080. Mindset: Your Career Success Depends On It

Managing your career can be tough. There are success and setbacks that can make you feel like you are on a rollercoaster ride on any given day. It isn’t hard to see why we may have the tendency to get discouraged and give in to negative thinking.

You may fall into a mindset of “This will never work out” but don’t fall victim to that. Positive thinking and a positive mindset are essential to achieve career success. Here are some ways you can improve your mindset and set yourself up for success and happiness.

Why Stay Positive?

Research has shown that having a negative mindset can hinder your creativity. In CNN’s article on The science behind positive thinking, it is pointed out that while being happy all the time is not necessarily feasible having a positive outlook can lead to many positives including greater satisfaction with your role and better physical heath.

Allowing yourself to be continually stressed out all the time can lead to negative impacts to your health and your career. Think about a colleague who is constantly negative, do you like being around them? Does it tend to bring your mood down as well? Now think if you were positive and how that may impact their thinking and the team as a whole.

Update Your Attitude

A positive mindset at work can help you see challenges as opportunities. Seeing that you can make a tough situation work for you will help you become more productive. It will also encourage others on your team to see the brighter side, helping the team as a whole get out of a negative attitude.

So how exactly are you supposed to change your attitude? Success.com has some great tips for improving your attitude including paying attention to your thoughts and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.

Exercise Your Body and Mind

Meditation has been around for a really long time and with good reason. Mediation is exercise for your mind and can help you think more clearly and ease your stress. To see the benefits, start small with five minutes a day. I found the app MindSpace helpful to get started and have since moved to a more independent practice.

Physical activity is one thing that successful people have in common according to this Entrepreneur article. Aside from just helping you feel better it can help you set and achieve goals and reduce stress. If you don’t exercise at all currently, try starting out with a 20 minute walk a few days a week and increase from there.

Embrace Mistakes

Take your mistakes and learn from them. Everyone makes mistakes, it’s a fact of life. Instead of beating yourself up for the mistake, analyze the situation and learn from it. Taking this approach will get you out of your negative attitude and help you grow as a professional.

Some questions to ask yourself include - What would you do differently next time? Was there any way this could be avoided in the future? What positive results could come from the incident? Turning a mistake into a learning experience will help you avoid making the same mistake again.