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Cultivating a Positive Mindset: Your Path to Empowerment Hey, you! Ever wonder how some people stay positive, even when life throws curveballs? It's not about ignoring problems—it's about tackling them with the right mindset. In this episode, we're cutting through the fluff and diving deep into real ways to shift from negativity to empowerment. 🔹 Stop dodging problems—learn to face them head-on. 🔹 Build confidence in your ability to handle anything. 🔹 Rewire negative biases that keep you stuck. 🔹 Set boundaries with the negativity around you. 🔹 Swap self-criticism for better questions. 🔹 Use affirmations that actually work. 🔹 Reinforce positivity with small, daily actions. This isn't just about feeling good—it's about taking control. And here's the deal: if you find this valuable, share it! Send it to someone who needs a mindset shift, and don't forget to hit follow so you never miss an episode. https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/435-create-cultivate-a-positive-mindset Let's make a change together. Listen now! Shine Brightly 🌟 Paul Hey there! I'd love to hear from you—questions, feedback, requests—all welcome. Drop me a line or leave a comment. If you've enjoyed this episode or any other, please share and subscribe! You can reach me at [email protected]. Subscribe to the Podcast Ready to subscribe? Click here to explore your options. Or, if you're on Apple Music or iTunes, you can go straight to subscribe or leave a review here. Special Programs for You For tools on developing Supreme Inner Confidence, finding Freedom from Anxiety, or specialized Hypnosis Tracks, visit PaulCloughOnline.com. Free Hypnosis Tracks Want access to my FREE hypnosis tracks? Head over to paulcloughonline.com/podcast. Connect with Me Follow me on Twitter: @pcloughie Remember: I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. This podcast and any of my online resources are for educational purposes only. Never use the hypnosis tracks or exercises if you're operating machinery, driving, or if you have epilepsy or psychiatric conditions. Always consult a healthcare provider if you're unsure. Find Us on Other Platforms Catch the podcast on Spotify, Castbox, iHeart Radio, YouTube, or on our Libsyn page. Stay tuned, and keep shining brightly. ✨ Music Credits Music by Wataboi, DreamHeaven, ccjmusic, and others from Pixabay. And the transcript WARNING if you're a lover of the written word this may make you frustrated, or angry - you have been warned - is it an 'ism Today we're going to talk about creating, cultivating your positive mindset Hey, welcome to the longer podcast of the personal development unplugged kind. Hey, it's Paul. And today we're going to talk about creating, cultivating your positive mindset. Because if you think about it, feeling stuck in a cloud of negativity. Yeah, that's what it feels like, doesn't it? And do you ever wonder why some people seem to radiate bloody positivity even on bad days? Mmm, I've been thinking about that. So today I want to dive into the art, call it the art. The art of cultivating a positive mindset. And there's going be a lot of practical stuff here. No fluff. We don't do fluff. So let's set the stage a little bit. What is a positive mindset? Well, it's not about ignoring problems, you see. It's not. It's about approaching them with a solution. A solution, Focused attitude. And, what I plan, what I intend to do is by the end of this episode, to give you strategies, ways, tools to shift, to shift your mindset and see the life in, well, a brighter side, a true side. Is that going to be good enough for you? I think so. If you don't have a positive mindset, things just get worse So let's get back into positive mindsets. Because everyone talks about it doesn't. And what happens is, if you don't have a positive mindset, I believe things just get. Well, they just tend to creep. They creep and get worse. Anxiety creeps in. It festers, comes into fear, maybe panic. We tend to dodge the issue and that makes it completely worse. A little story. A little story. And, this is where I grew into positive mindset about taking action, not dodging the issue. I, worked with a colleague. He was. He's a beautiful man and he's so good at what he did, what he does. But if we were doing something and something came up which was important, he would just say, paul, Paul, can we just hang on a minute? This is important. I need to deal with this now. I'm not going to put it off because if I put it off, it'll get worse. I'm going toa step up. I don't quite know what I'm going to do. Don't feel good about it, but I'm going toa do it. And he did it. And he came back in 10 minutes and said, o, I'm so pleased I've done that. Take an action. Done done what needed to be do, what needed be do, needed to be done. And now I'm back with you. Now, isn't that a wonderful thing to do? Taking action, just taking action on the things that you need to do right there, right then, because it was more important than what you were doing. And you're not dodging the issue because you have that positive mindset. So there you go. But now everyone talks about bloody positive mindsets, don't they? But to me, positive mindset is at, its core, it's just a confidence in your competence. That's all it is, seeing things as it is. You know, we hear this thing, it is what it is. Well, you see things as it is and you feel competent in deal with it, dealing with it. And that's what we're going to grow. Competence, confidence. And when you do that, when you do that, you become empowered. You have choices then, choices of empowerment. Things like, I've got this, and it's nothing to do with that. Well, I call it toxic, toxicoody way you speak. when people say things like, oh, I'm happy, I'm happy, you know, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. And that, to me, doesn't work. And I'm going to talk about that later because it doesn't work, it just creates conflicts. So what is it? Well, it's not about, as I said, ignoring the challenges. And, when people