It had to do with this sentence:

The mind thinks and the heart knows.

And seconds after, I came to realise it correlates with this very common saying: 

You know more than you think.

Sounds relatable?

This really struck me, because wouldn’t this mean we’ve always had some knowledge about listening to our heart, but its true meaning has just gotten lost over time, so we’re more or less unconsciously saying it?

Because from what I experience, I usually turn to analysing when I hear someone saying this to me. 

I would be weighing the pros and cons, thinking in (doom) scenarios, questioning past and future decisions. 

All sorts of things the mind is very well capable of. 

The heart, however, doesn’t speak to us in words. It communicates in delivering us feelings. Intuition and gut feelings are perfect examples here. 

How many times did you have a gut feeling about something that you didn’t lean into, because the mind was giving you an extra 10 options to consider? 

And haven’t we all been there… But the good thing is: we can learn about the mechanism of heart-mind unity.

What I would like to share with you about the heart is that it already has everything you need to know to realise your desires and needs.

But social conditioning [today] — from my perspective — strongly suppresses a person’s unique individuality. 

This would mean…

People can’t say what they really want and have little to no idea of their true capabilities. There is also the widely accepted idea real success can only be achieved by a few people. 

Nobody seems to question it or consider it abnormal.

Here’s a message to us all: 

You are capable of anything. You can create incredible works of art.

What do we need to do?

All we have to do is turn to our heart. 

1. Open your heart.
2. Listen to it [in silence].
3. Openly receive its messages.
4. Give yourself the joy of making the most of it.

It starts by believing in the unlimited possibilities of the heart and then turning your mind round to face it.

You see, the mind can build a new house using bricks from a previous model, but no one will be stunned by the new design. 

It can do a perfect copy, but only the heart is capable of making an original.

“Negativity doesn’t live within, it lies on the surface, like a layer of dust on the surfacee of a painting. If you wipe the dust away, a pure heart is revealed underneath.”

Vadim Zeland, in Reality Transurfing

Behind the costumes and masks people wear out of expectations are truly wonderful qualities. It’s within us all. 

So, is it not time to shake up the pile of commonly held beliefs? What if they turn out to be false and you would never have known?

Because, if we remove the masks and costumes, we can reveal the treasure our heart governs. 

When it’s instilled from within, no one can take it from you.

Happiness doesn’t wait, but the heart will always answer you.

To end, I like to share with you this poem.

The heart

It guides us through each twist, corner and turn,
an internal compass that we cannot spurn.

It tells us where we belong; it chooses paths with intuition,
and leads us to our life’s fruition.

For in its rhythm lies our way should we trust it as a faithful friend,
and then it will guide us to our true end.

— Anne Diederiks

Thank you for being there with me.

From my heart to yours,

Anne

Life doesn’t come with a manual, let us not forget.

Every single person has a path where they play the game of life and go through lessons that will translate themselves into becoming rules to live by. The rule being the outcome of a lesson; the acquirement of knowledge as to how to proceed from then on; the extracted value from that lesson.

In today’s post, I’m touching on lessons in life that play into our self-awareness. Awareness is, really, where all the answers lie. It’s when you can break the chain of negative thoughts creating negative outcomes, it’s when you can stop blaming your younger self, it’s when learning opportunities turn into, not a conflict between the heart and mind, but really the assets or allies of the mind.

And how powerful that is, my dear friend. Let us now get into it.

The 9 Lessons From Life

There is no doubt one can think of more lessons in life than the nine we will get into, as it should also be encouraged to for yourself discover what else you can extract from what you go through in life. That’s the essence of personal growth, of self-development.

As for the 9 lessons here, I posited to make them overarching and directed towards either developing, expanding or enhancing one’s consciousness. We will find that these lessons, core values, or rules, can be scaled down to various examples of situations in which the lesson would apply for us. Scaling it down helps us to recognise patterns of our behaviour (you think, you therefore feel, you will therefore act) and in turn, how to utilise this.

It would be highly expected to now say that you should sit back and get comfortable, but when you’re going to read this, do this instead:

1. Get in the present moment.
2. Assume that you’re going to learn something.

That’s all I recommend.

1. Learning is found outside of the comfort zone

I’m almost certain this is something you’ve probably heard a hundred times already (if not a thousand). So, perhaps this is yet another message trying to reach your mind.

When we talk about the zone outside of our comfort zone, it would be the place where we can meet the unknown. Unfortunately, our brains are designed to avoid conflict and danger, and while it does have benefits we need, we have to realise that in today’s society, we no longer face predators chasing us or that we have to go on a hunt where there’s a question of coming back alive or end up being eaten alive.

Yet, we can’t deny the society of today growing a danger of perhaps a much more devastating fashion: unconsciously or consciously digging into the minds of other people, and actually have it affecting one’s mental health in more cases you may think. I think we can all see that, whether it’s unconsciously or consciously done, they both carry a force among them that can be destructive, to the “disruptor” as well as to the “disrupted”.

Now, how does this come into play in our fear of not stepping outside of our comfort zone? The simplest example, yet probably one of the strongest and most tangible, is to look at social media. People from all over the world are imposing their thoughts and ideas on us, and you can try denying they’re not affecting you, which is exactly why this point is made, since they do have an influence.

But, you can decide what your reaction is going to be.

You can let them have power over you and make you believe you’re not up to what they’re doing, meaning you will remain in a comfort area where little to no movement takes place (sounds less comfortable now, right?), or you can cut the rope of influence and simply ignore the sway of the swing. Now you open the gateway to get onto the tracks of opportunities without the dependency of what others may think.

And here’s a thought to ease your thoughts. As almost everyone is so caught up with themselves already, they don’t actually care or have a substanced opinion about what you’re doing in life.

It’s what you believe to be true.

2. You can choose a destiny when you decide to

A message from above actually comes together in this one. The message I’m talking about is this: you can decide your reaction. You see, we don’t always get to have control over what happens, but when we realise there’s power over how we respond to what happens, a world opens up.

To build onto this, I would like to share a small excerpt from the book Reality Transurfing by Vadim Zeland:

“Everyone is free to choose any destiny they wish. The only freedom we truly have is the freedom of choice. You can choose anything you want.

This is not to be interpreted as if you can do anything at any cost. Morally, you wouldn’t be able to stand your ground. What is meant by this, is that you can step away from life throwing you into corners and from the (rather cliche) idea that “life happens”. Surely, it does, but life has a much more meaningful way of happening when you consciously decide where you’re to be headed.

Now, we’re also encouraged to lean into being in the present moment, to embrace the unknown and to learn to anticipate on what happens without preparation, just so we’re not creating a narrow focus on the future.

A bit complicated when you think there’s also all of this conscious (beforehand) deciding in order to end at the finish line of your destiny. While when doing this with a conscious eye that is directed towards a purpose (the destiny or goal you can say), we are attuning ourselves to be led to that destiny.

Choosing a destiny is about being aware of the fact that ‘fate’ is truly in your hands, but only in the sense that it has been given to you to choose it, rather than change it.

3. The only person standing in your way is you

Our younger selves didn’t see the ‘hidden messages’ in movies, but we’ve all experienced (many) aha-moments when we find ourselves rewatching a children’s movie (there is no judgment here). So, this lesson is rather inspired by a scene from one of the Shrek’s movies, I believe it to be Shrek the Third.

In this scene, Arthur (who would become the next king of the land of Far Far Away) comes in between the villains and Shrek and his allies (‘the good’). Arthur brings out the message that fighting violence with violence is never a means to an end and that it’s our inner selves that we should change to accomplish peace, that will in turn create peace with those around us.

