Choosing Happy: Your Action Plan for Personal Growth and Resilience

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Hello and welcome to this week's Choosing Happy Podcast.

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I'm Heather Masters.

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Have you ever felt that you're struggling with your mindset in times of change and turmoil?

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Has something come out of the blue and you've really struggled to get your mind back and focused on what you can actually do to move through a challenging time?

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That's what we're going to look at this week.

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I'm including tips from neuro linguistic programming and intuitive coaching to help you with developing resilience and a growth mindset in this week's Choosing Happy Podcast.

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Hello and welcome to this week's Choosing Happy Podcast.

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We're in very unusual and strange times and there are things happening that even four years ago we would never have imagined to be possible in our communities, in our countries, and globally as well.

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And with that, there can be a strain on our mindsets and how we cope, not just with the changes, with the challenges, but also with the cognitive dissonance that comes up from that Building resilience and developing a growth mindset.

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It has never been so important as it is now.

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So what I'd like to do today is actually take you through a kind of guided workshop on how to develop a growth mindset and what you can do from an intuitive as well as neuro linguistic programming techniques to build resilience and to develop your growth mindset.

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Now, before we dive in, let's start by briefly discussing what a growth mindset is now.

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Growth mindset is the belief that our abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and learning from experiences.

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I'd like to include in this our ability to expand our energy and consciousness.

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I know it's not mindset, but it's kind of a holistic approach to how we can build resilience and manage change going forward.

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This perspective allows us to embrace challenges, persist through setbacks, and view effort as our path to mastery.

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In contrast, a fixed mindset can hold us back by making us fear failure, avoid challenges, and keep us in limitation.

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So how do we shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset?

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That's what we're going to focus on today.

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So let's begin with the mindset assessment exercise that you can do.

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On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your current mindset when facing challenges?

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One being that I avoid challenges, 10 being that I embrace challenges as opportunities for growth.

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And just write that answer down so that you have a copy of it.

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Brilliant.

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And remember, this assessment is just for your own reflection.

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So as we go through today's, exercises.

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Keep that number in mind and see if it shifts by the end of our time together.

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Now let's dive into Reframing limiting beliefs.

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It's a neuro linguistic programming technique specifically for reframing limiting beliefs.

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So if you can bring to mind a limiting belief, a belief that you hold that limits your potential or keeps you from taking action.

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For example, something like, I'll fail if I try now to reframe it, we want to create a belief that's more empowering.

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For instance, instead of saying I'm not good enough, you might say, I am capable of learning and improving every day.

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So take a minute to write down a limiting belief and then reframe it into an empowering belief.

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And you can pause if you want to do that and then play when you come back.

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Great.

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Feel free to reflect on that and feel free to do that for a few more.

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There's a great technique which you can use to expand on this exercise where you write down a series of limiting beliefs that potentially around the same topic.

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So for instance, if you've been asked to do a presentation, you might have three or four limiting beliefs that stop you from wanting to do that.

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So the idea is to write down those three or four limiting beliefs that come up when you think about giving a presentation, maybe at work.

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The next thing to do is in another column, write down all of the reframing.

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So for instance, if you have a limiting belief around presentations, that is I'm going to freeze, you can create a reframing belief that I'm going to flow and even if I freeze, I can take a deep breath and start again.

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And in the final column, you can look at other times that you've given presentations and you haven't frozen and that everything's gone well and list all of the evidence, all of the times that that's actually worked out well for you.

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What you're doing is reinforcing that reframe.

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And that's the idea.

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So you have a limiting belief, reframe it, and then find the evidence for that reframe from the past.

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And that really helps you to rebuild that muscle, that new belief.

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Let's move on to our next exercise.

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It's a visualization exercise and we're going to use some intuitive techniques with this visualization exercise.

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First of all, get yourself comfortable.

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Hopefully you're not driving and just find your center.

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Close your eyes for a moment and take a few deep breaths.

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Inhale through your nose really deeply and then hold and exhale slowly through your mouth.

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Let's do that three times.

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Inhaling for four, hold for four and exhale for eight.

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And again, inhale for four.

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Hold for four and exhale for eight.

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Now, with your eyes closed, picture yourself facing a challenge that feels daunting right now.

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So it could be something like that presentation.

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Now imagine yourself approaching it with confidence and curiosity and maybe even excitement.

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Visualize the steps you take to overcome this challenge.