ignore challenges, sometimes it's because of a deeper issue. And I think we'll look at if that's a particular issue for some of you. It was for me at some time and I had to work on it. We'll do a separate, longer podcast on that because that's a particular issue. When it's not a case of not having a positive mindset, but actually things are working against us, with an emotion, a negative emotion, and then we're avoiding. And the thing is, when you don't do this, when you don't cultivate this brightest side of life, I think that's what someone called it once. But if we don't cultivate a positive mindset, what happens? Well, it damages your mental health, doesn't it? I said anxiety, fear, sneak in at the back, they come round the back, and then we become maybe overwhelmed. That's when we really back away because we can't make a single decision. Then we've got so much going on because sometimes we just let things, well, just overpower us because we're avoiding the Issues. We're not going inside and going, well, we'll get into what we're going to go. But you know, that then affects your physical health because mentally we're not, we're not into things, we're overwhelmed, we're backing away. And what happens then? Relationships start to, to peter out, don't they? Or they get fractious and then we avoid things there as well. There's a lot of avoidance here, isn't there? So that's the type of thing we are going to cultivate against shining a lighter, a light on your competence and have it come out in a way that you can be confident in yourself, truly aligned. Sometimes negative thoughts push us away from dealing with what needs to be dealt with So what are the type of things that stop a positive mindset? First of all, it's you, it's you, it's you. You and your negative biases. Because we haven't our thoughts that go round. Those thoughts that go round in your head, they're negative. They make pictures of things, of how bad things can be. I, know it's got a wonderful intention trying to protect you from the things that could go wrong. But sometimes those thoughts looking to the negative tend to push us away from dealing with what needs to be dealt with. Because things, when we deal with them, we grow in that confidence, we grow in that competence, we grow in ourselves. We become that person who walks in the room and everyone goes, oh, I feel their presence. And what we're going toa do is rewire it, rewire those neural pathways. Because I want you to catch it. Because every time you get a negative thought, catch it in a way and you go, well, actually, friend, talk to yourself as a friend. That's not the right way. What can we do about this? You start to ask yourself questions, just think, well, that's the negative, the worst that can happen. If we negated that, mitigated that, what could we aim for really and truly? If we got it right, how good would it be? What a type of skills that we've got to use. And, as soon as you catch those things, you're away. You're away. And, those negative people that you hang around with occasionally, yeah, you know them now, sometimes you. When I say negative, they're not always negative, as in negative to bring you down with negative emotions. But they pull you away from the things that are important. They pull you away from being you. Because in sometimes or in some ways, it's like that Tall Poppy syndrome. You're moving on, you're creating a life of your. For what you really want. To be in, in the world, striving to be the best version of yourselves. And maybe they're not on the same level as you. So what do they do? They try to pull you back. When they pull you back, they cut you off, bring you back down. So you need to move away from them because they drain you. They drain you. You can always come back to them in a different context. But when you're dealing with yourself and cultivating this positive mindset, the best version of yourself to as we say, this is personal development isn't it? You've got to move on. You've got to leave those people alone, leave them to find their own way. Because they will, they will find their own way when they're ready. But don't let them drain your energy. So just think, take a moment and think of those people that are not supporting you. And I think that's the way to look at it. They're not supporting your growth. And if they're not supporting your growth, leave them to a different context. Maybe the time when you just wanna unwind and have a little bit of fun, that's cool. But not when you're looking to create the best version of yourself. And again, think about how you criticize yourself again maybe for a positive intention to make you think, make sure you don't make any mistakes or make sure you don't stretch yourself too far. But when we have that self criticism, we have that voice inside, it doesn't stop well, it stops us stretching even a little bit can it brings us in and that avoidance and then leading to overwhelm and anxiety, fear and all that stuff. So think about how can I shift this self criticism? Well all you got toa do is ask what can I learn from this? What is there to learn from this? How can I learn and move forward? What skills have I got? What am I not thinking about if I thought mm, have I done this before? Do I know somebody who could help? There are so many little things that we can just add on to. So when we get that criticism we can just ask questions even what would be a better way to do it then what would be that better way? And when you start asking yourself questions like that, it's like your unconscious mind has to go, and find the answers for you. If you ask negative questions, it will find all the reasons, all the memories, twisted memories that you've got, fit those round pegs into a square hole and go, that's why. And it just creates that negative energy and you sucks it out of you ask positive questions, your unconscious mind will go and find the amaz because you've got these skills. Because in another time you did this, you succeeded then remember what it felt like. How did you do that? You had a