Mindset, schmindset! What’s all the noise about mindset?

Well, your mindset is fundamental to how you experience the world. It influences what you see as possible and the actions you see to take. Your mindset sets up the results and success you create and whether you have fulfillment and freedom in your life or not.

Mindset breakdowns will keep you stuck and disconnected from your true self. You may be fearful, reactive, doubtful, anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, pessimistic, in scarcity, and focused on problems rather than solutions. This at a time when you need to be positive, creative, solution-focused and committed to taking action.

We all experience being stuck. The challenge is how long you allow yourself to stay stuck. What does staying stuck cost you? You may experience frustration, stress, overwhelm, exhaustion, depletion, lack of adequate rest, sleep, energy, vitality, zest for life.

Left unmanaged, this breakdown could lead to impacts to your health and wellbeing, productivity and performance, healthy relationships, career opportunities and income, and the ability to imagine and realize your dreams.

“Mindset is the only “to do” you never cross off your list!” – Sandra Yancey, CEO eWomen Network, Personal & Business Transformation Expert

Lessons from a Master’s Champion

A few weeks back was Masters Week, one of four major golf tournaments on the PGA Tour. I happened to catch a Golf Channel interview with Bubba Watson.

For those of you who don’t know of him, Bubba is a successful American professional golfer with two Master’s Championship wins and several additional wins throughout his 19-year career playing on tour. In 2015, he reached a career-high 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking. Last week, he tied for 26th bringing his ranking to 57th.

Bubba is an exciting player to watch. He is flamboyant, unconventional, sees creative shots to take, and has the guts to take them. He is a master of his game physically and plays the game his way.

There’s no question he has the physical talent to win and that he has been successful. His challenge has been managing the disappointment between the peaks and valleys of his success. He refers to his “headless” self when he is inside the ropes, which is inconsistent with who he is outside the ropes.

This suffering caused him to lose a significant amount of body weight. As his weight declined, so did his strength and distance. He also allowed the negative comments from the press and social media to influence how he felt about himself and his game. He was fearful there was something wrong with him physically. He thought he was dying.

He considered quitting to end his pain and frustration. His wife helped him see and connect with what he loves about playing golf. He loves playing at the highest competitive level and sharing his experiences with his children and family. When he connected to his “why” for playing golf, he was ready to confront his real demons – and the demon was within.

Last year, he went to his swing coach with the intent of working on his physical skills. “He fired me,” Watson said, laughing. “He said, ‘Man, you’re so mental, we can’t even work together.’ I always thought it was not physical, that it’s mental, and after two weeks, I said, ‘Hey, it’s mental.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, it’s mental.’ That was it.”

“The best way to say it is it’s some form of mental issue where you feel like you should perform like these guys week-in and week-out, and you don’t do it,” he said, before adding: “As I get older, I get smarter, and I realized that maybe I should work on it. I work on my putting and chipping. Maybe now I can work on the mental part.” ~ Ryan Lavender, Golf Channel, August 2020

He admitted he did not have the mindset he needed to enjoy playing the game, appreciating his success and all the benefits the game had afforded him and his career beyond winning.

He controls his stress and anxiety with breathing and is working with a breathing coach to help him slow down his heart rate and calm himself down.

At the age of 41, he is addressing the mental aspects of his game – his mindset.

He got into Action.

He made his plan to improve the mental side of his game. This change is helping him set his path by not comparing himself to others. He continues to play at the highest level, relying on his healthy mindset to navigate competitive situations, manage his disappointments and increase his chances of winning. He is enjoying all aspects of this game.

His plan included working on his breathing to calm himself in stressful situations allowing him to control his emotions.

He surrounds himself with supportive people.

He recognized he needed help and wasn’t alone. He was surrounded by a supportive team of people, including family and coaches, who encourage his positive mindset and build his mindset mastery capabilities.

So, how about you? Are you blocking your success? What’s going on with your mindset?

Your Solution – Mindset Mastery

This is why mastering your mindset is so important and why you will want to have a tool kit of mindset intervention strategies. These strategies will help you create and sustain new healthy habits that support mindset changes, retrain your brain, and practice new skills. You will want the ones that work best to get you unstuck and moving forward.

Mindset Hacks to Go from Stuck to Success

Prioritize Your Physical Wellbeing & Self Care

Make your physical body a priority – sleep, hydration, fuel, movement. Failing to do so may lead to exhaustion, stress, overwhelm, leading to distortions in how you see, hear, feel and react to the situations and circumstances of your life. Always make time to invest in your self-care, including working on your mindset.

This strong foundation is key to helping you deal with challenges, setbacks, overcoming resistance, and managing disappointments. Once you achieve balance with your personal foundation, you can empower yourself to achieve any goal!

Remember – you must put your oxygen mask on first before you can take care of anyone or anything else!!!

