changing your mindset essay

Along with Stanford news and stories, show me:

• Student information
• Faculty/Staff information

We want to provide announcements, events, leadership messages and resources that are relevant to you. Your selection is stored in a browser cookie which you can remove at any time using “Clear all personalization” below.

You see life through your own unique lens. This is your mindset – the assumptions and expectations you hold about yourself, your life and the situations around you. Research shows that mindsets play a significant role in determining life’s outcomes. By understanding, adapting and shifting your mindset, you can improve your health, decrease your stress and become more resilient to life’s challenges.

To learn more about mindsets and how to change them, BeWell spoke to Dr. Jacob Towery, adjunct clinical instructor in the department of psychiatry at Stanford University.

Mindsets help you to simplify.

Mindsets are a set of assumptions that help you distill complex worldviews into digestible information and then set expectations based on this input. For example, you may believe that becoming sick with cancer would be catastrophic or that going on a diet would be challenging and depriving. These belief systems help you set expectations, plan for the worst and guide decisions based on these assumptions.

While mindsets can be helpful for distilling information and managing expectations, they can also be maladaptive, lead to interpersonal problems and feelings of guilt, inadequacy, sadness and anxiety. Dr. Towery observes that it is common to hold onto mindsets that were adaptive at one point in life but have since become maladaptive. For example, it might have been helpful to believe that others cannot be trusted if you were betrayed at a young age, but this belief may lead to interpersonal issues at a later stage of life. 

Dr. Towery assures, “the good news is mindsets are highly changeable, and if you are willing to learn the technology of changing your mindset and defeating your distorted thoughts, you can have significantly more happiness.”

Having a fixed or growth mindset affects your worldview. 

You may have heard of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets. These terms were coined by Stanford researcher and professor Carol Dweck, Ph.D.  to describe belief systems about your ability to change, grow and develop over time. If you believe your qualities are essentially unchangeable or “fixed,” you may be less open to mistakes because setbacks are seen as inherent, and impinging on future success. For example, if you have a fixed mindset and have trouble connecting with others at an event, you may see this as evidence that you will never be able to socially connect, leading to social anxiety and avoidance. 

With a growth mindset, you know that you can change over time, and therefore you are more open to reflect, learn and grow from challenges. Because failure is less threatening, you are more willing to embrace life’s challenges, take feedback as a learning opportunity and continue to learn and grow throughout life. With a growth mindset, you are also less likely to personalize setbacks. For example, in the scenario above, you might reflect that the cause of your social difficulty had more to do with the environment at the event than a personal inability to socialize.  

With a fixed mindset, it can be hard to find motivation to work through perceived weaknesses, because the ability to change may seem as hopeless as changing your eye color. In contrast, with a growth mindset, you’ll see your perceived weakness as a challenge that can be motivating — and even fun — to overcome.

As Dweck writes in “Mindset,” “…as you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another — how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.”

Dr. Towery gives a personal example, “In my own life, I was dissatisfied with my singing abilities and decided to take singing lessons for nine months. While you won’t be hearing me on the radio any time soon, my singing is remarkably less terrible than it used to be before the lessons.” He describes that it was fun to learn that singing is a skill that can be cultivated rather than something innate and immutable.

Mindsets can impact your reality.

Mindsets can impact your outcomes by determining the way you think, feel and even physiologically respond to some situations. A 2007 study revealed that increased awareness of physical activity resulted in health benefits like weight loss and decreased blood pressure.   To further investigate this phenomenon, a 2011 study was conducted to test physiological satiation in relationship to mindset around certain foods. The study revealed that participants’ satiety aligned with their mindset around the food they were consuming more than the food’s nutritional content.  

Another example of how mindset affects physiology was shown in a 2012 study on the association between stress perception, health and mortality.  Kelly McGonigal references the study in her 2013 TED talk, explaining that participants who experienced high levels of stress had an increased risk of death, but only if  they believed stress to be harmful. Those who experienced high stress levels but did not see it as harmful were no more likely to die. McGonigal encourages developing more positive mindsets around stress, and to perceive your body’s physiological responses to stress – like a pounding heart and racing mind – as your body’s natural response to rise to the challenge and overcome it, as opposed to a signal that something is wrong.

Dr. Towery points out the impact of mindset on the effect of medications. “There is a powerful phenomenon in medicine known as the placebo effect, in which if someone believes they are going to derive benefits from taking a particular medication, they often do. In fact, regardless of the disease or condition, about 30-40% of people can have significant improvement in their symptoms even when taking a placebo (sugar) pill, if they believe that the pill is going to be helpful.” 

“Equally fascinating,” Towery observes, “is the ‘nocebo-effect,’ a psychological response based on a person’s expectations around side effects. When a physician emphasizes the potential side effects of a medicine, and the patient believes they will develop those symptoms, even if given a sugar pill, these patients can develop the adverse side effects, just based on what their mind expects.” 

Science is just beginning to validate the power of the mind-body relationship. Mindset matters, so it is important to pay attention to your belief systems—where they come from, how valid they are, and how they impact your quality of life.

You can change your mindset.

Although your mindset about topics like appearance and success are largely influenced by outside factors, the brain is neuroplastic, meaning neural networks can continue to grow, change and reorganize throughout the lifespan. By challenging yourself with new experiences and perspectives, you can form new neural connections — or mindsets — at any point in life.

Even a fixed mindset is not set in stone. You can change your mindset by learning and consciously choosing to believe that your characteristics are not predetermined and that you can continue to grow over time.

According to Towery, “The exciting news about mindsets is that they are absolutely changeable. The entire field of cognitive therapy is based on the idea that thoughts determine feelings and that you can learn powerful techniques to modify distorted thoughts and self-defeating beliefs.  For those that want to learn how, I recommend reading the book “Feeling Great” by David Burns, MD and doing all of the writing sections.  A competent cognitive therapist can also teach you how to change your mindset, even in a small number of sessions.”

Dr. Towery says that the most rewarding part of his work is helping people transform distorted beliefs like “I’m a failure” to more realistic thoughts like “I didn’t perform well, but I can better prepare next time and it will probably go much better.”

Towery encourages questioning self-defeating thoughts and creating new narratives that are more self-serving. If you develop a growth mindset, setbacks can become learning opportunities and there is always another chance to improve and feel better. 

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=ZYKJHPHELN46AOWM
• https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3196007/Langer_ExcersisePlaceboEffect.pdf?sequence=1%3FviewType=Print&viewClass=Print
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21574706/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22201278/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU&t=722s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTDYtwqKBI8
• https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-3514.75.1.33

Growth Mindset

How to upgrade your mindset to succeed in life, what you think you become..

Posted November 12, 2019 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

Your success and happiness depend on your mindset. What you think, you become.

Our mindset affects how we see the world. If yours is distorted, so will be the way you see yourself and others. Our beliefs and thoughts shape the way we behave, even if we don't realize it.

Developing the right mindset is crucial to succeeding in life. Here’s how to upgrade yours.

The importance of mindset

A mindset is a frame of mind. It’s the sum of beliefs, opinions, and thoughts that we've formed about the world and ourselves. It's the lens through which we observe our world.

Our education , religion, upbringing, and experience shape our beliefs and thoughts. Our mind is "set." It directly impacts how our perception and reactions.

As Amit Ray said, “The mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.”

Mindsets can change, but they do so slowly. Attitudes, on the other hand, have a short-term impact. That’s why they are easier to modify. Our mindsets are deeply ingrained in our beliefs, and it requires extra effort to change them.

Your mindset predetermines your interpretations and responses. It shapes your relationship with the world and with yourself. Choose your mindset wisely.

Your mindset can help you or harm you

The most popular theory about mindsets outlines two types: growth versus fixed mindset.

In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , Carol Dweck suggests that our beliefs about our own intelligence determine our ability to learn.

A fixed mindset is a belief that our qualities are fixed traits that we cannot change. People with this mindset believe that talent alone leads to success. A growth mindset , on the other hand, is thinking that our intelligence can grow with time and experience. This mindset encourages us to put in extra time — effort leads to higher achievement.

A fixed mindset limits our capacity for learning, whereas a growth mindset helps us reach our full potential.

However, there are many more types of mindsets. The lenses we use affect how we deal with our emotions. A negative mindset can amplify our negative feelings and get us stuck in rumination .

Our mindsets create two effects on us: They either limit our potential or they liberate it.

For example, binary thinking forces us to consider only two possibilities. We think in terms of "one thing" or "the other" and see things through a right or wrong lens.

The mindset you use can bring clarity or cloud your perception.

The different types of mindset

Let’s analyze the most frequent types of mindset. This is not an exhaustive list but a starting point to help you reflect on the lenses you use without noticing.

As part of my work helping organizations upgrade their mindsets , teams capture what limits or liberates their high performance. The following are some that people tend to use more frequently.

Right-or-wrong versus open-minded

We love being right. The trouble with this mindset is that we stop paying attention to other perspectives. Instead of learning, we just care about winning the argument.

" Confirmation bias " is the tendency we have to embrace information that supports our beliefs. The desire to be always right makes us reject facts that might illuminate our views.

Victim versus accountable

Self-pity is a dangerous choice. When we play the victim , we lose control of our life. Instead of taking action, we blame others for the things that go wrong.

Playing the victim role is a lose-lose situation. No one will come to rescue us. Life requires that we own our actions.

Comparing to others versus being your own standard

There will always be someone doing better or worse than ourselves. When we compare to others, we invite jealousy and envy to poison our lives .

Comparisons are deceiving . Recover control by becoming your own standard. Focus on your progress, not on someone else’s status.

Saying “no” versus “yes, and...”

Too many “no's” kill creativity . However, that’s our usual answer when introduced to new ideas. We say no before even considering their potential.

We are trained to reject uncertainty and new concepts. Creativity requires a “Yes, and...” mindset. Rather than blocking the conversation, amplify creativity by building on others’ ideas.

Reactive versus proactive

Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say or do. They don’t control their choices. And let their circumstances control them instead.

Proactive people don’t waste their energy or time. They focus on what they can manage, think through scenarios, prioritize, and focus on the future. A proactive mindset puts you in control .

Fearful versus fearless

Seeing life through a fear lens is intimidating. Fear will always get in our way.

Adopting a courageous mindset is vital to achieving greatness. Courage does not mean the absence of fear but to face our fear. Move forward in spite of your fears .

Avoidance versus facing reality

An avoidance mindset gets us stuck complaining about what went wrong or what we don’t like. Rather than fighting reality, learn to face it. Accepting reality as is doesn’t mean giving up. It’s a necessary step to move forward.

How to upgrade your mindset for success

1. Become more aware of your mindsets

Accept that your thinking needs adjustment. Start by increasing awareness of your mindset. When you react to a situation or before making a decision, which lens are you using to see reality?

Are you adopting a perfectionist mindset? Or a me-me-me one (and think that the world revolves around you)?

2. Avoid seeing reality in binary terms

Most mindsets are deceiving. They force us to see the world in black-and-white terms. Binary thinking creates a false dilemma. We act as if there are only two possible options when there are actually more.

Challenge your binary thinking. Avoid the tendency to split all the things into two categories: black and white, either-or, right or wrong.

3. Reflect on your beliefs

Our mindsets are deeply ingrained in our beliefs. To change our mindset, we must first examine our belief system.

What’s holding you back? Are your beliefs supporting you or limiting you? Identify the beliefs that are helpful and work on those that are not.

4. (Re)Define your purpose in life

We all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. What’s your life’s purpose? Find your "why."

Create your own measure of success. What mindsets will help you get there? Select the lenses that will help you achieve your higher mission in life.

Finding your life’s purpose is not about the destination. It’s all about the journey.

5. Turn limiting mindsets into liberating ones

Challenge your existing mindsets. Go back to the analysis you did on point 1.

What are the mindsets that are not helping you? Changing your mindsets is not easy, but it’s worth the effort. Upgrading them requires replacing your filter with a new one.

Your mindset is the lens that filters how you see yourself and the world around you. Upgrade your mindset : Turn your limiting beliefs into liberating ones.

Gustavo Razzetti is a change leadership consultant and speaker who helps build a culture of change. He writes at the intersection of self-awareness, creativity, and resilience.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• Skip to main content
• Skip to header right navigation
• Skip to site footer

Sources of Insight

Unleash Your Greatest Potential

Change Your Mindset, Change Your Results

“Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.” — Steve Maraboli

I know a mindset makes all the difference in the world, because it shapes how you see the world and how you show up in the world.

Your mindset is the lens of how you look at things and the lens of how you perceive things.

I’ve always been a fan of mindsets, even when I didn’t know exactly how to describe them.  To me, I could feel the difference whether I was in a victim vs. hero mindset, or when I was operating from a scarcity vs. abundance mindset, or when I was looking at something from a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset, etc.

But I couldn’t quite explain what a mindset is in a simple enough way, to somebody who didn’t already know what a mindset was.  It was like the “I know it when I see it” scenario.

Now, I think I found a good enough way to explain a mindset in a way that’s useful, precise, and actionable.  I’ve been testing it, and so far, so good.

What is a Mindset

The simplest way I describe a mindset is that it’s your outlook or your world view.  It’s how you look at things.

Your mindset is the expression of a belief that you embrace.

This last part is key.  If you realize that your mindset is really the expression of a belief, then now you know how to change your mindset.

You change your mindset by embracing a new belief.

Examples of Mindsets

If you think of a mindset as the fundamental belief that shapes how you see things

Here are some examples:

• Victim Mindset – the world’s against me, it always happens to me
• Hero Mindset – you can rise above your challenges
• Scarcity Mindset – there’s not enough for everyone
• Abundance Mindset – there’s plenty for everyone, or we’ll make more
• Fixed Mindset – you are born that way, things are stuck the way they are
• Growth Mindset – you can learn how to get better at something if you try
• Agile Mindset – embrace change

The key thing to really notice is that each mindset is really rooted in a belief that shapes how you see the world, show up in the world, and how you respond and react with the world.

How the Right Mindset Changes Everything

The right mindset changes everything because it changes how you look at things.  When you change how you look at things, it changes how you feel.

When you change how you feel, you change how you think.  And vice-versa.

When you change how you feel and how you think, you change what you do.  When you change what you do, you change your results.

Changing your mindset, changes your results.

How To Change Your Mindset

A lot of people, want to change their mindset, but they don’t know how.  Once they become aware that their mindset limits them, they want to change their mindset, but they don’t know how.

You change your mindset by changing your belief.

Herein lies the challenge.  We are talking about beliefs.  You get what you expect.  Whether you believe you can change your beliefs, or you believe you can’t, you are right.

But a funny thing happens when you entertain the possibility of embracing a new belief.  Your brain can rationalize anything.  When you embrace a new belief, your mind will start to find evidence to support you.  You will suddenly see a new world all around you.

We delete and filter things all day, every day.  It’s how our perception works.  Our mindset is one of the most pervasive lenses across all of our perception.  So by playing with new beliefs, you are playing with your ability to see the world in a brand new way.

One of the biggest challenges of changing beliefs is when negative beliefs get in the way.  Talk back to your thoughts.  You might have talked back to your parents or to your teachers or argued with your friends.  Well, do the same with yourself.  The more you challenge your limiting beliefs, the more they will crush and crumble.  You will gradually awaken your consciousness to a new level of insights where you will find yourself making leaps and bounds in your own understanding.

And this is exactly how you will carve out your new character as you hack your way forward.

A great way to adopt a mindset is to simply treat it like an experiment.  Try a mindset on for size and see how it changes the way you look at the world.

Experiment #1 – Adopt an Abundance Mindset

Long ago, I remember Stephen Covey talking about the Abundance mindset.    He said it was the key to fostering collaboration and building better relationships, which he said was really the backbone of being effective.

The fundamental belief of the Abundance mindset is:

“There is plenty for everyone .”

Many people believe in a Scarcity mindset, or a survival-of-the-fittest mindset.   When people operate from a Scarcity mindset, they feel threatened by other people’s success.  They feel that there is not enough success to go around.

It might sound simple, but it’s pretty primal.  If somebody is in scarcity mode, or survival mode, they tend to operate out of fear.  Their lizard brain kicks in and treats other people as a threat.  Worse, they feel if you win, they lose, so they don’t want you to win.

That’s why Covey challenged people to think Win-Win.  It’s easy to think Win-Lose.   When you think Win-Lose, you focus on how you win, at others expenses.  You might even think the only way to win is for the other person to lose.

When you think Win-Win, we cooperate and collaborate to find ways to create a bigger, better solution, where we both win.  What makes this work is embracing the idea that there is enough for everyone, and that if there’s not, we will make more.  We will find a way.

When you work from the Abundance mindset, you celebrate the success of others, instead of fear it.

How To Cultivate an Abundance Mindset

If you want to cultivate an Abundance mindset, there are several things you can practice that will help.

You can actually practice building an Abundance mindset by practicing Covey’s habits of highly effective people.

