With the start of a new year, setting goals is top of mind. What makes the biggest difference in whether you achieve your goals or end up self-sabotaging with procrastination, perfectionism and imposter syndrome is something often overlooked as people put together their action plans.

Your mindset is your biggest driver of success—or your biggest source of self-sabotage.

The collection of thoughts you have about a specific situation is your mindset. And it matters!

Your Thoughts Impact Everything

When you have a thought—even one that is running below your conscious awareness—it triggers neurochemicals that create an emotion.

Your emotion determines how you show up in that situation.

And your actions, inactions and reactions produce your result in that particular context.

This is what is known as a behavior chain. The graphic of my B.E.A.R. U.P. Your Load ModelTM illustrates the relationship of the components.

I use this framework to help my clients see the impact of their beliefs and thoughts on their results. 

It’s one of the many tools in my Empowered Transformation AcceleratorTM process my clients use to renew their minds and transform their businesses and lives.

Gain More Awareness Of Your Mindset With This Exercise

Want to reach your goals for 2023 and feel great doing so? 

Then take a moment to check in on your thoughts and feelings about your goal and the actions you’ll need to take to produce that result.

Grab something to write on and set a timer for 2 to 5 minutes. Write your goal and then, without censoring or judging yourself, get your thoughts about that goal out on paper. 

Read back over what you wrote. As you read each sentence, check in with how you feel. Excited? Anxious? Motivated? Overwhelmed?

Identify and practice the thoughts that create positive emotions. Use them whenever you need emotional fuel to show up and execute your action plans to achieve your goal.

Question and explore the sentences that create negative emotions like confusion, self-doubt, fear or overwhelm.

How are you likely to show up when you’re thinking that thought and feeling that emotion? Are you more or less likely to create your desired result when fueling your actions with this belief and emotion?

More than likely the negative belief and emotion will make it harder to achieve your desired result. Thus, it’s not the most useful way to think about the situation.

Cultivating More Useful Beliefs

To find some more useful beliefs to add to your mindset, ask yourself, “What else could be equally true but creates a more positive (or at least less negative) emotional experience?”

Brainstorm some sentences that feel just as true but that are more useful in terms of the emotional fuel they produce. Try saying each option to yourself and check in to see if it creates a positive emotion. Will that emotion help you show up the way you want to? If yes, then you have a winner! 

Then, whenever your brain offers you the negative belief, redirect your mind to the more useful one. 

You’ll show up more effectively and feel better doing so.

You’ll make it easier for you to take your planned actions without having to rely on willpower and forcing yourself to take action fueled by fear, confusion or dread.

Want to learn more about my Empowered Transformation Accelerator process and how coaching can help you feel more empowered to achieve your goals?

Apply for a free Breakthrough Session. If you qualify, we’ll jump on Zoom together at the time you choose to explore your goals and how you are and aren’t showing up to achieve them. I’ll offer you some valuable coaching and perspective and give you an overview of how the Empowered Transformation Accelerator process could help you. This conversation will help you and I determine if coaching together makes sense. Whether we end up working together or not, my goal is to make this the most valuable 45-minutes of your week.