When I think of mindset training, I often think back to the part-time job I had whilst at university.
I worked in a supermarket.
It offered amazing customer service training, for which I’m still very grateful.
Every so often, I’ll find myself using something from that training and noticing it now, 17 years later.
It made the job a lot more enjoyable.
Techniques like speaking in positives, for example, “no problem” becomes “my pleasure”.
The good news-bad news-good news sandwich to maintain a positive demeanour.
Apologising with a proper structure – apologise, appreciate, action – genuinely made interactions with shoppers more pleasant.
I would often be extremely tired for my shifts as they would fall after a busy day at university.
This was made worse during teaching placements, as these were even more demanding than regular semesters.
And, of course, worst of all, the Sunday morning shift after the night before.
It’s easy to see why I was so tired all the time.
Being able to rely on these techniques really helped me through some tough shifts.
That being said, I definitely had some poor performances.
This basically meant that any time I had one of the bad performances where I was defensive, apathetic, and downright lazy, I would write it off because this was only a temporary measure.
Imagine waking up, however, for your career-focused job with that same level of apathy as some people do for temporary jobs.
Here’s the scary thing: some people do.
Some people spend years, possibly decades, of their lives waking up with the same level of apathy and disdain for their job as a hungover student on a Sunday morning in a supermarket with unnecessarily bright lights.
And they feel helpless. Completely unable to change their situation.
This is where your mindset and mindset training come in.
The beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, and so much more that impact your behaviour.
The key areas of mindset training
1. Stress
Stress has certain connotations. We instantly assume the negative.
This is because of news reports about how much damage stress is doing to our health and to the economy through work absences.
Which is all true, by the way.
It’s the number one cause of absence in both workplaces and, somehow, high schools.
Back pain, migraines, and nausea are just some of the symptoms we see, with stress pulling the strings in the background.
There’s even some evidence to suggest it’s the leading cause of absence in primary schools.
This type of stress is real and deserves our attention.
Because often our time, energy, and effort are taken up by much more mundane things in life.
Things like getting the volume to an even number or picking up people’s typos on WhatsApp.
The more we can eliminate these less significant trials, the more time and attention we can devote to the things that truly matter.
2. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognise and manage your own emotions, as well as recognise the emotions of others and manage the relationship accordingly.
In fact, a lot of studies have shown that employers value EQ over IQ.
In other words, it’s better to know people than to know stuff.
This all begins with getting to know yourself.
It’s vital that we get to know the things that can annoy us, the things that infuriate us, and the things that reset us, bringing us back to zero.
This means we can go into these situations pre-armed with tips and techniques to prevent the situation from escalating.
As a direct result, we instantly start to manage our relationships better as we can control our contributions to conversations more effectively.
It’s a win-win.
During our mindset course, we will explore what happens in our brains when we make certain decisions and why we behave in certain ways that perhaps disappoint us when we reflect upon them.
The first step to changing these behaviours is becoming aware of the root cause.
With this in mind, we can start to work towards more emotionally intelligent decisions.
3. Positive action
Our thoughts only count for so much until we start to do something about them.
In fact, our thoughts can actually sometimes do harm.
I wonder how many people reading this right now would consider themselves to be an overthinker.
How many are now thinking about whether they count as an overthinker, and are now giving it some more thought.
Or many people are now thinking about the fact they overthought being an overthinker and…
You get the point.
We can think our way out of actions and goals.
How mindset and habits create success
A great phrase I saw in a gym – the source of all great philosophy – once read ‘Anticipation is worse than participation.’
Mindset is the starting point of taking positive actions and making positive behaviour changes; however, it only counts for so much.
This is why we work towards goal-setting during our mindset workshops.
Our lives and our character are made up of many, many small behaviours each day.
In fact, around 40% of these behaviours each day are said to be habits.
We are in the business of helping you build healthy habits.
To become a product of all the good decisions we make.
And that all starts with creating and working with a better mindset.
Get in touch today to find out how we can help you get started.
Photos in Mindset training: How it can boost your communication skills by Pink Elephant Communications.
Mindset training: How it can boost your communication skills was written by Stuart Fenwick and edited by Maxine Montgomery.
