Mindset Monday: Avoiding Imposter Syndrome

You’ve worked hard, you’ve taken the courses, you’ve learned and experienced a lot — but somehow it all just doesn’t feel real. Whenever you are praised for your skills, talents, or accomplishments, you feel fearful that you will be exposed as a fraud — even though you are obviously not a fraud. 

 
This, my friend, is imposter syndrome. Sadly, this psychological syndrome affects women at a higher rate than men, but it exists in all sexes in all classes. About half of all people experienced imposter syndrome at one time or another, according to one poll. 
 
If you suffer from this syndrome, it’s important to recognize it and work toward eradicating it from your life. In fact, recognizing it is the primary key to fighting it.

• Retrain Your Thoughts. If you ever think things like, “this was all luck” about your success, it’s time to retrain your thoughts. Instead of thinking that, go over the reasons you could do what you did. It was more than likely due to the experience, education, and action you took. 

• Assign Value. When you can verify or quantify the value that you provide to others, then you can help your mind accept that what you do is valuable and not a matter of just luck. Record data about the impact your work does for people. (Number of interviews generated, jobs you’ve helped them achieve, salary increases, etc.)

• Read About It. There are numerous books about imposter syndrome. These books will help you understand whether you have the syndrome and what to do to help you move past it. One to check out is “Ditching Imposter Syndrome: How To Finally Feel Good Enough and Become The Leader You Were Born To Be,” by Clare Josa. 

• Get Professional Help. If none of the advice given helps, you can go to a therapist or find a life coach to help you overcome imposter syndrome. Many counselors are trained in this syndrome, and many life coaches are very aware of it and now know to help you overcome it.

Imposter syndrome can cause you to miss opportunities because you think you’re not ready for it. There are many people out there doing what you want to do and doing it poorly without any issues. You’re an expert, and no matter how much you try to talk yourself out of it, you have the expertise and deserve the kudos that you get. 

Mindset Monday: Have You Considered a Vision Board?

One of the ways you can increase your positivity and grow your success mindset is to create and use a vision board. A vision board is pictorial of the success you want to achieve. The main point is that you want the vision board to be easily visible and usable after it’s created. 

• Know What You Want. The first course of action for you is to know what type of goals you are working on for your vision board. Some people like making an “overall” vision board that depicts their entire life, but it can also be helpful to create one for each individual goal that you have so that you can focus on one thing at a time. 

• Set Your Goals and Objectives. When you know which life area you’ll focus on, write down your goals and objectives. Use the SMART goal format so the goals you make also have tasks and actions associated with them.  

• Choose Your Tools. Now that you know what you are creating, choose the tools you will use. Plan to look at the vision board daily. It’s not going to do any good if you can’t see it when you need motivation. You can choose a print format or use a Pinterest board.

• Choose Images / Words That Support Your Goals. As you choose the pictures and words that depict and support your goals, store them in one spot, such as Dropbox or a folder. Write down or copy words that help support your goals, too, because you’ll want to connect the images with affirmations too.

• Design the Vision Board. Now that you have all the information and materials, start preparing your vision board. Focus on the feeling of meeting your goals. Feel it as you create it. 

• Look at The Vision Board Every Day. Look at your vision board every morning before starting your day and even every night as you consider your actions and set up your day for tomorrow. The only way your vision board will help you is if it’s tied to the actions you take each day.

Finally, allow yourself to experience emotions about how you’re going to feel when you succeed by meeting that goal. 

Mindset Mondays: Exercise to Practice Gratitude

 

Practicing gratitude can go a long way to helping you feel happier and more successful in life. The most interesting thing about having a success mindset is that it is indeed a mindset. Studies have been done on numerous people throughout history that show that even people you may not see as successful can feel successful if they have the right mindset. 

• Write It Down. Keep a small notebook by your bedside, your desk, or in your glove box. Whenever you feel a wave of gratitude, write it down. This helps you to remember the experience and even relive it when the need arises.

• Record It. Almost everyone can record themselves today with smartphones and tablet computers. If you don’t want to write down your feelings, you can record them. Whenever you feel grateful, or need to feel it, make a short two minute recording to document it. 

• Focus on It. Allow your mind to focus on all the gratitude you feel, but in a tremendous way. Amplify the feeling by describing it as fully as possible. How does your morning walk feel? How does your morning coffee smell? What do you feel when you watch your sleeping child?

• Say It Aloud. Even if you’re not writing it down or recording it, you can still state your gratitude out loud. 

• Feel It. Don’t just write down or record and state your gratitude. Take a moment to feel it. Focus carefully on how it feels to breathe in the fresh air, and take the moment in fully. Immerse yourself in the feelings as much as you can. 

• Share It. When you are feeling gratitude, it’s a great time to tell others about it. When you share your feelings of thanks to the world either by calling someone and telling them that you’re thankful for them or by sharing on Instagram or Facebook or X/Twitter your gratitude, you’ll feel it more fully. 

Focus on what makes you happy and less on what makes you unhappy. It may seem silly, but it’s backed by science. Your thoughts control your feelings, and you control your thoughts. It’s that simple.

We’re expecting our first big snowfall of the season today … they’re saying 4-7 inches – so I’m going to be grateful for the moisture … and that Jon and I work from home! 

What are YOU feeling grateful for today? Comment below!

Mindset Mondays: The Importance of SMART Goals

 

Today’s tip is using GOALS to direct your MINDSET. After all, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. Right?

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times, right? Everyone you know — at least all the life coaches and teachers — want you to learn how to make your goals so that they’re manageable and do-able. Learning how to create goals correctly will change your life. 
 
The best-known method for creating goals that you can achieve is the SMART goal method. 
 
