Why does mindset matter most? The answer is quite simple, yet surprisingly hard to believe: Mindset matters most because having the right one allows you to have the proper focus, work ethic, and decision-making skills to grow your company and your business.
What Is Mindset, and How Does It Allow Me to Do All That?
Mindset = mind + set.
Mind = The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.
In my own words, your mind is your thoughts and thoughts, if you really think about them, are just questions that we ask ourselves sometimes “in our head (mind)” or sometimes out loud.
Set = put or bring into a specified state.
In my own words, set is the frame, perspective, and outlook you might have developed over time. My mindset was one that initially focused on short-term pleasures, such as being addicted to certain vices. As I realized the harm it was doing to my body, I reframed my perspective to see the long-term benefits I would get from avoiding those harmful actions.
So if you put them together, your mind + set = the perspective you have on any particular thoughts that come into your mind.
How You Come to Have a Different Mindset
As you grow up, over time, you are surrounded by people who tell you what to do, how you should think and act, how the world works, and who essentially develop your mindset. Often, your mindset influences start with your parents and family, then likely friends and teachers, and finally your colleagues and bosses—typically, the brain is fully developed in your mid-to-late 20s. So that old adage “You are the five people you surround yourself with most” should be modified to be “Your mindset is created by the five people you surround yourself most with growing up.”
But wait: So does that mean your mindset can’t change after it’s fully developed and mostly created by other people?
Your mindset can most certainly be redeveloped through a process called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity means the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience.
So, if you’re like me—someone who used to be scarcity-minded, self-absorbed, unaware, and egotistical—you can redevelop your mindset into someone who is abundantly-minded, selfless, hyperaware, and humble.
How Exactly Do I Make That Transformation Happen?
For me, that process looked like:
- Becoming aware (thinking about what I am thinking about).
- Figuring out exactly who I am currently, in the now (self-reflection on my current personality and mindset).
- Understanding what people or events from my past influenced my current personality and mindset (acceptance and ownership).
- Creating a new vision for who I want to be (“I am” identity-based statements, i.e., “I am open-minded and go with the flow”).
Now, this was not an overnight process for me. It’s actually been a five-year journey and a never-ending process.
So what’s next? I figured out who I am, why I am the way I am, and now decided who I want to be—well, now you can get anything you want by putting your identity-based traits into ACTION because mindset without action is like “asking God to guide your footsteps without being willing to move your feet.”
In my opinion, the easiest, most efficient way to realize your dreams is to find someone, or multiple people, who have the “thing” you want or desire and start taking whatever actions they did to get it. This process of mimicking step by step is like an instructional manual for you to realize those dreams.
“But Jonathan, if I want to become the biggest remodeling company in my town with the best reviews and word-of-mouth referrals coming in all day? How do I even get started with such big dreams?”
That answer is also surprisingly simple, yet much harder to implement than it sounds.
My friend Mark Twain said it best: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and starting the first on the first one.”
So, whatever that thing you’ve been wanting to do is, just get started.
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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.
