Are you feeling like things just aren’t working out for you? Are you feeling stuck and unhappy with the way things are? Are you wondering how to start afresh or how to start over?
Whether it’s in your personal life, business or career development, when it comes to making big changes in your life, you must first challenge your mindset. Your mindsets determine everything.
If you want to change the world, you have to first change your mindset. A new beginning or fresh start isn’t a place, it’s a mindset!
What is a disruptive Mindset?
A disruptive mindset is a way of thinking that is focused on finding new and innovative ways to challenge the status quo and create change in your life. It involves being open to new ideas and approaches, even if they are unconventional or go against established norms or beliefs.
We now live in a disruptive world of constant change that results in increased uncertainty and complexity. If you don’t change your mindset and, ultimately, your behaviour, no change will happen.
To adopt a disruptive mindset, you need first to identify your status quo mindset — the mindset that holds you back.
Take a step back. Think about your status quo mindset and the consequences of staying in the status quo mindset. Chances are, things will stay the same or get worse.
Here are 9 disruptive mindsets for a fresh start:
1. Think in Questions
Personal growth and all creative breakthroughs are the results of questions. Without questions, there is no growth and no genuine search for solutions, answers or better innovations.
So, turn your pain, fears, frustrations, failure, people’s opinions and observations into authentic questions.
Even when engaging in a conversation with others, use more questions than statements.
As someone searching for meaning and inner peace, I have found that questioning your habits will reveal the real problem. So, don’t think in problems, think in questions.
Questions are the new answers. Thinking in questions will answer a lot of questions. Asking questions drives you forward. Without it, you will forever stand in one place.
Do you really want a fresh start? Then, find things you are ignorant about and ask questions. Discoveries should lead to more and better questions, and the right questions make all the difference.
When you ask a question, your brain becomes open to all sorts of possibilities and imagination. Questions generate solutions as well as opportunities.
Don’t settle for one layer of questions, go deeper — continue to apply a sense of wonder and you’d come up with additional better questions that’ll lead to better answers.
2. Get past your lone wolf mentality.
Let go of the mindset that says: “I have to do it on my own, no one is coming to save me.”
If you only take on things you can tackle as an individual, you’d gonna live small for the rest of your life.
“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together” ~African Proverb
Learn to be able to work, collaborate, have partnerships and integrate with your community. Move past your desire for complete and total independence.
A disruptive mindset will help you break out of this habit and create meaningful relationships and connections.
None of us is as strong as all of us.
3. Adapt, Adapt & Adapt!
To adapt means to re-purpose something into a suitable or usable context. A few ways to do so include turning an insult into a lesson in self-awareness, redefining an old perception into a new perspective, or converting a once-obsolete product into the next best idea.
We’re living disruptive times. Don’t wait for change to happen to you — try to anticipate it and take steps to prepare for it.
You may need to consider taking classes or learning new skills that might help you adapt to changes in your personal or professional life.
Remember that change is a natural part of life and it can bring new opportunities and growth. Try to embrace it rather than resist it.
Adaptability builds resilience!
4. Be an Avid Seeker of Knowledge
Fall in love with books. Not academic books, but books in general. Wisdom likes to hide, and its favourite hiding place is in books.
Reading is like a software update for your brain. Find a way to feed your mind. Books are the cheapest way to get an education
A book can save you 10 years if you READ it. You get decades of knowledge condensed in a few hours of reading. You save money, time and mistakes by reading.
Make reading a daily habit. Read quality books. Once the mind is stretched, it never shrinks back to its former dimensions!
“Knowledge makes a man(woman) unfit to be a slave.” ~ Frederick Douglass
If you only depend on your teachers or the media for knowledge, anything they don’t know, you too will never know.
5. Seek Rejection
Shift your mindset from avoiding rejection to seeking it. Seeking rejection makes you fearless.
Seeking rejection can be a useful strategy for personal and professional development, as it helps you become more resilient, grow, and potentially achieve success and new opportunities.
If you get rejected try again, just take a different route. Rejection is better than never knowing!
There were 12 publishing houses that rejected J.K Rowling’s book (Harry Potter story). Yes, that’s right, and we all know that today, J.K Rowling is laughing all the way to the bank.
6. Choose Learning Over Failure.
Learning from failure is an important part of the process of growing and improving. A fresh start demands you to learn from the failures of the past so that you won’t repeat them.
Failure is a mindset. Every setback, every criticism, every seemingly negative “thing” in one’s life can be flipped over and immediately turned into something positive to learn and grow from simply by changing your perspective. Radical change isn’t possible without a radical shit in mindset. There is no failure, only feedback.
The secret is to find ways to associate more pleasure with things you avoided in the past because our brains don’t know the difference between perception and reality — they just “know” whatever you tell it.
7. Update your belief system
According to Psychology, those who believe in their own ability to succeed tend to perform better and have a more remarkable ability to execute their plans.
But a common mistake we often make is getting caught up in other people’s belief systems. Often by listening to their advice or fears. But remember, what they believe that they can or can’t do has actually nothing to do with what you are capable of achieving.
So be aware of your thoughts and how they affect the way you act and make decisions.
As Robert Bolton said, “A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind.”
8. Ask for what you want
Asking for what you want in life is an important step towards achieving your goals and getting the things that you desire.
You won’t get what you don’t ask for. A common notion is thinking that your dream life will just find you. That people around you, your friends, family, potential business partners or your boss knows what it is you want.
News flash: They don’t. Save your time and speed up the process by letting people around you know exactly what you need. Maybe you need a raise at work, a new exciting project, a longer vacation, a new position or better communication. You name it.
Ask for what you need without blaming them for not already providing it.
9. Demand more from yourself.
Look for opportunities to challenge yourself, whether it’s taking on a difficult project or trying a new hobby. This will help you grow and develop new skills.
Hold yourself accountable by having the plan to track your progress towards your goals. This will help you stay on track and hold yourself accountable for your actions.
Demanding more from yourself requires setting high standards, taking on challenges, reflecting on your performance, and seeking feedback. By doing these things, you can push yourself to grow and improve.
Conclusion
You don’t have to put up with the status quo if you don’t want to. Just because things didn’t work out in the past doesn’t mean you’re a loser or you don’t stand another chance.
In life, there’s always a choice. Nothing should stop you from making amends, rebooting your life and starting over.
As Glennon Doyle said, “Rock bottom is the end of what wasn’t true enough. Begin again and build something Truer.”
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