To have a superhero mind, you’ve got to develop a growth mindset and focus on positivity. Our world is filled with billions of options and opportunities, but we get so stuck in our own heads, our own insecurities, and our own silly beliefs that we don’t even realize how freaking awesome life is! Your mindset is your mental POWER - you get to control the way you think about yourself and the world, your stress level, your resiliency, your immune system, and your ability to create the life you dream of. Yeah, it’s freaking powerful.
Growth Mindset
The Harvard Business Review tells us that people who believe their talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others have a growth mindset. People who have a growth mindset tend to achieve more, worry less, and focus on learning and growth. They don't believe that talent is innate or that people who are successful are just natural winners. They know that growth takes hard work, and they are empowered and committed to continuing to grow and develop their skills.
If you live your life with more of a fixed mindset, you might tend to think the skills and abilities you were born with are it. You might even be afraid of making mistakes and being embarrassed in front of others if you aren't excellent at something new right off the bat.This can hinder your ability to adjust and grow your potential and beliefs. It might make you less likely to seek out new challenges and experiences that can help your grow your wisdom and intelligence. If you think you currently have more of a fixed mindset—that's okay! With some small mindset adjustments, you can develop a growth mindset.
Believe in your own personal growth and trajectory to develop your skills, continue to improve, and create the life you dream of. A growth mindset with help you embrace new challenges and try new things. It can even contribute to a fuller, more meaningful life.
Abundance vs. Scarcity Mindset
There’s this really cool concept of the ‘abundance mindset vs the scarcity mindset’ that Stephen Covey coined in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He said that people who think in an abundant way believe that there are enough resources and successes to share with others, and that people who focus on scarcity feel the need to compete and often play the victim. In order to think in an abundant way, we must recognize the possibility that all parties can win.
Having a more abundant mindset provides you a ton of super awesome benefits. You live a more full and satisfying life, experience more happiness and joy, give and receive love, feel plentiful, creative, and inspired, take advantage of opportunities, live in the moment, savor awesome experiences, and have the potential to be more confident in your dreams. It shows itself in a bunch of ways, but it’s all about the way you think.
Money
Abundance: I am great at making money, and I plan to be rich, make my money work for me, and spread the wealth.
Scarcity: I’m always going to be poor, and I’m unhappy with people who have money and success. I’m bad at selling/writing/everything.
Success
Abundance: I have great big ideas, and I’m willing to take risks to bring them to life. I admire and spend time with successful people.
Scarcity: I usually go with the status quo, and sometimes I avoid speaking up out of fear or anxiety. I don’t have many rich friends, and am not a huge fan of them.
Relationships
Abundance: I have strong, growing relationships; I enjoy showing love to others and realize how much I deserve love as well. My friends and family do their best, and I know it’s important to work hard at my awesome, superhero relationships.
Scarcity: I’m waiting on my soulmate, but people have taught me that they can’t be trusted. I’ve found that people can tend to be out to get me, and my friends and family don’t seem to care about me. I am competitive.
Health
Abundance: I enjoy my body - it is strong and good to me, and it has its imperfections but those are pretty great too. I know that I choose how high-quality my health is, and I take responsibility for eating clean foods and exercising. I have awesome resources around me that help with this.
Scarcity: I do not like my body, but it’s mostly due to genetics so there’s not much I can do. I don’t know where I would even start to try to be healthier. I leave my health in other’s hands.
Taking Control of Your Mindset
It’s clear many of us likely need to make some adjustments to our perspectives. If you’re like me, you say a mix of things focused on abundance and scarcity, but you likely lean more one way or the other. Good news - it doesn’t matter as much where you are now as where you’re going. If you make the decision to begin listening to your thoughts and adjusting them, practicing gratitude, and noticing the plentiful world around you, you’re on the path to having a stronger and more powerful mind.
Tune in to your Intuition
One of the absolute first things you need to begin doing is listening to your thoughts. Meditation and mindfulness both help you begin to listen to your thoughts and understand where your wandering mind tends to go (this is especially true when you’re meditating and trying not to think so much). Getting to know yourself will come into play everywhere from your desires to your nutritional needs to your passions and ability to reach self-actualization. You must work to know yourself.