Here are some way to cultivate an Abundance mindset:

• Be proactive .  The first habit of highly effectively people is to be proactive.  By being proactive, you anticipate and prepare for challenges that will come your way.   Reactive people wait for problems to happen and then they try to react.   They often get surprised.  By the time they react, now they are in stress mode and operating out of fear.  When you are proactive, you choose your response.  You can’t control everything that happens to you, but you choose how to respond.  The more you reflect on your goals and step into the challenges you will face, the more you will learn how to respond with skill.
• Begin with the end in mind .  Another habit of highly effective people is to work backwards from the ideal outcome.  This is a great chance to envision and play with multiple possibilities.  This is a chance to be inclusive of others and to imagine a future where everybody wins.  If you find that your end in mind creates a lot of losers, then it’s your chance to rethink your possibilities.  It’s a small world.  Your choices will come back to you, and when you find ways to help hack a better world, others will join you on your journey.
• Think Win-Win .  Another habit of highly effective people is to deliberately focus on creating a solution where everybody wins.  Don’t confuse this with “everybody gets a trophy”.  This isn’t trite and trivial.  This is a job for smart people where it means hitting pause, taking a step back, taking the balcony view, and looking at the much bigger land of opportunity.  This is where you give your creative mind the space it needs to intentionally carve out a bigger playing ground for everyone.  We are living in the collaboration economy.
• Practice self-affirmation .  Don’t let a lack of appreciation drive you to downward behaviors.  Lift yourself up with skill.  When you celebrate your personal victories, you fill the need.  So many people feel underappreciated.  They look to others.  But the key is to first look within.  If you do a good job of appreciating when you do the tough stuff, or when you do a good job, you will cultivate better abundance.  Create more moments to be proud of.  And reflect on those victories.  They will be your juice and joy as you slay your day.
• Practice an attitude of gratitude .    This is really where you let the sunshine in.  If you notice a pattern across the most successful people on the planet, it’s a deep attitude of gratitude.  They celebrate all they are thankful for.  They appreciate all that they have.  Too many times people don’t know what they’ve got until it’s gone.  By fueling yourself with an attitude of gratitude, you will cultivate a powerful Abundance mindset.

Experiment #2 – Adopt a Growth Mindset

A Growth mindset could be your ticket to a brand new life of possibility and potential.  If you are stuck in a rut, or hitting a ceiling, it’s time to unbound your abilities and explore your limitless opportunities for growth and greatness.

Carol Dweck, Ph.D, writes about the power of a Growth mindset in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential.

The fundamental belief of a Growth mindset is:

“You can learn and you get better.”

Here is the essence of a Fixed mindset according to Dweck:

“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.”

Here is the essence of a Growth mindset according to Dweck:

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

A fixed mindset is no way to grow.

How To Cultivate a Growth Mindset

The beauty is that you can cultivate a Growth mindset with skill.  In fact, according to Dweck:

“Mindsets are an important part of your personal, but you can change them.  Just by knowing the two mindsets, you can start thinking and reacting in new ways.”

Here are some pragmatic ways to cultivate a Growth mindset:

• Choose a Growth mindset .  This really is the first step.  Once you decide that you are choosing a Growth mindset over a Fixed mindset, you will start to pay attention to your behaviors and thoughts (and thoughts are behaviors, too).   You will start to challenge whether the words coming out of your mouth reflect somebody who is learning new things or staying stuck in the past.  You will start to challenge everything you think and everything you do, and whether that embraces what you are learning and how you can get better at things you put your mind to.
• Focus on learning vs. achievement .  This is a big one.  If you worry about your performance, you will balk at chances to step outside of your comfort zone or to try new things.  If you embrace the idea of learning and trying new things, then it’s OK to look silly, stupid, or whatever.  Don’t judge.  Embrace the learning aspect.  I know I suck when I start.  So I don’t focus on that, I focus on what I need to learn.  I get feedback.  I find people who can give me precision on how change my behavior, to change my results.  In general, people give judgy feedback – they are used to just rating things… good, bad, hot.. or not.  I seek out people that are able to give suggestions and ideas in a relevant and tangible way.
• Enjoy the process .    A mentor of mine once gave me a powerful piece of insight.  He asked me how I feel when I was trying to figure something out.  I said I feel awkward.  He said, “Exactly, that’s what growth feels like.”  I had to learn to enjoy the feeling of awkwardness.  It might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s similar to exercise for me.  I do enjoy the pain of a workout.  I know it’s growth.  I remember the Navy Seal’s saying, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”
• Explore and expand what you are capable of .   This is a powerful way to live and lead with a Growth mindset.  Hack at your physical and creative capabilities.  When I took up archery again, I was surprised by how I was able to get better faster, by really focusing on learning instead of just performance.  When I was a kid, sure I tried to get better.  But I overly focused on hitting the bulls-eye and I missed out on all the learning opportunities.  I’m revisiting old skills as I also add new ones, and I’m surprised by how changing my mindset, changes my ability to learn in a much deeper and much more effective way.
• The gift is your growth .   It’s easy to get caught up in rewards.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of carrots and sticks.  Rise above it, and focus on the give you keep on getting.  The gift of your growth.  It’s similar to the idea of the gift is a job well done.  Actually, it’s more like how John Wooden coached his basketballs teams to success.  He didn’t care if they won or lost.  He cared how they played the game.  More specifically, he cared if each person played their best.  He personally journaled for each player to focus deeply on their learning and growth.

Experiment #3 – Adopt an Agile Mindset

An Agile mind is a very powerful one.  One of my favorite quotes I use in my talks when I present Agile Results is how agility trumps being smarter or stronger:

“It is not the most intellectual or the strongest species that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is able to adapt to or adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

My pithy way to say it is, “Nature favors the flexible.”

The essential belief of an Agile mindset is:

“Embrace change.”

Imagine if instead of getting disrupted or run over by change, you embrace it.  You see it as a chance to figure out something new, or a new way to do something.

You can turn your disruptive change into constructive change and create more opportunities for your growth and greatness.

Instead of feeling threatened by change and instead of feeling anxious, you feel excited and look forward to how you are going reframe the challenge as a chance to find a better way.

With an Agile mindset, you become flexible in your approach and you adapt to whatever comes your way.

And the more you adapt, the better you get, like building a muscle.  It’s a muscle you can use to go from surviving to thriving in work and life.

One you adopt an Agile mindset, you will eat change and disruption for breakfast.

How To Cultivate an Agile Mindset

Flexibility will come with practice.  One of your biggest challenges is going to be your self-image.  You might say to yourself, “I’m not an artist”, or “I’m not a musician”, or “I can’t do that”, etc.

Talk back to your thoughts.  Challenge them.  Chip away at them.  Prove them wrong a little victory at a time.  Surprise yourself.  Learn your way forward.

Armed with an Agile mind on your side, the future is full of possibilities and all of those doors open, once you realize the key to all of your possibility is your ability to adapt to change.

With that in mind, here are some pragmatic ways to cultivate an Agile mindset:

• Choose to be more flexible in your approach.  It’s a choice.  Choose it.  We unconsciously hold on to ways of doing things or ways of thinking or ways of being because it’s unconscious and it’s a habit.  By being aware, you instantly give yourself a chance to choose to be more flexible.  You will catch yourself resisting change.  Challenge yourself.  Ask yourself, “If I was somebody who embraced change, how would I handle this differently?”  And act accordingly.  A great inspiration here is the move Yes Man, starring Jim Carrey.  He breaks out of his former rigid self and embraces life in a whole new direction wide open with possibilities.
• Create more possibilities.    A great way to do this is using the phrase, “Imagine if…” and then you fill in the blank.  It’s a simple way to explore and expand possibilities as you go through your day.  For example, imagine if you could fly a drone to work.  Or, imagine if you you would work from your favorite place in the world.  Or maybe you are eating at a restaurant, imagine if the menu was personalized to you.  Or imagine if you ran Disney for the day, how would you share the magic of Disney with the world in an epic way?  This is a powerful way to practice creative thinking during your everyday routines.  Don’t get stuck in what is, or the way things are. That’s current state.  Focus on the future state.  Imagine how things could be.  Play with possibility.  You will gradually learn to reshape the future.  Some people try to predict the future.  I prefer to create it and shape it.  You can, too.
• Practice scenario planning.   Expect the unexpected.  Futurists have a hack for planning the future.  They don’t bet on one possibility.  They play out multiple paths.  They learn to look for how trends will intersect with every day lives.  And they balance the appetite of the market and the users to figure out which scenarios are more probable.  But the real power is that the more you play out scenarios, the more you are ready for whatever happens.  Even if you didn’t predict exactly what the scenario would be, you are filled with lots of ideas about how things could play out.  Instead of reacting now you are responding.  You will feel more in control, because you are more prepared.  And the art of preparation has a spill over effect into all aspects of your life.
• Reframe your problems.   This is a very simple, but profound practice.  We all have problems we face every day.  The first things to do is to reframe even the idea of “problems”.  Reframe your problems into “challenges”.  This instantly gamifies it.  And turn your “challenges” into “changes”.  They are chances for your to learn something new, enhance your skills, meet new people, or whatever.  Broaden the challenge in ways that stretch you.  This s how you explore and expand what you are capable of.    As legendary leadership author John Maxwell puts it: “You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.”    For a simple example, don’t just “call back a customer” – “win a raving fan!”  You can be a source of your own inspiration every day as you practice your Agile mindset.
• Do the opposite.  This is a technique that really helps if you find yourself really stuck.   Whatever you would normally do, try doing the opposite.  If you plan too much, try taking more action.  If you dive into things too fast, try taking a step back and making a mini-plan.  If you tend to say no to new things, try saying yes.  There are lots of variations to this, but that’s the core approach.  Just try the opposite of your normal responses.  This will help you practice learning how to adapt.  As you get advanced, you might ask some people you trust, “What would you do if you were me, in this particular situation?”   You can also ask yourself, “What would [Fill in your favorite hero’’] do?”  It doesn’t need to be a hero, actually.  Simply plug in a cast of different characters you know and explore the different responses.  This will gradually lead to your most profound breakthroughs.  It’s like trying on a costume of super powers that helps you see the world in a new way.

You may feel a little rusty or stiff at first, as you try to flex your mind, but simply pay attention to where you get stuck.  If you find yourself stuck, break out of it by asking, “What would Richard Branson do?”

For example, one time I was really stuck trying to figure out whether to take a new job offer.

I looked on my book shelf and saw Richard Branson’s book, Screw It, Let’s Do It.

The next day, I told the hiring manager, “Screw it, let’s do it” and I took on one of the best jobs of my career.

How I Changed My Mindset

Because I spent a great deal of my career at Microsoft in the bowls of high tech teams, pawing through code, and taking on big tech challenges around security, performance, application architecture, and more, I didn’t see myself as a business leader.

I imagined that I would continue my technical journey, and simply get better technically.

But then I had a change of heart, and a change of mind.  Maybe it was seeing Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) in action, or maybe it was from watching how people like Richard Branson change the world.

Suddenly, I decided that I wanted to be a modern business leader – the kind of person that could use technology to help businesses win in the modern market.  (The beauty of the modern market is that it’s a shift towards do good for people and do good for the planet.)

The key is that I decided to change my mindset.

And so I did.

How I Practice My Mindset

I was inspired to be a better business leader and hack a better world.  I wanted to be able to change the world and create “better business because of technology.”

I adopted the a Growth mindset, and I focused on learning all I could about business design, and I built my strategy skills.  I learned a ton from Michael Porter, especially around modeling business success.

I learned all I could from Peter Drucker, especially his amazing insights in The Effective Executive.  I learned all I could from Tom Peters and what exactly makes great businesses rise and shine.

I learned all I could about creating better customer experience, and how to innovate better.

Because I had focused on building my skills as a futurist, and I was good at figuring out future trends, I specialized in disruptive innovation.

I leverage my engineering skills to parse businesses in better ways and to model the future and to analyze scenarios from all angles.  I don’t need to be smart.  I just need to learn better.

If you know Charlie Munger, he is Warren Buffet’s business partner.   The world thinks he’s among the smartest people on the planet. Munger says he simply has more mental models to play with any problem.  No matter what problem the market throws his way, he can slice and dice it down to size, and gain a new perspective.

I got to practice my strategy skills when I was “head coach” on Satya Nadella’s innovation team.  I got pushed to help businesses reimagine their future in the digital era.  What I learned quickly is what Einstein taught us:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

Now, I regularly get asked to be a CEO whisperer and share ideas and insights to help shape the future.  And several friends lean on me for perspective into how to design a better business.

Over the years, my mind has filled up with new stories and examples, where I’ve helped people with business breakthroughs.

These examples and frames of reference reinforce my Growth mindset and remind me that I can learn whatever I want to.

Dream Big, Start Small, and Set the Stage for Serendipity

My journey is not what I expected.  Sometimes I’m amazed by the people I’ve met, the ideas I’ve created, and the businesses I’ve shaped.

And other days, it’s just business as usual.

But if I look back, the single most important thing I did was to change my mindset.  I embraced a Growth mindset that I could learn anything I need to, and I hacked at innovation and entrepreneurship.

What I really learned though is that changing your mindset is the first step that sets the stage for all sorts of serendipity.

As much as I belief in learning, I also believe in luck.  As Peter Thiel put it:

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

May your mindset help the world conspire with you.

You Might Also Like

What is Mental Health? What is a Mindset? What is a Growth Mindset? 3 Mindsets that Support You 17 Ways to Cultivate a Growth Mindset How To Develop a Growth Mindset Naturalness Bias Why Choose a Growth Mindset?

Readings on Writing

Changing Your Mindset About Revision

L. lennie irvin, chapter description.

Many freshmen enter college with a one-draft writing process where revision means tidying up errors and then submitting the final product. This chapter is about changing your thinking about revision as a foundation for changing your practice of revision. The chapter explores the false concepts about writing and revision and replaces them with new mental models of the revision process. Specifically, it details the big picture concept that writing is an inquiry process where we discover what we mean as we write it : through revision, we discover ways to get what we mean closer to what we say and what we say closer to what we mean. Writing is ultimately about thinking and developing our thinking, and one-shot drafts cut short this growth in our thinking and the development of a piece of writing. With this new mindset of writing as an inquiry process in mind, the chapter presents four practices to guide your new approach to the writing process: follow a three-draft sequence to write your papers, always get feedback, reflect between drafts to set revision goals, and save editing for last.  

Alternate Downloads: 

You may also download this chapter from Parlor Press or WAC Clearinghouse.

Writing Spaces is published in partnership with  Parlor Press  and  WAC Clearinghouse .

• Medical Books

Add other items:

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think Paperback – November 7, 2018

Purchase options and add-ons

Additional details.

• Print length 448 pages
• Language English
• Publication date November 7, 2018
• Dimensions 5.5 x 1.01 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1945796065
• ISBN-13 978-1945796067
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Similar items that may ship from close to you

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thought Catalog Books; First Edition (November 7, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1945796065
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1945796067
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.39 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.01 x 8.5 inches
• #1 in Medical General Psychology
• #27 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
• #73 in Religion & Spirituality (Books)

Videos for this product

Click to play video

amazing if you're in the right target audience

Courtney Johnson

Full of deep life questions and really makes you think

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think - A Must Have!

Molly Sloan

Does this book really change the way you think?!

Taylor Alexander

The most thought provoking read!

Chloe's Top Picks

Great book to dig yourself out of your rut!

Tina Michelle

101 Essays - Quick overview & my thoughts! Must watch!

Emily Kristine

fixing my decor books #comparisonvideo

the inspo account

The Best Book to Give as a Gift!

101 Essays- who is this for?

Amanda Peterson

About the author

Brianna wiest.

Brianna Wiest is the international bestselling author of 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think, The Mountain Is You, This Is How You Heal, two poetry collections and more. Her books have sold 1M+ copies, regularly appear on global bestseller lists, and are currently being translated into 20+ languages worldwide.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

TED is supported by ads and partners 00:00

The power of believing that you can improve

• personal growth

Positive Mindset: How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude

Positivity doesn’t always refer to simply smiling and looking cheerful, however—positivity is more about one’s overall perspective on life and their tendency to focus on all that is good in life.

In this piece, we’ll cover the basics of positivity within positive psychology, identify some of the many benefits of approaching life from a positive point of view, and explore some tips and techniques for cultivating a positive mindset.

This piece is a long one, so settle in and get comfortable. Let’s get started.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free . These science-based exercises will explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology including strengths, values and self-compassion and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is a positive mindset and attitude a definition, characteristics and traits of a positive mindset: 6 examples, a list of positive attitudes, why is a positive attitude considered the key to success, the outcomes of a positive attitude, 33 tips on how to have & keep a positive mindset in life and at work, helping students to develop a positive attitude towards learning and school, 46 activities and games to develop positive mindset skills (incl. group exercises), 10 worksheets for training a positive mindset (pdf), 32 quotes and affirmations on positive mindset/attitude, inspiring speeches and videos, recommended books, a take-home message.

You probably have an idea of what a positive mindset or positive attitude is already, but it’s always helpful to start with a definition.

This definition from Remez Sasson (n.d.) is a good general description:

“Positive thinking is a mental and emotional attitude that focuses on the bright side of life and expects positive results.”

Another, more comprehensive definition comes from Kendra Cherry at Very Well Mind (2017B):

“[P]ositive thinking actually means approaching life’s challenges with a positive outlook. It does not necessarily mean avoiding or ignoring the bad things; instead, it involves making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to see the best in other people, and viewing yourself and your abilities in a positive light.”

We can extrapolate from these definitions and come up with a good description of a positive mindset as the tendency to focus on the bright side, expect positive results, and approach challenges with a positive outlook.

Having a positive mindset means making positive thinking a habit, continually searching for the silver lining and making the best out of any situation you find yourself in.