Arthur makes it a strong message we should all hold onto:

In the next, the villains come to the realisation that it was their evil – from living in past anger – standing in the way of happiness and so they dropped their weapons on the floor: they detached themselves from emotions having control over their actions.

In almost every movie they’re trying to make a message coming across, consisting of valuable life lessons. And when they’re seen, they will be known.

4. Shortcomings come from the mind, not the soul

I have been thinking how we should best break this down. We’re gifted with the ability to make things come alive with thoughts, and so do our ideas after we fueled them enough with an unspecified amount of them (unspecified being a particular amount that we can’t quantify).

So, I thought, let’s break this down by driving home the following:

A person is limited.

The mind is mutable.

A living mind is infinite.

The person would be your material existence. It’s your physical place on this (3D-)sphere and how you experience the world around you with your senses.

The mind is the thought energy and it can tap into various patterns and frequencies. Patterns can be associations, beliefs, attitudes and perspectives (thoughts learned through experience and repetition). Frequencies are, roughly said, to be divided into high and low. Low frequency thoughts can be a.o. distrust and pessimism. High frequency thoughts can, for example, be worthiness and optimism.

That the mind can tap into these areas (with feelings becoming attached to the thoughts) makes it mutable: it can change its focus and direction. When the mind is carried by high frequency thoughts, when we’re taking pleasure in expecting good things coming our way, the mind comes alive. It’s when we want to keep moving forward and when we see countless of possibilities coming forth.

The living mind is the soul; our spirit, and the spirit is no respector of person or limits. It simply follows the mind and when we’re focusing on possibility rather than our shortcomings, opportunities appear.

“Change appears when the mind meets genesis.”

Creation follows when the mind connects to it.

And this is not out of thin air, as you can now understand.

5. Losing contempt frees you from being conquered

When we take a closer, yet general look at judgment and contempt, we can translate this into an emotion (contempt or judgment) triggered by an external factor (the external factor being a person, a situation, etc.).

And when we dive a little deeper, into what happens on an energetic level, it is that the external factor is drawing energy from you, because you react with the exact kind of energy that feeds the energetic swing. In other words, we let it have power over us, simply because we give in to it.

An important life lesson is to understand that our responses carry out an energy and just as we can hold onto faith, ambition, inspiration, kindness and love, we can also find ourselves feeling tied to judgment towards other people. All it needs is one situation, one person, one association, and we’re back to the thought pattern of contempt. Sometimes it takes one time, other times more. The point here is to clarify the extent of its force.

Now, this doesn’t tell us judgment is bad in its totality. Someone dear to me, who greatly fascinates me, pointed me to this view of judgment to which I couldn’t agree more. The point was about the fact that judgment is built into us, and that it’s what has made us survive. We judge, for example, just so we can make a healthy decision for ourselves and not blindly fall into the traps of other people’s (willful) manipulation.

In addition to what he said, that is building onto the idea that judgment is inherently built into us, is that judgment comes from our egos. We all have an ego, and we can divide this into either an unhealthy or a healthy one. Healthy ego and a substanced sense of judgment is crucial to move in life, but when we mix unhealthy ego with unhealthy judgment, that’s where we can expect issues starting to appear.

To come to terms of what is needed to enjoy life to a full extent is to intentionally give more space to the good that’s around and within you. Judge with a healthy sense, steer the thoughs toward a right direction, stop comparing, and ignore the negative things trying to make you attached to feeling scornful.

From this moment on, spend time in acquiring a new perspective that is aimed at how you wish to be as a person in this life.

6. Directed intention fulfills desire

The fulfillment of a desire is in need of intention in order to set it into motion. And the intention is channeled by what your attitude is towards this desire.

Vadim Zeland (in Reality Transurfing) explains three types of desires:

1. A desire that transforms into a determined intention to have something and do whatever is required to get it.
2. A desire consisting of knowledge of wanting it, there’s yet no action tied to it and it’s only tormenting its carrier. No surprise here what happens with the desire, or rather: what doesn’t happen.
3. A desire dependent on the object of the desire, where we can cry out things like: “If I don’t achieve this, my life will lose all meaning,” or “If I do this, I’ll prove to myself and everybody else what I’m worth.”

I hope it’s been made clear it’s the first kind of desire we should find ourselves in, or that the other two are without doubt ones we shouldn’t.

The first one would be about wanting something bad enough, you will figure out how to get it and in other cases, a desire would be like a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what it is that you want.

The first type of desire would be the only one that can be fulfilled, as we will experience the determination of getting what we want. What is required, is the energy of pure intention, so we can transfer us to a path where the object of desire becomes part of our reality.

We will come to the realisation that there are different ways to look at the desire, and that the way we feel changes how it affects us in our lives. People who perceive a desire as a good thing, will come to see it as a good thing for them. Whereas the people who project a negative perception onto a desire, will come to see it as a bad thing.

You see, people viewing it as a good thing use it as a tool for (growing) motivation and inspiration, and the people having a negative outlook on the fulfillment of that desire have thoughts about unhealthy attachments, resentments, opinions from others and jealousies and this often stems from wanting something you don’t have.

And here is no judgment as to which one is good. The words good, negative, and bad are merely words to describe the contrast. What I’m trying to clarify here, is that if you want a life that is good for you, it’s important, or rather necessary, to understand both sides of the coin. Otherwise, you may fall into either one of the traps.

This means we’ll either try to solve our problems by holding on to our desires and probably become resentful of our perceived position in life, growing jealousy of those around you who seem to have grass that’s greener, and in turn it makes us frustrated because of the progress we’re not making.

Or, we’ll try to fix our problems by letting go of it and as a result of that, we lose our drive, motivation, perseverence, inspiration and ambition.

But here’s what happens when you intentionally and positively want something:

1. You know the path you’re walking on to get what you want.
2. Your identity is not attached to your goal, and this means less stress & more creativity.
3. You cultivate inspiration, because you let yourself feel the excitement of desire.
4. A sense of abundance grows, as you’ve put your mind in a place where it’s needed to have your desire fulfilled.

To want something, is to feel as if it’s already existent. Then you will be presented with opportunities that lead you to the experience of that fulfillment.

7. Your thoughts come back to you like a boomerang

Our human psyche has developed over thousands of years under the influence of countless circumstances, and the destructive ones are what have kept people in a condition of fear and not in a state of overcoming fears. In consequence, we tend to have a very clear idea of what we don’t want and yet have a very vague idea of what we do want. Feel free to sit with this idea for a moment.

The boomerang metaphor rests on this matter (Vadim Zeland):

You will find an overlap with the previous lesson in life. What you put out there, that is your thought energy, will reflect itself back. In the worst case, materialised into a circumstance you exactly didn’t want. You can also get what you don’t want, as your subconscious believes the thought energy you radiate, which is no respector of whether it’s a desire or not.

It’s therefore not enough to make sure you are not taking in negative energy from without. It’s important that you make sure that you’re not putting out negative energy too.

What is meant by this, is that the negative energy we are transmitting corresponds to a life line where we experience negative emotions, and we are therefore inevitably carried in the direction of similar experiences where disappointment and misfortune are presented in higher numbers.

Obviously, there is no clear evidence that proves this concept, as this is something we need to experience for ourselves.

And what you can do is this:

Observe for yourself how every time you react negatively, something else of a similar fashion follows.

