Crafting Mindsets That Matter

Learning is a marathon, not a sprint and how you think, is worth more than what you know.

That’s why it’s important to craft mindsets.

Unlike a process, mindsets scale exponentially beyond the here and now. When you’re picking up something new or just living your life, it’s your mindset that’ll help carry you forwards.

The below isn’t a process, it’s a train of thought we’ve built to help you think more about your current mindset, and some positive changes we’ve made to ours.

It’s time to think differently.

Start with Awareness

Great mindsets start with awareness.

Awareness of what it is you need to be doing.

Awareness of what you need to achieve.

Awareness of how to improve.

They say that with 10,000 hours of practice, you’ll become a master of anything — well that’s not true. You could spend 10,000 hours on a driving range, but you wouldn’t be a master golfer.

You haven’t spent time thinking about how to improve, the mistakes you’re making and what may or may not be holding you back.

You don’t have the mindset to be a master golfer.

The interesting thing with awareness, is that it comes from being humble.

Beginners are humble. Beginners aren’t afraid to look for ways to improve. They focus on the little things as much as they do the big things. They make mistakes and they use those mistakes to grow.

Beginners are aware they need to improve and they’re aware they need to learn more. It’s easy to become complacent when we feel that we’re doing well or becoming better, we get comfortable.

After 1,000 hours on the driving range you’ll have a great swing, but without being aware that you still need to improve, learn and seek out new experiences, you won’t make much progress in the next 1000.

Don’t become complacent, stay aware.

Create Affirmations

You are who you think you are.

Tell yourself every damn day to follow your dreams and to learn more.

If your goal is to be the best icon designer in the world, then tell yourself that that’s one of your goals.

Ask yourself what you need to learn or do to get there, then tell yourself that, every damn day.

Affirmations make up what we think, feel and believe.

Tell yourself that you can be the best. Believe, that with the right effort and the right type of work (that part’s important) that you’ll get there.

Keep all your affirmations positive.

Negative affirmations are toxic and draining. If your affirmations are negative, then expect your mindset to be too.

Think positive and work towards positive goals.

Put in the Work

Great mindsets require work.

After all, nothing that’s worth having comes easy. You’ll need to work on your mindset every damn day (and then some).

But getting started doesn’t take long. They say it takes 30 days to form a habit that could last a lifetime.

If you could change the way you think in 30 days, would you? If the answer is yes, then you’re ready to change your mindset.

If the answer is no, ask yourself why. What’s stopping you from growing? What’s blocking you from becoming who or what you need to be?

This is why awareness is so important, it lets you move past your ego, and be willing to put in the work that matters to you most.

Reflect on you

You’re not a machine and you’re not expected to think positively 24/7.

You’re not expected to be the most mindful or aware person in the room.

You’re not expected to work hard all the time.

When things get tough, take 10 minutes to look at how far you’ve come, and then take another 10 to let go of everything else that doesn’t matter to you.

Let go of everything that’s bringing you down and all of the baggage that’s stopping you, from being you.

Reflection is your chance to visualise how far you’ve come and it’s your chance to be grateful.

Grateful for the friends that’ve supported you.

Grateful for how helpful your parents have been.

Grateful for how lucky you are to have a roof over your head and to be healthy.

These are things we all take for granted.

Looking back and seeing how far we’ve come and the help we’ve received, reminds us that we’re some of the lucky few — and that’s a big deal.

Share

Be willing to share what you’ve learnt, your work and your thoughts.

Far too many of us are too scared to talk, or to write.

We’re worried we’ll be judged, we’re worried our work isn’t good enough, we’re worried some senior asshole will turn around and tell us we shouldn’t bother making an effort.

We all start somewhere.

But unless you’re willing to share and to find where our where your weaknesses are, then your telling yourself it’s okay to be stagnant.

Are we neuroscientists? No.

Are we productivity experts? No.

But what we are, is willing to explore our thoughts and to share them with others. The way we think and feel at Mikleo is something we’re completely transparent about.

We’re aware we’ve got loads to learn, but without sharing anything, we’re a two man team with no source of external feedback.

Sharing promotes growth, which is why we’ll always share everything we know and learn, with everyone.

Mindsets That Matter

We’re working on crafting mindsets that matter to us, so we can hit our goals, be happier and keep living our dreams.

Does your mindset match who or what you want to be?

If it doesn’t, then we hope our advice helps you get there.

Wanna chat more? Tweet us or slide us a DM.