plan before, maybe we had a plan now. Yeah. You can cultivate a positive mindset by saying positive affirmations So let's have another little think now because I've given you a couple of tips. Well I won't call them tips, couple of observations, things you can do but I want to get more into a, ah, strategy now, some more tools that you can use. And I've got a couple of things and I want to make sure that you for me, because this is a real bugbear of mine, we don't go into those wonderful affirmations. The affirmations wit go and I talked about a little bit before. Oh, I'm happy. You know I don't feel good about this but I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy. And you just repeat it forever. Now if you repeated it forever you might convince yourself finally in about 10 years time you're a little bit more happy than you were. But if you're a little bit anxious about things, a little bit nervous and you start saying you're happy, you're happy, well you're creating a direct conflict because inside you know you're not. You're telling yourself a fib, your unconscious mind knows you're not because it's creating that negative or that limiting belief, that nervous energy to try to protect you. And you're going toa go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's a bit like that self talk. A little bit like Joco Willick or Willink the ex Navy seal. He has this thing and he would say, good, I get to do this. Doesn't that change it? It suddenly becomes good, I get to do this. This is a problem. But it's not a problem, it's a challenge. And I get to do this challenge. No other bugger gets to do this. I do. and when I do I'm going to learn so much. I'm going to learn new skills, I'm going to learn about me and I'm going to understand that I've got more in my tank than I ever realized. David Goggin says we only ever push ourselves to about 40% and we think that's our 100%. And then when we go through that we find there's so much more, that we have so many more skills we can access, so much more inner strength that we can Access. So you've got this. That's another one. I've got this. So I get to do this. I've got this. And think about other positive beliefs. and, these are aligned with you because, I strive to be the best me I can be. Now, that's a great thing because you are, aren't you? You're here, you've got this issue, this challenge. You're not going toa back away, and you're going toa be the best version of yourself, approaching it, which means you'll be accessing all the skills that you have. You'll also be competent and you'll be confident in that competence because you're not overconfident. Because overconfidence means crash and burn. That's not stretching, that's just being a tit. Sorry, I don't know if you. That's English, I think, but if you just said to yourself, I'm going toa do my best, no less than my best. Now, if you do no less than your best and you strive to be the best you can, and you know that you're going to learn from this because it's good, man, you're going to grow like no tomorrow, you are going to grow in that confidence. You will shine a light on yourself. You will be cultivating a positive mindset. And that doesn't stay there. It doesn't stay on this challenge. It doesn't stay on this thing. You'doing what it does is it then goes into other areas of your life. You take that confidence and it spreads into every different area of your life. So if it was a work challenge, it would come back and you'd be so much better in a relationship or if you're going somewhere else, you're talking to your friends, you would be such a different person. You'd be the real you, and you'd be growing and striving, and you'd be taking people with you. You would be that person, the best version of you. Because that's what we want to do, isn't it? And when we're like that and we add to it a focus of being humble, just focus on being humble, proud of yourself, focus on being loving and kind. This is what I think. These are my beliefs, but I think they're the beliefs that, are the rock, the foundations of a positive mindset, and they just keep cultivating a positive mindset. Even more if you just focused on that. When you're humble, you're proud of yourself, you're kind and loving and you are going to do the best version and be the best version of yourself. You are going to do your best, nothing less. You know your mind is going to go to another level. It's going toa be awesome just for these. And these are small, subtle changes. But you can see here and feel maybe I hope it resonates with you that when you have those just little twists in that what you want, you can do whatever you choose. That's all. We talked about cultivating a positive mindset. We talked about negative biases And here's another challenge to you every day. Could you do one act of kindness? Just one act of kindness a day? Seems easy, doesn't it? But if you do that, it will help you grow inside. And your positive mindset will begin to shine brightly to everyone. And it will make. It just changes everything in your mind, everything that you need. That's all it is. And remember, whatever you're going through, whatever you're going through, this two will pass. You hold that as a belief. This too will pass. Because whatever happens, it will always pass. Think of if you have had them in the past, when you've had problems and you thought, I can't see an end to this. Guess what? There was. It disappeared. It finished. And if you grow from that by just saying, what can I learn from that? What could I learn from that? What was there in the things that I've done, The things that I thought were just too much, but I got through it. How did I get through it? And when you do that, you find you have so many more resources and you reinforce them by remembering them. Your unconscious mind goes, ah, yeah, we've got skills, we've got strategies. So something comes in the future that is a bit of a challenge. It's good cause I get to do this, but I've also got the skills to shine. And that's all it is. And just accept, accept that