Five Mindsets That Will Transform Your Life

by Marelisa

Your mindset will have a huge impact on your success.

Mindset is a way of thinking that determines your behavior, outlook, and mental attitude. As Wilson Kanadi once said, “To change your life, you have to change yourself. To change yourself, you have to change your mindset.” Your mindset will determine the kind of person you’ll be and the goals you’ll be able to achieve.

All of the following depend on your mindset:

How you handle risk.
Whether you succumb to fear or overcome it.
How you respond to challenges and setbacks.
Your levels of motivation — how much effort you’re willing to put into an endeavor.
The opportunities you’ll be able to notice and how you’ll respond to these opportunities.

The five mindsets that will transform your life are the following:

The Creator Mindset;
The Growth Mindset;
The Abundance Mindset;
The Wealth Mindset; and
The Entrepreneurial Mindset.

Each of these mindsets is explained below, along with a few suggestions on how to adopt these mindsets.

The Creator Mindset

Those who have a Creator Mindset understand all of the following:

No one is going to hand them what they want, and things are not going to magically happen by themselves. If they want something, they have to go out there and get it for themselves. They have to make things happen.
If they’re having a problem, they have to solve or fix it themselves. No one is coming to the rescue.
Nothing is being done to them. Whenever they find themselves in a negative situation they accept that they created the situation themselves; they contributed to the situation; or at the very least they permitted it to happen.
They always have a choice.
They’re responsible for themselves and their actions.
Even if there’s not much they can do to influence any given situation, at the very least they can choose their attitude.

If you want to adopt a Creator Mindset, start by asking yourself questions such as the following:

What do I want?
How can I get it?
How can I solve this problem?
What can I do in this situation?
How can I get the money to do this?
What’s the best thing I can do in this situation, right now?

By adopting a Creator Mindset you’ll develop the capacity to envision the outcomes that you want and then start taking steps to manifest these outcomes.

The Growth Mindset

In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , Carol Dweck, Ph.D.–a professor at Stanford University and a social psychologist–explains that there are two different kinds of mindsets:

A Fixed Mindset; and
A Growth Mindset.

One mindset leads to risk aversion and feelings of limitation, while the other leads to success.

People with a Fixed Mindset believe that intelligence and talent are fixed traits: they’re born with a certain amount and that’s that. People with a Growth Mindset believe that abilities and talents can be cultivated through instruction and practice.

You develop a Growth Mindset by accepting the following:

With effort, you can train your brain to get smarter.
You can learn any skill, as long as you’re willing to put in the practice.
Failure doesn’t define you; it’s just a temporary setback.
See mistakes as feedback. Analyze the feedback and do better the next time.
Seek out new experiences that will challenge and stretch you.
It’s OK if you don’t understand at first. The point is to understand little by little. Ask yourself: “What can I try next?”
You can change your mindset so that your thinking patterns help you to succeed.

As I write in “The One-Hour-A-Day Formula“, if you’re one of those people who have a long list of skills that they want to learn–such as learning a language, taking up an instrument, learning to code, and so on–, having a Growth Mindset is vital.

The Abundance Mindset

The Abundance Mindset is often contrasted with the Scarcity Mindset. People with a Scarcity Mindset think that there are few resources out there, and their thoughts are centered on lack.

On the other hand, people with an Abundance Mindset think that there are enough resources for everyone, and their thoughts are centered on plenty. In order to adopt an Abundance Mindset, do the following:

Instead of feeling lack by focusing on what you don’t have, feel abundance by being grateful for what you do have.
Instead of fighting over what you perceive to be limited resources, actively look for ways to expand the pie so that everyone can get a piece.
Instead of staring at the door that just closed, start looking for a window that’s open.
Instead of constantly worrying about the future, be mindful of the gifts contained in the present.
Instead of comparing yourself to others, stay in your own life.
Instead of thinking that you have to be more or have more before you can he happy, choose to be happy with what you have, and with who you are, now.

Having an Abundance Mindset will open possibilities and allow you to see more alternatives. In addition, it will make you more resourceful and creative.

The Wealth Mindset

Another way of thinking of “mindset” is as a series of beliefs and thinking patterns. Therefore, if you want to adopt a Wealth Mindset you need to identify the beliefs and thinking habits that make up this mindset. So, what are the beliefs and assumptions that make up the Wealth Mindset?

Here are some of them:

Wealth creation is simply about acquiring the necessary knowledge on how to create, build, and protect wealth.
You should strive to become financially independent instead of relying on an employer for your financial well-being.
Money is good — money allows you to develop yourself to your fullest potential.
Building wealth is about having your money work hard for you.
To build wealth, you have to constantly learn and grow.
You are unique and valuable. In addition, what you have to offer to the world is unique and valuable, and you deserve to be well compensated for it.
If you want to make more money, you just need a better idea, and you need to bring focus and discipline to the process of turning that idea into reality.
Money doesn’t discriminate – it doesn’t care about your gender, race, ethnicity, and so on. In addition, it doesn’t care if you come from wealth or if your parents lived paycheck-to-paycheck. If you do what it takes to make money, and to take care of that money, you’ll become wealthy.

To create a Wealth Mindset, set financial goals. This will get you to think seriously about money and how to make it. Then, adopt the beliefs above and get to work.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

Some people have an Employee Mindset, while others have an Entrepreneurial Mindset. People with an Entrepreneurial Mindset think in terms of finding opportunities and creating value. They’re driven and they know how to take calculated risks.

Here’s what having an Entrepreneurial Mindset is all about:

It’s about being self-directed, instead of waiting to be told what to do.
It’s about giving yourself permission, instead of waiting for permission from others.
It’s about being daring, bold and audacious.
Entrepreneurs see opportunities instead of problems.
They’re constantly thinking in terms of value creation.
They see constraints—such as limited resources—as a good thing. After all, it eliminates the paralysis of choice that would otherwise prevent them from getting started. They do what they can with what they have.
They’re constantly looking for problems that other people are having which they can solve.
They can tolerate discomfort and ambiguity.
It’s about getting up each time you fall, learning from your mistakes, and tolerating rejection.
It’s about getting good at learning new skills.
It’s about realizing that the buck stops with you.
It’s about being action-oriented.
It’s about learning to promote yourself and sell your goods and services.
It’s about creating a strategy, and then executing that strategy.

You can’t succeed as an entrepreneur without having an Entrepreneurial Mindset.

In addition, even if you currently work for somebody else, people with an Entrepreneurial Mindset are more valuable to their employers than people with an Employee Mindset–after all, they need less supervision and get better results.