8. To take pleasure in expecting further improvement

One of the most important life lessons one can go through is cultivating gratitude in what we have and for the smaller wins we’re accomplishing (but are yet part of the big picture). As we’re now making an understanding of negative thoughts leading us onto a path of corresponding circumstances, it would now be that we’re realising the opposite is just as existent to create for ourselves.

When we let in the (more) positive things, we will be greeted by more of that’s good news and opportunities that are in alignment with our positive thought energy.

This may be a hard life lesson, because once we experienced a moment of joy or inspiration, it’s easy to get pulled back into the stresses our daily routine. Elevated emotions are soon forgotten and the system of the day takes over. This doesn’t happen to us, in fact, we choose to let life throwing us into corners.

For us to keep the emotions elevated, is to remember the moments when we were experiencing such, and to then support the flame of enthusiasm and nourish the feeling it gives us inside.

Four key points for this are:

1. Observe how life is moving in a better direction.
2. Take hold of moments of happiness you are offered.
3. Look for good signs in everything.
4. Be happy for all that you have in this given moment.

Trust me, life becomes fun with this. Once this feeling becomes a habit, you will be the sailor of sailing the waves of good fortune.

We may be wondering a lot about why the good stuff in life doesn’t remain as strongly in our memory as negative experiences, as it’s the latter we’d best want to forget (the irony of the human mind). What happens with good news, is that it’s easily forgotten because it gives us no reason to concern about it. When it comes to bad news, it evokes an active response and we draw our thoughts, and therefore energy, to it.

Keep in mind here that we get what our thoughts are mostly attached to.

It’s for that reason that it’s important to carefully nourish positive changes in your life. If we don’t let bad news into our hearts, then we won’t allow it in our lives, so it would be the same with good news.

When you hear encouraging news, try doing this:

1. Savour it.
2. Discuss it.
3. Track it.
4. Take pleasure in it.
5. Make predictions.
6. Expect further improvement.

By doing this, we attune ourselves to the parameters of good fortune and life will get better. This is when we transmit harmonious energy into the world around us, which in turn creates a harmonious vibration in which everything unfolds successfully.

When we can remind ourselves of keeping a positive attitude, we will always be led to success and creativity.

To remind is to remember.

9. To foster a sense of purpose instead of urgency

In your personal life there’s all sorts of goals you’re aspiring to achieve, and in the process of that many of us look for volicity, as we feel it’s urgent that it comes into our lives, preferably yesterday. I think we can see how much of discontentment it brings along with it, simply because we are well aware of some processes needing genuine effort and time. Yet, it’s easy to fall into the traps of believing urgency to being the driver of fulfillment.

So let us put aside the need for urgency and focus on what actually drives us into motion: a found purpose. When we find a purpose, and cultivate a sense of purpose, we create a deep understanding of the reasons behind our efforts and we know the answer as to why we want to breathe life into something. It gives life to the desire, so we can pour time and energy into it, because that purpose resonates with the impact we want to make.

A strong sense of purpose leads us to motivation for stepping into action. So, this is where we can go faster and work smarter towards something as there’s a clear vision of what we aspire to do. When we are affirming the sense of urgency, however, there is no room for actual engagement and collecting the (tiny) wins along the way.

A sense of purpose unlocks when we:

1. Cultivate an understanding of “why”.
2. Remember the greater cause and speak positively about it.
3. Focus on the right things, rather than what’s needed.
4. Practice patience.
5. Take actionable responsibility over our own lives.
6. Genuinely care and work with care.
7. Deliver results of our own creation.

For us to enjoy life, it’s crucial to spend time in mapping and figuring things out what it is that we want and to aim at adopting successful habits. Then, the road to a faster fulfillment becomes significantly easier.

The Endnote.

We could’ve approached this topic by throwing ourselves into the bulk of hundreds of lessons we can go through in life. But I believe that in doing so we would be missing the points of what these lessons, cores, values or rules are trying to make clear to us. In the area of awareness, we want to train our thoughts to connect the dots (i.e. this happened then, therefore I am at this point); to recognise patterns in our life (i.e. as I think, so I feel, I therefore act), and in turn realising and experiencing how one win or victory cascades in other circumstances we encounter in the next moments.

Start small, let in the experience, and see for yourself how it’s opening up your world. Whether you’re more progressed in life, or a young person at the start of finding answers (without an end), we are all here to contribute and to shape a reality that’s in alignment with who we are. Grow authenticity and in turn, we will congruently attract the picture we have of ourselves (Concept of Self). We don’t get what we want, we get what we are.

Everything starts with your awareness, it’s the game changer. That’s where enjoying life begins.

I hope you have inspired yourself.

Much love,

Anne

As we cross through life, many of us come to a point where our current path and lifestyle don’t reflect who we want to be. We long for something more and begin thinking about how best to leave behind our old existence, but we feel stuck within the same routines and habits that keep us from achieving our goals and it blocks the way to mastery of the self.

We all have moments when we feel stuck and need a little extra push to manifest the life we desire. Manifestation can provide just that and help you take control of your story by making thoughtful changes within yourself. Today, we’ll look at some of the best manifestation methods that can support you in creating a new reality for your life. 

Read on if you’re ready to unlock your fullest potential and grow out of your old self! 

What Are The Best Manifestation Techniques to Leave Your Old Life?

Sure, you want to lead a life of purpose, fulfilment, and joy. But what happens when your life is mired in old patterns that don’t bring you inner peace? Maybe you have a vision for yourself that isn’t being realised, or you feel certain subconscious beliefs are keeping you from becoming who you’d like to be.

If so, the law of attraction can help you unlock an entirely new way of living your life – one driven by a genuine connection with yourself. If you’re ready to experience a positive mindset for your future self, here are the most effective manifestation techniques to try: 

Visualisation

Picture yourself in the new life you want to create and imagine all the details of how it might feel, down to the minutest detail. Visualisation involves using our imagination and mental focus to create an image of what we want our lives to look like. The key is to think positively and vividly as if we are already living this reality. It is important to stay focused on the desired outcome rather than getting bogged down in any doubts or fears about how it will come about. 

How to Apply this Technique?

To get started, take some time away from distractions and get comfortable with your eyes closed. Imagine the life you want and all its details — picture yourself feeling content, confident, and successful in your desired reality. You can also make a vision board to push your positive thoughts and trust your ability to materialise all your goals. Visualising will help you tap into that source of inspiration more deeply, allowing you to manifest change more quickly and effectively.

Area of Implementation

The best time to implement this technique is when you feel motivated by something or someone who has inspired you towards change. When we feel inspired by something outside of ourselves – whether it’s a speech from an inspiring figure or reading a book that resonates deeply within us – we become filled with passion and purpose. This is the perfect time to visualise because our energy levels and minds are open.

Affirmations

Affirmations are statements that are deliberately spoken aloud or written down to influence our subconscious. By repeating these statements consistently and intentionally, we can gradually shift our mindset towards what we want to manifest in our lives. For example, if you want more abundance in your life, an affirmation could be “I am surrounded by abundance and prosperity.” When you say that your new life is as if it’s already a reality, out loud or in writing, you let the Universe know that you’re seeking a change. 

How to Apply this Technique?

Using positive affirmations is simple: firstly, pick an area of focus and decide which affirmation would best support this area; for example, “I am worthy of love and happiness”. Then decide when and how often you will repeat this affirmation. For instance, you can work out your positive thinking each morning before getting out of bed. When repeating positive manifestation affirmations, say them with conviction so that they resonate with your bodily energy.  

