Why Self Awareness And The Growth Mindset Can 10x Your Success In Life

Raul Ballesteros
Sep 2, 2018 · 7 min read
Gerard Adams

The key to what keeps the high achievers and world class performers motivated is determined by their attitude, beliefs, and behaviors. You will need to develop the required self discipline, awareness, and reliance to accomplish your desired result.

I’ve realized that many people become comfortable with where they are in life because people don’t like change or feeling uncomfortable. To accomplish our dreams we must become the kind of person that it will take to get there.

After my mom passed away a few years ago, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do in life because she was my motivation for going to school to become an engineer.

After being depressed and angry for about a year, I developed an interest in natural healing because my mom passed away from how much radiation was being used and she developed a cancer of the blood. She no longer wanted to use treatment and decided to stop. She passed a few months after that.

I decided to go to school for massage therapy as it was the perfect introduction to holistic healing which is being able to heal by natural methods without the use of pharmaceutical drugs. These include services such as massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, physical and aromatherapy.

After completing school and working at a massage center for about six months I didn’t feel like I was making enough of an impact on the world. I quit from there to become self-employed and decided to dedicate most of my time to developing my skill as a self-improvement writer.

Become Self-Aware

I personally believe that developing the skill of being highly self-aware is what separates the average person from the successful. As I continue to work on my self-awareness daily, I’m becoming much better at observing my circumstances in the moment and not reacting unconsciously.

This skill is extremely important if you want to understand where your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors come from. If you’re unable to identify the negative habits or thoughts you are having, then you’ll never be able to change them to healthier ones.

Here are some questions to help you become more self-aware:

Who am I? Who have I been? Who do I want to be?

What are my greatest goals and desires in life?

Am I taking consistent action each day to move me closer to my dreams?

These questions will allow you to start self-reflecting on the choices and the decisions you’ve been making up to this point in your life. You can begin to analyze if you make more positive or negative decisions most of the time.

Taking consistent action will literally give you more inspiration because you’re actually working towards what was once a dream and now you’ve declared it to be yours.

Self-reflection is the main driver for developing your self-awareness because it allows you to deconstruct your values and beliefs to ensure your actions match what you believe in. You can have a dream but if you’re not doing anything to move towards that dream then it stays a dream rather then making it a goal.

Becoming very aware of your thoughts and emotions is a crucial piece for being able to keep your motivation high because you can remind yourself that negative thoughts will not help you grow or move closer to your desired result and refocus on the task in front of you.

Have a compelling “why”

In the book “Start with Why” the author Simon Sinek describes how incredible people like Steve Jobs and the Wright brothers were able to keep pushing forward no matter what anybody told them.

If you have a dream that is meaningful to you then you must become clear on why accomplishing this goal matters to you. Remembering the why is going to your motivator and inspiration when life hits you with an obstacle. It’s identifying the intention behind your goal.

Start asking yourself:

Who am I doing this for?

What kind of impact am I trying to leave?

How do I want to be remembered by my loved ones and the world?

My why is my mom, my family, my amazing spouse, and making an impact on the world in the most positive way I can.

My mom is the reason I’m writing today as that event filled me with so much pain and suffering that growing through it gave me the inspiration to want to teach others how to overcome hardships and move forward from it.

My family inspires me to continue to become the greatest version of myself because they’ve been able to grow from that experience and I want to show them how successful someone can become if they don’t give up on themselves.

My spouse reminds me how amazing life can be when you find someone that loves your soul and I want to make sure that I can provide absolutely everything she needs in life physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. It’s the people I love that keep me motivated to work towards my vision, what’s yours.

Adopt a growth mindset

A growth mindset is having the belief within yourself that you can achieve any goal in life by deliberate practice, training, and by developing your intelligence.

Most of the population has what’s referred to as a fixed mindset, which causes bad habits such as procrastination, laziness, and self-sabotage. They believe that their talents and skills cannot be developed because they were born with what they got.

You have to lose any negative belief about yourself that they will hold you back from achieving success in your life. Believing that you can’t accomplish your dreams prevents your brain from looking for ways to make that dream a reality for you.

Individuals who believe in their abilities to learn what it takes to succeed:

  • Embrace obstacles
  • Persist in the face of failure
  • See consistency and effort leading to mastery
  • Learn from feedback instead of taking it personally
  • Learn from the success others have attained

Developing a growth mindset is the key to achieving success in any walk of life because it allows us to continue to push towards our goals even when it seems like it’s not paying off or when life hits you with a challenge.

Whenever you feel stuck or in the face of adversity asking yourself these questions can help you move forward and grow:

What action can I take to start moving the ball forward?

Who can I talk to that can give me some solid advice or feedback?

What can I learn from this setback?

Can I try a different approach?

These questions will help you move forward whenever you feel stuck or you face an obstacle that may seem to difficult to overcome. Questions are powerful because they can either keep you where you are or help you gain some momentum in life.

Don’t allow your old thinking patterns and beliefs to be the reason you don’t achieve your desired goal or result. Be prepared for obstacles by being able to self-reflect and ask yourself questions that force your mind to start looking at the positive and ways to move forward when they happened.

That’s where self-awareness comes in because if you can successfully catch yourself when you start thinking negatively about something, then you can train your mind to refocus on growth, optimism, positivity, and success. Doing this over and over again literally rewires the brain for achievement and success.

Inspiring content

I’ve been able to stay motivated and inspired by making sure that I feed my mind with only positive, inspirational, motivational, and educational content. I listen to music only about twenty percent of my time and the remaining eighty percent goes to learning.

I had to teach myself to be a happy and positive person because that experience had made me a very bitter, angry, frustrated, and negative person. I didn’t want to believe that was the case but I really didn’t feel happy at all and I didn’t know why.

To develop my mindset for positivity and optimism, I couldn’t allow my old negative thoughts to stir within my mind untamed. Upon my research on how I could be more of a positive person, I came across tons of inspiring videos and audios. I immersed myself into that content because it gave me hope.

Listening to other successful people who have faced adversity and still managed to reach their goals really moved me. I was obsessed with understanding how these people used their obstacles as fuel to pursue their passion.

Immersing myself into listening to these extraordinary people has shaped the way I think about myself and the world. By immersing myself into this kind of content, I was able to block out the negative thoughts and adopt new beliefs.

The internet made it possible for me to grow and gain some momentum in my life. My life mission is to be a highly successful self-improvement thought leader becoming just like these individuals because I think, act, and believe in the same things that they believe in.

If you don’t know how to think positive or be a happy person then start from there. If you have been able to convince yourself that you are unable to accomplish your dreams, then you can learn to convince yourself that you can achieve them.

Don’t allow your past, old thinking patterns and beliefs paralyze you from going after your passion. The key to reaching your goal is going to be determined by the actions you’re taking daily to get yourself there.

Here are some amazing Youtube channels that have really changed my life:

If you ever feel lost, upset, or unsure about something just give these videos a listen. Just listening to one or two of these videos a day will definitely change your perspective about how you feel. Negative thoughts, emotions, and beliefs steal away from our joy and happiness.

Your time is too valuable to waste it on anything that isn’t helping you move closer towards your goals or success in life. Life is short and the way we spend our time determines our future. Continue to strive for success and greatness in your life.

Thank you for reading! Claps are very appreciated! If you have a second please follow me here on Medium for more self-improvement tips! :)

The Ascent

A community of storytellers documenting the journey to happiness & fulfillment.

Raul Ballesteros

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Helping you become successful despite the obstacles that arise on your path. I turned tragedy into triumph. Over 1,000,000+ article views!

The Ascent

A community of storytellers documenting the journey to happiness & fulfillment.

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