you feel. Don’t give up everything you love. But if it is full of sugar, fake as hell, comes with a label where you cant pronounce any ingredient, just avoid it for 5 days. That’s all. Then see how you feel.
- Increase water. No, I didn’t say tea/coffee / soft drink…I said water. Plain ol’ water. Aim for a glass every hour while you are awake. Yep, you’ll probably be friends with the God of the Toilet while your bladder gets used to it, but who cares? You are increasing your hydration! No brain ever worked optimally when it was thirsty and weak. Water will help you think more clearly and with more focus.
Do this for a week and see how you feel.
- Get in some movement every day. Not 30mins flat out exercise. Not cross-fit. Not a gym session where you almost vomit. Just move. Take the stairs when you’d normally take a lift. Park further away from the station and walk. Take the dog for an extra walk each day. If you are completely sedentary: Do 10 x squats, push ups, ab crunches and tricep dips every 2hrs. If you have a chronic illness just circle your joints, breathe deeply and get your body moving again.
Do this for a week and see how you feel.
- meditate. Sit there. Suck it up. Get comfortable with your discomfort. Meditation is not hard, it just feels excruciating at first. Search on YouTube for a meditation that you like the sound of (for improving your golf game, for anxiety, for stress, for sleep – you name it, and its there.)
Or use this one: https://vimeo.com/237005316 password: Meditation
If you want an extraordinary life, then you need to take extraordinary action. This is your starting point, and you are the only person who can do it!
Comment how this felt for you, and what you noticed was different in your life.