So, now we know what a positive mindset is, we can dive into the next important question: What does it look like?

There are many traits and characteristics associated with a positive mindset, including:

• Optimism : a willingness to make an effort and take a chance instead of assuming your efforts won’t pay off.
• Acceptance : acknowledging that things don’t always turn out how you want them to, but learning from your mistakes.
• Resilience : bouncing back from adversity, disappointment, and failure instead of giving up.
• Gratitude : actively, continuously appreciating the good things in your life (Blank, 2017).
• Consciousness/Mindfulness : dedicating the mind to conscious awareness and enhancing the ability to focus.
• Integrity : the trait of being honorable, righteous, and straightforward, instead of deceitful and self-serving (Power of Positivity, n.d.).

Not only are these characteristics of a positive mindset, but they may also work in the other direction—actively adopting optimism, acceptance, resilience, gratitude, mindfulness, and integrity in your life will help you develop and maintain a positive mindset.

Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Exercises (PDF)

Enhance wellbeing with these free, science-based exercises that draw on the latest insights from positive psychology.

Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

If you found the list above still too vague, there are many more specific examples of a positive attitude in action.

For example, positive attitudes can include:

• It is looking adversity in the eye… and laughing.
• Getting what you get, and not pitching a fit.
• Enjoying the unexpected, even when it’s not what you wanted originally.
• Motivating those around you with a positive word.
• Using the power of a smile to reverse the tone of a situation.
• Being friendly to those you don’t know.
• It’s getting back up when you fall down. (No matter how many times you fall down.)
• Being a source of energy that lifts those around you.
• Understanding that relationships are more important than material things.
• Being happy even when you have little.
• Having a good time even when you are losing.
• Being happy for someone else’s success.
• Having a positive future vision, no matter how bad your current circumstances.
• Paying a compliment, even to a total stranger.
• Tell someone you know that they did a great job. (And mean it.)
• Making someone’s day. (Not just a child’s… adult’s like to have their day be special, too!)
• It’s not complaining no matter how unfair things appear to be. (It is a waste of time… instead, do something!)
• Not letting other people’s negativity bring you down.
• Giving more than you expect to get in return.
• Being true to yourself… always (Jarrow, 2012).

Now we know a little bit more about what a positive mindset looks like, we can turn to one of the biggest questions of all: What’s the deal with having a positive attitude?

What is it about having a positive mindset that is so important, so impactful, so life-changing?

Well, the traits and characteristics listed above give us a hint; if you comb through the literature, you’ll see a plethora of benefits linked to optimism, resilience, and mindfulness.

You’ll see that awareness and integrity are linked to better quality of life , and acceptance and gratitude can take you from the “okay life” to the “good life.”

The Importance of Developing the Right Thoughts

Developing a truly positive mindset and gaining these benefits is a function of the thoughts you cultivate.

Don’t worry—this piece isn’t about the kind of positive thinking that is all positive, all the time. We don’t claim that just “thinking happy thoughts” will bring you all the success you desire in life, and we certainly don’t believe that optimism is warranted in every situation, every minute of the day.

Developing the right thoughts is not about being constantly happy or cheerful, and it’s not about ignoring anything negative or unpleasant in your life. It’s about incorporating both the positive and negative into your perspective and choosing to still be generally optimistic.

It’s about acknowledging that you will not always be happy and learning to accept bad moods and difficult emotions when they come.

Above all, it’s about increasing your control over your own attitude in the face of whatever comes your way. You cannot control your mood , and you cannot always control the thoughts that pop into your head, but you can choose how you handle them.

When you choose to give in to the negativity, pessimism, and doom-and-gloom view of the world, you are not only submitting to a loss of control and potentially wallowing in unhappiness—you are missing out on an important opportunity for growth and development.

According to positive psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, negative thinking, and negative emotions have their place: they allow you to sharpen your focus on dangers, threats, and vulnerabilities. This is vital for survival, although perhaps not as much as it was for our ancestors.

On the other hand, positive thinking and positive emotions “ broaden and build ” our resources and skills, and open us up to possibilities (Fredrickson, 2004).

Building a positive framework for your thoughts is not about being bubbly and annoyingly cheerful, but making an investment in yourself and your future. It’s okay to feel down or think pessimistically sometimes, but choosing to respond with optimism, resilience, and gratitude will benefit you far more in the long run.

According to Seligman (2006), optimism can be cultivated by challenging the negative stories we create in our minds. This “learned optimism” can be beneficial to feel happier and healthier, to release stress, and to increase performance and motivation.

The ABC Model, originally developed by Albert Ellis and later adapted by Martin Seligman, is an approach to help us think more optimistically. This model can be used for yourself or with your clients. Often, this technique can be found in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as the approach results in restructuring beliefs through self-awareness.

This technique can be used in daily life situations – An obstacle in your way reflects Adversity . The way you think about Adversity turns into your Beliefs , which impact how you react (Consequence). The Consequences are not inevitable since you can challenge the way you think about them (Seligman, 2006).

Seligman added the components “Disputation” and “Energization” to the original ABC model in order to not only be aware of your thinking patterns but to be able to overcome pessimistic thinking and cultivate a more optimistic outlook.

To be optimistic, you have to change what you believe about yourself and the situation you are encountering. Positive beliefs result in a more positive consequence, which then leads to a more positive outlook.

Aside from enhancing your skills and personal resources, there are many other benefits of cultivating a positive mindset, including better overall health, better ability to cope with stress , and greater well-being (Cherry, 2017A).

According to the experts at the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking can increase your lifespan, reduce rates of depression and levels of distress , give you greater resistance to the common cold, improve your overall psychological and physical well-being , improve your cardiovascular health and protect you from cardiovascular disease, and help you build coping skills to keep you afloat during challenging times (2017).

You’ve probably heard of all these generic benefits before, so we’ll get more specific and explore the benefits of a positive mindset in several different contexts:

• The workplace
• Dealing with disability (for both those with a disability and those around them)
• Nursing and healthcare
• Recovery from cancer

10 Benefits of a Positive Mental Attitude in the Workplace

No construct better captures the essence of a positive attitude in the workplace quite like psychological capital (or PsyCap for short). This multicomponent construct is made up of four psychological resources:

PsyCap was first conceptualized as “positive psychological capital” by renowned management and leadership researchers Luthans and Youssef in 2004. The concept quickly took off among positive organizational psychologists, and by 2011 there were already hundreds of citations of PsyCap in the literature.

The first meta-analysis of all the research on PsyCap was conducted in 2011, and it outlined some of the many benefits of PsyCap in the workplace:

• PsyCap was positively related to job satisfaction , organizational commitment, and psychological well-being.
• PsyCap was also positively related to organizational citizenship (desirable employee behaviors) and multiple measures of performance (self-rated, supervisor evaluations, and objective measures).
• PsyCap was negatively related to cynicism, turnover intentions, job stress, and anxiety .
• PsyCap was also negatively related to negative employee deviance (bad employee behaviors; Avey, Reichard, Luthans, & Mhatre, 2011).

It seems pretty straightforward that positive attitudes like optimism and resilience lead to positive outcomes for the organization and for the employees!

Another study by a few of the giants in the field of positive psychology (Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura King, and Ed Diener, 2005) investigated the relationship between happiness and benefits to employees. They showed that positive attitudes in the workplace also benefit the employee in addition to the organization:

• Happier employees are more productive than other employees.
• Happy salespeople have higher sales than other salespeople.
• Happy employees are more creative than other employees.
• Happy employees are evaluated more positively by their supervisors.
• Happy employees are less likely to show job withdrawal (absenteeism, turnover, job burnout, and retaliatory behaviors).
• Happy employees make more money than other employees.

So, a positive attitude can have great benefits for the organization as a whole and for all of its employees.

It turns out that a positive attitude can also result in benefits for leaders and their followers (as well as spreading positivity throughout the organization).

The Importance of a Positive Mindset for Leadership

As important as a positive mindset is for the rank-and-file, it’s easy to see why it is vital for those in a position of leadership.

Researchers Hannah, Woolfolk, and Lord (2009) outlined a framework for positive leadership that rests on the idea that leaders with a positive self-concept (a positive idea of who they are and a habit of thinking positively about themselves) are more able to bring the “right stuff” to their leadership role.

In their theory, a leader with a positive mindset is not only more likely to be actively engaged and to perform at a high level, he or she is also more able to influence followers toward a more positive mindset through role modeling and normative influence.

A study completed around the same time provides support for the relationship between leader and follower positivity; trust in management influenced positive PsyCap, which had a big impact on performance for leaders and followers (Clapp-Smith, Vogegesang, & Avey, 2008).

Further, trust in management was linked to positive leadership and performance. While trust in management isn’t necessarily indicative of a positive mindset in both leader and follower, it is certainly a likely outcome of a generally positive attitude in the workplace.

Forbes writer Victor Lipman (2017) puts findings like these in simpler terms:

“It’s always easier to follow someone with a positive outlook.”

In other words, positive attitudes in a leader will draw followers and encourage motivation and engagement in subordinates. Lipman also notes that having a positive outlook and being resilient is vital in leadership positions because there is a lot of stress involved in managing and leading others.

Leaders must always be “on” and spend much of their time “performing” as a strong, confident leader and perhaps even a public face. This role is a tiring one, and being optimistic and resilient will help leaders stay sane and healthy in challenging contexts.

The Promotion of Positive Attitudes Towards Disability

Having a positive attitude is also a boon for those educating, interacting with, and caring for a disabled student, loved one, or patient.

A positive attitude toward disability facilitates disabled students’ education and helps them assimilate into postsecondary education (Rao, 2004).

This makes it even more troubling to learn that, according to a 2012 study on UK primary schools, only 38% of them had a Disability Equality Scheme in place and only 30% had included a plan to “promote positive attitudes towards disabled people” (Beckett & Buckner). Further, 76% of schools reported that their staff had not received any training in the promotion of positive attitudes towards students with disabilities.

With so many resources available for promoting positive attitudes toward disability, there is ample opportunity to rectify this lack; for example, research by The Children’s Society in the UK identified several ways to promote positivity:

• An inclusive ethos within the school.
• Staff teams who are knowledgeable, skilled, and committed.
• Better training, guidance, and support for teachers, including Disability Equality training and ongoing INSET for all staff.
• High levels of awareness across the whole school community.
• Disability equality teaching being part of a wider strategy and included across the curriculum and not just within subjects such as PSHE, Citizenship and Religious education.
• A designated member of staff to coordinate teaching across the curriculum
• A better understanding of why promoting disability awareness and equality is important.
• Links with disabled people within the school community and beyond, as well as links with special schools.
• The availability of good resources.
• Awareness of, and the challenging of, stereotypes.
• A critical approach to the use of ‘disablist’ language which reinforces discriminatory attitudes and negative stereotypes.
• Promotion of the social model of disability.
• The inclusion of positive and diverse images in all materials used within the school and undertaking an audit of existing materials and resources to ensure they promote positive attitudes (More information on these suggestions can be found here ).

A 2009 study also established that formal instruction in disability awareness combined with hands-on fieldwork experiences with people who have a disability can have a significant impact on the positive attitudes toward those with disability (Campbell, Gilmore, & Cuskelly).

The research found that teachers-in-training who participated in a one-semester course involving direct work with students who had Down syndrome greatly improved their knowledge of the syndrome as well as their attitudes toward those with Down syndrome.

All of these findings show that having a positive attitude towards those with a disability is not only the right thing to work toward, but it also has a significant positive influence on both those with disability and those around them.

Unsurprisingly, it’s also important for nurses and other health professionals to cultivate a positive attitude towards their patients with a disability—something that nurses sometimes struggle with (Tervo & Palmer, 2004).

Positive Attitude in Nursing and Health Care

On the subject of nursing and healthcare, this is another context where having a positive mindset (towards oneself and one’s patients—disabled or otherwise) can have a positive impact.

In fact, having a positive attitude is so important for nursing, expert Jean Watson describes nursing as the “Caring Science” (2009). Indeed, positivity and caring are ingrained in the field; just take a look at the five core nursing values:

• Human dignity
• Social justice (Fahrenwald et al., 2005)

These five values lay the foundation for a caring, positive mindset that is the hallmark of good nursing practice. Nurses who embrace these core values and adopt a positive mindset toward themselves, their work, and their patients can help them find the meaning and fulfillment that likely prompted them to enter the field in the first place.

Having a positive mindset in health care not only acts as a facilitator of meaning and purpose in the lives of healthcare professionals but it also:

• Improves the professional’s performance and helps patients find healing and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• Reduces the frequency of accidents by enhancing focus.
• Helps the professional build a good reputation and advance in their career (Swanson, n.d.).

Luckily, there are evidence-backed ways for nurses to implement a more positive outlook, including:

• The “Three Good Things” exercise, in which the nursing staff maintains a “three good things” sheet that gets passed around all the nurses at the end of their shift; each staff member writes down at least one good thing that happened that day, and the charge nurse selects three of these positive things to share with the oncoming-shift nurses to help them start their day with positivity.
• Increasing social connections with patients by placing a “getting to know you” board in each patient room; on admission, nurses can encourage the patient to share something about themselves (not their illness or hospitalization, but about who you are).
• Encouraging random acts of kindness by nurses—a practice which has the potential to spread to patients and other healthcare professionals as well.
• Enhancing gratitude through a staff peer recognition board.
• Practicing loving-kindness meditation at staff meetings.
• Identifying and applying one’s Signature Strengths (Roberts & Strauss, 2015).

Speaking of the importance of positivity in health care, the benefits can extend to the patients as well.

Positive Attitude and Cancer Recovery

You’ve probably heard the common phrases and encouragements used when discussing someone’s cancer diagnosis.

A cancer patient will likely be told at least a few times that “You have to stay positive!” and “You can fight this if you maintain a positive attitude.”

This idea that being positive will help cancer patients to fight the disease is a common one, although the literature is a bit iffy on whether this phenomenon is real (Coyne & Tennen, 2010; O’Baugh, Wilkes, Luke, & George, 2003).

Although it is unclear whether simply cultivating a positive mindset will help a patient beat cancer, there’s no doubt that getting support, focusing on a healthy mental state, and maintaining a positive attitude will help patients reduce their tension, anxiety, fatigue, and depression, and improve their overall quality of life (Spiegel et al., 2007).

Cancer Treatment Centers of America expert Katherine Puckett agrees that positivity can be helpful for patients being treated for cancer, but clarifies that other emotions are perfectly acceptable as well.

“So often I have heard a loved one say to a cancer patient who is crying, ‘Stop crying. You know you have to be positive’… However, when we make space for people to express all of their feelings, rather than bottling them up inside, it is then easier for them to be optimistic. It is okay to allow tears to flow—these can be a healthy release.” (Katherine Puckett, as reported in Fischer, 2016).

This indicates that the most important factor regarding positivity in cancer recovery is that it is authentic . False smiles and superficial cheerfulness will likely do nothing for the cancer patient, but working on cultivating an authentically positive mindset and focusing on the activities and techniques that build well-being can have a significant impact on a cancer patient’s quality of life and—possibly—their chances of beating cancer.

Do a quick Google search on how to cultivate a more positive mindset, and you’ll see that there are tons of suggestions out there! We’ve gathered some of the most popular and most evidence-backed methods here, but don’t hesitate to search for more if you need them.

Larry Alton (2018) from Success.com lists 7 practical tips to help you get more positive:

• Start the day with positive affirmations (scroll down to see some example affirmations).
• Focus on the good things, however small they are.
• Find humor in bad situations.
• Turn failures into lessons—and learn from them!
• Transform negative self-talk into positive self-talk.
• Focus on the present instead of getting mired in the past or losing your way in the future.
• Find positive friends, mentors, and co-workers to support and encourage you.

A successful author, speaker, and coach Brian Tracy (n.d.) echoes some of these tips and adds a couple more:

• Remember that it’s your response that determines the outcome of a situation.
• Use positive affirmations or phrases to chase off negative thoughts.
• Find inspirational quotes and messages to bolster your positivity.
• Decide to be happy by being grateful and assuming the people around you have the best of intentions.
• Challenge yourself to maintain a positive attitude when something goes wrong—show the world how resilient and positive you are!

For a more specific list of habits and actions you can take to develop a more positive mindset, try these 10 suggestions from Megan Wycklendt (2014) of Fulfillment Daily:

• Keep a gratitude journal .
• Reframe your challenges as opportunities for growth .
• Get good at being rejected—it happens to everyone!
• Use positive words to describe your life.
• Replace have with get (e.g., I have to go to work → I get to go to work).
• Don’t let yourself get dragged down into other people’s complaints.
• Breathe—consciously, purposefully, and mindfully.
• Notice the righteous and good in times of tragedy and violence.
• Have solutions ready when you point out problems.
• Make someone else smile.

Finally, these 11 techniques from Dr. Tchiki Davis (2018) can also help you adopt a more positive attitude:

• Ask yourself, “Do I think positively?” Take a test or quiz on positivity to see where you stand.
• Strengthen your memory for positive information by using positive words more often.
• Strengthen your brain’s ability to work with positive information with exercises that involve positive words.
• Strengthen your brain’s ability to pay attention to the positive by routinely redirecting your focus away from the negative to the positive.
• Condition yourself to experience random moments of positivity (use classical conditioning on yourself to build positive associations).
• Think positive—but not too much—and think negative when you need to; sometimes we need to grieve, think about the negative consequences, and use negative emotions to motivate and engage us.
• Practice gratitude (perhaps with a gratitude journal).
• Savor the good moments (stop to “smell the roses” and celebrate the positive).
• Generate positive emotions by watching funny videos
• Stop minimizing your successes and acknowledge the efforts you put in.
• Stop all-or-nothing thinking; this cognitive distortion is not in line with reality since things are very rarely “all good” or “all bad.”