The SMART acronym stands for:

• Specific. State what is precisely required to meet your goal. 
• Measurable.  Include a number that enables you to measure the results. 
• Achievable. Set goals that you can realistically accomplish in the time set using the resources and methods you have available. 
• Realistic. The outcome must be truly possible. Some people like to use the word relevant here because the goal must be relevant to the big picture you have in mind. 
• Time-Bound. We all expand our time to match what is allowed, so setting a time limit is essential to realizing your goals. 

You can even expand this acronym to the acronym SMARTER and add two more criteria, if you want to be great at making goals that result in success. These two additional letters stand for “evaluated” and “reviewed,” — which makes sense because the only way you can know for sure if something you do works is to evaluate it and review it. 
 
Once you do that, you can tweak and change things to improve your goal setting for future goals. The practice of using the SMART goal method for all your goal setting needs will improve every time you start setting up your goals and objectives because you’ll be able to use past experiences to guide you. 
 
No matter how small your objective is, try using the SMART goal technique to help you create goals that really can be reasonably met by you.

Mindset Mondays: Practice Positive Thinking

Negative thoughts can affect your ability to see your success — as well as make you feel bad about yourself and the world around you — and can lead to poor choices. Thankfully, you can turn yourself around by focusing on positive thinking.

• Create a Minimum “To Do” List. Each day, look at your calendar and schedule and see what you need to do for the day to be a success — but just for that one day. It shouldn’t be 12 hours of work either. It should be a realistic depiction of the minimum necessary tasks to experience success.

• Keep a Gratitude Journal. Every evening, write down three things you are thankful for in general and for that day. Then, the next morning, read those three things before you start your day. When you focus on the good in your life, you’re going to feel more successful.

• Meditate Daily. Take time out of your day to mediate. You don’t have to meditate for a long time to see results. Just five minutes a day can make a big difference in your mood and your thoughts. You can also meditate in different ways, such as by walking in nature, lying on the living room floor listening to music — or the typical way most people think of it. But clear your mind so you can reset and start fresh.

• Time Limit Your Negativity. When you allow a negative thought to enter your mind, instead of dismissing it, try stopping and doing something else that makes you feel positive. Five minutes watching babies laugh on YouTube can pay off in numerous ways.

• Practice Changing Your Thoughts. When a negative thought enters your mind, you can practice changing it. If you have a negative thought, think it out, and then turn it around to something positive. With practice, the negative thoughts will resolve themselves.

You don’t have to be overly positive for these tactics to work. If you have trouble turning a negative thought into a positive one, use a neutral thought instead. 

Mindset Monday: Envision Your Success

Today’s mindset tips are to help you with visualizing your success.

Most personal success mindset instructions tell you that before you can experience success, you should pinpoint what your vision of success looks like. Take some time to realistically “daydream” about the work you’ll accomplish — and your success.

The main reason you need a vision is because if you don’t know what you want, you won’t recognize it — even if someone handed it to you on a silver platter. 

​To help you visualize the success you want to achieve, try one (or more) of these suggestions:

• Create a vision board. When you’re trying to achieve a goal, use a vision board to help you fully imagine what that success looks like. For example, if you want to build your career services business to six figures, create a vision board depicting what that looks like to help you create the steps to get there.

• Write down your goals. If you don’t want to create a vision board, you can still visualize your success by using very descriptive writing to describe your goals. When you write down a SMART success goal, be very specific about what constitutes success to you.

• Picture your goals being met. When creating your vision board — or writing down each goal — take the time to imagine it in your mind. You may want to consider doing this in a nice, quiet place in your home, where you can relax and/or find inspiration. Allow yourself to pretend you have achieved your goal. Use the following questions to help set the stage for your vision:
• – Where will you likely be when you meet the goal or finish the project?
  – Will someone be there when you achieve the goal? Who?
  – What emotions will you probably feel?
  – What clothing will you be wearing?
  – Who will you call first, and what will you say?

Picture the future — and then work your plan to achieve it!

Mindset Monday: What Does Work-Life Balance Mean to You?

Welcome to Mindset Mondays! To support your success, for the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing mindset tips with you each Monday. Today’s tips are to help you with your work/life balance — something a lot of us struggle with (me included!).

Before you can dream about creating work/life balance, you first must define what exactly it means to you. The main thing to understand is that work/life balance does not mean that you spend equal time on everything you want and need to do.

Instead, it more than likely means that you can spend the time needed in each area of your life even if you can’t spend all the time you want. Discover your personal work/life balance with the following suggestions.

• List the things you need to do and the things you want to do. For most people, it’s helpful to put all the things they want to do and need to do in a calendar with a realistic schedule. That way, you know if you have time or not.

• Set your priorities. Your priority might be different from someone else’s and that’s fine. Your personal life is yours to live, as you see fit and you can prioritize what you want to. Try to remember that there is a difference between wants and needs as you move forward. You may want to sleep until 10 a.m. every day, but your limited time to get things done might make that unrealistic. 

• Be consistent. Like most things, you’ll get better results when you are consistent for the long term. It works with almost everything you want to do, from finishing a certification to losing weight to running a six-figure career services business. 

• Track your results. Don’t assume that a step you took resulted in a specific impact until you track and measure your results. You don’t really know which actions you took that worked until you prove it. For example, if you’re working on saving money, you look your savings account and see your account balance. Do the same when you’re trying to save time, build a closer relationship with someone, and so forth. 

• Surround yourself with people who value you. When you do this, there is no pressure to be something you’re not. Just be yourself and do what you feel comfortable doing. However, you still need to grow and learn new things. 

“Time Freedom” is one of my personal values. Having the flexibility to work when I want to work (even if that means working late one night so I can have an afternoon off to pick up my niece and nephews from school the next day) is a core value to me.

What does work-life balance mean for you? What are your core values? Are your values in alignment with how you’ve structured your business? Leave a comment below!