If you feel stuck and can't figure out what's holding you back, here's a crash course on how to instantly adopt a growth mindset. It's no secret that your mindset plays an essential role in achieving all your personal and business goals. But since there's a ton of nonsense written online about this topic (especially around positive mindset and positive thinking,) I wanted to shed some light on how to forge what some people also call a "pro mindset” or "success mindset."

The concept was first introduced by the American psychologist Carol S Dweck in her classic book Mindset. In a nutshell, those with a growth mindset know they can develop new abilities and skills as long as they invest time to practice and study.

This article is the first of a long series about mindset, decision making, and goal setting, so if you like what you're reading, bookmark it and come back when you want to fast-track your lifestyle business.

Now, before we dive into the definitions and the tactics to adopt, let me tell you who I am and why you should listen to me. But if you already know, feel free to skip ahead. My name is Deniero, and I am the host of the Remote CEO Show, a podcast with over 540 episodes where I interview 7, 8, and 9-figure lifestyle entrepreneurs and best-selling authors. I am a coach and agency owner, and I'm about to officially be an author.

But things were not always so rosy. In fact, just a few years ago, I had lost my job, I was battling anxiety and depression, and I had the worst eating and sleeping habits out of everyone I knew at the time. I had been DJing and producing techno for a few years with decent results, but I couldn't take that to the next level. So I kept commuting to a desk job I didn't like, just to pay the bills.

Five painful years went by until I finally had my first rock bottom and committed to breaking out of the slump. If you want to know more about my story, click here to open it in another tab for later. But for now, let's roll!

The word "Adopting" in "Adopting a growth mindset" is not a one-time action. Instead, it's a set of habits that you'll need to perform daily to keep that mindset alive and kicking. So if you were hoping to read a couple of self-help books this week and then call it a day, stop right there! That might fire you up for a couple of days, but you'll be back to where you started in no time.

If you want lasting change now, here's the proven framework I used, and that countless other high achievers have used before me. As Bob Proctor used to say, "I have a license to brag about this material because none of it is mine."

Take advantage of your rock bottom (or manufacture a clean slate)

The first step in shaping a growth mindset is to break up with your current state of being. In other words, if you are OK with being average, or if you don't mind the situation you're in at the moment, you won't have enough fuel to persist through the changes, especially in the beginning.

The first version of this type of pattern interrupt happens naturally in one's life. These are events like the tragic passing of a loved one, a sudden job loss, a breakup or divorce, an illness, etc. These are the things you don't wish upon anyone, but since most of them are part of everyone's life journey, they can be powerful means to take your life to the next level.

Since 2010, I have had two rock bottoms. The first one was due to a job loss and a terrible last experience with the music industry. Those events forced me to spend a few weeks at home thinking of ways I could reinvent myself. That led me to buy a few self-help books, and within a month of consuming personal development content daily, I was set on getting in shape, opening an online side-hustle, and looking for a better job.

The second rock bottom came a few years later when I was hospitalized for a series of panic attacks and a bad caffeine overdose. At that time, I was selling on Amazon, and I had a marketing agency. But since I was doing most of the work by myself, I was working 16 hours a day. I was always exhausted and in a daze. As soon as I felt my heart make a cracking sound, I dropped to the ground, and I couldn't stop thinking: "If I survive this, I swear I will change for good." It took me six weeks to get back on track, but as soon as I did, I made all the changes that allowed me to work less than 20 hours a week.

But since then, I learned my lesson, and instead of waiting for rock bottoms, I manufactured my own clean slates. I've come as far as shutting down an entire business or relocating across the ocean, but you don't have to go that far to create a clean slate. Here are a few ideas you can use today:

• Get rid of your TV and video game console and replace them with lots of brand new personal development books

• Clean up your fridge and cupboard from all the unhealthy snacks and replace them with tasty and healthy alternatives

• Set a bold fitness goal, optimize your living area for it, and join a group of motivated people that can keep you accountable

You get the idea. Whatever your goal is, just make sure to take sudden and drastic action in that direction. No half-assing allowed! Your brain needs to be fully immersed in your new way of thinking because any old clue in your environment could trigger your old habit patterns.

Design your goal in detail

Now that you have broken up with your old self, it's time to get excited about the future. If you are like I used to be, you have a vague idea of what you want, but it's not a clear picture. You may tell yourself something like, "I want more money," or "I want to work less," or even worse, "I don't want to be stressed out anymore." 

Those goals are too vague, and they won't get you mentally and emotionally involved in the outcome. Instead, you need details. 

Your brain doesn't know the difference between what's real and what's imagined. So the clearer the image, the more involved your mind will be. Let me show you how that works.

Let's pretend that you currently live in a small basement apartment and decided to upgrade. In the beginning, all you know is that you want to live in a bigger and brighter apartment. Sure, you are excited to start looking, but you are not yet emotionally involved in the move.

Then, as you start going from showing to showing, you begin to see yourself living in some of these new homes. You can clearly picture yourself waking up and looking out of the big bedroom window. You imagine yourself hosting a dinner party with all your friends in that big living room. Now that the images are becoming more real, you're getting excited.

Then you finally find the perfect home! It's bright, it's spacious, you love the layout,  it's close to your family and friends, and the price is right. You can't hold the excitement anymore. You immediately place an offer, and when you go home,  you can't stop thinking about it. You're so invested in it that you can't imagine yourself living anywhere else.