Make sure that, every day, you spend some time in solitude to meditate, journal, and listen to your thoughts without judgment. Get to know what excites you, what makes you feel giddy and good and wholesome, and what you truly want. It can work really well to sit with a question when you meditate for a few weeks. You can think about a particular topic - relationship, career, family, health, or just make sure you open your mind to whatever you need at that given moment.
Time in solitude to get to know yourself and your mind better can answer a lot of questions for you and help you understand where you’re going and what great things surround you. It can also help you understand which thoughts are abundant or limiting so that you can adjust and move forward in a more bountiful way.
How to Focus On Positivity & Overcome The Lies We Tell Ourselves
Once you start to listen to and understand what thoughts run through your head, you begin to have power over them. That’s really exciting because that means you can begin to respond to them rationally and work toward adjusting your brain toward focusing on positivity.
Here’s how this works:
During meditation and in your day-to-day life, begin to notice your thoughts, without judgment, and what typically takes over your mind. Keep a journal when you meditate and write down thoughts and ideas.
Take some time with this to figure out what’s often on your mind. Do you say positive and hopeful things focused on gratitude and abundance? Do you think about how tough life is and how difficult your family is and how much your job sucks? Whatever it is, it’s okay. Just get to know what those thoughts are.
Recognize the lies - there might be a lot here. It’s super easy to get caught up in our own negativity and insecurities and fears; we’re only human.
For centuries, fear has kept us safe from wild animals and pain, but we just need to be able to recognize that some fears are valid (don’t touch the hot stove) and some fears are not (don’t go to the party because people don’t like you).
Begin to notice when you think the lies and replace them with truths. This won’t necessarily be easy at first, and it will take time, but the more you do it the better you’ll get. Over time, you’ll retrain your mind to think more positively and focus on the good and your potential. You’ll put out positive energy into the universe that says “I deserve awesome superhero things” and the universe will recognize that and start bringing them your way.
Common Lies
These are super similar to what we see when we compare an abundance vs scarcity mindset; they are just typically very personal for the person thinking them. Some people’s lies are about money, or love, or success. Everyone’s a little bit different, but everyone has the power to recognize the lies they tell themselves and begin to adjust them toward the real truth.
Money
Lie: My job is good enough. I can’t leave because I don’t have the education and experience to make more money or be happier or more successful in my work. I like to complain about work, but when people suggest leaving, I immediately explain why I just cannot.
Truth: I am brilliant and have amazing ideas and deserve to do a job I love and make tons of money. I know that money can help me become a better and more useful and generous person, and I allow abundance to flow in and generosity to flow out.
Success
Lie: I used to have some good and creative ideas when I was younger, but I just get so sucked into the day-to-day. Besides, so few people actually become successful at something they love. It’s just not realistic. I’ll get back into my hobby at some point, but I know it can’t make me successful.
Truth: I am brilliant and have amazing ideas (see a pattern here?) and deserve to hone my skills and strengths to use my natural gifts to do great things for this world. I have so much potential and I’m so excited to get to jump in and do/create great things. I don’t let fear stop me from taking smart risks.
Relationships
Lie: I want to be in a relationship, but guys/girls just totally suck, and dating is so hard. The last person I went on a blind date with was short/fat/drank an appletini, and I’m not interested in settling for anything less than my dream (even though I’m not perfect myself). Besides, I don’t really trust men/women; maybe I’ll take some time away from dating.
Truth: I am brilliant and beautiful and deserve incredible love, and I know that love takes a lot of hard work and compromise, but I am excited to make a life with someone super cool. I may or may not have found them yet, but great things are coming my way and I’m so down for them.
Health
Lie: I want to lose some weight, but it’s so hard. My body works against me. I eat vegetables (on my pizza) and exercise (some days I walk), but nothing seems to work. My resolutions don’t last long, but it’s not my fault. Temptation is everywhere. I’ll get healthier next month.
Truth: I am brilliant and my body is incredible and it deserves to be loved and cared for. I know that the time I put into my body and mind come back to me in spades and make me feel like a total rockstar. Whether or not I am where I want to be right now, I know I’m going to get there and it’s going to rock.
These are just some typical lies, but get to know yours. Start really listening to yourself, figuring out what your lies are, and replacing them with truth to open up your potential.
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What lies do you think you tell yourself? How can you work to grow?