To pass along the benefits of developing a positive mindset to students, you can encourage them to try the techniques listed above.

However, there are some methods for improving students’ attitude towards learning and school that may be even more effective.

Elliot Seif from the ASCD’s Edge website outlines 13 ways you can help students cultivate this mindset:

• “Reduce the emphasis on traditional testing as the key assessment tool, and focus on more “natural” and diverse assessment approaches such as essays and papers, reflective journals, oral presentations, and other demonstrations of their learning.
• Create the expectation that effort makes a difference in learning. Help students understand that when someone works hard, they are more likely to succeed. Give students more opportunities to put effort into areas that interest them and that they enjoy.
• Include narratives on report cards that focus on individual strengths and interests.
• Where possible, instead of or in addition to reading textbooks, find and have students read and choose books that are interesting to them, that opens them up to the world around them, that makes them think!
• Focus primarily on student strengths and student success. For each student, consider “ the glass as half full ” rather than “the glass as half empty”. Encourage students as much as possible. Understand that not all students will be strong in all areas and that it is important to help each student find his or her strengths and interests and to build on them. Also, see “failure” as an opportunity for student growth. Make it clear to students that not doing well is a cause for looking inside yourself to see how you can do something better (and that you will do the same). Give students more specific feedback, along with opportunities to redo their work and improve it. Provide mentors and tutors and other help and support for students who need it.
• Be willing to “slow down the learning process”. Focus learning on what you think is important. Figure out ways to teach an idea differently, and work on something for a longer period than you normally do if your students are not “getting it”. Figure out alternative ways to teach something if your approach isn’t working.
• Focus a good deal of your teaching on “learning how to learn” skill development. Read up on how to teach study skills, learning to learn skills, research skills, inquiry skills. Make sure that your students grow both in terms of content they learn and the “learning to learn” skills they need to develop in order to learn well in the future.
• Make “asking questions” central to your teaching and to your learning environment and school culture. Write course descriptions around key questions. Use essential questions to focus units, or have students develop essential questions as the focus for learning. As you teach, encourage students to ask clarifying and elaborative questions. Make it clear to students that no question is too small or too silly. Build open time for students to ask questions on the topics they are studying. Use “wait time” when you are asking for questions. Teach students study strategies such as SQ3R[i] that encourage students to turn statements (such as text headings) into questions.
• Give students more choices and options – in the classroom, by offering many electives, through multiple extra-curricular options. Choices/options should give students opportunities to develop and expand their interests, see connections and relevance in what they are learning, and expand their talents.
• Use inquiry strategies, research skill-building activities, interactive learning and projects as critical parts of teaching. Incorporate more interest-based projects into your curriculum.
• Where possible, make learning experiences more “authentic”. For example, consider how learning about the American Revolution might be tied to a current event happening in the world. Visit the area surrounding the school to demonstrate how math might be used for everyday activity. Through surveys, encourage students to provide feedback on whether they feel that their learning is interesting, motivating, and relevant and whether they are being encouraged to develop their talents and interests. Conduct student surveys to determine what types of school and classroom activities are most motivating and interesting. Create activities and experiences that enable students to get outside the school and learn from the outside world and perform community service.
• Create more ways to integrate learning across the curriculum and consider ways to redesign the curriculum. Use themes to create more interdisciplinary units. Connect separate subject areas, such as by teaching American history and literature in tandem so that history topics and specific literature that touch on similar time periods or themes are taught at the same time. When redesigning or renewing the curriculum, examine whether curriculum materials or programs have a significant component built around developing curiosity, motivation, relevance, and interest.
• See yourself as helping students build “pathways to adult success”. How can your subject, your grade level, your school contribute to making these pathways smoother? How can you provide students with a concrete understanding of their future options? Can you take field trips to different places of business? Colleges and universities? Bring in speakers?” (Seif, 2013)

However, these techniques are not always within a teacher’s (or parent’s) realm of control. If you these techniques are too overwhelming or the scope is out of your control, try these 7 strategies that you will likely have the power to implement:

• Be an example. Model a positive, encouraging attitude in all that you say, do and believe.
• Create a positive learning space for your student.
• Help your student visualize a positive outcome from every scenario before starting.
• Eliminate negative verbiage from your students’ dialogue (e.g., respond to “I can’t do it” with “Why can’t you do it? What’s holding you back? How can I help?”).
• Help your students change negative thinking patterns (encourage them to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones).
• Play the role of your students’ biggest fan (encourage them and help them develop self-confidence ).
• Incorporate a rewards system to encourage positivity at all times (Werrell, 2016).

For more tips and suggestions from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, check out their excellent resource on instilling positive attitudes and perceptions about learning here .

There are many positive thinking exercises and games that can give you a boost.

Some of the most popular ones are listed here, but feel free to search for more if none of them align with your interests—there are a lot to choose from out there!

Zdravko Lukovski from the Enlightenment Portal website has 10 exercises and activities that you can implement in your own life or encourage your clients to try in order to think more positively:

• Listen to your favorite music—it’s that easy! Music has a fairly unique ability to put you in a positive state of mind, so take advantage of that fact.
• Express your thankfulness and gratitude for all the good things in your life. Appreciate them, and write them down to help you remember.
• Remember to breathe. Breathe deeply, slowly, and mindfully to transport your mind to a positive, calm place.
• Don’t live according to a label—labels come from others, not from yourself, and you are so much more than a simple label could ever represent. Be authentic, and it will be much easier to be positive.
• Check your internal dialogue, and challenge that critical inner voice to make room for happiness.
• Engage in positive activities like meditation , yoga , hiking, playing a sport, or whatever other activity you enjoy.
• Take back control of the things you can change—and put in the effort required to actually change—but learn to accept the things you cannot change.
• Go easy on yourself. Don’t kick yourself when you’re down; everyone fails, and it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough.
• Pay attention to your diet, and ensure that you eat healthy food that will contribute to a healthy and positive mind.
• Embrace change—it’s happening whether we want it to or not, so it’s best to embrace it. Make an effort to step outside of your comfort zone (2015).

This list from Thought Catalog’s Kathy Mitchell (2017) has some of the same ideas as Lukovski, but she adds a few more activities as well:

• Listen to upbeat music.
• Have sex (that can certainly be an engaging and life-affirming activity!).
• Travel, even if it’s not very far—the point is to interact with different people and get to know other cultures.
• Eat healthy foods.
• Be thankful and cultivate gratitude.
• Journal and/or use a notebook to write things down—especially positive things.
• Breathe mindfully and deeply.
• Use positive words and avoid phrases like “I can’t” and “I won’t.”
• Practice positive affirmations or mantras.
• Try the Best Possible Self exercise (imagine yourself in your best possible future, and write about it).
• Volunteer and commit your time and efforts to helping others.
• Take control of the things you can, and accept the things you can’t.
• Remind yourself “Never a failure, always a lesson;” make every failure a learning opportunity.
• Try the mirror technique—say something positive about yourself (and truly mean it) every time you see yourself in the mirror.
• Socialize and spend time with others, including family, friends, your spouse or significant other, and new friends or acquaintances.

If you’re more interested in games you can play to boost positive thinking, try these suggested games from Mary Osborne (2017) at Live Strong.

Recognizing Positive Behavior

Gather your team (or family, friends, etc.) and review a list of a generic individual’s positive behaviors (like giving credit to others, smiling, saying thank you, and listening nonjudgmentally).

Next, ask players to identify their reactions to positive behaviors like these.

When everyone has listed their responses to these behaviors, talk about them as a group to show that engaging in positive behaviors like these will attract clients, customers, and coworkers rather than repel them.

The “Glad” Game

This game comes from the Disney movie Pollyanna, in which the main character actively cultivates positive thinking.

Have one person bring up a negative event, like losing a job or breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

The other players are challenged to turn the first person’s thoughts to the positive; for example, they can say something like, “ But now that I’ve lost my job, I’ll have more time to _______ .” The first person must come up with a word or phrase that fits the blank.

This game will encourage you to find the silver lining and look for opportunities instead of wallowing in despair.

Egg-Balancing Game

The egg-balancing game can be frustrating, but it can impart an important lesson in staying optimistic and open-minded.

Give your player(s) a raw egg and a flat, somewhat textured tabletop (use a tablecloth or placemat if you need to). Tell them to find a way to balance the egg in an upright position on the table. They might say it’s not possible, but assure them that it is!

Let them try for a while—they might actually be able to do it—but give them a small mound of salt to balance the egg in if they are struggling for too long. If you use the salt, remind them that this is an important thing to remember: sometimes things that seem impossible actually are possible when you think outside the box!

Hunt for Happiness

This game is described as a “positive-thinking scavenger game” and it can be used with both children and adults.

Have the players make a list of things that they feel make life worth living or, for younger children, things that make them smile.

Once everyone has a list ready, send them off on a scavenger hunt to collect as many items on the list as possible. If it’s too big to collect and bring back, you can mark your “collection” of it on the list.

You’ll have to get creative to check off everything on the list, especially abstract things like “love,” but that’s part of the challenge. As a bonus, it will also help you boost your creative thinking in addition to your positive thinking.

To read more about these games, click here .

For Children

There are even more games and activities to help children develop a positive mindset. If you’re a teacher, parent, coach, or anyone else who interacts with kids, give these activities a try.

Big Life Journal has a great infographic that lists the ways you can help children develop a positive attitude. You can find the whole blog post here , but we’ll outline the 7 activities they describe:

• Engage your child in loving-kindness meditation. You can teach him or her the four traditional phrases directed towards loved ones if you’d like: “May you feel safe. May you feel happy. May you feel healthy. May you live with ease.”
• Encourage your child to help others, whether that takes the form of assisting an elderly neighbor with yard work or chores, helping a friend with homework, or participating in a canned food, clothing, or toy drive.
• Have your child create and write in an “Awe Journal.” Tell them to write down any sights or moments from their daily life that they find beautiful, extraordinary, awesome, or just all-around wonderful.
• Encourage your child to set goals, visualize their path forward, and plan for obstacles before they come face-to-face with them (this is the WOOP approach: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan).
• Share your own positive experiences with your child. Laugh with them, hug them, and set aside quality time to simply be together.
• Identify your child’s strengths and encourage him or her to put them to good use and develop them further with productive, fun activities.
• Guide your child through the process of coming up with positive affirmations like, “I am kind. I am enough. I am loving. I am good.” (Cullins, 2018).

Another collection of activities that can help children (and the whole family) develop and maintain a positive mindset comes from Sharon Harding at the Rediscovered Families website:

• Keep “Quote Books,” or notebooks for your children to write in. Every week, choose a positive quote to share with your kids and encourage them to write it down along with their thoughts, drawings that correspond to the quote, or insights from a family discussion or activities based on the quote.
• Try the “Success of the Day” activity, in which each family member is encouraged to talk about a success they had that day, like helping someone, standing up for a peer, finishing a project, or committing (or receiving) a random act of kindness. Your children can keep a journal of their successes to look back on and draw inspiration from.
• Create Warm Fuzzy Jars for each of your children; whenever they do something kind or helpful, they can place a pom-pom ball in their jar to represent the warm fuzzy feeling they gave to another person. When their jar is full, they get to choose a special or fun activity to do—with either parent, both parents, their sibling, or the whole family.
• Write Morning Love Notes (sweet notes for them to read in the morning and get a good start to their day) for your children, and encourage them to write them for their siblings.
• Choose an Act of Kindness to help your kids understand the impact a simple kindness can have. Try something like shoveling a neighbor’s walkway when it snows, bringing a meal to a family in need, or volunteering.
• Creating art that helps them to manage their feelings and turn their mind towards the positive (more info here ).
• Have each family member create a Slinky Character Trait Person. Encourage each family member to identify some positive character traits in each other and write them on the slinky person. You can find more detailed instructions here .
• Help each child make a vision board to share their hopes, dreams, goals, and aspirations with each other.
• Complete the Buggy and Buddy motivational art activity to help your children boost their creative confidence and self-esteem .
• Make gratitude stones and encourage your children to practice gratitude every day. All you’ll need is a small, smooth stone and some paint to create a heart on the stone. Tell your children to carry them around and use them as a reminder to think about the things they are grateful for. You can also use them in other ways, detailed here .

If games and activities aren’t really your “thing,” there are lots of other ways to cultivate a positive attitude.

One effective technique is completing worksheets designed to help you develop a positive mindset.

A few of the many worksheets on this topic are described below.

Strengths Exploration

Becoming more positive can start with a fun and uplifting exercise—identifying your strengths.

This worksheet lists 36 individual strengths, with room to add 4 more, that you can use to pick out which strengths you embody. You can choose as many as you like, but try to keep the list to those traits that you think are your biggest strengths .

Once you have your strengths identified, move on to the rest of the worksheet: learning about your strengths in specific areas, how you apply them now, and how you can use them more often.

The second page concerns your relationships—romantic relationships, family relationships, and relationships with friends. There are three questions to guide you here:

• List the strengths you possess that help you in your relationships.
• Describe a specific time your strengths were able to help you in a relationship.
• Describe two new ways you could use your strengths in relationships.

On the third page, you will answer the same questions but with your profession in mind instead of relationships.

The fourth page repeats these questions but with a focus on personal fulfillment (hobbies, interests, pleasurable activities).

You can find this worksheet here .

Gratitude Journal

Cultivating a regular practice of gratitude will help you to become more positive, and this worksheet will guide you in establishing your practice.

First, the instructions for the sheet are as follows: “Two times a week, write a detailed entry about one thing you are grateful for. This could be a person, a job, a great meal with friends, or anything else that comes to mind.”

Next, the worksheet includes some tips for effective journaling, like:

• Don’t rush to write down the first things that come to your mind. Take time to truly think about what you’re grateful for. Expect each entry to take between 10-20 minutes.
• Writing about the people who you’re grateful for tends to be more powerful than writing about things.

To help get you started, you can use one of the journaling prompts listed in the worksheet, including:

• Someone whose company I enjoy…
• A fun experience I had…
• A reason to be excited about the future…
• An unexpected good thing that happened…

The next two pages provide you space to write up to four entries. It’s best if you get a journal specifically for this purpose, but this space can get you started until you obtain a journal.

Click here to download this worksheet .

Positive Journal

Similar to the gratitude journal, a positive journal is an effective way to use journaling to improve your mindset.

The worksheet encourages you to make a point of recognizing positive experiences throughout your day, however big or small. At the end of each day, use the worksheet to record three positive things that happened.

It’s good to have an actual journal for your positive entries (either the same journal you use for recording the things you are grateful for or a separate one), but this worksheet includes space for entering three positive things for 7 days to help you get started.

Click here to read the instructions in more detail.

Protective Factors

The Protective Factors worksheet will get you thinking about all of the positive traits, attributes, and skills that contribute to your resilience and overall mental health. Identifying these factors is essential to knowing when and how to use them.

The instructions are to review each of the protective factors listed and marking where you are on the scale (from weak to strong). These factors include:

• Social Support
• Coping Skills
• Physical Health
• Sense of Purpose
• Self-Esteem
• Healthy Thinking

Once you have given thought to each protective factor, the next page poses some questions about them:

• Which protective factor has been the most valuable to you during difficult times?
• Specifically, how have you used this protective factor to your advantage in the past?
• What are the two protective factors that you would like to improve?
• Describe how things might be different if you able to improve these protective factors.
• List specific steps or actions that might help to make these goals a reality.

To download this worksheet and learn about your own protective factors, click here .

Looking Back, Looking Forward

This worksheet will help you to identify times in your life when things have gone well, when you got things right, and when you thrived.

First, for the “Looking Back” portion, you will be instructed to choose a timeframe to reflect on (for example, “the past year” or “since starting my new job”).

Next, you will answer several questions about the positive events and accomplishments from this time period, including:

• List your accomplishments from this timeframe, even if they seem minor.
• Describe a great day from this timeframe. What made this day special?
• How have you grown, or what lessons did you learn, during this timeframe?
• What are you grateful for from this timeframe? Try to list at least three examples.
• What was a challenge that you overcame during this timeframe?

For the “Looking Forward” portion, you will complete a similar exercise but with a future time period in mind.

Instead of the questions above, you will answer these five questions:

• What would you like to achieve during this timeframe?
• What are you looking forward to during this timeframe? Try to list at least three examples.
• What relationships would you like to strengthen during this timeframe?
• What can you do to help others during this timeframe?
• Ideally, how will your life be different at the end of this timeframe? Give specifics.

Once you have completed this worksheet, you will have a list of good things and accomplishments already behind you, and a list of good things you have to look forward to and work towards. Click here to get started.

Why I’m Grateful

This is a great worksheet for cultivating gratitude, and it can be used with children or adults.

It lists six prompts for you to complete that will help you focus on the good things in your life:

• I am grateful for my family because…
• Something good that happened this week…
• I am grateful for my friendship with… because…
• I am grateful for who I am because…
• Something silly that I am grateful for…
• Something else I am grateful for…

To start thinking about all the things you have to be grateful for, click here .

