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SHIFT YOUR
MINDSET
Challenge negative thoughts
to create opportunities
INTRODUCTION
Our mindset is so important. It determines the approach we take to life including how we view all
the options open to us, how we make decisions and the actions we take as result.
Your mindset can influence everything you do in life.

A positive mindset
Those of us lucky to have a positive mindset can make the best out of most situations and will see
challenges as opportunities rather than problems. If you have a positive mindset you’re much
more likely to be receptive to things and try them with an open heart and mind. Good things come
when we’re in a good frame of mind!

A negative mindset
Those of us with a negative mindset see the world differently. Those challenges we talked about
above will be seen as problems rather than opportunities. When all you see is problems then life
seems an uphill battle. There’s always a reason (or an excuse) why you can’t, don’t or won’t do or
achieve something.

ABOUT THIS TOOLKIT

The good news is that it’s perfectly possible to change your mindset from negative to positive
with a bit of encouragement and training your brain to think about situations in a different way.

Use this toolkit to help you work out HOW to shift your mindset from a negative one to a
positive one in order to be successful in the program.

You’ll then be able to make the changes you want without being sabotaged from the start by your
own negative thoughts!

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STEP 1: IDENTIFY A NEGATIVE MINDSET
In this step you're going to choose a negative mindset to work through. Pick something you've
been wanting to do or achieve but for some reason (so far) you haven't done it yet. It could be
saving money, giving something up, getting fit, decluttering your home! The choice is yours.

It's important that you pick just one example at a time so you can really take the time to get to the
root cause of your negative mindset. If you try to tackle everything at once you might miss
something really important in your haste to get to the next step.

We often get so used to thinking about things in a certain way that we forget to re-look at things
in a fresh way. Remember that old saying that if you keep doing the same thing, then don't expect
a different result? Well, the same is true of our thought patterns.

You want to challenge your existing thought patterns and the only way to do that is to strip them
back to basics and encourage and train your brain to think about things in a new way.

To help you identify a negative mindset, they usually show up as:

·        Something that you tell yourself which holds you back in some way
·        A reason you are using to not do something
·        When you tell yourself that something isn’t worth trying
·        Procrastination and inability to make a decision
·        Blaming somebody or something else

Eg. You’d like to lose weight but you’re not able to find the time to exercise and you can’t eat healthy
food because the rest of your family won’t eat lettuce.

IDENTIFY A NEGATIVE MINDSET AND WRITE IT DOWN HERE:

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STEP 2: IDENTIFY YOUR PERFECT OUTCOME
Imagine what you would like the end result to be in an ideal world if you weren't held back by
any negative thought patterns and mindset. Be specific.

In my example that I used earlier, I would say that I’d like to lose 10lbs in weight and be fit enough to run
a 10k race.

WRITE DOWN YOUR PERFECT OUTCOME HERE:

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STEP 3: WHAT'S BEEN HOLDING YOU BACK?
Now for some soul-searching! Identify the exact reasons why you haven't done what you want
to do already? Take your time and really explore the root cause of what's been holding you
back.

Asking yourself the following questions might help:

·        Do I really want to do it or am I doing it because someone else thinks I should or because I
don't want to feel left out?
·        Assuming that you do really want to do it, why haven’t you done it already?
·        Are you lazy or undisciplined?
·        Are your expectations unrealistic?
·        Are you thinking all or nothing and only taking half measures just won’t do?
·        Are you waiting for someone else to help you or take the lead?
·        Do you feel you’re not good enough or don’t deserve it?
·        Do you blame anything else for you’re not pushing on - someone else, lack of time, lack of
money, lack of support?

As you can see this list of questions is quite long, but it will give you food for thought when it
comes to you thinking about why you haven’t done what you want to do already.

Remember that there's no judgement here! We're all guilty of not doing things every now and
then, or trying something and then giving up half way. I'm sure many of us have also blamed a lack
of time or lack of support for not getting something done too. Just be honest with your answers!

JOT DOWN WHAT YOU THINK YOUR REASONS ARE FOR NOT DOING WHATEVER IT IS
THAT YOU WANT TO DO. WHAT'S BEEN HOLDING YOU BACK?:

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STEP 4: CHALLENGE YOUR THOUGHTS
In this step you're going to challenge your existing thought patterns. For every reason that you
wrote down in the last step, come up with a counter-argument or reason why these old
thoughts just aren't valid.

Eg. In my example I used two excuses for not losing weight and getting fit - lack of time and my family not
eating lettuce. I could always find the time if I really wanted to, by getting up earlier or stopping doing
something else during the day (like watching TV) whilst I substituted it for a daily home work-out. As for
the lettuce, I could always feed my family their normal food and eat lettuce myself.

Often times, when we challenge our negative mindset and those limiting beliefs, we find that they
just don’t stack up.

Usually they’re:
·        based on wrong or biased information
·        are dependent on other people - our actions should never be based on other people doing
something or changing because they have different priorities and may not do what we need or
want them to do
·        developed that way over time as we’ve got into the habit of thinking about something in a
particular way even though it might not be true!

WRITE DOWN YOUR OLD THOUGHT PATTERNS AND COUNTER-ARGUMENTS HERE:

OLD THOUGHT PATTERN NEW COUNTER-ARGUMENT

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STEP 5: FIND A NEW WAY OF THINKING
In this step you're going to find a new way of thinking and create a positive mindset about
whatever it is that you've been wanting to do.

Make sure it’s achievable, realistic, not dependent upon anyone but you, and something that you
really want!

WRITE IT DOWN HERE:

E.g. In my example I would write - I want to lose 2lbs per week by choosing healthy meal options for
myself, cutting out my snacking and by working out 30 minutes each day by following a home workout
video each morning before I shower and get the kids up. (As you can see, my example is realistic and only
dependent on my actions. It doesn’t require input from anyone or anything else to make it happen).

And finally, you can work through lots of different negative thought patterns in this way using the
same process. Just don’t do them all at the same time or you’ll get swamped and won’t achieve
anything!

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 THANK YOU!

Thank you for being here and I hope you found Shift Your Mindset helpful.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR JOURNEY

TO A DECLUTTERED, SIMPLER AND MORE INTENTIONAL LIFE!

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