Area of Implementation  

You can use this manifestation technique at any stage or age – it doesn’t matter if you’re young or old; the power of intention remains the same: a desire is a desire. There’s no such thing as too late or too early when using affirmations. They can be used whenever we desire change in our lives – and of course, dear friend, now would be the best time.

Meditation

Meditation can provide clarity, peace, focus, and awareness to help you manifest your desired outcomes. Connecting with your inner truth and getting clarity on what you’re trying to manifest is one of the most powerful manifestation techniques for leaving behind your old life. It enables you to focus on letting go of the outside world while allowing yourself to sink deeper into stillness until all thoughts evaporate. 

How to Apply this Technique?

Meditation is an incredibly simple practice that anyone can do. All you need to do is find a comfortable spot to get into a relaxed state of mind and experience positive energy. You can either sit or lay down in this spot – whichever feels more comfortable for you. Close your eyes, take deep breaths and let go of all thoughts and negative energy that enter your mind. If a thought does not serve you in any way, simply let it pass by without judgement or concern. 

Area of Implementation  

When you feel tense or under undue pressure, this powerful manifestation technique can rescue you from this phase. The best time to meditate for manifestation is before bed, so your intentions are set for the future. It’s also beneficial to meditate throughout the day whenever needed; if you’re feeling overwhelmed with stress or anxiety from external sources, taking some time out to meditate can help you gain clarity on what matters in life so that you can move forward from there.

Journaling

Writing down your thoughts and feelings in detail makes it easier to clarify how best to move forward. It also helps you stay focused on your goals so that your energy remains directed towards achieving what you want. Writing about experiences, feelings, and thoughts helps bring transparency to your journey.

Most importantly, journaling allows us to express ourselves without judgement or fear. It is a safe space where we can write down anything, no matter how outrageous or impossible it may seem. Also, spell out your positive emotions to feel gratitude and use this manifestation practice to attain clarity. Sometimes, our behaviour patterns hinder the change we seek and impact our capabilities. But writing your thought process to understand why you behave and act a certain way is one of the best manifestation methods. 

How to Apply this Technique?

When journaling for manifestation, ask yourself key questions such as “What do I want?” “What could make me happy right now?” “What challenges am I facing in my life that I need help with?” Taking time each day or week to answer these questions will help clear your thoughts and focus on what you want in life.

Additionally, writing out affirmations related to those goals can be incredibly powerful! When writing affirmations, focus on language that speaks directly to your desire without negative connotations. For example: “I am capable and strong enough to achieve my goals.”  

Area of Implementation  

You can use journaling as a way out of your old life at any point. The key is consistency: the more often you practise this technique, the better results you will get. So give it a try today; grab your favourite notebook and explore what kind of life awaits you.

Release Resistance

Releasing resistance is a form of manifestation that involves letting go of all negative thoughts and feelings preventing you from achieving your goals. This powerful manifestation technique encourages acceptance and actively works toward changing your mindset so positive energy can flow through you. 

In other words, it helps eliminate any blocks stopping you from getting where you want to be. Remind yourself that there is no sense fighting against something – embrace change and trust in the Universe that what is meant to be yours will naturally find its way to you. 

How to Apply this Technique?

The key to this manifestation method is awareness – recognising when negative thoughts creep into our minds and actively working against them with positive thinking or affirmations. It also helps to have a bigger picture in mind rather than focus on immediate solutions – while quick fixes may seem tempting at the moment, they won’t necessarily lead us where we ultimately want to go. Positive energy leads to productive action, while negative energy only serves as an anchor holding us back from achieving our true potential. 

Area of Implementation  

Anytime we feel like our lives have become unfulfilling, we can take advantage of releasing resistance manifestations. However, it’s important to take some time for reflection so that we know exactly what our desired outcomes are. When we understand where we are now and set realistic goals for ourselves, releasing resistance can create positive change in our lives!

What Are Manifestation Techniques?

Manifestation techniques help individuals create the reality they want in their lives. You can do this through positive thinking, visualisations, and practising actions or tasks designed to change one’s life. 

One popular manifestation technique is visualisation, which involves imagining yourself already in possession of the thing you desire. This could be visualising yourself in a beautiful new home, or envisioning yourself as a successful business owner. The key is to make the visualisation as vivid and realistic as possible: it should get all tones of reality for it to harden into fact.

Gratitude is also a key component of manifestation. By focusing on the things you are grateful for, you are able to shift your mindset and attract more positive energy into your life. This could involve keeping a gratitude journal or simply taking a moment each day to reflect on the things you are thankful for.

Overall, manifestation techniques are a powerful way to bring your desires and goals to fruition. By incorporating visualisation, affirmation, journaling and gratitude into your daily routine, you can manifest the life you desire and live your best possible life.

The Endnote. 

Once you’ve identified the most powerful manifestation techniques, it’s time to take action. Believe in yourself, trust the process, and clear your mind to focus on what you desire. As long as you stay consistent with manifesting your desired outcome, you’ll soon be presented with opportunities that will help your transition into a life that is aligned with who you are and brings joy along. 

So start manifesting immediately and never give up until you’ve achieved your greatest desires.

The power is in your hands,

Anne

But, before we engage, picture yourself on a chess board, with pawns ready to move at your mental command – the inner talk holding the true belief and power to change the position of each of them – to move to the right track of success, victory, high self esteem, improved mental health, and a positive mindset, causing a life changing, profound effect on the way you see yourself and where you move in life.

The Power of Words

Words change your mindset. It is your inner talking that is a leading factor whether you’re heading to the direction of a fixed mindset, or a growth mindset.

To put yourself onto the path of realising your dreams and not just chasing them, it is necessary and crucial to make the shift towards a growth mindset; to rid yourself of negative self talk, negative words and then making a negative mindset something from the past you are only taking lessons from and making it a source of wisdom.

Then, you’re utilising the past to move forward, instead of having it reminding you – in the worst case over and over – of all that you had been doing wrong, and making it almost inevitable to not feel (and feed!) the fear when you encounter a similar situation.

While, my dearest friend, the past is unchangeable, and all we have is this moment, the second that we lose in just one wink.

So, why don’t you spend your moments in positive thinking, in inspiring mental images, in nurturing self talk, in stimulating and positive words and among (successful) people that thrive when you thrive, for you to climb the musical notes every time you get present with yourself, and become the best version of yourself?

A Growth Mindset

Developing and sustaining a growth mindset is the solution to a low self esteem, to negative thoughts, to negative self talk, to fear of failure and making mistakes, to not believing in possibilities and chances, to avoiding adventure and stepping out of your comfort zone, and to summarise the above: to a fixed mindset.

Leaving a fixed mindset would also mean leaving behind the victim mindset. The transition gets you from the feeling of having no power to you feeling powerful, mentally resilient and unlimited.

Climbing the Mental Ladder of Becoming Truly Powerful

Here is the stairway from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

Becoming Aware

Every step towards a change in your mental health starts with becoming aware of things that hold you back from moving into that growth mindset.

What are you telling yourself that sustain a low self esteem?

Are there perhaps people in your (close) environment triggering you to engage in negative self talk and negative thoughts?

What are your beliefs about failure and your idea of success?

What is it that you actually want for yourself? Who is the person that you want to be?

Blame & Judgment

I see people withholding themselves from becoming aware, as they feel confrontation coming their way and then rather avoid the discomfort of change than to sit in the process of freeing themselves from mental torture and forever sitting in the face of grieving past mistakes.

After becoming aware, it’s fairly normal to experience self blame and judgment towards how you’ve been handling your mental struggles.

