Your mindset is what compels you to take a certain action or leads you back off from acting on something. It influences how you see yourself and those around you.
Different types of mindsets can mean different things to each of us. And they can say a lot about how and why you think like you do.
Each has benefits and drawbacks.
A numbers game
The number of mindsets that exist is dependent on how much you generalize them. Finding your type is key to understanding how you operate in every area of your life.
There are two main types of mindsets, Fixed and Growth. Each has benefits and downsides.
If you have a fixed mindset, you tend to believe your skills or qualities are set and you resist changing them. These include your intelligence level, and your personality or character.
This can cause you to limit yourself and focus on proving yourself to others.
Some of the sub-mindsets of a fixed mindset include these tendencies:
· Fear
· Laziness
· Envy
· Greed
· Short-term thinking
· Anger
· Tendency to follow
Characteristics include:
1. Blaming others for things that are wrong
2. Lazy habits
3. Relying on addictions
4. Insatiable and always want more
5. Self-absorbed, with little thought of others
6. Limited initiative to achieve
7. Obsessed with what others are, do or say
8. Waste time
9. Come across in a negative way
With a growth mindset, you tend to believe in a basic set of qualities. You feel you can cultivate and develop them through effort, strategy, and help from others.
Some of the sub-mindsets of a growth mindset include:
· Social
· Business
· Dreamer
· Gratitude
· Confident
· Creative
Characteristics include:
· Willing to help others
· Solve problems
· Think big and know what you want
· Feel gratitude for what you have
· Eager to learn
· Dedication to achieve and grow
· Able to change and develop skills
· Embrace challenges
· Learn from failures
What type of mindset is the basis of your thoughts and actions? Do you believe that this is how you are and can’t change?
Do you believe you can change, and things can be different for you? The good news is you can change your mindset to one of growth and abundance.
No matter how focused you are, some days, it’s hard not to get distracted. And, in a time of societal upheaval, those distractions can get out of hand.
Let GenuLines help you with this list of points to bring back your focus.
Life can sometimes get in the way of meeting your goals, but it doesn’t have to derail you.
Here are some expert tips on how to stay on track, no matter what else is happening around you.
1. Get Organized
It’s easier to focus if you’re not distracted by the small, daily tasks. Commit to a nightly practice of preparing for the next day.
Decide what to wear, what to have for lunch and the other necessary things that are part of your routine. Have your gym bag ready and packed so you can just pick it up and go.
It can help to get organized for your week on a Sunday evening. For example, have all your work clothes clean and pressed and ready to wear.
You might even consider a minimalist work wardrobe of similar garments to mix and match. You can also bulk cook and freeze meals so that you don’t even think about dinner during the week.
2. Do the Tough Things First
You can free up a lot of mental energy by putting the difficult tasks and decisions at the top of your to-do list. Do the hardest tasks when your brain is still fresh first thing in the morning.
This way you can get on with your day without a nagging dread at the back of your mind.
3. Keep Your Energy High
It might surprise you to hear that fatigue can be a distraction. If your energy is low, you won’t be performing at your best, so make sure you take regular breaks.
Get out of the office and get some fresh air. Eat your lunch in the park and give your eyes a break from looking at a screen.
Eat lots of fresh foods and stay hydrated by keeping a water pitcher on your desk.
4. Manage Your Priorities
Chances are, many of the requests you get during the day don’t deserve to be your top priority. Instead of responding straight away, decide on how urgent the request is.
Do you really need to answer that email now? Learn to focus on requests and respond as you see fit.
5. Keep Your Eye on the Prize
There are so many distractions in modern life that it can be easy to lose sight of what you want to achieve. Have a visual reminder of what you’re working toward.
This could be a mission statement or a post-it note on your computer. Check-in every day to see how you’re tracking and make sure you keep a line of sight on your big goal.