Positive Activities for Behavioral Activation

This worksheet is focused on the therapeutic technique of behavioral activation—encouraging the patient to get more active, engage in positive activities, and gain the rewards inherent in these activities.

It instructs you to create a list of activities that you find personally rewarding and leaves space for you to do so.

Next, it instructs you to rate the ease of each activity on a scale from 1 (difficult) to 10 (easy) and the reward you get from each activity on a scale from 1 (not at all rewarding) to 10 (very rewarding).

Completing this worksheet will leave you with a list of activities that you can refer to whenever you need a quick boost, and help you learn about what you enjoy most.

Click here to download this worksheet.

Positive Experiences

The Positive Experiences worksheet is a simple one in theory, but it can be difficult to actually complete. The difficulty comes with an equivalent reward though; you can get a great boost in your mood, self-esteem, and self-confidence from completing it.

The only instruction is to consider each of the positive traits listed and write briefly about times when you have displayed each of them.

The positive traits include:

• Selflessness
• Determination

If you’re feeling particularly down, you may be tempted to skip one or two, but fight this urge! You have definitely displayed each of these traits at one time or another—don’t sell yourself short!

Positive Steps to Wellbeing

This resource is actually a handout, but you can certainly make it interactive by taking notes or using check marks to indicate what you have tried, or what you would like to try.

It lists 12 things you can do to improve your wellbeing. These 12 activities include:

• Being kind to yourself
• Exercise regularly
• Take up a hobby and/or learn a new skill
• Have some fun and/or be creative
• Help others
• Eat healthily
• Balance sleep
• Connect with others
• Beware drink and drugs
• See the bigger picture
• Accepting: “It is as it is”

To read more about how each of these activities contributes to your wellbeing, download the handout here .

Positive Self-Talk/Coping Thoughts Worksheet

The positive self-talk/coping thoughts worksheet is a great way to turn your focus from the negative to the positive and come up with positive statements you can use to cope in future stressful or difficult situations.

Example coping thoughts and positive statements listed on the worksheet include:

• Stop, and breathe, I can do this.
• This will pass.
• This feels bad, and feelings are very often wrong.
• I can feel bad and still choose to take a new and healthy direction.
• I feel this way because of my past experiences, but I am safe right now.

After reading the example statements, the worksheet encourages you to write down some coping thoughts or positive statements for difficult or distressing situations in your life. You can write them directly on the worksheet, but it may be most helpful to copy them onto a note card and carry them with you.

While we’re on the subject of positive statements, we should also mention that quotes and affirmations can be an excellent way to encourage positive thinking.

Affirmations

If you’re interested in affirmations, try the Mind Tools Content Team’s (n.d.) list of positive thinking affirmations:

• I have plenty of creativity for this project.
• My work will be recognized in a positive way by my boss and colleagues.
• I can do this!
• My team respects and values my opinion.
• I am successful.
• I am honest in my life, and my work.
• I like completing tasks and projects on time.
• I’m grateful for the job I have.
• I enjoy working with my team.
• I’m bringing a positive attitude to work every day.
• I am excellent at what I do.
• I am generous.
• I am happy.
• I will be a leader in my organization.

If none of these appeal to you on a deep level, refer to their tips on developing your own personal affirmations:

• Think about the areas of your life that you’d like to change.
• Write affirmations that are credible and achievable (based on reality).
• Use your affirmations to turn negative into positive (note a persistent negative thought and choose an affirmation that is the opposite).
• Write your affirmations in the present tense—affirm yourself in the here and now, not a vague future version of yourself.
• Say it with feeling! Your affirmations should be personally meaningful to you (Mind Tools Content Team, n.d.).

If you’re having trouble coming up with your affirmations or you just like to hear a different perspective on positive thinking, you might find some quotes helpful.

Lydia Sweatt (2017) from Success.com shares 13 great quotes on optimism and having a positive attitude.

“Optimism doesn’t wait on facts. It deals with prospects.”

Norman Cousins

“Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking.”

Rick Steves

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”

Helen Keller

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

Noam Chomsky

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”

Lucille Ball

“An optimist understands that life can be a bumpy road, but at least it is leading somewhere. They learn from mistakes and failures, and are not afraid to fail again.”

Harvey Mackay

“Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant―the digitalis of failure.”

Elbert Hubbard

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

John Wooden

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”

Benjamin Franklin

“Optimism refuses to believe that the road ends without options.”

Robert H. Schuller

“What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will improve, it won’t always be bleak [and] there’s a way to rise above the present circumstances.”

Wayne W. Dyer

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Winston Churchill

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Martin Luther

Quotes can be fantastic motivators, but you probably agree that a rousing speech or inspiring video can be even more effective.

Check out these TED Talks and YouTube videos on positive thinking when you need a boost.

Jim Rohn’s A Positive Attitude Attracts Success

Brendon Burchard’s How to Reprogram Your Mind (for Positive Thinking)

Carol Dweck’s TED Talk The Power of Believing That You Can Improve

Shawn Achor’s TED Talk The Happy Secret to Better Work

If you’re more of a fan of books than videos, never fear—we’ve got book recommendations too!

Here are just a few of the many books on developing a positive mindset:

• Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin E. P. Seligman ( Amazon )
• Attitude: Your Most Priceless Possession by Elwood N. Chapman ( Amazon )
• The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life by Shawn Achor ( Amazon )
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck ( Amazon )
• Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs by March Chernoff and Angel Chernoff ( Amazon )
• Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin E. P. Seligman ( Amazon )
• Mindset: How Positive Thinking Will Set You Free & Help You Achieve Massive Success in Life by Benjamin Smith ( Amazon )
• Hard Optimism: How to Succeed in a World Where Positive Wins by Price Pritchett ( Amazon )

17 Top-Rated Positive Psychology Exercises for Practitioners

Expand your arsenal and impact with these 17 Positive Psychology Exercises [PDF] , scientifically designed to promote human flourishing, meaning, and wellbeing.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

If you’re still with me after this very long read, thanks for sticking with it! I hope you will find that the time invested in reading this piece was worth the information you gleaned from it.

The one takeaway from this piece that I really hope sticks with you is this: Positive thinking is a powerful tool that can result in a lot of benefits for you and those around you; however, thinking positive 100% of the time is unrealistic and could even be disastrous.

We have a lot of different emotions and thoughts, and we have such a wide variety for a reason. There are times when being a bit pessimistic can help us, and it is a good idea to let out the negative emotions you experience once in a while (especially if the alternative is bottling them up).

If you’re an optimist by nature, cultivate gratitude for your inherent positivity, but make sure you don’t push aside the negative feelings that crop up. They’re part of life too.

If you’re a pessimist by nature, don’t despair of ever thinking positively. Try a few of the techniques that seem most applicable and give yourself a break if it takes some time. Remember, the goal is not to become a “ Pollyanna ,” but to become the best version of yourself that you can be and maintain a healthy and happy mental state.

How do you feel about the positivity movement? Are you naturally optimistic, pessimistic, or somewhere in between? Do you have any thoughts about how to cultivate a positive mindset? Let us know in the comments section below!

Thanks for reading, and best of luck in developing a positive mindset!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

• Alton, L. (2018). 7 practical tips to achieve a positive mindset. Success: Personal Development. Retrieved from https://www.success.com/article/7-practical-tips-to-achieve-a-positive-mindset
• Avey, J. B., Reichard, R. J., Luthans, F., & Mhatre, K. H. (2011). Meta-analysis of the impact of positive psychological capital on employee attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 22(2), 127-152.
• Beckett, A. E., & Buckner, L. (2012). Promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people: Definition of, rationale and prospects for anti-disablist education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33, 873-891.
• Blank, C. (2017). The characteristics of a positive attitude. LiveStrong. Retrieved from https://www.livestrong.com/article/139801-the-characteristics-positive-attitude/
• Campbell, J., Gilmore, L., & Cuskelly, M. (2009). Changing student teachers’ attitudes towards disability and inclusion. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 28, 369-379.
• Cherry, K. (2017A). The benefits of positive thinking for body and mind. Very Well Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/benefits-of-positive-thinking-2794767
• Cherry, K. (2017B). Understanding the psychology of positive thinking. Very Well Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-positive-thinking-2794772
• Clapp-Smith, R., Vogegesang, G. R., & Avey, J. B. (2008). Authentic leadership and positive psychological capital: The mediating role of trust at the group level of analysis. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 15, 227-240.
• Clear, J. (2013). The science of positive thinking: How positive thoughts build your skills, boost your health, and improve your work. HuffPost: Wellness. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/positive-thinking_b_3512202.html
• Coyne, J. C., & Tennen, H. (2010). Positive psychology in cancer care: Bad science, exaggerated claims, and unproven medicine. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 39, 16-26.
• Cullins, A. (2018). 7 activities to help your child develop a positive attitude. Big Life Journal. Retrieved from https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/children-positive-attitude
• Davidson, J. (2016). The eightfold path: Right Thought. Jessica Davidson: Buddhism. Retrieved from https://jessicadavidson.co.uk/2016/09/16/the-eightfold-path-right-thought/
• Davis, T. (2018). Think positive: 11 ways to boost positive thinking. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/201803/think-positive-11-ways-boost-positive-thinking
• Fischer, K. (2016). Can a positive attitude help defeat cancer? Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health-news/can-positive-attitude-help-defeat-cancer#1
• Fahrenwald, N. L., Bassett, S. D., Tschetter, L., Carson, P. P., White, L., & Winterboer, V. J. (2005). Teaching core nursing values. Journal of Professional Nursing, 21, 46-51.
• Fredrickson, B. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion s. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 359, 1367-1378.
• Hannah, S. T., Woolfolk, R. L., & Lord, R. G. (2009). Leader self-structure: A framework for positive leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30, 269-290.
• Harding, S. (2016). 10 activities to encourage a positive attitude in our kids. Rediscovered Families. Retrieved from https://rediscoveredfamilies.com/positive-attitude/
• Jarrow, C. (2012). 21 ways to define a positive attitude. Time Management Ninja. Retrieved from https://timemanagementninja.com/2012/02/21-ways-to-define-a-positive-attitude/
• Lipman, V. (2017). Why a positive mindset is a manager’s indispensable ally. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2017/10/12/why-a-positive-mindset-is-a-managers-indispensable-ally/#39c5269f4425
• Lukovski, Z. (2015). 10 positive thinking exercises & activities that will change your life. Enlightenment Portal. Retrieved from http://enlightenmentportal.com/development/positive-thinking-exercises-and-activities/
• Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855.
• Mayo Clinic Staff. (2017). Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress. Mayo Clinic Healthy Lifestyle. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950
• Mind Tools Content Team. (n.d.). Using affirmations: Harnessing positive thinking. Mind Tools. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/affirmations.htm
• Mitchell, K. (2017). 15 positive thinking exercises & activities to transform your life. Thought Catalog. Retrieved from https://thoughtcatalog.com/kathy-mitchell/2017/03/15-positive-thinking-exercises-activities-to-transform-your-life/
• O’Baugh, J., Wilkes, L. M., Luke, S., & George, A. (2003). ‘Being positive’: Perceptions of patients with cancer and their nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 44 , 262-270.
• Osborne, M. (2017). Positive thinking games. Live Strong. Retrieved from https://www.livestrong.com/article/14685-goal-setting-in-relationships/
• Power of Positivity. (n.d.). 5 inner characteristics of a positive thinker. Power of Positivity. Retrieved from https://www.powerofpositivity.com/5-inner-characteristics-positive-thinker/
• Rao, S. (2004). Faculty attitudes and students with disabilities in higher education: A literature review. College Student Journal, 38 , 191-198.
• Roberts, P., & Strauss, K. (2015). The power of the positive. American Nurse Today, 10. [Online publication]. Retrieved from https://www.americannursetoday.com/the-power-of-the-positive/
• Sasson, R. (n.d.). The power of positive thinking. Success Consciousness. Retrieved from https://www.successconsciousness.com/index_000009.htm
• Seligman, M. E. (2006).  Learned optimism: How to change your mind and your life . Vintage.
• Spiegel, D., Butler, L. D., Giese-Davis, J., Koopman, C., Miller, E., DiMiceli, S., Classen, C. C., Fobair, P., Carlson, R. W., & Kraemer, H. C. (2007). Effects of supportive-expressive group therapy on survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer: A randomized prospective trial. Cancer, 110 , 1130-1138.
• Swanson, A. (n.d.). A positive attitude in health care: Make it the rule, not the exception. Lockton Affinity Health. Retrieved from http://locktonmedicalliabilityinsurance.com/positive-attitude-in-healthcare/
• Sweatt, L. (2017). 13 optimistic quotes to stop being so negative. Success. Retrieved from https://www.success.com/article/13-optimistic-quotes-to-stop-being-so-negative
• Tervo, R. C., & Palmer, G. (2004). Health professional student attitudes towards people with disability. Clinical Rehabilitation, 18 , 908-915.
• www.therapistaid.com
• Tracy, B. (n.d.). Transform your life with the power of positive thinking. Brian Tracy International: Personal Success. Retrieved from https://www.briantracy.com/blog/personal-success/positive-attitude-happy-people-positive-thinking/
• Watson, J. (2009). Caring Science and human caring theory: Transforming personal and professional practices of nursing and health care. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 31 , 466-482.
• Werrell, B. (2016). 7 tips to encourage a positive attitude in students. Connections Academy. Retrieved from http://blog.connectionsacademy.com/7-tips-to-encourage-a-positive-attitude-in-students/
• Wycklendt, M. (2014). 10 simple habits to grow a positive attitude. Fulfillment Daily. Retrieved from http://www.fulfillmentdaily.com/10-habits-to-grow-a-positive-attitude/

Share this article:

Article feedback

What our readers think.

Beautiful quotes to make anyone brisk and happy once again. Surrounding ourselves with the best positive people will always bring you good vibes. I just love the quote “When you find someone smarter than you, work with them,don’t compete”

Pleasant facts, precious in addition to fantastic pattern, seeing that write about good stuff having good ideas in addition to methods, many good facts in addition to enthusiasm, both equally which I needed, on account of deliver a really helpful information in this article.

You have made some decent points there. I looked on the internet for more information about the issue and found most people will go along with your views on this web site.

Your post has those facts which are not accessible from anywhere else. It’s my humble request to u please keep writing such remarkable articles

Your post is very helpful to get some effective tips to reduce weight properly. You have shared various nice photos of the same. I would like to thank you for sharing these tips. Surely I will try this at home. Keep updating more simple tips like this. 

Let us know your thoughts Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Related articles

Dysregulation: Navigating Through Emotional Turmoil

As mental health professionals, we often find emotional dysregulation at the heart of our clients’ challenges. Like a yoyo, the ups and downs of emotions [...]

Neuroticism: 12 Emotion Regulation Skills & Worksheets

Neuroticism is a crucial aspect of personality and significantly impacts how we see ourselves and the world around us (Widiger & Oltmanns, 2017). Those of [...]

Childhood Emotional Neglect: 5 Hidden Consequences

Almost one in five adults globally may have been neglected as a child, and it most likely happened unintentionally (Stoltenborgh et al., 2013). Parents or [...]

Read other articles by their category

• Body & Brain (49)
• Coaching & Application (58)
• Compassion (25)
• Counseling (51)
• Emotional Intelligence (23)
• Gratitude (18)
• Grief & Bereavement (21)
• Happiness & SWB (40)
• Meaning & Values (26)
• Meditation (20)
• Mindfulness (44)
• Motivation & Goals (45)
• Optimism & Mindset (34)
• Positive CBT (30)
• Positive Communication (20)
• Positive Education (47)
• Positive Emotions (32)
• Positive Leadership (18)
• Positive Parenting (15)
• Positive Psychology (34)
• Positive Workplace (37)
• Productivity (17)
• Relationships (43)
• Resilience & Coping (37)
• Self Awareness (21)
• Self Esteem (38)
• Strengths & Virtues (32)
• Stress & Burnout Prevention (34)
• Theory & Books (46)
• Therapy Exercises (37)
• Types of Therapy (64)

Download 3 Free Emotional Intelligence Tools Pack (PDF)

3 Emotional Intelligence Exercises (PDF)

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

What Is a Mindset and Why It Matters

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, is an award-winning physician-scientist and clinical development specialist.

• Definition and Types

Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets

• Your Mindset (Quiz)
• Change Your Mindset

What Is a Mindset?

Your mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. It means that what you believe about yourself impacts your success or failure .

According to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, your beliefs play a pivotal role in what you want and whether you achieve it. Dweck has found that it is your mindset that plays a significant role in determining achievement and success.

Mindsets can influence how people behave in a wide range of situations in life. For example, as people encounter different situations, their mind triggers a specific mindset that then directly impacts their behavior in that situation.

According to Dweck, there are two basic mindsets: fixed and growth. If you have a fixed mindset, you believe your abilities are fixed traits and therefore can't be changed. You may also believe that your talent and intelligence alone lead to success, and effort is not required.

On the flip side, if you have a growth mindset , you believe that your talents and abilities can be developed over time through effort and persistence. People with this mindset don't necessarily believe that everyone can become Einstein or Mozart just because they try. They do, however, believe that everyone can get smarter or more talented if they work at it.

Here are some fixed vs. growth mindset examples.

Press Play for Advice On Growth

Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares how to build a growth mindset. Click below to listen now.

