Our
premise for this series is this: If plan
A fails we still have twenty-five other options.
And
that brings us to our “M” words. Three
words come to mind for our focus today.
Mindful
A
good working definition of this word is “conscious
or aware of something”.
If,
as in our premise, you are facing a failure, there is a great chance that after
we get over the shock of our loss, we begin the process of becoming mindful of
some of the obstacles in our way and some of the pitfalls we should have
avoided.
Without
“mindfulness”, we would be prone to stumble back into the same holes we just emerged
from.
Mindful
is a good thing. It requires one to ask
the hard questions and come to grips with the answers and solutions discovered.
Ask
questions such as:
How did this happen?
When did I start down this track?
What should I have done differently?
What am I going to do differently in the
future?
All
of these are great top-of-mind questions and they cannot be handled lightly if
we truly want to avoid pitfalls the next time around.
Mindset
Mindset
becomes the next natural step after our mindful experience. These synonyms jump out at us when we
consider “Mindset”.
State of mind
Frame
of mind
Attitude
Approach
Way of thinking
Outlook
After
a failure, we have to re-frame ourselves and our dream. This takes an attitude adjustment, thinking
differently, and approaching the project from a completely fresh direction.
We
can easily fall in love with an idea, yet, when that idea fails us, changing
our minds can be a daunting task. And we
must make the change.
We
must change our mindset. As we've noted
above, this requires a series of tough questions and spending time with those
questions.
Sometimes
that time is spent in group-think sessions, and, for the responsible parties,
it requires some alone time and alone time has a companion – gut wrenching
honesty. No matter how much we love a
particular idea, we often have to lay it aside or put it on the chopping block
and see what happens.
Once
we reach that point, we can perhaps experience a paradigm shift. I found this useful concept when looking up
this word.
“Maybe if you got out of the paradigm you’re stuck in you’d
see things for how they really are.” (From Define Paradigm at Dictionary.com)
This
is precisely the mindset of which we speak in this blog.
Mentor
Our
last “M” word is mentor. A mentor can be
a useful guide to us in our search for success and happiness. Never before in American culture have we seen
such an emphasis on mentor-ship in all of its forms.
We
have personal coaches by the dozens. In
reading Harvey MacKay’s blogs, he once said he had over twenty “coaches”
(mentors), including a ping pong coach.
The
beautiful part of having a mentor is this; they can look at us in ways that are
impossible for us to see ourselves. And
if they are skilled in their field, their expertise helps us find, correct and
avoid the pitfalls we need to overcome to move to the next rung on the ladder
of success.
Having
the guts to place ourselves into the hands of a mentor can be daunting. It requires giving up old thoughts, old
habits and old mindsets in exchange for a new and improved outlook, attitude
and mindset.
Mentors
open up to us a whole new vista for our dreams.
Use
them wisely.
P Michael Biggs
Offering
Hope
Encouragement
Inspiration
One Word
at a Time
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