Changing the Way You
Think Can Change Your Life
Swimmer Michael Phelps is a living legend. He’s the most
decorated Olympic athlete of all time with a total of 28 medals, and also holds
the record
for Olympic gold medals. But you probably already
knew that.
In his book, No Limits: The
Will to Succeed, Phelps tells a story about when he was
training as a little kid. His coach, Bob Bowman, would push Phelps until he was
completely exhausted, and then give him a new series of exercises to do. When
little Michael looked at his coach with wide eyes exclaiming “I can’t!” Bowman
gave him some of the most important advice of his life:
“There’s a big difference between I can’t and I won’t.”
Bowman explained: “Can’t—that’s a tough word. Let’s
preserve our power and quit throwing around can’t when we really mean won’t.”
There’s a lot of wisdom in this advice. If Phelps had
continued to think in terms of “I can’t” instead of “I won’t,” he would’ve had
a completely different mindset. And if he still got to publish a book, a more
accurate title would’ve been something like Some Limits: The Will to Be
Okay. Not a very compelling title.
Still, most of us live our lives like it’s this book
we’ve been reading.
The Science of Mindsets
In research, a “mindset” is defined as: “a mental frame or lens that
selectively organizes and encodes information, thereby orienting an individual
toward a unique way of understanding an experience and guiding one toward
corresponding actions and responses.”
In other words, your mindsets are the lenses through
which you perceive the world. These are colored by your beliefs and attitudes
and help determine your response in any given situation.
And these mindsets have some fascinating implications.
For example, research has shown that:
§ Students
who believe they can change their intelligence through hard work do better academically compared
to students who believe their intelligence is a fixed trait.
§ Merely believing that your work
provides a good amount of exercise is
enough to lose weight, drop BMI, and decrease blood pressure.
§ Your belief on how many calories
a drink contains affects how much hunger hormone is
released in your body after drinking it.
§ If you believe stress is harmful, you’ll experience more
stress than people who don’t.
§ Mindsets even
affect your life expectancy—this is because people
with a negative aging mindset are less likely to proactively engage in healthy
behaviors such as eating healthy, exercising, and visiting the doctor.
Your Mindsets Determine
Your Outcomes
As we go through life, we pick up beliefs that help us
navigate the world. And as the research above suggests, these beliefs have very
real consequences for our psychology, physiology, behavior, and performance.
One mindset can flood your system with stress hormones
and make you anxious. Another can boost your testosterone levels and make you
feel confident. And this is why I suggest the following:
§ Believe what is helpful to believe.
§ Don’t believe something just because your thoughts are
telling you to—your mind is
nothing more than a suggestion box.
It’s up to you to choose what to believe, so why not pick
the most empowering beliefs you can possibly find?
How to Change Your Lenses and Realize Your Full Potential
Here are the most powerful ways I’ve come across for
changing your lenses:
Put Your Thoughts in
Perspective
Realize that you are not your
thoughts. You are the one who’s observing your
thoughts. Whenever a limiting belief shows up, listen to it, but don’t
necessarily believe it. A thought is not an accurate representation of reality,
it’s just a thought. So treat it accordingly.
Use Empowering Language
Instead of saying “I can’t” say “I won’t.” Instead of “I
have to” say “I’m going to.” Instead of “I don’t know” say “I’ll figure it
out.” Pay attention to the language you use and get rid of any phrases that
imply helplessness.
Change Your Feelings
Copy the body language of the person you want to
become. Strike a
powerful posture and smile. Doing this for just a couple of minutes will make
you feel
less stressed and more in charge.
Surround Yourself With the
Right People
The people around us have a huge influence on how we
feel, what goals
we pursue. You become the average of the five people
you spend the most time with, so choose your
social circles wisely.
Take Control of Your
Behavior
Run daily habits that help you realize your full
potential. Build
your fundamentals, master your
craft, fill your mind with ideas from great books, journal about
what you learn, and focus
on the process rather than your results.
To realize your full potential, you need to remove the barriers you’ve put up
for yourself—and that’s when you’re really living.
By Patrik Edblad
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