Subscribe Now : Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts

How Mindset Forms

So how is your mindset created in the first place? Dweck's research reveals two primary sources: praising and labeling, both of which occur in early childhood.

The Impact of Praise

In a landmark series of experiments, Dweck and her colleagues found that kids behaved very differently depending on the type of praise they received. They found that personal praise, or praising a child’s talents or labeling them as “smart," promotes a fixed mindset. It sends a message to a child that they either have an ability or they don't, and that there is nothing they can do to change that fact.  

Process praise, on the other hand, emphasizes the effort a person puts in to accomplish a task. It implies their success is due to the effort and the strategy they used, both of which they can control and improve over time. 

Here’s an example of how they’re different. If your child gets a good grade on a math test, personal praise might be, “See, you are good at math. You got an A on your test.” Process praise, on the other hand, might sound like this: “I’m impressed by how hard you studied for your math test. You read the material over several times, asked your teacher to help you figure out the tricky problems, and tested yourself on it. That really worked!”

Adults can take steps to ensure that their children develop growth mindsets by praising efforts not results. By focusing on the process rather than the outcome, adults can help kids understand that their efforts, hard work, and dedication can lead to change, learning, and growth both now and in the future.

The Impact of Labels

Labeling, which involves assigning people characteristics based on stereotypes or associations with different groups, can also lead to the development of fixed or growth mindsets. A person who holds a stereotype that girls are bad at math or that boys are bad at reading may form a fixed mindset about their own abilities in those specific domains.

For example, researchers have found that just having students check boxes about sex and race was enough to invoke internalized stereotypes that affected test performance.

The Impact of Mindset

Your mindset plays a critical role in how you cope with life's challenges . When a child has a growth mindset, they tend to have a hunger for learning and a desire to work hard and discover new things. This often translates into academic achievement.

As adults, these same people are more likely to persevere in the face of setbacks. Instead of throwing in the towel, adults with a growth mindset view it as an opportunity to learn and grow. On the other hand, those with fixed mindsets are more likely to give up in the face of challenging circumstances.

In her book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success," Dweck writes that those with fixed mindsets are constantly seeking the validation to prove their worth not just to others, but also to themselves.

Carol Dweck

"I've seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?

What Is My Mindset?

Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? To find out, start by reading the following statements and decide which ones you agree with most:

• You're born with a certain amount of intelligence and it isn't something that can be changed.
• No matter who you are, there isn't much you can do to improve your basic abilities and personality.
• People are capable of changing who they are.
• You can learn new things and improve your intelligence.
• People either have particular talents, or they don't. You can't just acquire talent for things like music, writing, art, or athletics.
• Studying, working hard, and practicing new skills are all ways to develop new talents and abilities.

If you tend to agree most with statements 1, 2, and 5, then you probably have a more fixed mindset. If you agree most with statements 3, and 4, 6, however, then you probably tend to have a growth mindset.

How to Unfix a Fixed Mindset

While people with a fixed mindset might not agree, Dweck suggests that people are capable of changing their mindsets. Here's how.

• Focus on the journey . An important factor when building a growth mindset is seeing the value in your journey. When you're fixated on the end result, you miss out on all the things you could be learning along the way.
• Incorporate "yet." If you're struggling with a task, remind yourself that you just haven’t mastered it “yet.” Integrating this word into your vocabulary signals that despite any struggles, you can overcome anything. 
• Pay attention to your words and thoughts . Replace negative thoughts with more positive ones to build a growth mindset.
• Take on challenges . Making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn. So, instead of shying away from challenges, embrace them.

O'Keefe PA, Dweck CS, Walton GM. Implicit theories of interest: Finding your passion or developing it? Psychol Sci . 2018;29(10):1653-1664. doi:10.1177/0956797618780643

Gunderson EA, Gripshover SJ, Romero C, Dweck CS, Goldin-Meadow S, Levine SC. Parent praise to 1- to 3-year-olds predicts children’s motivational frameworks 5 years later . Child Dev . 2013;84(5):1526-1541. doi:10.1111/cdev.12064

Steele CM, Aronson J. Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans . J Pers Soc Psychol . 1995;69(5):797-811. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.69.5.797

Dweck CS. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success . Updated Edition. Ballantine Books; 2007.

Moser JS, Schroder HS, Heeter C, Moran TP, Lee Y-H. Mind your errors: Evidence for a neural mechanism linking growth mind-set to adaptive posterror adjustments . Psychol Sci . 2011;22(12):1484-1489. doi:10.1177/0956797611419520

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

15 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Attitude – Elevate Your Thinking

• Stefan Mihajlovic
• January 12, 2024

1. Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is the cornerstone of a positive mindset. By appreciating what you have, you can shift your focus from what’s missing in your life to what’s abundant.

• Start by recognizing the good in your life:  Take a few minutes each day to write down what you are thankful for. It could be as simple as a warm meal or a sunny day.
• Try to see challenges as opportunities for growth: Instead of complaining about the traffic, appreciate the extra time you get to listen to an audiobook.
• Express gratitude to others: Whether it’s a quick thank you to a colleague or a heartfelt note to a loved one, acknowledging the kindness of others can uplift both you and the recipient.

2. Cultivate a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset, a concept popularized by psychologist Carol Dweck , can fundamentally change how you approach challenges and setbacks.

• Believe in your ability to learn and grow: Instead of saying, “I’m not good at this,” say, “I’m not good at this yet.”
• Treat mistakes as learning opportunities: Remember, it’s okay not to be perfect. What’s more important is to keep improving.
• Celebrate progress, not just the outcome: Did you spend an extra hour at the gym this week? That’s a win worth celebrating!

3. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness can help you stay rooted in the present moment and reduce anxiety about the past or future.

• Engage in regular meditation: Even a few minutes a day can make a difference.
• Do one thing at a time. If you’re eating, just eat. If you’re reading, just read. Fully immerse yourself in the experience.
• Practice mindful breathing throughout the day: Breathing can help you reset your mind and find calmness.

4. Foster Positive Relationships

Surrounding yourself with positive influences can have a dramatic impact on your mindset and attitude.

• Seek out people who inspire you and make you feel good about yourself.
• Distance yourself from negativity: It’s not always easy, but it’s essential for your mental well-being.
• Nurture your relationships: Invest time and energy in building strong bonds with your loved ones.

Dreaming about sex can have a deeper spiritual meaning behind it, whether it means that your relationship with your significant other will be more cherished, or there is some new journey ahead of you, it will be a positive week for you.

5. Engage in Regular Physical Activity

Physical activity is not only good for your body but also for your mind.

• Find a form of exercise you enjoy: It could be yoga, dancing, hiking, or any other activity that gets you moving.
• Aim for consistency over intensity: Even a short walk every day is better than an intense workout once a month.
• Listen to your body: Push yourself, but also make sure to rest and recover.

6. Adopt a Balanced Diet

What you eat affects how you feel. By nourishing your body with healthy food , you can enhance your mood and energy levels.

• Prioritize whole foods. Include plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains in your diet.
• Limit processed foods: They are often high in sugar and unhealthy fats that can hinder your mental and physical health. Enjoy your meals. Savor each bite and appreciate the nourishment it provides. This can help you develop a positive relationship with food.

7. Practice Self-Care

Self-care is about taking care of your physical, emotional, mental health and even physical. It’s about treating yourself with kindness and compassion.

Related: Execesive lemon water intake on a daily basis can be bad for your body and health!

• Establish a routine that includes activities you love. It could be reading, gardening, painting, or anything else that brings you joy.
• Prioritize rest and relaxation. Make sure to get enough sleep and take breaks when you need them.
• Learn to say no: It’s important to set boundaries to prevent burnout.

8. Set Goals and Visualize Success

Setting goals can provide a sense of direction and purpose. Visualizing success can boost your motivation and confidence.

• Set SMART (Specific: Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. This can help you stay focused and motivated.
• Visualize your success: Imagine achieving your goals in as much detail as possible. Feel the excitement and pride.
• Celebrate small victories. Every step towards your goal is an achievement worth celebrating.

Every road has its ups and downs, never give up after falling or dreaming about some bad luck like shattering glass , keep being persistent and it will pay off.

9. Embrace Change

Change is a part of life. By embracing it, you can adapt more easily and turn challenges into opportunities.

• See change as an opportunity for growth: It might be uncomfortable, but it often leads to personal and professional development.
• Be flexible. Adapt to new situations and be open to new ideas.
• Learn from change: Every change brings lessons that can help you grow and evolve.

10. Develop Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is about understanding and managing your emotions. It can improve your relationships and overall well-being.

• Practice self-awareness: Recognize your emotions and understand their impact on your thoughts and behaviors.
• Manage your emotions effectively: It’s okay to feel, but don’t let your emotions control your actions.
• Empathize with others. Understanding the emotions of others can improve your relationships and social interactions.

Early childhood trauma can make it more difficult for you to develop emotional intelligence, but there is always time for recovery.

11. Nurture Your Curiosity

Curiosity can lead to learning and growth. It can help you stay engaged and motivated.

• Ask questions: Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something.
• Seek new experiences: They can broaden your perspective and enhance your understanding of the world.
• Stay open-minded: Be receptive to new ideas and viewpoints.

Related: Spruce up your everyday conversations with these 15 cool ways to respond when someone asks, “ How was your day? ”

12. Seek Continuous Learning

The pursuit of knowledge can enrich your life and help you grow.

• Make learning a lifelong habit: Whether it’s through books, online courses, or workshops, there are countless opportunities to learn.
• Learn from everyone: Each person you meet can teach you something.
• Embrace the unknown: It’s an invitation to learn and explore.

13. Practice Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. It can help you cope with life’s ups and downs.

• Foster a positive outlook: Believe in your ability to overcome challenges.
• Build strong relationships: They can provide support during difficult times.
• Develop coping strategies: They can include activities like journaling, meditation , or talking to a friend.

14. Cultivate Self-Confidence

Self-confidence can empower you to pursue your dreams and overcome obstacles.

• Celebrate your strengths: Acknowledge what you are good at and take pride in it.
• Learn from your mistakes: They are stepping stones to success, not evidence of failure.
• Practice self-compassion: Be gentle with yourself. Remember, no one is perfect.

15. Develop a Positive Self-Talk

The way you talk to yourself can influence your mindset and attitude.

• Replace negative self-talk with positive affirmations: Instead of “I can’t do it,” say “I can do it.”
• Practice self-compassion: Remind yourself that it’s okay to make mistakes and that you are doing your best
• Celebrate your achievements: Regularly remind yourself of your progress and accomplishments.

Final Words

Changing your mindset and attitude isn’t an overnight process. It requires consistent effort and practice. However, with these 15 strategies, you can embark on a journey of personal growth and transformation that can lead to a more fulfilling and joyous life.

Remember, the power to change lies within you. You have what it takes to create a life that you love.

Related Posts:

• Mastering the Art of Boring Self-Care: Elevate Your…
• 10 Signs Someone is Constantly Thinking About You:…
• Dream About Bats Meaning: Fear, Change, Power & More
• Dreaming of a Funeral Meanings & Interpretations - A…
• 7 Ways Video Self-Modeling Can Help Your ASD Child
• 6 Ways to Empty Your Mind if You Are Stressed Out:…
• Attitude , Change , Emotions , Intelligence , Methods , Mindset , Practices

Most Recent

Can Anxiety Have Fatal Consequences? An In-Depth Look

How Does Spravato Therapy Affect the Brain?

Spirit Animals and Birthdays: Find Out Which One Is Yours

The Biblical Meaning of a Bird Pooping on You

Someone Kissed Me in My Dream and It Felt Real – Meaning

Symbolism of Flickering Lights: Meaning and Interpretation

Related posts.

© 2024 mentalhealthcenter.org

Contact us : [email protected], © mentalhealthcenter.org is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk & amazon.ca. amazon, the amazon logo, amazonsupply, and the amazonsupply logo are trademarks of amazon.com, inc. or its affiliates..

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Psychological Health
• Psychological Resilience

How to Embrace a More Positive and Productive Mindset

Last Updated: April 10, 2024 Fact Checked

Ways to Change Your Mindset

What is a mindset, can you change your mindset, benefits of a positive mindset, expert interview, expert q&a.

This article was reviewed by Sydney Axelrod and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Sydney Axelrod is a certified life coach and the owner of Sydney Axelrod LLC, a life coaching business focused on professional and personal development. Through one-on-one coaching, digital courses, and group workshops, Sydney works with clients to discover their purpose, navigate life transitions, and set and accomplish goals. Sydney has over 1,000 hours of relevant coaching certifications and holds a BBA in Marketing and Finance from Emory University. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,917 times.

Is success really all in your head? Your mind is a powerful thing and changing your mindset can change your life. But how do you get started? If you want to change your mindset but aren't sure how to accomplish that, you've come to the right place. We spoke with certified life coach Sydney Axelrod and love and transformation coach Jennifer Butler to learn the best tips on how to change your mindset and impact your life in a positive way.

Cultivating a Growth Mindset

• Make a list of things you're thankful for every day. Use meditation to stay present in the moment and acknowledge and appreciate those things.
• Write in a journal as a way to reflect on your progress. Celebrate your strengths along with the victories that come your way.
• Act with intention in ways that are aligned with your core values. Focus on the journey, not the destination—improvement, not perfection.

• Remember that even though you might have little control over something that's happened in your life, you do have control over how you interpret and respond to that thing.
• For example, if you're having to deal with a difficult or toxic person, you might think about how grateful you are to have people in your life who are comforting and supportive.

• For example, if you struggle with public speaking, you might create an affirmation like "I am intelligent and have important things to say." Watch out that you're not overly positive though—you have to believe your affirmation for it to work.
• Certified life coach Sydney Axelrod recommends positive affirmations as "another avenue of strengthening a new belief or a new perspective that's really supportive for you... it's just a practice of believing something that's more supportive about yourself."
• Love and transformation coach Jennifer Butler adds, "I always have an active and alive intention that I am using to help me stay focused on where I am going next. This intention helps me make choices and guides me to know what I need to learn and where I need to grow in my daily life as this intention becomes realized in my life."

• Start this practice by setting aside 5 to 10 minutes a day to just write about something that's on your mind. After you've written your journal entry, you might take another 5 to 10 minutes to reflect on what you've written.

• Doing breathing exercises is a great way to pull yourself back into the present when you find yourself slipping out of mindfulness.
• You might also try yoga as a way to not only become more mindful but also become more in touch with your body.

• Celebrating your strengths doesn't mean that you don't acknowledge your weaknesses. It just means that you see those weaknesses as opportunities for improvement rather than reasons you're not good enough.

• Even if you live in an urban area, you can still take advantage of parks and other open green spaces to commune with nature.
• You can also bring nature inside! For example, you might grow plants indoors or adopt an indoor pet.

• If you feel like this is going to be tough for you, start with small, relatively inconsequential things. For example, if a friend of yours likes a band that you're not too keen on, you might ask them what they enjoy most about that band or how the music makes them feel.

• Love and transformation coach Jennifer Butler notes that "we must love ourselves fiercely as we grow."
• Certified life coach Sydney Axelrod recommends "having a morning routine... something that's consistent every single day when you wake up" to help you "feel ready for the day."

• You can make an effort to be a positive force in others' lives as well. Start by offering genuine compliments when someone says or does something that impresses or inspires you.
• Let people know when you're grateful for their presence or when you learn something from them.

• There are also ways that you can incorporate activity into your normal routine, such as parking further away from your destination so you can get some steps in, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
• If you've been living a more sedentary lifestyle, start small—a little activity can pay off in a big way! For example, if you don't think you can walk 5 flights of stairs to your office, you could start by walking up 2 flights and then taking the elevator the rest of the way.

• Certified life coach Sydney Axelrod cautions that "you can't pour from an empty cup. So what are you doing to actually refill your cup? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you taking a break? Are you finding ways to unwind?"
• Axelrod further notes that "the idea of taking care of yourself so that you feel energized and focused and clear really makes a huge impact because if you try and take on too much and do too much all the time, you're just going to burn yourself out and there are going to be huge diminishing returns."

• Certified life coach Sydney Axelrod emphasizes that "it's really important to set goals but also get clear on what's your 'why' behind the goal." She notes that if you "kind of get clear on what the feeling is that you're cultivating... [you can] work on starting to embody some of those feelings now."
• Axelrod further advises that "you don't have to change everything for everything to change." She recommends "setting really small goals that [you] meet and can actually exceed, which is way more motivating, builds more confidence, and is much more sustainable in the long term."

• Love and transformation coach Jennifer Butler advises that you tell yourself to "let go of the outcome and fall in love with the process, which means, first and foremost, that I love who I am, where I've been, and the bumpy road I may be taking to get where I'm going."

• Learning is perhaps the quickest way to change your mindset. The more you learn and are open to learning, the more your mind and your skill set will grow.

• Learn to anticipate when you're close to getting overwhelmed so that you can take steps to pull back and better manage your emotions.
• Practice mindfulness to reconnect with your emotions and be more accepting and at peace with them.

• Certified life coach Sydney Axelrod notes that "no massive shifts or changes or growth or successes can really happen in your comfort zone," which means "leaning into that, leaning into your support system, leaning into your inner advocate and those more affirming parts of yourself, and just practicing getting comfortable being uncomfortable."
• Love and transformation coach Jennifer Butler cautions against "making decisions from a place of fear instead of taking the time to connect to your own inner guidance and then deciding from there."