After all, who hasn’t said to themselves: I should’ve done this differently, and way before realising this now!

Now then, allow these feelings coming to you, don’t resist, and make them the urgency drivers for to be making the change.

Because: learning about yourself shouldn’t be a rabbit hole of pain and suffering, but a road of lessons (yes, and also the hard ones) with true enjoyment coming along. So, make it rewarding by rewarding yourself. You deserve it.

Making Excuses

On the road of a growth mindset and coming from a fixed mindset, you will face your mind isn’t entirely up for change. And this makes sense, as your old thinking is still more comfortable to sit in.

But, this is the exact place where you shouldn’t give in to excuses to not do something; it’s where it’s necessary to not back down when a situation triggers you into making the same decision you would go for in the past.

Again, you can’t create from the past, it is in the now you will have to live and be who you desire to be, right in this generous, present moment.

Use your awareness to revert around the waves of making excuses to do something wonderful for your mindset. Is it the fear of failure? Is it the Imposter Syndrome you’re falling into (‘Am I good enough? Am I actually up for this?’)? What am I telling myself that is disserving and unhelpful?

Here’s some triggering questions you can ask yourself:

What am I in need of to mentally flourish?

How would I feel, was I to stop my negative self talk?

What should I be doing to optimally increase my happiness?

Am I now doing my best to engage in making the desired change?

How would I best pursue to make progress towards goal achievement?

Where would I be, was I not doing what is desirable for my mental health?

What would it take to get the truest alignment with the desired goals and the person I want to be?

It is both heaven and hell that you can create with your thoughts and positive affirmations from within to move your mindset towards a growth mindset.

By procrastinating and self-sabotaging yourself, by means of limiting beliefs you may have, you would be blocking the passageway to make that core shift in your mindset.

Hopeful Thinking

With your awareness around, blame and judgment utilised and embraced lovingly and excuses no longer playing the game as your enemy, but more like the foot on the gas pedal, hope joins in on the chess board.

Not only are you now aware of limiting beliefs, you have come to embrace them as they’re a source of wisdom and the excuses are now reminders for you to re-evaluate your thoughts.

It is this moment, with the eyes opened, that you’re experiencing you actually can mentally lead yourself to wherever you want to when you put your mind to it. It is carefully hoping, but with a growing confidence into believing.

Signs you’re in the hopeful thinking:

You had some experiences that made you start realising you weren’t being led by negative thoughts.

You’re thinking less in doom scenarios and you seem less afraid of (fearing) failure.

You’re more positive towards making the change in your mental health.

You’re looking forward to putting the effort into yourself.

Positive affirmations carry more confidence.

Acknowledgement & Believing

The positive inner talking is now making a serious impact on your mindset. You are acknowledging your potential that you have what it takes to find yourself in a growth mindset.

With your heightened awareness, you’re not only catching possible pitfalls while on the ever-going journey, it is now easier to pick up on signs that your words change your mindset.

This is where acknowledgement comes in: hope has been fuelled by the act of mentally investing and acting upon the desire to make the mental shifts, to the point where it turns into not only feeling you can do it, you believe and know you can. With every fibre of your being.

The positive affirmations you’re lovingly (re-)conditioning yourself with, you ordering and organising the words and beliefs in a positive way – perhaps by expressing this on a mindset bulletin board – are making you live to the core values you have mentally established for becoming the true you.

Becoming Inspired

Acknowledgement and genuinely believing in your potential allows you to become inspired; to make you want to search for new things to get your hands on, like books that are filled with knowledge, for you to move further and beyond.

Inspired people are not afraid to be confronted with obstacles and lessons they realise they yet have to face, they rather embrace the fact there’s greater sources out there; them being the invitation, and the example for that anyone can make a change in themselves, no matter from what starting point.

Inspiration carries a high frequency, meaning you will attract finding sources to improve and enhance the growth mindset you’re now in.

You will find yourself encountering likeminded people, you will find yourself finding books that fit your new way of thinking and that provoke you to expand it even more and you will find yourself on the move to create a world and reality some people can only hear about.

The people you surround yourself with play a part in how you change your words. Success is promised when you can exchange value with other people who can inspire you in return.

As Tony Robbins would tell you:

“Proximity is power! If you want to have an extraordinary life, surround yourself with people who make you better.”

Persisting & Owning It

This is where you find your connection and alignment with your core values, with a self esteem that is resilient whenever you encounter something that would trigger the old way of thinking.

And now, you’re not triggered to lean into that old thinking.

On this step of the ladder, you have an urge to persist in staying on the path of mental innovation. There is a fire ignited within you and you know it can only keep on burning if you feed the fire.

To evolve your Being is to evolve your Inner Words.

In other words: to grow as a person, you need to start thinking accordingly as to how you would like to perceive yourself.

The persistence comes with confidence, with joy, and with patience that your efforts will pay off, as well as that you are owning possible setbacks by embracing them as lessons, because you know they make you an authentic, whole human being.

You are no longer afraid to open doors, as you’ve come to experience life in possibilities, rather than mere chances based on luck or experiencing a reality in which you can only see how you should be questioning yourself.

It is now that you dare to step forward, to see that things are not happening to you, but happening for and through you.

Life is in your hands and you know it’s your words that change reality.

The Endnote.

There I have the stairway to a growth mindset put into words. But I must remind you of the fundamental ingredient, and that is your conscious, your awareness and your growth in authenticity. This is the greatest secret and most effortless means to make a core shift and, therefore, profound changes.

And to give you something to ponder on:

If there is self doubt I can create with my thoughts, wouldn’t I then also be able to create the opposite?

While thinking about it, remember this:

Change your words, change your mindset.

And it’s actually interesting how you can reverse it, that it’s also the mindset that changes your words in return. Quite a win-win situation, right?

Anyways…

Much love,

Anne

So, here is something I like to say to you, my dear friend. And that is this:

There can’t be light without darkness.
There can’t be heaven when there is no hell.
Where you see impossibilities, there’s also possibilities.

You can’t see order when you haven’t met chaos.

Life in polarities

Every single thing you encounter in your life comes with a polarity. Let’s have a look at an example, like the mental emotion we call anger. If you take it from a basic point of view, you’re just angry about something, you feel that rush of resentment, but if we ask ourselves the question why we’re angry and we think this through, it’s far from just anger.

This is the time you realise you were angry because you cared, as anger is a deeply-rooted emotion that stems from love, affection and emotional devotion. But the way we express anger shows otherwise in a lot of cases and it’s prone to be interpreted like we don’t care and just want to hurt people. While in those moments, anger points to a deeper, psychological reason: genuinely caring about something.

It’s the becoming aware of your emotions having layers as to why they occur that unlocks the power to utilise emotions into something far greater. By becoming self aware, you open the door to potentiality of all there is in life.

And Carl Jung can inspire us all with these powerful words put together:

“No tree, it is said, can grow to Heaven unless its roots reach down to Hell.”

What Jung states, is that – in the path of becoming the greatest version of yourself – one must see the evil, bad and negative within the Self.

You should realise and come to terms with the fact that you, too, hold that potential within you to go down that road.

As Jordan Peterson would say: it is not enough to just acknowledge, it is necessary to truly comprehend that capacity within you. You could be anything that you put your mind towards and where you direct your attention to.

You could fall into the traps of your greatest weakness and have it conquer you, or you can decide, consciously, that it could just be not a weakness, but a means to ignite the good, a strength; a potential force you can breathe life into.

