Changing your mindset can have a significant impact on achieving your goals.

We’ve all heard about power of positive thinking but does it work? How does your thinking influence your actions and get you results you want?

Understanding Your Mindset

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about significance of our beliefs and mental models, or mindsets that shape our behavior. According to psychologists interviewed for piece, we act and perform in accordance with beliefs these models tell us is true.

Yet most of us have some flawed or erroneous beliefs, which in turn misguide our interpretation of our world. As a result, we see world not as it is, but as we are – and it’s this flawed interpretation that drives our attitude and behavior.

For example, if you think something is not possible or out of your reach, you’re probably not going to commit much energy and resources to accomplishing that goal. Whether it’s gathering new assets, landing a big client, or simply getting out of office at five o’clock, your thoughts influence your actions.

The bottom line is that our beliefs become our truths and reality. Henry Ford explained it best when he said, “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.”

What This Means to You

The professionals I work with are highly skilled and well-educated individuals with rewarding compensation plans. They also have mindsets that support or inhibit their ability to optimize their performance and results. Over course of my career I’ve witnessed just how significantly these mindsets influence success.

As changes in industry and your market occur, so do demands on you and your business. No longer is skills training sufficient enough to ensure that you will accomplish your goals. Old habits die slowly because they are driven by an outdated mindset. And despite efforts of many corporations and businesses, behavior-based training and monetary incentives don’t have a lasting effect on performance. It’s your mindset that needs changing and then lasting behavior change will follow.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DECIDING AND DOING

”Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?

Answer: five.

Why? Because there's a difference between deciding and doing” Mark L. Feldman & Michael F. Spratt

You have done it. You have a plan. You've outlined priorities; you know what has to get done to reach goal. You are at “go” point when you start getting nervous.

Ok, so JUMP!

Sure, except… “Where am I going to find time? What if I lose my staff? What if plan fails? OR, WHAT IF THE PLAN TAKES OFF?”

Welcome to critical place where many plans hit a crossroad. A plan - whether it’s on paper, or buried somewhere in your PC (or even back of your mind) - may carefully identify strengths, capture a vision and detail steps to make your dreams come true, but if you don’t act on it, it is destined to be just a record of what “might have been”.

None of steps in strategic planning process is as vital as that of taking a plan forward and making it work.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND STUCK

“The most difficult thing is decision to act, rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and procedure, process is its own reward.” Amelia Earhart

When goal is to swim in a new direction, difference between success and ‘stuck’ likely involves change.

They tell us it takes 21 days to break an old habit, and 65 days to establish a new one! The basic truth is - change isn’t easy. We regularly travel nicely established paths formed by our habits. To forge new roads, our old habits need to be replaced. Unfortunately we get used to doing it one way for so long, it becomes comfortable. The transition period during any change initiative is usually uncomfortable – and it is hard to get out of a familiar, comfortable place.

Another reason that it is hard to change habits is that we forget to. You have to have reminders around during a transition period, or you probably won't remember.