We’ve all experienced mental fog. Its symptoms include:
• Difficulty concentrating
• Diminished memory
• Focusing problems
• A drop in communication skills
• Low motivation
• Easily distracted
Origins
Mental fog is due to any type of imbalance in the control center of the brain. This area is the hypothalamus. The imbalance can be a result of inflammation or free radicals. Or any type of stress brought on by several factors, such as:
• Multi-tasking
• Exhaustion
• Anxiety
• PTSD
• Imbalanced hormones
• Infections
• Not getting enough sun exposure
• Substance abuse
Mental fog is natural given our busy, nonstop lifestyles. But it can become frequent. If this is the case with you there are some simple changes you can make that will help.
• Eat right
It’s amazing how much power our food has over us. Processed foods, foods high in saturated fats, and gluten all have a negative effect on the brain.
In fact, research links gluten sensitivity to low concentration and focus abilities. Also, not getting enough water into your system can lead to brain freeze.
• Take your vitamins
Your diet is lacking in antioxidants. You want vitamins, such as D and B complex, and minerals, such as calcium, zinc, and magnesium. Supplements could help you here.
• Get better sleep
We all sleep, but it’s the quality of our sleep that can either make us or break us. High quality sleep improves brain function as a whole.
While it’s ideal to get the full 8 hours each night, some people only need 6 for optimal effectiveness. Find what works best for you.
Regulate your sleep using a relaxing bedtime routine and a comfortable sleeping area.
• Work out
When you exercise, you send fresh, oxygenated blood to your entire body, mainly your brain. This boosts its cognitive functions and diminishes brain fog.
Studies have shown how exercise can improve learning and study skills. It helps with concentration and memory ability, too.
• Find a hobby
It may seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do to get things done. And it could be tough to squeeze in a hobby.
But there are ways to incorporate fun, relaxing activities into your weekly schedule. The first step is to carve out some “me” time and stop thinking it’s selfish, like many of us do.
The second step is to find something you enjoy doing. It could be meditating by yourself in a quiet room, or a class or club where you’ll meet new people.
The final step is to decompress and enjoy.
Conclusion
Brain fog is reversible. You need to do the work and find out what works for you.
Each one of us is unique, so it may be a bit challenging at first to find that perfect fit. But you’ll be glad you put in the effort once you regain clarity and you’re able to perform at your best.
The flexibility of working from home is a boon for more people than ever. There are no stressful commutes, fewer interruptions, and often, less structured work hours.
But balancing life and work can be tough, so GenuLines offers some ways to do that.
If there’s one pitfall with working from home, it’s keeping a balance between work time and “you” time. Here are four ways that can help you pull it off.
1. Have A Dedicated Work Space
If you work from home you need to set aside an area for business only work. A separate room for a home office is the best solution.
But if you don’t have the space for that, a dedicated workstation will be fine.
Make sure that this space is only used for business purposes (this can be important for tax reasons too). If you’re in your living room, make the boundaries clear.
Keep the television and radio switched off. And avoid the temptation of doing housework between tasks.
Separate work and home life as much as possible.
2. Schedule Downtime
Downtime is as important as work time. If you don’t make sure you relax you’ll end up burning out.
Signal the priority you give to your downtime by scheduling it in your calendar. Be clear about your working hours.
And resist the temptation to peek at your work emails when you’re supposed to be relaxing.
3. Stick to A Working Week
Weekends are essential – you need time away from work to recharge. Keep to having specific days that are workdays and two days a week when it’s your weekend time.
These don’t have to be Saturday and Sunday. You can choose which days work best for you and your business but do take a weekend’s worth of time off.
4. Make Self-Care A Priority
Self-care is vital when you work from home. You might feel tempted to work all hours.
But you need time to chill, to exercise, and in general, take care of yourself.
Working from home makes it easier to stick to a healthy, nutritious diet. You’re in control of what food comes into the house.
Be sure to take lunch breaks, stay well-hydrated, and get a good night’s sleep.
Now we don’t mean that your mind can keep you from aging. But it can make you feel that way!