The transmutation of your mental

For you to then being able to embody the greatest good – as goodness stems from a true understanding of its polarity (that is evil, wrongness, immorality, etc.) and to then choose to act well in the face of suffering and adversity – is when you’re intentionally channeling your thoughts, as your thought energy is the engine of how you feel and, as a consequence, how you will act. All is mental.

The latter of above reminds me of my studies of Hermetic Philosophy in the book The Kybalion (a study of the Hermetic Philosophy of ancient Egypt and Greece), something I’ve recently started getting into.

I’m more than intrigued to be sharing the knowledge – or more accurately said – its ancient knowledge. I’m convinced its content deserves to be worded out and passed onto those who feel there is more than ‘Modern Science’, as I hope, too, that I can trigger the curious among us.

I am to be dedicating its principles (there are seven) in detail in another moment of time, but as for now I would like to give you a glimpse of my studies so far, in which I’m going to touch on the (fourth) Principle that is Polarity – as I’d say it would suit the theme of this article.

So, in the Principle of Polarity, it is stated that:

“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.” – The Kybalion.

To put this in a more simplistic way, there are two sides of everything. Poles are only the two extremes of the same thing; they are related; they simply indicate varying degrees of the same thing, like in Heat and Cold, in Hard and Soft, in Large and Small, in Black and White, in Light and Darkness, in High and Low, in Self Criticism and Self Empowerment, in Strength and Weakness, and in Positive and Negative.

Where does one side leave off and does the other begin?

All are simply degrees of the same thing when you think for a moment. And, considered of more importance by the Hermetists, it is possible to change the vibrations of one to another, as they all operate on a mental level; it’s in one’s mind. And the mind is limitless.

It would be difficult to imagine this with Large and Small as one of the examples, but if you take a look at Love and Hate – as these are without doubt mental states – you may remember experiences of the transition from Love to Hate and the reverse, that is in your own case and that of others.

Changing the vibration

To change the vibrations, if you put your intention into making this shift – and let’s say this now with from going from your Low to your High – you’re making use of your willingness (The Will in Hermetic Philosophy) to transmute a mental state. Consequently, by understanding The Art of Polarization in your personal life, you will enable yourself to change your own Polarity, as well as that of others. You will then possess the key to learn to master your mental states.

The Ancient have left us with very little about the answers on how to apply this in our daily lives, but I’ve come to realise that it’s the understanding that will open the curtains to its application: it will be like the eyes are not only there to look, but to see what’s underneath the veil.

He who knows the principles, understandingly, possesses the key, and with a touch, all doors fly open.

And whatever you may perceive as one of your greatest weaknesses, the other side of the coin is your greatest potential. See beyond, expand your self awareness, start facing your fears, find your purpose, meditate on your thoughts, embrace all polarities for you to intentionally change the vibration and become the master of your mind.

Your lowest point is your greatest potential.

A person is limited. The spirit is unlimited.

I hope to have inspired you.

Anne

Source:

Three Initiates. (2018). The Kybalion: Centenary Edition.

Are you fed up with procrastination? Is it true you feel disappointed after realising you didn’t do all the work you intended on doing? You are definitely not alone.

You want to make the changes and it’s in your power to boost and maximise productivity. In this post I will cover some out of the box, maybe controversial, best productivity hacks I learned over the years that you can implement in every task that you do throughout the entire day.

And this is just because sometimes – if not in many or in all cases – all you need is to think outside the ordinary for things to work for you.

I will cover these 7 Productivity Hacks:

• 1. Parkinson’s Law.
• 2. Detachment.
• 3. Polarity Thinking.
• 4. Ownership.
• 5. The Placebo Effect.
• 6. Give Up.
• 7. Forget the Clock.

But in the end, you are the only limit, it’s all in your human mind. You can only go as far as you intend on going.

Productivity issues are – in most cases – caused by limiting self beliefs and fear. Maybe you think it’s too difficult, too comprehensive or you think people will have an opinion about what you’re doing. A change of mindset is the ultimate game changer in productivity.

Let me tell you this. Don’t let anybody tell you you’re not good enough and don’t let yourself believe that it’s too difficult to achieve that which you desire to achieve. 

What I want you to do is this. Lean into that gut feeling and don’t let fear and anxiety dictate how you think and feel, and therefore act upon those emotions. Instead, embrace the feeling of discomfort and channel your thoughts not through fear, but through love.

And to put a bow on this preach, I like to quote Dale Carnegie:

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

What Are The 7 Productivity Hacks?

I’m not here to discuss the expected (that isn’t to be thought less of). Do set your goals, enlarge your motivation by listening to music for example and cultivate a few habits by using the 2-Minute Rule, but let us now face a deeper layer. If you’re aware of these techniques and they’re right in front of you to use, and I’m sure you tried them all, then why are you still lacking in productivity?

It’s your awareness I’m going to touch on, as it’s the very core of the problem and therefore your solution. 

You will find that these hacks can be used in any aspect of life: professionally, on a personal level and in a relational or social context, meaning you can make a serious, lasting impact on your life.

Now, that’s enough with the rambling. Let’s go.

1. Parkinson’s Law

In Parkinson’s Law, it is stated that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. To put this into a simple example: a person who’s got one task per day, could take the full day to complete this task. Whereas a very busy person knows the same task needs to be done in a few minutes, so it’s possible to then continue with the other tasks.

It’s an easy law to fall into, which is why it’s important to become aware of this intriguing mechanic. I’m sure you recognize falling into the traps of procrastination and self-sabotage, causing you to leave tasks undone for days, weeks or even months. While deep down, you know you could’ve finished it in a (way) shorter amount of time.

Made by: Anne Diederiks (2022)

How to tackle Parkinson’s Law to improve productivity:

• Get clear on your vision: It’s the same principle with driving a car, flying an airplane and setting the sails of your ship: you’re looking towards the direction you want to go and not the ‘don’t crash into that tree’, as the latter is destined to turn into disaster. Find and connect to your vision, that is the desired outcome and you will then be drawn to that end result. Be persistent in holding onto it, as it will be the urgency driver that pushes you forward.
• Time division awareness: Take a few moments to think about the amount of time it took to get started, the amount of effort and time that passed in the midst of doing a task or multiple tasks and the total amount of effort and time there was when you finished. Actively thinking about this will provide you the awareness behind the behavioral pattern you demonstrate. You will also see the points where you seem(ed) to get stuck on, which is valuable information in regards to solving those particular issues.
• Prioritizing: This goes hand in hand with your vision and the time division, so as you are aware of your behavioral pattern in the approach to get things done as well as putting that vision upfront, you can experiment with prioritizing. Create your criteria for what makes something more important than the other, you prioritize tasks, and see how this plays into the formula of productivity: time and effort.

2. Detachment

Detachment is about completely, but usually temporarily, distancing yourself. Maybe from something you’re stuck on, from something you need to have time to think about and it’s possible you may want to detach because the frustrations are building up. 

While the term detachment suggests you’re going to do something that’s completely outside of what you actually should be doing, it is in fact not. Detachment is about distancing on purpose by doing an activity that triggers your solution oriented thinking; you can give yourself again the space to think in creative and empowering terms, for you to continue where you left off. 

I am not here to simply advise you to get your mind off things by saying go and do something else, with no specific activities given. You are here for the hacks, so I will provide them for you. But remember it is you who has to do the work.

So, what can you do in this productivity hack?