• For example, suppose you just lost your job. If you had a negative mindset, you might focus on all the bad things that are likely to happen now that you don't have any income.
• If you had a positive mindset, on the other hand, you might look at your new-found joblessness as an opportunity to find work that better suits you and reflects your personal values.
• Keep in mind that thinking positively doesn't mean that you never feel any negative emotions, such as sadness or anger. It just means that when these emotions do rise up, you know how to manage them healthfully and avoid getting pulled down by them. [18] X Research source

• It might sound cheesy, but good things tend to happen to you more often when you expect good things to happen. With a positive mindset, your overall physical and mental health actually improve.

• Studies have shown that people with a positive mindset have better cardiovascular health than people with a negative mindset.

• Stress may also have less of a damaging effect on your body. With a positive mindset, you'll likely find that you don't get sick or rundown as often as a result of dealing with a stressful situation.

• A positive mindset also gives you more flexibility when you anticipate that something bad might happen. You can more easily figure out what you need to do to mitigate the damage (or avoid it entirely) so challenges don't impact you as much as they would if you had a more negative mindset.

• Self-affirmations and positive thinking can also help motivate you to make positive changes in your life, which definitely improves your health as well. For example, if you want to exercise more, you might use affirmations to tell yourself that you are capable of becoming fit and strong.

You Might Also Like

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about mindfulness, check out our in-depth interview with Samantha Fox, MS, LMFT .

• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/202105/9-ways-cultivate-positive-mindset
• ↑ https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950
• ↑ https://www.success.com/how-i-use-my-journal-to-change-my-mindset/
• ↑ https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/nature-and-mental-health/how-nature-benefits-mental-health/
• ↑ https://news.stanford.edu/report/2021/09/15/mindsets-clearing-lens-life/
• ↑ https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/relaxation/relaxation-tips/
• ↑ https://itstimetexas.org/how-to-change-your-mindset-to-improve-your-health/
• ↑ https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/emotional-intelligence-eq.htm
• ↑ https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2015/08/positive-emotions-your-health

About This Article

• Send fan mail to authors

Did this article help you?

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Get all the best how-tos!

Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Helpful Free Resources
• Happiness & Fun
• Healthy Habits
• Love & Relationships
• Mental Health
• Mindfulness & Peace
• Purpose & Passion
• Fun & Inspiring
• Submit a Post
• Books & Things
• Tiny Buddha’s Breaking Barriers to Self-Care

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” ~Buddha

I remember how I used to think; it was always, “People suck” and “I hate (fill in the blank).” I was constantly focusing on the bad side of humanity, so that was all I could see. It cast a shadow, which took the joy out of life.

It should have been obvious that I was creating my own misery, but I wasn’t able to see how my own thoughts affected my mood.

I had to change my entire outlook by training my mind to see things in a new light. It would have been easy to stay on the same path. After all, I had chronic fatigue, no money, and nothing to look forward to because I didn’t have a compelling vision of the future. I felt the present situation was permanent.

Eventually, I’d had enough and started thinking about what I could do to change my situation .

Change was slow, but a new path that wasn’t clear to me before started to appear as I worked on my mindset. As things progressed, my goals and dreams became bigger and more ambitious. I started imagining being fit, healthy, running my own business, and traveling the world.

These are some of the things I did to change my mindset and my life.

1. Seek positive friends.

A negative social circle will act as an echo chamber for bad ideas. A positive social circle will also act as an echo chamber, but one that supports your dreams, so choose your friends carefully.

Find people who reflect the values you want to adopt. Join groups online and go to networking or social events focused on personal growth. As your own mind starts to change, it’ll become easier to connect with more positive people.

I’m not suggesting that you ditch friends who are going through a hard time and need your support, but rather that you evaluate whether some of your relationships are persistently draining and unhealthy.

I left my old social circle because it was an echo chamber for negativity. Instead of focusing on a great future, everyone was talking about the things they didn’t like about life.

It was hard to make new friends at first. The problem was that I couldn’t offer any value to people with much more positive mindsets—the kind of people who I wanted to emulate.

That changed, but it took time. Once you find your “tribe,” progress will come much more quickly because of your new influences.

2. Challenge your thoughts.

When old thinking comes up, as it will, it’s not enough to try and ignore it. We need to challenge our beliefs .

Is everything too expensive, or is it just that I can’t afford it? Do “people suck,” or am I just looking for things to criticize?

Weigh your thoughts against the evidence. If they crumble under scrutiny, then explore why you believe them in the first place. By challenging your thoughts, your mindset will begin to evolve.

3. Consume positive media.

Consuming positive media daily will alter your perspective through osmosis. “Positive media” is anything that emphasizes the good in life, or how to improve our living standards and the living standards of others.

We all know that the best way to learn a new language is through immersion. If you hear this new language every day, it starts to stick and become easier to remember. Soon, you’ll not only understand that language but you’ll speak it too.

New mindsets are exactly the same; if you immerse yourself in personal growth content every day, it will change the language of your mind. That language is your self-dialogue, the way you speak to yourself at every moment, and it’s habitual.

Learn a positive self-dialogue and you’ll see the world in a different way.

4. Volunteer.

Volunteering to help other people can make a huge impact on how you feel about yourself and your view of the world.

By focusing on how you can help someone else, you’ll draw your attention away from your own woes. It becomes easy to develop a positive mindset when you’re looking for new ways to make someone else’s situation better.

You can’t focus on the bad while focusing on the good.

5. Abstain from all “bad news.”

Wars, murders, and politics all add baggage to our thoughts.

It makes sense that most of the mainstream media focuses on bad news, though, because tragedy sells. It doesn’t make sense for us to sit around stewing over this bad news. It’s certainly not going to allow for an optimal mindset, one that’s focused on the best that life has to offer.

By tuning into the news about a plane crash thousands of miles away, we’re putting our mental energy into something that won’t help. We can’t change the bad things happening at any given moment, but if we put our attention into things we can change, our lives will improve.

6. Write out your action plan.

This is about looking at the possibilities and then doing something to make it happen. Forward thinking will move your focus away from where you don’t want to be to where could be.

But it’s not enough to simply write it out, because we only grow when we take action. It’s just a thought until we do something to make it happen.

Don’t know what the right steps are? Don’t worry, just identify the first thing you could do to start on the path, then do it. Even if it’s a mistake, you’ll still make progress, and that will keep you focused on creating positive change. Never allow paralysis by analysis. You have the vision; go with it.

7. Adopt a healthy lifestyle.

A healthy body will support a healthy mind. During the most difficult time of my personal struggles, bad health was a major obstacle. Chronic fatigue could wipe me out for whole days.

Nonetheless, getting into action, changing my diet, and working out set the foundation for all other changes to take place. Slowly, my energy levels started to rise till the point that my health no longer was an issue.

Look at how you sleep , what you eat, and your activity levels to identify anything that could be sapping your energy. Sometimes laziness is just fatigue.

8. Send thank you notes.

The simple gesture of sending a thank you note can be empowering. Not only does it feel good, a thank you note creates goodwill in other people.

Thank you notes will also strengthen your relationships and connections, because people like to feel appreciated .

It doesn’t really matter what they did; any small gesture you appreciated, from good service to a favor, is a candidate. Send a quick email or a card in the mail to let them know you appreciated it.

9. Create a morning mindset routine.

A great way to start the day is by making a mental list of each thing we’re looking forward to; it creates a feeling of anticipation and excitement that creates momentum for the entire day.

Every morning I play personal growth videos or audio books. By focusing on the positive messages coming from this content at the beginning of the day, it’s much easier to be happy and focused. My work gets done more quickly, and it doesn’t seem so hard either.

10. Write a wins checklist.

So you started on good note; now finish on a great note by making a mental list of the day’s wins. It doesn’t have to be monumental; the point of the exercise is just to keep your focus on the best your day’s experience.

Keeping track of losses can help you improve, but dwelling on them will kill your motivation and momentum. Finish strong and it will be much easier to wake up feeling happy.

Improving your life starts with improving your mindset. Like me, you may find that these steps are a great start.

About Eddy Baller

Eddy Baller is  dating coach  &  confidence coach  who who helps people grow into their best selves and  overcome shyness . Contact Eddy with questions or thoughts at  [email protected] .

Did you enjoy this post? Please share the wisdom :)

Related posts:

Free Download: Buddha Desktop Wallpaper

Recent Forum Topics

• My GF keeps talking about her past sex life and I don’t know why it bothers me?
• “Frenemies” and the desire for true friendship
• My one shame, letting go of snooping
• Lonely Confused Depressed and reaching the end of my rope
• Not doing well
• What do I do now?
• I’m not sure if I made the right choice
• My moms cancer diagnosis
• self anger and regret

Fun & Inspiring

Not Welcome

GET MORE FUN & INSPIRING IMAGES & VIDEOS .

Latest Posts

If You Haven’t Found Your Purpose: How to Feel Good Anyway

How to Start Saying No When You’re Afraid of Disapproval

How I Found the Good Within the Difficult

How to Wake Up from the Painful Trance of Unworthiness

4 Tips for Failing Better in Your Spiritual Practice

This site is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal, or other professional advice. The content on Tiny Buddha is designed to support, not replace, medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you believe you may have a condition.

Tiny Buddha, LLC may earn affiliate income from qualifying purchases, including from the Amazon Associate Program.

Before using the site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .

Click to opt-out of Google Analytics tracking.

Who Runs Tiny Buddha?

Get More Tiny Buddha

•   Twitter
•   Facebook
•   Instagram
•   Youtube
•   RSS Feed

Credits & Copyright

• Back to Top

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

To Be a Great Leader, You Need the Right Mindset

• Ryan Gottfredson
• Chris Reina

It’s often overlooked by leadership development programs.

If organizations want their investment in leadership development to more fully pay off, it is essential that they prioritize mindset development — specifically by targeting growth, learning, deliberative, and promotion leader mindsets. As mindsets shift and develop, leaders’ thinking, learning, and behaviors will naturally improve because they are seeing an interpreting their situations more effectively. The consequence of improving their thinking, learning, and behavior will be enhanced effectiveness and success.

Organizations worldwide spend roughly $356 billion on leadership development efforts. Yet, the BrandonHall Group, a human capital research and analyst firm that  surveyed 329 organizations in 2013 , found that 75% of the organizations rated their leadership development programs as not very effective. Why aren’t companies getting more bang for their leadership development buck?  Our latest research  suggests it’s likely because most leadership development efforts overlook a specific attribute that is foundational to how leaders think, learn, and behave: their mindsets.

• RG Ryan Gottfredson a leadership and management professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton.
• CR Chris Reina is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Partner Center

Get the latest content and program updates from Life Time.

Unsubscribe

Change Your Mindset

You’re up for a job you really want. You give your absolute best effort during the interview — but you don’t get it. You feel like a failure. No , you think, you are a failure .

But what if you reflected on the experience instead of sinking into self-doubt? What would you do differently next time? Where do you know you performed well? You recognize that not getting hired doesn’t make you a failure — after all, you made it to the final round of interviews. Buoyed by these insights, you find yourself confidently preparing for your next interview, armed with what you learned this time around.

The only real difference between these two scenarios is mindset.

Mindset influences everything: self-esteem , health, relationships, and careers. It’s often just as powerful as circumstances in determining the course of your life. Unlike random situations, however, mindset is something you can learn to control.

The three theories that follow can help radically reprogram your reactions to common experiences. While they may seem counterintuitive (Don’t try to overhaul your life? Embrace failure ? Love a stranger?), these tweaks to your usual ways of thinking can help you become wiser, more competent, and more fulfilled.

What’s more, shifting your perspective is not all that difficult. And it can improve your life in profound ways, starting now.

Climb Mountains One Step at a Time

Consider the New Year’s resolution. You’ve probably never resolved to wake up five minutes earlier each day, because that would appear to lack ambition. A real resolution, many of us believe, means becoming a lark who gets up at 5 a.m., even if you’ve always been a night owl. It means quitting all sugar, including fruit, instead of simply cutting out soda. We often think there’s no point in change unless we’re going to change big.

But aiming for radical change practically guarantees our efforts will fall flat.

“ Change doesn’t happen until people alter their behavior , and they don’t alter their behavior unless they start with the small,” explains Harvard philosophy professor Michael Puett, PhD, in his book The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life , which he cowrote with journalist Christine Gross-Loh.

Puett’s students often tell him they’ve changed their lives as a result of taking his course, which explores key principles of the Chinese philosophers Confucius, Mencius, and others. But rather than focusing on abstract philosophical queries, like What is the meaning of life? or Do we have free will? , the class ponders questions like this one, from Confucius: How are you living your life on a daily basis?

His students’ “ changed lives ” are less dramatic, but more sustainable than you might think, says Puett. “Their changes are not of the ‘big’ sort — like suddenly deciding to run off and do something radically different,” he says. “Something like that would probably not actually affect how they live their everyday lives. After the so-called big change, they would probably just revert to their usual ruts.”

Instead, a student who seldom left her desk adjusts her daily routine by taking a walk each morning and notices how this improves her depression symptoms. Another begins to consciously thank people during routine interactions and finds herself breaking the bad habits she has fallen into in her relationships with others. Or a talented basketball player takes up yoga to improve his game and discovers that it shifts his patterns on the basketball court and in other areas of his life, too.

“It’s these seemingly small changes in their daily lives that add up to significant changes down the road,” Puett explains.

Similarly, if we want to make changes in specific relationships , it helps to start small. For example, instead of diving in to a big heart-to-heart with a difficult coworker and expecting this to resolve issues (and giving up on the situation if it doesn’t), just start saying hello to him in the morning. Or offer to get him a cup of coffee on the next caffeine run. These small acts of kindness ease tension and build trust — so if and when you do have that heart-to-heart, it’s much more likely to create positive change.

Little efforts like this are so important because we can control them. The world is changing constantly. Our best plans are often laid to waste simply because circumstances shift: We get jobs. We lose them. We get sick. We get well. We don’t strictly control these events, but we can influence how we experience them by attending to the details that move us forward.

“Just as the world is not stable, [our] interactions are not fixed,” Puett writes.

We don’t need to move mountains to change our lives or heal our relationships . We just need to climb them, one step at a time.

Try It at Home: Start Small

• Want to learn to cook? Start by focusing on three basic foods. If you can develop enough confidence to make eggs, a soup, and a salad, other things will feel less intimidating.
• Want to start exercising? Begin with a short walk each morning . You’ll get used to having a physical routine, which makes it more likely you’ll stay committed when you buy a gym membership.
• Want to fix a problem with your spouse? Before you sit down for that big heart-to-heart, restore your connection and build trust with some kind gestures . You’ll have fewer walls to break down when you do talk.

Failure Is an Option

“I’m just not good at languages ,”  the young woman says, blushing, as feelings of ineptitude wash over her. “I’m hopeless.”

“There’s no such thing,” her Italian teacher encourages. “Try again.”

Nearby, another student raises his hand. When the teacher nods, he launches into his own shaky Italian. Truthfully, the young woman realizes, it doesn’t sound much better than hers. Yet, rather than blush and stammer, he smiles throughout, then listens without any trace of embarrassment as the teacher makes corrections.

The first student felt like a failure, while the other enjoyed the challenge and didn’t take his mistakes personally — or even think of them as mistakes. He saw them as learning opportunities. Again, the only difference is mindset.

A similar scenario inspired Carol Dweck, PhD, a psychology professor at Stanford University, to investigate the virtues of failure. Conducting a test with a group of children, she noticed that some actually seemed thrilled by their mistakes. “I love a challenge!” one boy said. Another, Dweck notes in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , was toiling away on some puzzles when he “looked up with a pleased expression and said with authority, ‘You know, I was hoping this would be informative!’”

At first, Dweck wondered what was wrong with them; she’d always thought of failure as something you just coped with. Then she became intrigued, which led her to explore the theory of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets.

Those with fixed mindsets believe their abilities are static traits — they have a certain capacity for something and that’s that. They’re good at languages, or they’re not. They’re great athletes, or they’re not. A fixed mindset makes it difficult to leave our comfort zones or take risks; we’re afraid setbacks will reflect poorly on us. In this state of mind, we take failures personally.

By contrast, people with a growth mindset perceive talents and abilities as something they can develop over time, through effort and instruction. They actively seek challenges, learn from mistakes, and persevere. They ask for help. They don’t worry about appearing smart or talented, because they’re more interested in learning and developing new skills.

These mindsets don’t just affect us . They can have a profound influence on those around us — a fact that’s especially relevant for managers, mentors, and teachers. A 2012 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that a “fixed theory of math intelligence” can lead to a teacher diagnosing a student from just one test score. A low math-ability assessment often means teachers will offer less encouragement and assign less homework to the student, locking him or her into a cycle of low achievement.

Fortunately, and not surprisingly, a growth mindset is something we can develop.

Shifting toward a growth mindset begins with changing how we speak to ourselves . “If you hear that fixed-mindset voice in your head telling you not to take a risk, to pull out when you make a mistake — start noticing that,” Dweck advises.

“And then tell yourself, It’s just the fixed-mindset voice in your head . And start answering back with a growth-mindset voice: You won’t learn if you don’t take the risk, and mistakes are OK .”