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What's the preparation steps you might put in place to create this presentation?

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To make sure that you feel good about it so that you have all the skills and all the competencies and you feel that you can do this.

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What emotions arise as you visualize the scenario of it going well?

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Allow yourself to fully experience those feelings of empowerment and possibility.

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You've done all that preparation.

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You can see yourself, you can see yourself moving through the challenge with confidence and what other feelings are coming up for you?

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And take another deep breath in and breathe out.

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And when you're ready, just open your eyes.

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How did that feel and what insights did you gain from that visualization?

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Did you easily see yourself moving through the challenge or was there other things coming up for you that you can reframe and revisualize?

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Now that we've explored some powerful techniques, let's create an action plan together.

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Identify one area for growth.

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Think about one specific area in your business or your personal life where you want to cultivate growth mindset.

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Now we can set some smart goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound related to this area of growth.

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Let's write one of those goals like make it very specific.

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So for instance, rather than something like I want to lose weight, you could say you want to be healthier and be able to walk 10,000 steps a day, or you want to be able to get into those clothes that you bought for your holidays.

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That also makes it measurable because you know how you're going to measure it.

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You know what size clothes you want to get into, you know how many steps you want to achieve and also check that it's achievable.

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Now, achievable is an interesting concept.

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Is it achievable in the timescale?

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Do you believe it's achievable for you and is that just if you don't believe it, is it a limiting belief or is it something around reality?

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So for instance, it's not achievable for me as a something year old woman to want to enter a race for 20 year olds.

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And is it relevant?

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Is it relevant to your Bigger goals, your bigger vision, your mission for you.

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Is it relevant to your lifestyle?

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Is it relevant to those around you?

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Is it ecological?

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Is it relevant?

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Or does it impact other people?

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Is it time bound?

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Is there a date that you want to do it by?

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And when we're thinking about smart goals, think about them as if they're already done.

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So when you write it, write it as for instance, it is the 5th of January, and I am walking 10,000 steps today in order to boost my health and vitality.

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Then list three actionable steps you can take in the next week to work towards your goal.

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So, for instance, I might not have a pedometer, so I would get myself a pedometer.

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I might start walking upstairs rather than taking the lift.

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I might be plotting out where I can walk or how I can achieve those 10,000 steps by building them into my daily routine.

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So take a few moments to write down your goals and then to write down your action steps.

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Pause this recording and then come back.

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So congratulations for doing that.

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I hope that you've got something from today's podcast and that it's been helpful for you.

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Thank you for taking the time to participate.

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And remember that developing a growth mindset is an ongoing journey.

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And the more you practice these techniques, reframing limiting beliefs, visualizing success, and setting actionable goals, the more resilient you'll become in facing challenges.

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Now, I know there are a lot of challenges out there that can kind of knock you sideways if you like, but if you can reframe them.

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One of the reframes I mention over and over again is that life is working for me.

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So although something may look negative, it may be because I haven't seen the lesson yet or I haven't seen the opportunity yet.

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For instance, if my car breaks down and it's irreparable, then maybe it is time that I buy a new car.

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And maybe the blessing or the lesson is that the car died before I got into an accident or it broke down before I had a long journey.

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Even though things may come across as being very negative.

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For instance, you may lose your job or be made redundant.

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If you look at it from the perspective of life is working for you, then let's assume then that the universe has something much better and empowering for you to do, and your time has come to change that job.

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Anyway.

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So as we wrap up, I encourage you to keep your action plan visible for the goals that you made as a reminder of your commitment to your personal growth.

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I would also invite you to use the Visualization the Visualizing Success to actually visualize a successful day, Every morning take 510 minutes to scan through your day, seeing everything go well.

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It's really, really powerful thing to do.

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And if you're interested in diving deeper into these concepts or you'd like support on your journey, consider joining my upcoming Resilience and Growth Mastery Program where I'll be exploring these strategies further.

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ges that we're moving into in: 2025

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I have a feeling that a lot of people might require help with stress, anxiety, overcoming trauma in the next year or so.

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If any of this interests you, links are in the show notes and please do get in touch.

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Thank you again for being here today.

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Have an amazing week and remember to keep Choosing Happy.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this week's episode.

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If you enjoyed it or think it would be valuable to others, please do share.

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And if you really enjoyed it, please leave me a review.

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It really helps the podcast.

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All of the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you next week on the Choosing Happy podcast.