• Get in touch with nature: Nature allows you to reconnect to your inner nature and all opportunity that’s governed by it. Nature is pure consciousness and so are you. And consciousness is the infinite source of everything that exists in the physical realm. Align with the power of this by stepping into nature, preferably every day.
• When you get distracted: Place a chair in the middle of the room. You’re not allowed to take anything with you while sitting on that chair (this is non-negotiable). Remind yourself this is exactly what you’re doing when you’re distracted: you’re doing nothing and leaving the important tasks undone. Allow this realization to come your way and see how this plays into a renewed, more intense focus.
• Read your book & walk at the same time: It’s scientifically proven that physical activity has an influence on the quality of processing information. Now, you can go for just a walk, but take that book (about productivity, mindset and/or mental development) with you as well. You will find it has an enormous effect on taking in the information, as well as getting a broader experience of aligned emotions and thoughts (motivation, willpower, purposeful and direction focused thinking). Something extra you can do is reading out loud. This increases your attention span and when you continue with your work again shortly after, the increase in attention will carry through. Win-win.

3. Polarity Thinking

For this productivity hack, I want to talk about polarity thinking. In polarity thinking, I’m touching on connecting the two sides. One side is your desired productive state and the associated behavioral patterns (like intense focus, devotion, effort, decisiveness, etc.). The other side of the coin are the behaviors that you’re also familiar with, but you do not wish to show (like procrastination, limiting self beliefs, lack of concentration). 

It’s a natural thing to shove away the negative behaviours, but what happens then, is that they will always find a way back to you. The reason for this is that you haven’t embraced them enough as them being a part of you, of the whole human being you are. 

And it is possible to raise your vibrations to go from one to another. With that being said, your lowest point can actually be your greatest potential after all.

Discomfort, procrastination, lack of focus, limiting beliefs, dealignment, they are all part of the human life experience and instead of denying, ignoring and fighting against it, try finding them (by becoming aware) and then connect to them. Accept it as they are your own.

By doing this, you create wholeness and oneness; you connect with both polarities as part of you. You lift off the pressure of being ‘perfect’ and you can let go of having to fight against behaviors and thoughts you don’t wish to have, as you will only feed them in doing so. Instead, embrace it and train yourself to sustain your acceptance.

Here is the step-by-step approach:

• Go to a place where you can’t be distracted, sit down for this moment and close your eyes.
• Search for the desired behaviours and thoughts in your ideal state of productivity.
• Allow yourself to dwell and invite visuals by your choice to show.
• When fully immersed, you can start searching for the polarity or polarities.
• Find the behaviours and thoughts you don’t wish to show; that are unsupportive in your flow of productivity.
• Invite them to fully show up and allow visuals to make it as real as possible.
• When you’re entirely immersed, connect to the feeling of wholeness, of being one with both polarities.
• Sit in this state until you’ve lost all resistance, or at least for the most part, as it’s something you need to mentally rehearse (just like muscle training).
• Take a moment for this every day that you want to implement productivity flows.

4. Ownership

The next one in productivity hacks, is about taking ownership. When talking about taking ownership, you are fully responsible for the process and fulfillment of that you wish to achieve. If not taking full responsibility, then why would you be indulged in getting productive? Aside from having a dedicated workspace and making a to do list for example, it’s for you to add purposeful meaning to your state of productivity, by claiming that ownership, taking what’s yours to achieve. This involves a mental shift.

Mental visualisations and thoughts that help triggering ownership and responsibility:

• Picturing having a dragon put behind you that pushes you towards moving forward.
• Picturing gaining muscle and gaining strength when thinking about learning in the midst and seeing it pay off.
• Picturing the (personal/professional) opportunities to explore when you collect your victories.
• ‘If not today, when?’
• ‘What’s out there for me if I start now?’
• ‘I am my only limit. I am one step away from changing my life for good.’

5. The Placebo Effect

Another effective productivity hack is creating the ‘placebo effect’. You may think this is the ‘fake it until you make it’, but the difference here is that – with creating the placebo – you are actually believing entirely in its fulfillment, despite the fact there is no realization just yet. 

In this approach, you use your imagination and the power of assumption. You are assuming you’re incredibly productive, on fire with everything that you do during the day and you give that imagination all tones of reality. 

How can you do this?

• Before going to sleep: Visualize the assumed and desired productivity and what it feels like in the end. Feel the fulfillment and feel the acceleration of emotions in succeeding. In a drowsy state, you’re the least suggestible to over-analyzing and you’re then impressing the subconscious mind into believing that what it is you want, has already happened. If persisted in enough, it will harden into fact, into your physical world. As the body doesn’t know the difference between the past and the future, it will follow the mind. 
• In awake times: With your eyes open, live in the state of being productive. Even when you’re not as much as you like, push yourself towards that state by leaning into the desire of wanting to get something done. Things that may help support you in getting into that state: music, affirmations, visuals and physical activity beforehand (activates the creative brain and memory).

In conclusion, the point of the placebo is to fully assume that which you want to be doing, you are doing. By doing this, you embody the desire with an aligned thought and vision, and it will therefore manifest the desired behavior into achieving a sustained, productive state.

6. Give Up

You may think this is the same as detaching, but the difference here is that with giving up, you’re literally walking away from it and in its entirety. You leave behind the work you’ve done and haven’t done and you therefore cut the cords with frustration, lost energy and meaningless actions. 

I’m sure you’re wondering about something here, because: how does this play into productivity? 

Try to think back of a moment where you’ve given up on something and a while later, you suddenly realize or feel the genuine urge again to get back to it. This is because giving up plays into a psychological game where denying yourself something actually feeds the desire to do it anyway; it (re)grows your curiosity and you feel as if you didn’t explore all possibilities for its achievement. 

Pushing yourself forcefully will only make you want to quit even quicker, but with judgment, frustration and guilt. So, what I want you to do is this instead: you give up lovingly, you are judgment-free and you surrender to the idea it will either come back with bigger reasons and larger purposes to continue, or it won’t and it will be for good reasons. 

7. Forget The Clock

Quick disclaimer: I do not stand responsible for ruining your sleeping schedule (*jokingly said*). However, we are all familiar with the phenomenon of our thoughts getting so incredibly rich and creative in the late hours and it makes me want to say this: do make use of these moments.

Get out of your bed and make it a first priority to use this flow of productivity. Perceive it as a gift or maybe a sign, but don’t blame your incredible brain for trying to show you something. Everything happens for a reason and instead of being disappointed the morning after, you can feel fulfilled instead, because you didn’t give in to the easy way. 

Triggering questions you can ask yourself in that exact moment:

• What if I don’t use this moment that is filled with a genuine flow of creativity?
• What if I do use this moment? How would I feel?
• How is this going to serve me?
• Where would I be tomorrow if I just went back to sleep?

Triggering things you can say to yourself in that exact moment:

• To your body: ‘Yes, I know you’re tired and I will give you back your sleep as a reward after I’ve done this. I will sleep so much better then.’
• To your mind: ‘I am going to feed you with this flow of productivity and I am grateful for having created this for myself.’

The Depth Behind – What Is Productivity?

Like I mentioned before, I’m here to touch on the awareness. Simply said, productivity is about getting X amount of work done with a particular amount of effort and an amount of satisfaction, that answers the question whether you’ve been productive enough or not. 

But, while we can talk about quantity being the determining factor in productivity, it is in fact not. On the outside, you may be spending hours on something and you have set some goals on how to achieve that which you want to achieve, but there are many underlying factors that have a significant influence on creating and sustaining a productive flow.