Try It at Home: Stretch Yourself

• The next time you miss the mark (the presentation bombs, the cake burns, you lose the game), instead of using all your mental energy to berate yourself, examine what happened. Try to identify three things you can do differently in the future.
• Learn a completely new skill , one that you’re not sure you can master. Focus on the learning process rather than the outcome. Even if you can’t excel at this skill, what else can you gain from the experience?
• Whenever you’re afraid to ask for help because you feel like you should know something already, ask anyway.

Love Is Everywhere

The search for true love can, for some, be a never-ending quest. But what if someone told you that you’ve already found it — and it’s available all the time? With anyone you happen to encounter?

“Love is not a category of relationships. Nor is it something ‘out there’ that you can fall into, or — years later — out of,” explains Barbara Fredrickson, PhD, in her book Love 2.0. “Love blossoms virtually anytime two or more people — even strangers — connect over a shared positive emotion.”

Fredrickson, who teaches in the psychology department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, calls these moments of connection “positivity resonance.” This expansive, science-based approach to love offers us many chances to experience it in the course of a single day. While it’s not easy to set aside the Western idea that true love must be exclusive, lasting, and intimate, we have a lot to gain by letting it go.

That 90-second conversation you had with the stranger this morning while walking your dog? If there was eye contact, a sense of connection, and mutual respect — that’s love. Whenever we exchange smiles or friendly gestures with strangers, or take a little extra time to have warm exchanges with people we see every day, those “micro-moments of positivity” change us at the biological level.

Princeton University neuroscientist Uri Hasson, PhD, a pioneer in neural mirroring (also known as “brain coupling”), examined brain scans of subjects in conversation. What he found was surprising, Fredrickson writes.

“Far from being isolated to one or two brain areas, really clicking with someone else appears to be a whole brain dance in a fully mirrored room.” In good communication, she continues, “two individuals come to feel a single, shared emotion . . . distributed across their two brains.”

The vagus nerve is also involved in forging personal connections. It stimulates the facial muscles necessary for making eye contact and synchronizing our expressions with others; it even helps the tiny muscles in the inner ear better track another voice amid background noise. We appear to be programmed to harmonize with fellow humans.

Micro-moments of positivity resonance also improve our health, she notes. “People who experience more caring connections with others have fewer colds and lower blood pressure, and they less often succumb to heart disease and stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease , and some cancers.”

Much of Fredrickson’s positivity research grew out of her study of loving-kindness meditation. (For more on this practice, see bit.ly/2c4rv5E .) It involves focusing on feelings of love, compassion, and goodwill toward yourself and others. It “condition[s] your heart to be more open,” she writes.

And when our hearts are open, love happens. All day.

Try It at Home: Find Love

• Make it a habit to look at people’s faces — at the coffee shop, the dog park, the department store. You’ll be more available to exchange a smile or a few friendly words.
• Hold doors open for others when you get the chance.
• Search for micro-moments with your family. Sit on the porch for a few minutes before bed; get up a little earlier so you can have breakfast together; call your sweetheart at lunch. It all adds up.

Thoughts to share?

This Post Has 0 Comments

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ADVERTISEMENT

More Like This

3 Ways to Communicate More Assertively

Learn to say no — plus two more ways to communicate more directly.

NATURAL MENTAL HEALTH: How to Tame Your Monkey Mind

Becoming more mindful of our racing thoughts can help slow them down.

9 Ways to Cultivate Courage

Simple ways to become your bravest self.

How to Change Your Mindset: 12 Powerful Strategies

By Team ABJ

Last Updated: October 24, 2023

Do you ever feel like your thoughts hold you back from reaching your full potential? It’s time for a transformation! In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you on a journey to change your mindset. Discover practical tips and powerful strategies to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth-oriented one. Join us as we explore the path to a more resilient, confident, and successful you. Let’s embark on this empowering journey together!

Understanding “Mindset”

A “mindset” is like a mental attitude or outlook that shapes how you see and respond to the world around you. It’s the collection of beliefs, thoughts, and attitudes you hold about yourself, others, and life in general. Your mindset influences how you approach challenges, opportunities, and setbacks.

There are generally two main types of mindsets:

1. Fixed Mindset: People with a fixed mindset tend to believe that their abilities and intelligence are mostly set in stone. They might avoid challenges because they fear failure, and they often give up easily when faced with difficulties. They see mistakes as a reflection of their limitations.

2. Growth Mindset: On the other hand, those with a growth mindset believe that they can develop their abilities and intelligence through effort and learning. They embrace challenges as opportunities to grow, persist in the face of setbacks, and see mistakes as valuable learning experiences .

Your mindset can significantly impact your achievements, relationships, and overall happiness. The exciting part is that you can change your mindset from fixed to growth with the right strategies and practice. This shift can open up new possibilities and help you reach your full potential.

The Importance of Mindset

The importance of mindset cannot be overstated, as it profoundly influences various aspects of your life, including your personal growth, success , and overall well-being . Here are some key reasons why mindset matters:

1. Determines Your Perspective: Your mindset shapes how you perceive the world and interpret events . It can influence whether you see challenges as opportunities for growth or as insurmountable obstacles.

2. Impacts Your Behavior: Your mindset directly affects your behavior and actions. It can determine whether you take risks, persist through difficulties, or give up when faced with adversity.

3. Affects Goal Achievement: Your mindset plays a significant role in setting and achieving your goals . A growth mindset, for example, encourages you to set ambitious goals and work diligently toward them.

4. Shapes Resilience: A positive mindset, especially a growth mindset, helps you bounce back from setbacks and failures. It allows you to view failures as valuable learning experiences rather than as personal flaws.

5. Influences Relationships: Your mindset can impact how you interact with others . A growth mindset fosters empathy, open-mindedness, and a willingness to learn from others, which can improve your relationships.

6. Boosts Self-Esteem: Cultivating a healthy mindset can enhance your self-esteem and self-worth. When you believe in your ability to learn and improve, you naturally feel more confident.

7. Fosters Creativity and Innovation: A growth mindset encourages you to explore new ideas and take creative risks. This can lead to innovative solutions and fresh perspectives.

8. Enhances Problem-Solving: A positive mindset enables you to approach problems with a can-do attitude, making you more resourceful and effective in finding solutions .

9. Improves Mental Health: Developing a growth mindset can reduce anxiety and stress. It helps you manage challenges by focusing on solutions rather than dwelling on problems.

10. Opens New Opportunities: With the right mindset, you’re more likely to recognize and seize opportunities for personal and professional development.

How to change your mindset?

Here are tips on how to change your mindset. By following these tips, you can systematically work on changing your mindset and cultivating a more positive and growth-oriented perspective in your life.

1. Self-Awareness

Tip: Start by understanding your current mindset

Self-awareness is the foundation of any mindset change. It involves taking a close look at your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. By recognizing your existing mindset, you can pinpoint areas where it may be holding you back. For example, if you often doubt your abilities or avoid challenges, self-awareness can help you identify these tendencies.

• Set aside time for regular self-reflection.
• Journal your thoughts and feelings to identify recurring patterns.
• Seek feedback from trusted friends or mentors about your mindset.

2. Setting Clear Goals

Tip: Define specific, achievable goals

Having clear goals provides you with a roadmap for changing your mindset. When you set well-defined objectives , it becomes easier to see the value of adopting a growth mindset. These goals act as motivators, inspiring you to develop the resilience and determination needed to overcome obstacles on your journey toward achieving them.

• Define specific, measurable, and time-bound goals.
• Break larger goals into smaller, manageable steps.
• Create a visual representation of your goals, such as a vision board.

3. Overcoming Negative Thinking

Tip: Challenge negative thoughts with evidence

Negative thoughts can be a significant barrier to mindset change. When you catch yourself thinking negatively, take a moment to examine the evidence. Are your beliefs based on facts, or are they assumptions? By critically assessing your negative thoughts, you can often uncover their irrationality and gradually replace them with more positive and realistic thinking patterns.

• When a negative thought arises, write it down.
• Challenge the thought by asking, “Is this belief based on evidence?”
• Replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations or constructive alternatives.

4. Embracing Positive Thinking

Tip: Use positive affirmations to rewire your thinking

Positive affirmations are powerful tools for shifting your mindset. These are positive statements that you repeat to yourself regularly. By doing so, you begin to reprogram your subconscious mind , reinforcing the belief that you can achieve your goals. Over time, this positive self-talk can help create a more optimistic and growth-oriented mindset.

• Create a list of positive affirmations related to your goals.
• Repeat these affirmations daily, especially during moments of self-doubt.
• Visualize your success and imagine the positive outcomes you desire.

5. Developing Resilience

Tip: Learn to see setbacks as opportunities

Resilience is a key component of a growth mindset. Instead of viewing setbacks as failures, see them as valuable learning experiences . When you approach challenges with curiosity and the expectation of growth, you’ll develop the resilience needed to persevere through difficulties and emerge stronger on the other side.

• Shift your perspective on setbacks by seeing them as learning opportunities.
• Journal about your experiences with setbacks, focusing on the lessons learned.
• Seek inspiration from stories of resilience and perseverance.

6. Cultivating a Growth Mindset

Tip: Embrace the “Power of Yet”

The phrase “I can’t do this” can become “I can’t do this yet” with a simple addition. This change in language emphasizes the belief in the potential for growth. By acknowledging that you may not have mastered a skill or overcome an obstacle at this moment but can with effort and learning, you foster a more open and growth-oriented mindset.

• Whenever you catch yourself saying, “I can’t,” add “yet” to the statement.
• Encourage others to adopt a growth mindset by using this language.
• Celebrate your progress and achievements along the way.

7. Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Tip: Replace “I can’t” with “I will learn how”

Transforming limiting beliefs into growth-oriented ones is crucial for changing your mindset. When you catch yourself saying, “I can’t do this,” rephrase it as, “I will learn how to do this.” This shift in perspective emphasizes the process of learning and improvement, reinforcing the idea that abilities can be developed over time with dedication and effort.

• Identify specific limiting beliefs that hold you back.
• Challenge these beliefs with evidence of your ability to learn and improve.
• Replace limiting beliefs with positive affirmations that emphasize growth.

8. Mindfulness and Meditation

Tip: Practice mindfulness to stay present

Mindfulness and meditation can be powerful tools for shifting your mindset. These practices help you stay focused on the present moment, allowing you to observe your thoughts without judgment. By practicing mindfulness regularly, you can become more aware of negative thought patterns and actively choose to replace them with more positive and growth-oriented thinking.

• Start with short daily mindfulness sessions.
• Focus on your breath and sensations in the present moment.
• Gradually extend the duration of your mindfulness practice.
• Experiment with different meditation techniques to find what works for you.

9. Building a Support System

Tip: Surround yourself with positive and supportive people

The people you spend time with can significantly impact your mindset. Building a support system of individuals who encourage personal growth and have a growth mindset themselves can be invaluable. They can offer advice, share their experiences, and provide motivation to help you stay committed to your mindset change journey.

• Identify individuals in your life who have a growth mindset.
• Reach out to these people and express your desire for support.
• Engage in discussions about personal growth and share your challenges and successes.

10. Developing a Growth-Oriented Lifestyle

Tip: Cultivate healthy habits for body and mind

A growth-oriented lifestyle involves taking care of your physical and mental well-being. Proper nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate sleep are essential for maintaining a mindset that is open to learning and growth. Physical health supports cognitive functioning, making it easier to stay focused and positive.

• Establish a daily routine that includes time for physical activity and healthy eating.
• Prioritize sleep to ensure proper rest and cognitive functioning.
• Dedicate time to learning new skills or pursuing hobbies that interest you.

11. Tracking Your Progress:

Tip: Keep a mindset journal

A mindset journal is a valuable tool for monitoring your progress and reinforcing your commitment to change. In your journal, record your thoughts, experiences, and the challenges you face. This reflection helps you celebrate your successes, identify areas where your mindset has evolved, and recognize patterns that may require further attention and adjustment.

• Start a mindset journal where you record your thoughts, experiences, and reflections.
• Regularly review your journal entries to track your mindset evolution.
• Set aside time for introspection to assess your progress and identify areas for improvement.

12. Maintaining Your New Mindset

Tip: Continuously seek opportunities for growth

A growth mindset is not a destination but a lifelong journey. To maintain your new mindset, consistently seek out opportunities for growth and development. Embrace challenges, pursue learning experiences, and stay curious. By actively engaging in personal and professional growth, you reinforce the positive changes in your mindset and continue to evolve.

• Continuously seek out challenges that push you out of your comfort zone.
• Explore new opportunities for learning and personal growth.
• Surround yourself with a supportive community that reinforces your growth mindset.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) related to changing your mindset:

Yes, you can change your mindset at any age. While it may be easier to develop a growth mindset during childhood or adolescence, adults can also make significant mindset shifts through self-awareness and practice.

The time it takes to change a mindset varies from person to person. It depends on factors like the individual’s willingness to change, the depth of ingrained beliefs, and consistent practice. Some changes may happen relatively quickly, while others may require more time and effort.

Setbacks are a natural part of the mindset change process. Embrace them as opportunities for growth. Reflect on what caused the setback, learn from it, and adjust your approach. Persistence is key in developing a new mindset.

While many people can change their mindset on their own through self-help resources and practices, others may benefit from professional guidance, such as therapy or coaching, especially if they’re dealing with deep-seated issues or trauma that impact their mindset.

Your environment can have a significant impact on your mindset. Surrounding yourself with supportive and growth-oriented individuals can make the process easier. Additionally, creating an environment that fosters learning and positivity can reinforce your desired mindset.

You’ll notice the change in your mindset when you consistently embrace challenges, view failures as learning opportunities, and exhibit a more positive and open attitude toward growth and improvement. You’ll feel more resilient, confident, and motivated to pursue your goals.

Explore more:

• How to Clarify Your Desires
• How to Turn Your Dreams Into Reality
• How to Create a Productive Workspace
• How to Declutter Your Space

Additional Resources & References:

• How to change your Mindset? By Sandeep Maheshwari – Sandeep Maheshwari
• CHANGE YOUR MINDSET – Motivational Speech – Ben Lionel Scott
• How to Change Your Mindset – Change The Way You Think – Dreamlet
• 21 दिनों में 95% लोगों से आगे निकल जाओ | 21 Days Challenge to Change your Mindset- Mister Proton
• Master your Mindset, Overcome Self-Deception, Change your Life | Shadé Zahrai – TEDxDRC – TEDx Talks
• How to Stop Negative Thoughts & Feelings | Change Your Mindset – Dr. Hansaji (The Yoga Institute)
• How changing your mindset can help you embrace change – Manu Shahi (TEDxFlowerMound – TEDx Talks)
• MINDSET IS EVERYTHING – Q&A #4 With Sandeep Maheshwari
• Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset – Sprouts
• Growth Mindset – Sandeep Maheshwari
• 10 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Attitude 2023: Shift Your Perspective – Fischer Institute
• Change Management Requires a Change Mindset – HBR
• Changing Mindsets to Enhance Treatment Effectiveness – NLM
• Mindset Shift: Your Key to Change Management – Northwest Education
• Image by Freepik

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Main Verbs in English: Unveiling Types, Examples, and List

How to Be Supportive in Every Situation: 12 Practical Tips

Related Readings:

How economic activity is measured understanding key indicators, 11 key roles of business in economic development, how to use wholesome in english: meaning & examples, nothing phone 2a key specifications and price, facebook and instagram down: users experience login issues and outages, precision agriculture meaning, features, & technologies.

© 2024 Aap Bhi Jaano

The New York Times

The learning network | e.l.l. practice + prompt | changing your mind.

E.L.L. Practice + Prompt | Changing Your Mind

Note: We invite any English Language Learner student 13 years or older to post comments in response to the writing prompts in this post.

First, think of a time when you changed your mind about something after you learned new information. For example, did you ever have a certain outlook about a place like a school, neighborhood or city when you first got there, but changed your mind after you spent more time there?

Second, read this passage from the Op-Ed essay “ The Virtue of Contradicting Ourselves .” Then answer the questions.

Intelligence is often defined as the ability to learn, and a sign of learning is changing your views over time. When historians and political scientists rate the presidents throughout history, the most effective ones turn out to be the most open-minded. This is true of both conservative and liberal presidents. Abraham Lincoln was a flip-flopper: He started out pro-slavery before abolishing it. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a flip-flopper, too: Elected on a platform of balancing the budget, he substantially increased spending with his New Deal. One person’s flip-flopping is another’s enlightenment. Just as we would fear voting for candidates who changed their minds constantly, we should be wary of electing anyone who fails to evolve. “Progress is impossible without change,” George Bernard Shaw observed, “and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Third, answer the following writing prompt and question and, if you are 13 or older, post your answers to our blog.

The beginning of this post asked you to think about a time when you changed your mind. Please write about it now. You can use this sentence frame:

I used to think _________. Then I learned _________. Now I think _________.

Find many more Ideas for English Language Learners.

What's Next

How to Change Your Mind

63 pages • 2 hours read

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018)

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapter 5-Epilogue

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Consider the downfall of psychedelic research in the 1970s. Was the panic entirely due to the carelessness of Timothy Leary , or was he simply a catalyst?

Science and psychedelic research have not always agreed with each other. Discuss how the study of psychedelics and consciousness relates to the scientific process, and why reputable research is difficult to find.

Do you think LSD and psilocybin should be classified as Schedule I drugs? Use examples from the book to build your argument.

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World

The Omnivore's Dilemma

This Is Your Mind on Plants

Featured Collections

National Suicide Prevention Month

View Collection

Science & Nature