Written by: Anton Broers, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
You possess the tool that has the potential to truly elevate your life. But you are not aware of it. Nor do you know how to turn this tool into your best friend for your life.
The tool I am talking about is your Mindset. Your Mindset is Mission Critical for your life. When you train your mind and ‘set’ it with the right thoughts, ideas, beliefs, convictions, expectations, you empower yourself for life. The right mindset will help and support you to deal with life whatever comes your way. It will keep you calm, it will keep you stable, it will keep you positive, it will bring you clarity. The right mindset will be your unshakeable inner foundation.
The mindset of our beautiful, 12-year-old daughter Merel is becoming more and more visible. Her recent powerful words on my whiteboard are the inspiration for my tenth article for BRAINZ. Read about how she thinks and learn why mindset is so important and how you can change your conditioned mind.
Merel’s mindset
A few days ago, I was teaching Meditation Made Simple to two private clients. Meditation Made Simple is a trademarked program that introduces you in the power of meditation, developed by Vikas Malkani. The program has often been named the best meditation training in Asia. As I am teaching, I sometimes illustrate key lessons and insights using a whiteboard and I found that my markers were getting pretty empty. So the next day I went to buy a few new sets of whiteboard markers.
The training continued the day after. I was busy preparing for the training session in the evening in the coaching/training room at our home when our 12-year old daughter Merel walked in. She came to say hi, gave me a hug and wanted to see what I was up to. As she was exploring the room, the new set of markers caught her eye. ‘Can I try them out and use them on your whiteboard, daddy?’’ she asked me. I nodded and as I was done with my preparations, I walked out of the room, leaving Merel to express her creativity.
After dinner, and just before the training would start, I walked into the room to put a glass of water on the table. I noticed the whiteboard where Merel had drawn a beautiful flower and written a number of short sentences. I stepped forward and started reading. Underneath the name of our coaching and training company, Mind ur Life, she had written the following:
Control ur Mind
You can do it
You are worth it
You are beautiful
What people think is nothing; what you think yourself is something
Smile every day!
‘Wow,’ I thought, and a smile formed on my face, ‘what a wonderful mindset to have!’ I felt proud of our beautiful, stable, positive and wise little girl. And I felt happy because I know how important a supportive mindset is for anybody’s life. I took a picture, wiped out Merel’s powerful thinking and soon after, the meditation training started.
Why is mindset so important?
Mindset is Mission Critical for your Life! There! This is what I would love for you to get. I would advise you to pay attention to the rest of this article because what I would like to share with you is the absolute biggest treasure. It is the key toward more happiness. It is the key toward peace and calm. It is the key toward more success. It is the key toward unburdening your life. It is the key toward freedom and fulfilment.
Whenever I ask a person what is important in his or her life, these are the types of answers I can expect: my career success, my relationships, my financial stability, my home, my material possessions, the opinions of other people about me, my holidays, my experiences, health and happiness.
That is all fine but there is an issue that I encounter with almost everybody. The issue is that life then works as follows for people:
When I have career success, when I have good relationships, when I have financial and material success, when other people speak highly of me, I feel good.
(but…) When my career success is lacking, when my relationships are troublesome, when my success is deteriorating, when people critique me, I feel bad…
So here is the thing: most people make how they feel dependent on externals. Externals like career, like relationships, like bank account, like material wealth, like the good opinion of other people. And if you do that, you are giving your control away. You are not the boss over how you feel. How you feel is dependent on other things and other people. It is not in your hands. And I don’t think this is what you want.
We all know that life does present us with challenges. Life sometimes can be disappointing. Life is uncertain and can throw us with curveballs. All these external things are nice. Yes they are important but they are no way the most important thing for your life. The most important thing for your life is your mindset! Do you have the mindset to deal with the developments outside of you? Do you have the inner foundation to stay stable, to stay calm, to stay positive, to be resilient when life does not go your way?
Your mindset decides your destiny in good times but more importantly, it can make you or break you in challenging times. Your mindset is Mission Critical for the happiness and success whatever the situation may be.
