How to improve your mindset and become a better version of you

Your thoughts become your actions. Your actions become who you are. Improving your mindset and your thoughts has the potential to completely change the trajectory of your life. If you’re ready to become a better version of you, learning how to improve your mindset can help you to get there faster.

Define your own success

It’s easy to base your success on the standards of others, or what you believe others think about you. However it is important to define your own success, and limit your thinking based on the opinions, expectations or feedback of anyone but yourself. Your success should be based on your own values and what is important to you. When you define your own success, you’re taking control of your life.

Practice positive self talk

How you speak to yourself is often not how you would speak to others. It is important to treat yourself with a high level of respect and positivity, as you would do when speaking with your family, friends or colleagues.

Practising positive self talk is an important step in improving your mindset, as your thoughts and self talk directly impact your actions and the decisions that you make in your life.

Find your ‘unique’

Do you know what is unique about you? Have you ever sat down and really considered what is special about you?

Take the time to consider what really makes you happy or gives you energy. Whether it’s personally or professionally, this can go a long way to improving your mindset. Doing more of what you enjoy every day will lead to a much happier and positive mindset. In comparison, it is also helpful to identify what you don’t enjoy doing, and try to do less of this every day.

By finding your ‘unique’ qualities or abilities, you can make great leaps towards improving your mindset, because you will feel happier and more confident doing the things that you love, and are good at.

Not sure what your uniqueness really is? Then invest in an online session with one of our business coaches, who can guide you through this process and help you to uncover your hidden potential.

Become a better communicator

Communication is the key to great relationships, both professionally and personally. It is easy to get stuck in your own thoughts and focus on seeing things from your own point of view. However, everyone can always work on becoming a better communicator. Some areas of communication that you could focus on include:

• Asking open ended questions and
• Have crucial conversations that you need to
• Be brave
• Don’t overthink anything until you have a full understanding

Focus on improving your language

The words and language that you continually use becomes part of who you are. What words do you use? Do you often tell yourself ‘I can’t do this’, ‘This is too hard’, ‘Things always go wrong’. If this is you, then it might be time to re-frame your language and instead focus on being optimistic, more positive and looking for the silver lining in situations wherever possible. The words and language that you use every day becomes a habit and can greatly impact your thoughts and overall mindset.

Surround yourself with good people

Do your friends and family speak positively and always seem optimistic about life? If so, that’s great! They’re the exact group of people you should be surrounding yourself with. In contrast, if you find that your current circle of friends (or family) always find the negative side of a situation or are continually pessimistic, then it might be time to move on, or re-evaluate just how much time you spend with them. The people you surround yourself with can have a big impact on your overall mindset. By surrounding yourself with others who are more positive and optimistic, or look for ways to learn from different situations, you can learn new behaviours to help you also improve your own mindset. Afterall, you’re the average of the company that you keep, so it makes sense to surround yourself with those who are positive, uplifting and determined.

Read and learn new things

Reading is a great way to help you rewire your brain, learn new information and tap into a growth mindset. Reading helps to expand your knowledge, exercise your brain, improve your confidence and improve your vocabulary and language. You’re never too old to keep learning, and by reading and learning new things you can improve your mindset and become a better version of you.

Focus on your health

Your health is the foundation of everything that you do. Focusing on improving your health should be a priority, as without good health you cannot perform to the best of your ability. It is essential that you are receiving enough sleep every night, eating a healthy diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables and protein, and aiming for 30 minutes of exercise every day.

By focusing on your health, you will increase your energy levels and feel more confident which will lead to improving every area of your life.

Take accountability for your actions

It’s so easy to blame others when things don’t work out the way we would like them to. Where you are today is a direct result of every decision you have made up until this point in your life.

Everyone has choices, and all the choices that you have made have created the life you’re living. Yes, sometimes you can’t control situations or circumstances that happen to you. But you can choose how you react and how you feel about those situations. You can take control and turn negatives into positives, or look for the opportunities or lessons in any situation.

Taking accountability for your actions leads to much greater self awareness and helps you to develop a growth mindset, where you are always looking for ways to improve your life.

Ask for help when you need it

Life is a constant learning journey. Everyone makes mistakes and needs help at different times in their life. Don’t be too proud to ask for help and support. Most people are only too happy to help to support you if you ask for help. However they can’t help you if you don’t ask, or if you pretend to know things that you don’t.

It is impossible to know everything, and having other people around you who are willing to share their knowledge with you is vital. It can also be useful to seek the help of others for guidance and to outsource tasks. This can provide even greater value to you (especially in business).

Practice patience and understanding

It’s easy to be quick to judge others. Everyone can be judgemental, it’s human nature. However when you become more aware of your thoughts, actions and behaviour you can try to limit your judgement and practice greater patience and understanding of others. We’re all different. Every person has their own unique set of values, beliefs and personality. Being different from one another doesn’t make anyone wrong or right, it is all a matter of perspective.

Sometimes considering what other people may be experiencing in their world, or by living a day in their shoes, you can develop your understanding and create a deeper connection with them.

Get outside your comfort zone

Another way to improve your mindset is to get outside your comfort zone. When you feel comfortable, you feel safe. Extending yourself and overcoming your fears can help you to grow and know that you are capable of achieving anything that you put your mind to. You can step outside your comfort zone by learning something new that has always seemed too hard. You might be like many people and find public speaking or running a workshop daunting. Find something that has always seemed scary, too hard or has left you feeling full of fear, and get outside your comfort zone and do it anyway. That is where you will step into huge growth, improve your mindset and realise you are capable of much more than any limiting beliefs have made you previously think.

Create new daily habits

Humans are creatures of habit. Creating routine and habits in your daily life can create a sense of calm. So finding a way to add new habits into your daily life can help you to grow and improve your life.

Using many of the ideas we’ve mentioned above, you can easily add new habits to your life and create the life that you’ve been dreaming of. By adding these ideas to your daily routine, they soon become habits and ‘just what you do’. You’ll be able to look back in another year and it will feel like it’s how you’ve always done things.

Just be yourself

There are so many ways to improve your mindset and be the best version of you. Learning how to just be yourself and embrace your own unique qualities can lead to greater self-awareness and appreciation of what you bring to this world. From defining your own success, learning new things, practising positive self talk, surrounding yourself with good people and creating new daily habits, you can make progress and become the best version of you.