You often hear people over the age of 50 talk about aging. They talk about deterioration, decline, and feeling unwanted and not useful.
One way to deal with this is to focus on the positive things age brings. Things like wisdom, understanding, and the ability to help others.
Doing your best to be healthy is another way to keep the bad thoughts at a distance.
Your outlook and quality of life are likely to increase, too.
Ignore the Culture Surrounding You
We live in a world obsessed with youth. Every day, older people get pushed to the side in favor of the young.
The late teens and early twenties are the years called prime.
To get past this and actually start living with an ageless mindset, you have to do your best to tune it out. You’ve aged to the best you’ve ever been.
You’re wizened and seasoned. Stop denying your aging and own it; that’s what will truly make you ageless.
Love Your Body and Own Your Age
The only way to ensure you keep having the ageless mindset is to continue to love your body. Remind yourself that you’re getting better with age.
Appreciate your body for what it does for you and how far it’s taken you. Every day that you’re alive, you can learn something new and adapt to changes around you.
Never Say ‘Never’
One thing that will knock you off your path towards an ageless mindset is negativity. We psych ourselves with an attitude that we’re too old to do certain things.
You feel too set in your ways to learn. That can lead to feeling too old to be of value.
These thoughts are toxic and they threaten the positivity you’re working to maintain. Block negative mind chatter about your abilities, your worth, or your age.
It may take you a little extra effort to get where you want to go, but if you make the effort, you can.
How you deal with aging is up to you. You can dye you hair and lie about your age.
Or you can move forward with a new positive mindset that will have you feeling ageless.
Hard times are a breeding ground for hopelessness. You can slip into a feeling that you can’t win.
But today’s GenuLines message asks some important questions to help you prevail.
(You can listen to this article by clicking on HERE)
Hard Times And Their Important Lessons
These days hopelessness is a common feeling. There’s bad news in the media every day.
On top of that, our lives can bring personal challenges and negativity.
Everyone faces these situations in a different way, though. Some find comfort in religion and spirituality; others turn to meditation or therapy.
Unfortunately, others adopt unhealthy coping mechanisms,. Things like drinking to manage their grief, anguish, and sadness.
But if you look at hard times in a different light you can come up with more positive coping mechanisms.
One good way to reinterpret hardships is to find meaning in them.
And how can you do this?
When you’re facing a negative event, pause, and ask yourself how you can make the event meaningful.
For example, let’s say you get fired from your job. It’s a distressing situation that can leave you feeling afraid, angry, and ashamed.
Especially if you have a family, debt, or you don’t like your chances of finding a new job.
For example, ask yourself questions such as:
• Did I really like that job? Often, we’re stuck in a job that no longer makes us fulfilled, but we’re too scared to quit.
• Is this situation freeing my time for better opportunities? A job you no longer enjoyed could have been a roadblock in your professional development.
• What did I learn from that experience? The skills you learned at that job can be a launching point toward better opportunities.
• What went wrong? In this case, be honest with yourself — why were you fired? Look at the causes and don’t be judgemental.
• Are there any areas for growth? Regardless of what caused the negative situation, think of how you can use the experience to grow.
When you ask yourself these questions you give meaning to a negative situation. And you also take back control of it.
You re-frame the negative as an opportunity to grow and thrive in unexplored areas.
Look at it this way. A lost job is a chance for new growth. A new business, a trip, time off for family and friends, continued education, and more.
It’s healthy to feel down when you have a bad day. But it’s also important to take complete responsibility and be proactive.
Only then, can we find meaning in our lives and reduce uncertainty.
Luckily, this isn’t the only way to find meaning in difficult times.
When hardships come, it’s easy to over-think the situation.
But, dedicating at least some time to others helps put life into perspective.
When you give away your time and energy to help others, you create a connection with them. Life is no longer something that happens to you.
Instead, it becomes a network that you can influence in a positive way.
Finally, difficulties are part of life. Trying to avoid them keeps you from focusing your energy in purposeful, selfless directions.