What is Mindset?
Mindset literally means ‘how your mind has been set’.
The thing you should understand is that you have not set your mind consciously. You have not deliberately chosen how you have set your mind. No, your mindset has developed without you realising. Your mindset consists of your ideas, your beliefs, your convictions, your expectations, your judgements. In short: all your gathered subconscious thoughts. You have formed these as you were living.
People told you things. For example, your parents told you that you have to get good grades at school because otherwise you do not have a future. And they told this so often to you that it has developed into a belief in your mind. Your mind has been ‘set’ with this belief.
You have experienced things. For example, you played sports and you experienced that the winner was always celebrated. So you have learned to think that winning is needed to be celebrated. Your mind has been ‘set’ with this thought.
You have been fed things. For example, on social media influencers are showing you how to look and what clothes to wear. You have taken this for granted. You have accepted this as the external appearance to strive for. Your mind has been ‘set’ with these expectations.
So over time your mind gets set. You are being conditioned. Conditioned to think and perceive and assess and judge and expect according to everything you have (unconsciously) accepted and allowed in your mind. Your conditioning is many times not of your own choosing and your conditioning is many times flawed and not helping you, not supporting you in your life.
Our thinking leads our life and here then is the problem with our conditioned thinking: it does not result in the best outcomes for your life. A conditioned mind does not provide you with an inner foundation that helps you to create happiness and success.
How to develop an unshakeable mindset?
I have good news for you: everybody is born with a mind but we are not born with a mindset. This means that we can change the way our mind is set!
This is great news because it means that we are capable of replacing ideas and thoughts in our mindset that are not beneficial for our life. We can develop a new mindset that can serve as our best friend in life. Just like the Buddha said: your mind can be your best friend (but also your worst enemy…).
How can we change our mindset?
Well, we cannot remove old thinking. We cannot ‘undo’ old beliefs and convictions and expectations.
But we can add new thinking to our mind. We can add new, helpful beliefs; new, supportive convictions; new, fulfilling expectations. As we add new thinking that supports our life in whatever the situation and as we repeat the new thinking again and again, the new belief develops and grows bigger and bigger.
Our mind works in such a way that the bigger belief will win the internal fight between the positive belief and the negative belief. So if we focus on the helpful thoughts and do not pay attention to the unhelpful thoughts, over a period of time, we are able to change our mindset to a friendly and supportive mindset. Step-by-step we can grow an unshakeable mindset.
So what are examples of elements of such an unshakeable mindset?
Well, just look at the list of Merel: I can do it, I am worth it, I am beautiful. And also: what matters is what I think myself!
Learning to train your mind is the best investment for your life
When you elevate your mindset with the right thoughts and ideas you are setting yourself up to live your best life. Such mindset will be your guide and will also be your companion and cheerleader in times when the going gets tough. Such mindset will keep you grounded and stable. It will keep you positive and calm. It will make you decisive and action oriented. Such mindset will be your best help to live a life full of happiness, success, fulfilment and freedom.
Learning to train your mind is the best investment for your life!
I know this from my own life experience. I know this from the life of many people who – like me – do not take their mind for granted but deliberately work to set their mind to their advantage. I know this from the results of my many clients whom I train in mind awareness and whom I provide with guidance and light to empower and elevate their mindsets and thus their lives. And I know this from my masters and teachers whom have lived and are living exemplary lives based on an unshakeable positive and peaceful mindset.
Do you want to elevate your life? Know that the root for all of your life is your mindset. Mindset is Mission Critical for your Life. Learn to train your mind and you have found to key for massive improvement and transformation. I can coach you how.
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Anton Broers, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Anton Broers is a leading mindset coach and trainer based in Europe. He is a former senior business leader at a global brand who spent time in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Anton is a keen student of ancient spiritual wisdom made simple for modern-day application. As the CEO of Mind ur Life in the Netherlands, he helps children, adults, and businesses toward happiness, success, fulfilment, and freedom. Anton’s mission is to introduce the world to the power of the mind to create the life and results we desire.
