40: How To Make Positive Changes In Your Life (And Book Recommendations)

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Want to live a better life?

You have the impression that whatever you try, you are still getting nowhere.

You are close to giving up on yourself because you can’t change your current life.
If you sometimes have the above thoughts, in today’s episode I would like you to know you can take control of your life.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Changing your actions is not sufficient

Many people are stuck because they feel they have tried everything and nothing works.

Changing their actions to change their life is a good start, but it cannot create the long-lasting changes they want.

Although I’m always for testing and experimenting with new things for my self-development, changing our life for the better is not only about trying many different things.

Doing something new for the sake of doing something different is not enough.

It’s about doing the right things and having the right mindset to get the most out of a new challenge.

Putting yourself in a new environment won’t be helpful if you are not flexible and open to change the way you think or behave.

That’s why, sometimes, changing job is not always the solution if you hate your current job. Enjoying your work could, for example, start with changing your behavior with how you approach a task or how you interact with your co-workers.

Your actions and your mindset are both necessary to create positive changes in your life.

Never stop being a learner and open your mind to new possibilities whatever you do.

Your actions and your mindset are keys to creating positive changes in your life.Click To Tweet

Adopt a growth mindset

One book that could help you keep an open mindset is “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck.

In my opinion, the book is a little bit repetitive, but its suggestion to embrace a growth mindset over a fixed mindset can help you improve your life.

Carol Dweck explains how a growth mindset allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.

With a growth mindset, you believe that your qualities can be cultivated, which leads you to different thoughts and actions compared to having a fixed mindset where you think that your qualities are carved in stone.

And the positive message of this book is that you can change your mindset.

Nothing is set in stone.

That’s why I hope that from now on, you will not doubt anymore that you can achieve things that matter to you and change your life.

What I also like about the book Mindset is that at the end of each chapter, the author asks questions to help her readers reflect on a particular topic so they can grow their mindset.

Learn how to adopt a growth mindset with this book. Click To Tweet

Model your inner changes on this money blueprint

Carol Dweck’s book reminds me of another book: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, by T. Harv Eker.

As a side comment, if you plan to write a non-fiction book, you should study how that book is structured as it is quite effective to keep a reader engaged with the content.

To help people retain what he teaches, T. Harv Eker emphasizes the principles he wants people to remember by repeating them over and over again.

He also adds exercises to motivate his readers to take action.

The book is about creating wealth but you can use the principles that are listed to improve other areas of your life and re-program your mindset.

For example, an important teaching from the book is that the number one reason most people don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want.

That’s why before implementing a project with my clients, we spend time making sure that they clarify and know what they want. It should matter enough for them to commit to creating the necessary changes they desire in their life.

Clarity + Commitment will increase your chance of success in life.Click To Tweet

Unfortunately, lots of people prefer tackling their goals by themselves.

They take shortcuts by following pieces of advice they find online.

Those activities often end up as distractions from doing necessary work to create and follow a clear path toward a more fulfilled life.

A lack of clarity and commitment makes it harder for them to move forward in their life.

As a consequence, they end up focusing on what doesn’t work or on their limiting beliefs.

T. Harv Eker often warns his audience that what they focus on expands.

In his book, he challenges his readers to stop playing the role of a victim and to notice when they catch themselves blaming, justifying or complaining.

Here is an exercise he suggests: stop complaining for seven days and see how it can transform your life.

Your Turn

The no complaining challenge could be our action item for this week, but instead, I would like to suggest a different exercise that T. Harv provides to change your money blueprint.

You can adapt the exercise to the most important change you want to create, by replacing the word “money” with what you would like to change now.

Here are T. Harv’s 4 steps for change:

1. Awareness: write down all the statements you heard about money when you were young. Replace money with what you currently want to improve.
2. Understanding: Write down how you believe these statements have affected your financial life so far.
3. Dissociation: Can you see that these thoughts represent only what you learned and are not part of your anatomy and not who you are? Can you see that you have a choice in the present moment to be different?
4. Declaration: T Harv asks you to repeat the following sentences: What I heard about money (replace it with your topic) isn’t necessarily true. I choose to adapt new ways of thinking that support my happiness and success.

As usual, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of writing down your thoughts as it will have more impact on your success.

I would love to hear from you and see what came up for you after doing T Harv’s exercise.

From now on, in addition to trying new things, don’t forget to work on your mindset too.

And if you read the two books I mentioned, which exercise did you prefer the most and why?

Let us know in the comment section below.

Until next time, keep moving forward, one positive change at a time.

Show Notes

• Fill this survey to help me improve the show
• Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
• Follow Thuy on Twitter
• Connect with Thuy on Facebook
• Connect with Thuy on LinkedIn

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