Commit to a Regular Awareness Practice

Be aware of your current mindset and if it is supporting you or not, by consciously working on your mindset every day. Get quiet, present, and in touch with your true self. Listen to your inner voice, beliefs, and thoughts that you are currently experiencing and influencing the actions, success, and results you have to date.

When? First thing in the morning is the best time to capture your most intimate thoughts upon rising. Some find it works best right before bed. Timing isn’t as important as just doing it!

Make sure whatever intervention you choose works for you. What works for somebody else is not always going to work for you. It needs to be something you’re going to do consistently. Meditation, prayer, journaling, reading, or listening to inspirational material, communing with nature helps tap into your inner intelligence. Whatever you choose, make it non-negotiable and do it consistently.

Be on the lookout for where your behavior is blocking and sabotaging your success, like procrastination and perfectionism, limiting beliefs like scarcity conversations, negative thoughts and self-talk, any fear, especially fear of failure and success, and the lack of confidence and courage.

Remember – your goal is to value and prioritize your mindset and the critical role it plays in creating your life by validating, testing, and challenging your beliefs and thoughts to see new and different possible actions to take.

Tips to Ensure Healthy Beliefs & Thoughts:

• Make time to control the influence of your mind.
• Monitor your self-talk and use of unsupportive language and interrupt anything you say to yourself silently or out loud that is not supportive and compassionate.
• Capture in your journal any limiting beliefs and negative thoughts you observe.
• Reframe and replace each one with a more supportive belief or thought.
• Value yourself as your BFF!

Remember – scarcity conversations are the most debilitating, especially when we believe we do not have enough time, money, or know-how.

“Most powerful words in the Universe are the words you say to yourself.” Marie Forleo

Get in Action

Your best path past any breakdown, especially a mindset breakdown, is Action! Even the most minor action moving towards a goal without overthinking will break a log jam and support you feeling accomplished.

Reminder: a breakdown is a “gap” between where you are and where you want to be – or an indication there has been insufficient Action to fulfill your promise. There’s no ego, no self-esteem, no value judgments, no story, just identifying that actions are missing so you can identify the next “right” action to take and get moving!

Focus Your Attention on Your Intentions

Having awareness and attention on your intentions and WHY they are important to you helps set the compass to keep you focused and aligned to make faster, better decisions and achieve your goals. Your intentions are the experiences and elements that light you up and bring you joy. Some examples are: spending time with people you love, having enough money to live without financial stress, experiencing new and different people, places, and things, being calm and stress-free, and working on things I enjoy with people I like.

Remember: the Universe is an intention-fulfilling machine. Be careful what you ask for – meaning ask for what you want vs. what you don’t want.

Seek Supportive Communities

We come into this life alone, and we leave alone. While we’re here, it’s all about people helping people! Spend time building, sustaining, and maintaining your network. Get connected and related with your contacts. They may have connections and solutions to ease your way. Remember: you cannot make “big” requests of others unless you’re willing to have big requests made of you. Help them, and they will help you!

The networks I enjoy currently are NAWBO Sacramento, LPGA Amateurs Sacramento, Women of Sacramento, and my Stand Up Placer Board. Warning: for this to work and be supportive, get involved and invested with your time and talents vs. spreading yourself too thin and not being actively involved.

“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker

Above All, Have Some Fun

Remember Recess? Taking breaks during the day is healthy for your mindset and should be viewed as required, not optional. Make time to get up, move around, especially get outside and get some fresh air! Laugh and do something fun you love just for fun to spark joy and have fun every day!

When you feel safe to travel again, consider a change of venue and scene. This will be powerful and good for your soul and mindset, whether weekend getaways or more extended destination vacations. For me, I love to play with my granddaughters, golf, watch movies and connect with family and friends!

If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done – and it’s best if you don’t do it alone!

What mindset hack will you commit to taking on for the next 90 days?

• Recalibrate limiting beliefs and negative thoughts
• Take care of yourself
• Take Action when you’re stuck
• Manage your time differently
• Make time for you – do something every day that brings you joy!
• Invest time and money in your development
• Use accountability structures to support your success journey
• Use a coach, mastermind, or peak performance partner to help you hold yourself accountable

Work on your mindset daily.

When your mindset has a faulty wire, it can cause serious problems and breakdowns, including physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental health issues. It will also cause you to filter possibilities and opportunities, impact your communications and relationships, and your results, outcomes, and success.

I advocate working on your mindset every day as a preventative intervention. If you’re currently stuck, you’ll especially want to prioritize and work on your mindset every day to keep getting it in tip-top condition, so it supports you by working with you and for you rather than against you.

Know this – mindset is your superpower. It’s what makes you unique, authentic, and in touch with yourself. It gives you the awareness and clarity you need to know who you are, what’s important to you, what you need at any moment, and what actions you need to take.

When you’re stuck, focusing on your mindset frees you up by busting roadblocks, accelerating your path to success. It can be a game-changer for you.