you who you are. But don't accept the issues, just acknowledge them. If it's a challenge, acknowledge the challenge. It is what it is. That's all it is. Exceed acknowledgement. It is what it is. So what now? Good. I get to do this. Get that positive intention, that expectation that you will do your best. You may not be able to have the result that you want. Cause sometimes life is like that. But if you're the best at doing your best and being your best and striving to be even better, what more could you ask for? You can hold your head up high. You could be that proud and humble and be kind. So let's just recap, let's Just recap. We looked at why matters to cultivate this positive mindset, because basically you're cultivating yourself. Because if you don't and you swerve, things get worse. Anxiety festus, doesn't it? Fear, panic. And then we get that. Avoidance. And that spreads into other areas of your life. We talked about negative biases and how we can change them. Talk to yourself as a friend. We talked about moving away or creating boundaries with those people that, aren't supporting us. We don't just let them go at our lives. You don't have to do that, but you create boundaries. We talked about not having the Bs of conflicting bloody sayings in our head. And there's the thing I forgot. Just be grateful. That act of gratitude. Because when you're grateful for who you are and what you've got in your life, that positive mindset is, just shored up. O oh, there's another thing, one more thing that I forgot to add in, and it's lovely that my unconscious mind says, oh, you clappy, don't finish yet, because here's one more trick. And it's not a trick, one more tool, one more thing to put into your toolbox. It's a routine, and I've talked about it so many times. Just 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes a day. Find some inspiring content. Just something to read, something to listen, something to watch. I mean, things like David Goggins. Some people like him. He's Marmite, he swears a lot, but man, he is motivated and he motivates. There's a great podcast I've seen, and it's called Ass Breaking Motivation. I got it on Spotify. And it's just people giving you so much motivation. Sometimes it's over the top, I understand that, but sometimes you have to be over top. But if you can just read some inspiring quotes, maybe be with an inspiring person just for 10 minutes, it'Change your life. And that's all we'ren toa do. Change your life. With small, subtle increments that you may not notice right away, but when you look back after maybe a week, 10 days, maybe a month, you'll suddenly realize the things you've achieved. And then when you look to the future, you'll be ready to take on those challenges because you're competent and you have that positive mindset, and that comes from the things you've done, but also knowing what it's going to achieve in the future, what is going to draw to you, what are you going to attract? The people, the things, the results and how you're going to grow, because that's all it is, it's growth. And you're not growing yourself. I believe you're growing yourself into who you really are. Because you've got all those skills, you're just not accessing them. You've got all those tools, you're just not using them. And this is just me reminding me and reminding you you've got them. And start access. I say that again, start accessing them now. I hope that in all of this there's a little thing that resonates within you to say, I've got this, I'm going to do this, might even rel listen, make a few notes. Maybe you've been making notes, maybe you've got some thoughts if you want. What I would do is put your notes down right now. What can you remember? Because when you write down what you can remember, you're reinforcing. Please share this podcast with anybody you know You're sticking it in that brain of yours. You're showing your, unconscious mind how important it is to you to do this. And then look at your goals again. Maybe use now, as you cultivate this positive mindset and you come really shining that bright light on yourself and others, your goals will change too. You can stretch and make them bigger and brighter. And that's what I want to support you in doing that and to do that, if you have any questions, if you have anything that you want a little bit of help with, maybe it's like that avoidance thing or if there's something else getting in your way or a limiting belief that you just can't shift and bloody email me. Email me at personal. No it isn't. Come on, Cloughie. It is [email protected] do. I'll reply to you personally because I always do. There'll be maybe a longer episode if we can really find some processes or tools that will help you and other people. I will do either a five minute quickie or a longer podcast so we can share everything. And I'm going to give you then my experience because I'm going to use, use the processes that I have to come up with. I have to live them first before I share them. So you'll be helping me, helping me and that'll be kind too. I'll be proud of you. And with that, please share this with anybody you know. As I say, it would help you to understand it better if you share it verbally. But do tell people where you got it from. Tell them to have a listen, to share the episode. Share the podcast, and if you haven't done it already, please subscribe. You will not believe how much sharing and subscribing. You can't keep subscribing, but the act of subscribing and the act of sharing makes such a difference to. Well, to me, because it makes me feel really good. And I like feeling good. It grows the audience. You know, we've going from 2 to 4, and I think we're up to about 12 people now. So another share might take that to 16 or 20. Wouldn't that be awesome? I have more fun than you can stand. You go fly, my friend. Warning. You are now leaving the unplugged mind of Paul Clough. It's time to fly on your own. Be brave, my friend. Personal development unplugged. Personal development [self improvement] [self development] [NLP] [Hypnosis]