So face tough times with patience and compassion toward yourself and others.
Every situation leaves its mark. That means you’re growing,
You’re building your own path of self-acceptance and compassion. You have the power to take control of your life by reflecting without judgment.
Accept each situation as an opportunity, and work with and for others.
Procrastination is more than turning in school or work projects late.
It can also include putting off important life decisions.
Like whether to ask your boss for the raise promised you last month. Or whether you should join a gym, or end a relationship, or have a baby.
The list of possibilities is endless.
The effect of not dealing with this can be life-long. Your relationships, career, and health might all take a hit.
But the tendency is to put things off until later. There’s always tomorrow, right?
It won’t be easy but try to identify the stress factor behind your procrastination. It could be fear of failure, fear of confrontation, fear of not being perfect.
You are your own worst critic.
Follow these tips to help you avoid procrastination once and for all.
1. Turn burdensome tasks into habits
We all have enough willpower to get about 3 or 4 tasks done each day. Turn yours into habits rather than mundane tasks.
You’ll give it less thought, and rely less on willpower. You won’t fall into the procrastination rut.
Why not turn healthy eating, daily exercise, or turning in reports ahead of time into daily habits, too? Procrastination is all about taking that dreaded first step.
So why not ease into it knowing that in time, or once you’ve finished X, you can watch videos or head outdoors.
2. Break work tasks into chunks
Instead of cleaning out the entire garage, do the right side first. Take a break.
Then do the left side. Take a break, and then finish off the rest.
At work, big tasks may seem daunting when you look at them as a whole. The answer?
Break them down into smaller tasks. Make an outline of the entire project, and then divide it into smaller tasks.
Working in 30-minute increments also helps break down tasks into smaller chunks. Those are manageable and not so intimidating.
After the 30 minutes, take a break and assess your work. Seeing how much you’ve accomplished will give you that boost of confidence you need to keep at it.
3. Remove distractions
Checking your email every 5 minutes isn’t doing you any good. So, once you’ve committed to doing the job, limit distractions by putting your away.
You can find apps that help you stay on track, but some will say that’s completely missing the point.
The important thing is that you set up a certain time for checking emails or your social media. Once you’ve started your task, you avoid the urge to take a sneak peak.
Another serious distraction is multi-tasking. Even though it may seem that you’re being productive, the truth is it wastes time and energy.
Yes you’re working more. But your end results will be below average.
4. Work during your peak hours
We all have certain times during the day when we’re most alert. Some of us are morning people, some are night owls, and some have more energy during the afternoon hours.
Find out what your peak hours are and tackle your most difficult tasks then. You’ll be more of a powerhouse then with your brain working at its highest capacity.
Procrastination is different than laziness. When you procrastinate, you delay one task for a more pleasurable activity.
So why not turn that mundane task you’re dreading into something more fun and enjoyable? Then you’ll put the brakes on procrastination.
So you got motivated recently. Maybe you saw an awesome speaker or got a stinging dose of honesty from a friend or family member.
But initial motivation often fades…so here are a few ways to keep it going strong.
1. Remember the pain points
In sales lingo, pain points are problems that come about when the solution offered is not taken. Try to keep in mind all the things that could or will happen if you don’t stay the course.
For example, if you were once motivated to go running three times a week. Think about what will happen if you don’t give your heart the exercise it needs.
2. Don’t play leapfrog
Feelings of motivation can sometimes slip into the category of finding the next high. Don’t bounce from goal to goal.
Instead finish what you start before getting motivated about something else. Let’s say you enjoy language and made a goal for yourself to learn French.
Learn it before you switch to learning German, and then Italian, or whatever else.
3. Know Thyself
When you try to reach goals that other people set for you, your motivation can wane. Take a look at those goals.
Make sure they’re yours…not goals that other people want you to achieve. If they’re not, you may want to set them aside and reassess where you’re going.
4. Visualize
Picturing realizing your goal is a big help in motivating you to succeed. And it has some awesome side effects.
