The Four Winning Mindsets for your Breakthrough Life

In our current times of transformation, global crises, and search for meaning, mindset is more important than skill to secure success. Sure, skill matters, but only so much. Studies show that over the long run, people with the right mindset can outperform those that started out with better skill. It is true in sports when players under the radar ‘all of a sudden’ win championships and trophies. Nothing happens all of a sudden; every overnight success usually has been years in the making. The same is true in the world of music where great artists die unknown and others blessed with questionable talent make the Grammys.

In business too mindset beats skill. If you have skill but lack mindset, chances are you will not turn your dreams into a reality. Mindset is more than ‘believing in yourself’, which is a prerequisite of course. It is more than giving yourself that pep talk in front of the mirror prior to an important meeting. There are four distinct mindsets that I consider paramount for success – combine them and the sky’s the limit: JOMO, abundance, growth, speed. Let’s figure out what these are and how they help you build the business and life you want to live.

JOMO Sets You Free

You and I have experienced FOMO. Basically, everyone has. The fear of missing out. FOMO happens when everyone in your circle of friends has tickets to this hot new artist’s concert – and you feel like you’re the only one who’s never heard of her, but then buy tickets as well, just in case. You don’t want to miss out on something potentially legendary.

Feeling FOMO is human. But it can become your worst nightmare. Why? Because fear is never a good adviser, as they say. FOMO drives you into pursuing “opportunities” that really aren’t opportunities. Trends, tactics, the ‘next big thing’ that is nothing but a fad. If you let FOMO drive you, you are busy spending your most valuable asset – your attention – on stuff that doesn’t matter.

The antidote to FOMO is JOMO – the Joy of missing out. FOMO happens because you don’t have clear priorities in place, no strategy, no vision. It happens to people that wing it, day in, day out, and hope for the best. But: you can move to JOMO in no time. All you have to do is define your priorities in life and business, write them down. This will help you make the decisions that really matter.

Knowing what NOT to focus on anymore is as important as knowing what you want. Knowing what not to do is extremely liberating. It sets you free from the urge to follow other people’s expectations or strategies. Instead, you create your own path, your own success story. You experience the joy of missing out based on your knowledge, strengths, personality. You don’t do things just because they worked for someone else. You follow your dreams, your passion. So stop wasting time copying others and become an original.

Speed Trumps Perfection

Speed is a mindset that is opposite to perfectionism. How long does it take to design a perfect strategy, for example in business? Well, I don’t know, because I never did. Don’t design a perfect strategy. There is no such thing as a perfect strategy. Aim high, and at the same time approach your life and business as a humble learner, conscious about the fact that perfectionism is the enemy of progress. You can maximize your capabilities and tweak your strategy for as long as a year, seemingly improving it further and further. What you are actually doing is standing in the way of implementation, learning, and success.

Life and business are not about being perfect, being right, or wrong. It is about learning along the way – sometimes through mistakes – and adjusting your approach one step at a time, having your vision front and center. You want to look out for ‘good enough’, not for perfect. Start moving when you feel ‘good enough’.

I’d rather fail fast, learn and adjust, than wait forever and not progress at all. For example: aligning your career or business around an ‘80% strategy’, and then implementing it with all you’ve got will certainly yield greater results than spending months and months on refining your strategy to perfection, but failing to properly implement it. So start fast and remain agile: stay aware and ego-free enough to adjust if the world turns against you or the metrics aren’t as you hoped for.

Abundance Builds The Best Strategies

An abundance mindset is the opposite of a scarcity mindset. If you see someone else thrive, and you feel there is not enough left for you, you are in a scarcity mindset. If you instead focus on what you can do to become the best version of yourself or build the business you can be proud of, that’s an abundance mindset. Abundance is about recognizing opportunities in working with others and taking chances, rather than only thinking about the cost involved or a
fear of being taken advantage of.

An abundance mindset is crucial for creating a winning strategy. It’s about exploring possibilities. It’s about curiosity and daring to dream. About creating hope. Allowing yourself to be in an abundance mindset will bring about new perspectives and thoughts and discussions with friends or your team at work that you’ve never had before.

A scarcity mindset shuts others and their ideas down. You say no too fast. Or you say ‘yes, but…’ rather than ‘yes, and…’ – Remember: while JOMO helps you to say ‘no’ to a lot of things, an abundance mindset keeps you open-minded so that you don’t say ‘no’ pre-maturely. Allow yourself to be abundant first, and take informed decisions later.

A Growth Mindset Asks Better Questions

I’m sure you’ve heard about growth mindset before, right? It’s the opposite of having a fixed mindset. Instead of thinking in absolutes you think in options, opportunities, and based on a desire to learn. You’d say ‘a mistake will help me learn’ rather than ‘I failed’ or ‘I’m stupid, I’ll never make it’. A growth mindset allows you to find new ways of doing things, to try something new, learn new skills, instead of giving up and hitting yourself over the head.

A growth mindset allows you to – well – grow! You start asking the right questions, such as ‘what am I missing’ or ‘how could I use this negative experience and turn it into something positive’. You realize that nothing is ever ‘too hard’ or ‘you can’t do this’ – these terms that come from a fixed mindset. If you allow yourself to add some perspective and the factor of time, all of a sudden you realize, ‘you don’t know how this works, YET’ and that things might take some time before they’ll work out the way you want.

Creating winning strategies in life and business are about turning hopes and dreams into reality. This requires a growth mindset as much as abundance thinking, speed, and the guts to go for JOMO. Are you ready to find out about your own mindset now?

Main Image by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash