Me Behind Myself —The mindset behind my growth and the thoughts and habits that shape my reality
Wait! What brought you here? Do you want to explore something new? Do you wonder about what’s in this article? No matter why you’re here, but since you’re, and already reading this article; be mindful and read it carefully because I’m about to share something personal. This article is not about some arbitrary beliefs, it’s about me — it charts my evolution of embracing a new mindset, self-efficacy, self-development, and motivation.
I used to be judgmental — never hesitated to make character judgments about someone on a first encounter, confused in my perception, understanding of reality, and expression of thoughts, biased in my opinions and feedback, and afraid of judgments myself. I used to put myself in comparisons with others, consider failure permanent, was afraid of taking action, thought of intellectual ability as something fixed, was running behind measurable accomplishments and accomplishing easy to do tasks, above all I was afraid of taking creative risks. Know what? I discovered most of these recently, it’s like I had never thought of them before. Whatever that was, it was not good, but the experiences and lessons I have learned are worthwhile, they will stick with me almost forever.
You might not agree, but I believe that the mindset we hold is a reflection of our previous experiences in life, the effect of societal limitations, and our own abstract false beliefs of reality. It was the time when I realized to shift my mindset towards being more efficient and productive, I started experimenting, taking risks, exploring new things, developing new skills, making new friends, and feeding my mind positive energy. I developed this hunger for learning and desire for growing as a person but was easy-going and lazy that didn’t let me exhibit significant accomplishments. My recent experiences have pushed me towards the desires I have been wishing to achieve; these experiences helped me accumulated my good habits and productive thoughts that I had already developed before but were dispersed. Now I’m focused on the journey of continuous development, I see obstacles and failures as opportunities for creativity and experimenting, I embrace challenging tasks and work hard to learn and improve, I’m dedicated, committed, and devoted towards my passion and dreams, and I’m open to flexibility and adaptability. All this was possible through new exposures at Amal and a new perception of the same old world with a different eye.
Feeling bored? Let’s cut these “Self praises”, I’ve something for you to take away. To cut short, being growth-minded requires us to do self-talk, leave our comfort zone, create new habits, always keep learning, and asking for people’s help.
Ever wondered what power does self-talk holds? Have you experienced being in a positive conversation with yourself? It’s what helps me most of the time, it motivates me, it releases positive energy that helps me get things done. Our mind listens to us, what we speak of and we think of; we have that.
“The mind is everything. What you think, you become.” — Buddha
Success lies outside our comfort zone, leaving it might not be easy but it’s fun, there is a whole new world out there full of wonders and surprises. Try, to experience it, if you have not already, it takes one small initiative and a little bit of persistence which you already have. When you have read this far you almost have left your comfort zone. To encourage you, I would like to share my experience; whenever I feel like I can not do something, I push myself forward, get the exposure, if I fail, I analyze the process and try again but never push myself back. If you want to leave your comfort zone but you do not feel like it, here is another technique; start learning a new habit, put yourself in a new environment — you will see significant improvement. This has helped me recently when I researched and made myself SMART goals, identified my strengths and weaknesses, and developed a habit of hard work. These were the things I considered useless, but I convinced myself to try them once and that was when I discovered the fun in these habits and their significant impact on my daily life.
As they say “Self praises no recommendation” — praises are worth when someone else admires the good in you, asking for others opinion has helped me keep my good habits, and encouraged me practicing them even more. You must also ask others around you to help you improve on their feedback.
No one can become a master at something overnight, and when it comes to developing new habits and mindset, it takes time. What I consider good might not be something I’m already practicing — but I can fake it, yes — the only faking you should do. This is my favorite one! You continuously remind yourself about the actions and habits you want to develop by doing them intentionally and mindfully, even though you have not completely adopted them.
Are you with me? What have you taken away from my experience? Do you want to develop a growth mindset from today? Start experimenting, start taking initiatives, explore new ideas, constantly compel yourself to do hard work, consider failure as a learning opportunity, embrace challenges, and fake all these till you make them! Your struggle to continuous improvement will motivate you, the wonders and surprises you will see along the way would help you forget about the hurdles and obstacles you face. I have started doing so and I want you to be my companion, let’s go, fella 🤞
#Reflection of Amal Totkay