See? What you just witnessed there was the power of details. And do you want to know something cool? You don't need to see details in real life to trigger the emotional response. You can just build that detailed vision of your new self in your mind and lay it all out. Here are a few ideas on how to do that.

• Create a vision board on Pinterest and spend 5 minutes every day adding new images to it

• Go window shopping for things you can't yet afford. That way, you can look and feel all the details of those products first-hand

• Write daily journal entries as if you were already living the life you want. Include all the small details (i.e., the restaurant you went to, the clothes you wore, the people you met, the conversations you had.) Make sure to write it in the present tense.

The more you do this exercise, the better your mind will adopt this new state of being.

Bathe in gold daily

Gold bathing is the process of applying a layer of gold to another metal. I borrowed this idea to remind myself to get exposed to uplifting content and circumstances every day. This is a simple but crucial step. Bad habits are like gravity. If you loosen the grip, you'll fall back into your old ways in no time. So to avoid that, you need to feed the mind ideas that keep you from relapsing. Here are some tools you can use.

• Single out the areas that you need to work on. Then set aside time daily to read books or take courses to fill those gaps.

• Choose a good audio program about mindset and personal growth and play it 10 minutes daily. Listen to the same program over and over again.

• Subscribe to a few podcasts that help you unlock your potential.

• Record your goals, add some music in the background and listen to it before starting your day.

Throw out the garbage

If bathing in gold is key to maintaining a growth mindset, throwing out the garbage is the other side of the same coin. When I say to throw out the garbage, I mean it literally and figuratively. 

On one end, you need to guard your time and attention against all the negativity. These are things like the news and tabloids and negative people who like to complain and play the victim. 

If you're not sure how to spot them, be aware of those that use the following sentences often:

• Oh my gosh! Can you believe that?!

• Of course, that would happen to me...

• Here we go again...

• That's not fair!

But what if you live with people that act like that? In that case, lead by example first by not doing it yourself and gradually introduce these ideas to them. Keep in mind that if they're not ready to make the shift, they won't. But you can be the light of reason for the time being.

On the other end, throwing out the garbage means keeping your living and working areas neat and organized. The less clutter you have around your, the more clarity you'll have in your mind. So raise your standards, and you'll start seeing results fast.

Associate yourself with winners

There are only a few states of mind that can overcome laziness and ease, and one of them is embarrassment. We all hate to feel like we're not doing enough, especially when those around us are all achieving great things. 

So if you are struggling to keep growing, have a look at your inner circle and ask yourself the following questions:

• Are my friends doing more with their time than I am?

• Do I feel stimulated by the conversations I have with my peers?

• Are my goals small compared to those around me?

If you answered "no" to the questions above, you might need to find new friends to bounce ideas and hold you accountable. The best way to do that is to attend an in-person event and network with other high achievers. Look for like-minded people and let them know that you'd like to stay in touch to hold each other accountable. That is the fastest way to create long-lasting relationships with the right people.

In 2017, I networked with two agency owners at an event, and we stayed in touch by hopping on a monthly call. Whenever I saw that call in my calendar, I'd stop and think, "Did I do enough this month? I hope they won't think I'm a slacker!" And truth be told, I did slack for the first couple of months. But since I didn't want to look like a newbie, I stepped up my game and eventually got the results I was looking for.

Rehearse your future self

You're now getting closer to locking your mind into this new and exciting state. But there's one more practice that can instantly get you unstuck when you don't know where else to look: rehearsal. Take some time to visualize a future outcome and then act that event out as if you were in it right now.

Let's say that you have been struggling with managing your remote team and because of it, your staff's morale is very low. You have been staying patient and calm. You've studied books on management and associated yourself with other high achievers. But your results haven't improved that much. 

Now get into a totally relaxed state, close your eyes and let your mind visualize an important team meeting over Zoom. You visualize all your team members and how they are not impressed with the current state of affairs. It's your turn to speak, so you unmute yourself and...

Now open your eyes and rehearse the speech as if you were actually there. Use your body language and try doing this standing up (motion creates emotion)

By the way, this is not cutting-edge material. People have been using rehearsals for playing music, acting, and giving speeches since the beginning of time. But for some reason, most people don't use this technique for all the other crucial areas in their lives.

Make mindfulness your thermostat

You now have all the tools to induce and maintain a growth mindset. But life is not always that simple. Stressful things happen all the time, and even if you are committed to your journey, you will slip back into your old ways once in a while. 

Your goal is not to be perfect but to catch yourself as soon as you veer off the path. And to do that, there's no better tool than mindfulness.

Since mindfulness is the ability to be consciously aware of something, you can direct this attention to your attitude towards external events.

For example, let's pretend that you are struggling with creating content for your social media accounts. You're usually positive when faced with challenges, but you're not feeling it today. Your mind is telling you, "what are we even doing this? This is so hard. I'll never get good at it." You're about to shut your laptop screen when suddenly a part of your mind turns on and says, "Wake up! You're not that type of person anymore! You know better now."

The more you practice mindfulness throughout your day, the easier you'll catch yourself slipping into your fixed mindset patterns.

If you are a professional or a solopreneur looking to build a lifestyle business and work less than 15 hours a week, click here to watch the free video training. We've helped hundreds of people build solid brands and scale with high-ticket clients, and you can be our next success story. Check out our video testimonials, and let's get on a strategy call!

Latest posts

Join the VIP List & get paid content for free.