How To Cultivate An Unstoppable Resilient Mindset
In this month’s article, I am going to be sharing with you 3 powerful transformational questions you need to start asking yourself in order to cultivate an unstoppable resilient mindset. Now, before we dive into those 3 questions, let us first define what a mindset is and why it is even important.
What Is a Mindset and Why Is It Important?
A mindset is a compilation of beliefs, mental paradigms and mental cognitions which a person has that governs their behaviours, emotions, actions and view of the world.
According to a report by Standford University, our mindset is made up of “the assumptions and expectations you hold about yourself, your life and the situations around you.” The article further goes on to say that “Research shows that mindsets play a significant role in determining life’s outcomes. By understanding, adapting and shifting your mindset, you can improve your health, decrease your stress and become more resilient to life’s challenges”, (Primeau, 2021).
To put it into simple terms, our mindset is the frame or the lens through which we view the world and interact with it. The way that our minds have been “set” and the beliefs which govern our minds will influence and determine how we experience the world around us. That’s why former French novelist, Anaïs Nin was indeed correct when she said, “we do not see the world as it is. We only see the world as we are”.
This therefore reveals to us the importance of our mindset. Our mindset is vitally important because it influences the quality of our life. Our mindset is also extremely important when it comes to navigating through seasons of change and when dealing with challenges and adversity in life. Not only does it affect our response, but it also determines whether we rise above or whether we sink beneath and remain stuck.
I am personally fascinated and love the story of world renowned inventor, Mr Thomas Edison. In his quest to inventing the light bulb, not only did Mr Edison experience numerous challenges, setbacks and repeated failures (1000 failed attempts to be exact), but he also experienced many moments along his personal and career journey where he felt discouraged. After a while and he was finally able to get his light bulb invention to work, a reporter then one day came to him asked a very interesting question. The reporter came to him and asked, “Mr Edison, how were you able to get it done?”
And I just love Mr Edison’s response. He replied by saying, “I just found 1000 ways how not to create the light bulb”.
Wow! What an amazing philosophy and perspective he had. You see, Thomas Edison clearly understood that his mindset towards challenges was crucial in determining his level of success and the same thing is true for us.
This therefore leads me into the 3 powerful questions you must start asking yourself in order to cultivate an unshakable, unstoppable resilient mindset.
3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself
The next time you are faced with a challenge in your life, here are 3 questions you need to immediately ask yourself to cultivate a resilient mindset:
1. What Lesson(s) Can I learn from This Situation
Every challenge, obstacle, failure or difficulty you will ever face in life, whether personally, professionally or spiritually is simply an opportunity to learn and grow. That’s why former NBA basketballer, Kobe Bryant was indeed correct when he said, “every challenge is an opportunity to rise”.
How do we rise higher than we were before and how do we grow?
The answer: By being a student of our challenges.
It is only when we take the time needed to learn from our challenges and our failures that we are then equipped with the knowledge and skills required to rise higher. Thus, a great question we must start asking ourselves is “what lesson or lessons can I learn from this challenge”.
Not only does this question train us to cultivate a growth mindset, but it also shows us how to stay focused on the opportunities and not the obstacles.
As John Maxwell excellently stated in his book Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn, “adversity is a better teacher than success if we want to learn from it”.
You see, the benefits of growth, transformation and elevation will only come to those who are willing to learn from their challenges. If we are willing to pause, and learn from our difficulties, especially in those moments of disruption and change, we can learn a lot about ourselves and about life that we didn’t know previously. Thus, it is our responsibility to extract the learning lessons from the challenges we encounter.
If we look for the lessons, we will find them. However, if we keep looking for excuses and reasons to complain about the circumstances at hand, then we will never be able to rise above.
2. How Can I Use and Apply This Lesson To Improve My Life?
The second question we must ask ourselves is, “how can I use and apply this lesson to improve my life”. It is one thing to just identify the lesson, but we must now go a step further and look for ways to actively apply what we have learnt to our life. If we do not do this, the lessons we learnt would not have been of any benefit to us, consequently, we would not have truly grown because our challenges would not have served us. It is only when we look for ways to apply what we learn, that we are then able to transform our challenges into stepping stones for our future. By asking this simple question, “how can I apply this lesson to help improve my life”, we are able to reframe our view towards challenges.
According to organisational psychologist, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, this process of reframing our perspective towards challenges, is called “psychological flexibility”. Instead of our challenges being a liability and a hindrance to our future self, it becomes an asset and a stepping stone which can be used to propel us forward, all through this simple reframing of our mind. Thus, it is important for us to ask this powerful question in order for us to develop an unstoppable, resilient mindset.
3. How Can I Share This Lesson With Someone Else To Help Them Improve Their Life?
The final question we ought to ask ourselves is how can we share the lessons we have learnt from our challenges to help someone else in their journey. As Jim Kwik once said, “we learn, earn to return”. In other words, whatever we learn, we have a responsibility to share with others to help them along their journey. You see friends, the very lessons we learn from our challenges may very well be the key to someone else’s breakthrough. Therefore, we must look for ways to share what we learn to help others along their journey.
When we start to ask ourselves these 3 simple, yet profound questions each time we are faced with a challenge, I can guarantee that we will become unstoppable regardless of the circumstances that are set before us. This is because we would have learnt how to turn even the most difficult experiences into an asset which can benefit us going forward.