“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.” — Dalai Lama
In 2007, I received an unexpected call from Stephen M. R. Covey, former CEO of FranklinCovey and author of the bestselling book, The Speed of Trust.
He asked to meet with me.
We sat down in his conference room, and Covey told me that after hearing me speak at a recent event he hoped I might consider coming to work for him presenting Speed of Trust trainings.
As soon as I scooped my jaw off the floor, I told him that, although I was incredibly flattered, I felt I was too young and inexperienced even to entertain the idea.
I asked, “What would the gray hairs think?”
Then, Covey taught me a priceless principle that would forever change my outlook on the nature of education and experience.
He said,
“Richie, experience is overrated. Some people say they have twenty years’ experience, when, in reality, they only have one year’s experience, repeated twenty times.”
That statement blew my mind and opened windows of opportunity all around me.
In an instant, I felt free from the self-inflicted mental bondage I had created for myself about my age and my feelings of experience-based inadequacy.
I suddenly realized that if something was important enough to me, if I was truly committed to achieving success, I could learn what I needed to know along the way!
In an instant, one statement that I had never consider before had changed my mind from fearing a great opportunity with negative thinking to embracing a great opportunity with optimism and enthusiasm.
This article is written in a simple way to help you take time to think through the principles and apply them. If in the course of your life you use these principles to change your mindset from negative to positive in an instant — like flipping on a light switch — the trajectory of your life will also change instantly.
7 Ways To Reprogram a Negative Mindset
1. If you want to trust yourself, make decisions that are grounded in your authentic principles. Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t push others down to obtain success.
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2. Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.
“The actual experience of awakening can only be in the present moment.” — Eckhart Tolle
3. Opportunities will come and go, but if you do nothing about them, so will you.
“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. Simplicity is complex. It’s never simple to keep things simple. Simple solutions require the most advanced thinking.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”— Albert Einstein
5. Your life should consist of more than commuting, working, eating, surfing the Internet, sleeping and watching TV. Your life should be filled with purpose-driven experiences and projects that bring excitement, passion, energy, and authentic meaning and joy into your life.
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
― Henry David Thoreau
6. If everyone waited to become an expert before starting, no one would become an expert. To become an EXPERT, you must have EXPERIENCE. To get EXPERIENCE, you must EXPERIMENT! Stop waiting. Start stuff.
“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”— Marcus Aurelius
7. Truly being authentic is knowing what matters to you, on the deepest level of who you are, and committing always to act from that authentic center.
“If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, rage, blame, resentment, and inexplicable grief.” ― Brené Brown
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” ― Brené Brown
The symphony of these seven mindset shifts will orient your life towards reaching your biggest goals.
Want to win at life and business with your next mindset change?
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