The Power of a Strong Mindset

Hello and welcome back to my newsletter! This week I’ll be sharing advice from Julia Pimsleur, the author of Go Big Now ! Additionally, make sure to join me today at 12 pm EDT/9 am PT/5 pm GMT for my weekly interview for Newsweek, Better. I’ll be talking with Anne Morriss and Frances Frei, the authors of Unleashed about how to empower everyone around you! For a reminder about that interview, click here and add it to your calendar for later today.

Also, in advance of my new book, The Long Game , I am offering a free strategic self-assessment workbook that you can download to reimagine your schedule, learn how to focus where it counts, and create more time for the things that matter the most. You can download that here .

For a lot of people, this time has been a period of self-reflection and evaluation. It brought up big questions about how people were spending their time and what they really wanted out of life. With four million new businesses registered in 2020, there were a lot of big ideas coming out of isolation. A critical ingredient to the success of those big ideas is a strong mindset. Julia Pimsleur contends that anyone can harness the power of a strong mindset if they want to go big. Here is a selection of actions she offered in our recent interview on how to achieve a strong mindset. For a video of our entire conversation, you can view that on my YouTube channel here .

Strength-training your mindset:

“Building mindset core strength is a lot like building physical core strength. For some reason, we all acknowledge that we need physical core strength. People sign up for gym memberships and go running with their friends and do sit-ups and do all these things to build that core strength. But our mind is going to be with us forever and it determines every single decision we make. So why aren't we investing just a little bit of time and energy into building mindset core strength by doing some of these practices, which by the way, are not hard and you get immediate results - unlike going to the gym. Make it a part of your daily life. I start my morning with meditation. I do affirmations. I keep a gratitude journal. These are tools that you can use right away and that will serve you the rest of your life.”

Take control of your negative thoughts:

“I had a dog at one point. I remember when he was a puppy, I took him out for a walk and he was running all over the place. He wanted to put his nose in the garbage, wrap himself around the lamppost. So I had to give a little tug on the leash to say, ‘No, we're not going to do that right now. You're not going to eat that crumpled-up beer can.’ We can learn to do that with our thoughts. Our thoughts will always run into the garbage. They just will. Right? ‘What did I do wrong? Why don't they like me? Why didn't they return my email?’ And you can live that way if you want. But you could also learn these mindset practices that allow you to have different interpretations and go back to being your biggest cheerleader, not your biggest saboteur.”

Three things to go big:

“You only need three things to go big. You need the right mindset, you need the right skillset, and you need the right network. Now of course, there are multiple parts to each of those, but if on any given day, you're feeling a bit lost - check in with yourself and say, ‘How's my mindset? Am I confident? Am I excited? Am I putting good energy toward this, or am I being a self-saboteur?’ The second one is skillset. 'Do I need to take a course in Excel? Do I need to join an entrepreneurial program?’ Fill out those skills if you don't have them. The third is the network. Are you part of networks that pull you forward? That's where if you're feeling a little stuck, you might ask ‘What organizations am I part of where I'm spending time with people who will help me go big because they're modeling it in their own lives right now?’

Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter! You can learn more about Julia Pimsleur on her website . Hope to see you today for my discussion with Anne Morriss and Frances Frei! Next week, I’ll be talking with Jon Gertner, the author of The Idea Factory, about creating a culture of innovation. For a calendar reminder, click here .

On a final note, feel free to watch my progress as a burgeoning latte artist through my instagram page , which also features my two cats - the handsome devils that are Heath and Phillip.

Wishing you health and success -?

Dorie