The positive energy you give that imagery will affect you at a subconscious level. The mental affirmation that you can achieve it will do loads for your self confidence.
This will also also help you stay the course.
5. Let go of stuff beyond your control
When it comes to motivation, it can be easy to give up because things don’t’ go according to plan. Learn to let go of things beyond your control. If you don’t they’ll reduce your motivation to succeed.
6. Get organized
If you want to stay motivated, you need to work a little bit to keep the motivation alive. If you don’t it’ll slip under the radar.
Motivation will be just another feeling unless you crystalize it. Put your goals on the calendar and make an action plan.
Think about your priorities. I’ll bet it took you some time to remember what they are. Today GenuLinesnudges you toward putting what matters most to you at the top of your list.
Make Sure Your Priorities Are What Matter Most to You
Your success can hinge on focusing on your priorities. It’s easy to get caught up in unimportant things such as social media and life’s little dramas.
Forgetting this will hinder your progress.
Let’s say you had a dream to own your own business. But you held off on taking action because of job and family priorities.
You can find a healthy balance between those duties and pursuing your dreams.
Having your priorities out of whack can be very mentally draining, too. Focusing on stuff that holds you back from your goals can stress you out.
And you may not even be aware of it.
You get tired of doing a lot of work for no gain, like helping everyone else with their projects. You can put plenty of hours into helping your coworkers and friends.
But that doesn’t mean you’re going to get much out of it besides a thank you.
This is unfulfilling work, and you shouldn’t let it hold you back from accomplishing your dreams. There’s also an emotional benefit to having your priorities in order.
It comes from the self-satisfaction of knowing you achieved or moved closer to you goal.
Sleep on it
You don’t want to go to sleep each night knowing you didn’t make any forward progress. Doing things to their completion puts a positive light on your week, month or even year.
This forward motion will give you more of a sense of well-being.
To get your priorities on track, you first have to identify the main cause of stress or displeasure in your life. For example, you might have a job that you can’t stand go to.
You wake up every day dreading the trip to work.
This should be your starting point for change – spend your time searching for other jobs. Make it your primary focus.
Once you have your job sorted out you might take on other issues. Are your car troubles stressing you out?
That can be your next priority – getting the car repaired or selling it to buy a new one. Always focus on the primary cause of your stress in the moment.
You’ll be more likely to live a happier, stress-free life.
Your beliefs can and sometimes do change. The process of living has a way of forcing us to see things with new eyes.
If so, remember to consider these GenuLines points to bring your behavior in line with your beliefs.
Change Your Beliefs – AND Your Behaviors, Too
A powerful enough event can change even your closest held beliefs. It could have been something traumatizing.
Or something minor, like reading a blog post.
But a change in thinking doesn’t mean you’ll change your behaviors to match your beliefs. For example, you read how successful entrepreneurs master time management.
It sounds great, but you don’t act to change your disorganized behavior.
Or you might find a new way of dieting, and you start noticing the many unhealthy things people eat. Then again, you might not actually be eating the healthiest yourself.
And you might want better treatment, while still being a bit unpleasant to those around you.This kind of behavior can hurt your relationships with your friends and family.
And it can kick up your stress, too.
Practice what you preach or those around you will see you as a hypocrite. They’ll only accept your beliefs if you reflect them in an accurate way.
It can be difficult, though, to make these changes. When you realize that you’re not behaving as you believe you should be, it can be hard to change your actual behavior.
Spend time every day thinking about what changes you want to make. Then dedicate time to following through with those changes.
It won’t happen right away – it’ll take a few weeks for you to get used to changing your behavior.
In the meantime, ask a friend or family member to help you focus on this change and keep you on track.
When you start acting as you believe you should, you’ll find that you’re happier with who you are as a person. You’ll feel better about the quality of your personality.
And your social life will improve.
The accurate display of your beliefs will make you seem more trustworthy. Folks then show you more respect.
You did the hard yards. And now you’re actually following through on what you say.