The Iceberg Model – Productivity

Made by: Anne Diederiks (2022)

When you take a look at The Iceberg Model, you see a model that shows the visible behavior, knowledge and skills, that is the top, and the invisible, which is at the bottom, there you will find the underlying, subconscious or even unconscious, deeper layers of a person. 

You may have set some strong, solid goals and you may have been spending time on creating an environment that doesn’t distract you, but there are deeper layers causing you to be accountable for what happens at the top. 

I shall again take the example of goal setting. A goal system is a compass to success, but for goals to be achieved, you need to be aware of your limiting beliefs, you need to have a vision and you need to know your purpose: What makes you want to breathe life into it?

It is your decision making, your power to overcome procrastination and the embrace of discomfort when it comes to complexity. And it is prioritizing, devotion and effort into achieving manageable time division and variety. 

But always remember, the top only stands a chance of being valuable when you persist in paying attention to quality, the bottom. Productivity lies in the hands of integrity – that is your honesty towards what you believe in and authenticity – your congruence in thinking and doing.

The Endnote.

And there I have them for you to explore. Get creative and take on the journey of finding ways to create, boost and sustain your productivity. To stay productive, means to stay focused.

Productivity is less about what you do with your time and more about what you do with your human mind. Whether that be in urgent tasks, group tasks, individual tasks or in life tasks, it involves working to boost productivity.

It’s yours to take.

From my heart to yours,

Anne

In this post, I will be covering the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success taught by Deepak Chopra. This is a practical guide to healing the body, mind and spirit. By practicing the laws of success, you can create a more harmonious and more abundant lifestyle. Also, being mindfully occupied can unlock opportunities that lead to a deeper intention and desire in regards to your goals and how you interact with your outer world. Many other life-transforming books are available for us to read, so I’m here to tell you: go for it!

Because, there is never a better time than now to take the step to a happier life. Even if you are a newcomer to the laws, a life-changing transformation is guaranteed.

What are The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success?

When adhered to and practiced, one is to expect a rich and energy flowing life, with a rich, mastered self. The laws play a crucial role in the path to enlightenment and creation.

So, let’s take the dive into the seven spiritual laws to get your success, shall we?

1. Law Of Pure Potentiality

The first law of the spiritual laws of success is the Law of Pure Potentiality. To go on the path to enlightenment, is to become aware of the fact that your entire being, your nature, is pure consciousness and consciousness is the infinite source of everything that exists in the physical realm. This means there’s endless possibilities, you are infinitely creative. Pure potentiality is about realizing that our true self is of pure potentiality, in that we align with the power of this deeply spiritual practice that manifests everything in nature.

How to put this into practice:

• During the day, get in touch with the field of possibility, of pure potentiality. Be silent, just be.
• Practice meditation at least once or twice a day, surrendering to pure potentiality.
• Take time each day to connect with nature and take in the intelligence within everything you see, feel and smell. Merge yourself with nature and its creative potential.
• Practice non-judgment, every day. In order to open yourself up to possibility, it’s important to rid yourself from judgment towards what occurs in your life. By doing this, you won’t be pulled by your judgment into limits, but guided by love and compassion.

2. Law Of Giving & Receiving

It’s crucial to understand that the universe operates through exchange. By this, giving and receiving are the source of the flow of energy in the universe. When you are willing to give what you seek, you can then keep the abundance (receiving) of the universe.

How to put this into practice:

• Giving: Wherever you go and whoever you encounter, provide a gift. In this practice, the gift can be a gesture of appreciation, like a compliment or offering your empathy by sticking out a hand or offering them a sympathetic ear. You will then begin a process of joy, wealth and in return affluence in your life, as well as in the life of others.
• Receiving: Practice to gratefully receive all the gifts that life and everything in it has to offer. Take in the gift of sunlight, oxygen, leaves falling, laughter, joy and kindness around you that lift your spirits up.
• Giving & Receiving, the loop: Practice commitment to keep the circulation of giving and receiving going. Cultivate commitment towards appreciating the gifts of caring, admiration, affection, love and compassion. In silence, wish your environment joy, happiness and success in all areas.

3. Law Of Karma

The Law of Karma, or the Law of Cause & Effect, has to do with every action generating a force of energy that returns to you in a similar sense. You could also say, ‘he who sows the wind will reap the storm’. Understand that when you decide to bring success and kindness to the table, you will receive success and kindness in return. What you bring to the universe, it will mirror it back to you.

How to put this into practice:

• Cause: Become diligently aware and become the witness, the responsible, of the choices you make. Raising your consciousness in the present is the key to prepare yourself for future decisions and events.
• Effect: Ask yourself questions in regards to unfolding the possible results of your choices. In general, think about the consequences and on a deeper level, ask yourself if this decision delivers happiness and fulfillment to both you and to those who you affect by your choice.
• Cause & Effect as a whole: Ask and surrender to your inner guidance, be directed by the inner message that tells you to lean into comfort or discomfort. But remember, discomfort is usually the prior sensation before familiarity and success, so don’t get yourself strangled with the idea that discomfort leads to more discomfort. It’s in most cases the opposite. Trust your instinct, your gut feeling and either plunge ahead with abandon or pause for some time and evaluate the consequences once again. Stay present and allow your inner guidance to direct you.

4. Law Of Least Effort

You are a being of nature and nature’s intelligence functions effortlessly. Nature grows, adjusts and thrives, it’s never exhausting itself. Nature operates in harmony, joy and love. When you, as a being of nature, harness the power of harmony, joy and love, in return you create wealth and success without effort.

How to put this into practice:

• Acceptance: Practice your acceptance and tolerance. Accept anything that occurs in your life as they come, that may be people, circumstances or events. Acceptance and tolerance play a crucial role to tone endurance and vitality; you will not struggle against the universe as your acceptance is whole. You do not wish things to be, but you find acceptance in how things are in the current moment.
• Responsibility: Only when there is acceptance, you can take responsibility for the choice or situation. Understand that responsibility does not mean you blame. Not another person, not a thing and not yourself. You take responsibility by becoming aware of your ability to respond, so use it in your best benefit. With this, you allow yourself to embrace the fact that in every problem there is an opportunity in disguise. Utilize this insight and it will transform into an even greater benefit.
• Defenselessness: Practice relinquishing the need to defend your perspective on things, to feel no need to pushingly convince others to accept your point of view. There is no need for external validation when you have established an inner acceptance. This allows you to remain open to all perspectives of others and not be attached to any of them, your openness comes from the capacity for love.

5. Law Of Intention & Desire

Deepak Chopra states that in every intention and desire, there is a mechanic for its fulfillment. In this practice, you dwell in the intention of pure potentiality and when persisted in, this power will work for you.

How to put this into practice:

• Make a list of your desires and literally write this down, because actual writing activates more of the creative and cognitive parts of the brain. Take this list with you and take moments per day to absorb your desires and get grounded with them.
• Then surrender to manifestation. Visualize while meditating and go to sleep with it until it gets all tones of reality. And in the back of your head, trust that when things don’t (entirely) go your way, there must be a reason; that the universe is telling you there’s plans greater than those you have conceived.
• This is just like muscle training. If you’re not consistent, your progress will deflate in no time. Remind yourself to practice intention and desire and the awareness in all of your actions. In the present moment, refuse to allow obstacles to dictate the quality of the attention. You will only manifest the future through your deepest and most cherished intention and desire.

6. Law Of Detachment

When you detach yourself from something or someone, you step into uncertainty. In the spiritual Law of Detachment, you utilize the uncertainty into wisdom. Wisdom is about freedom from your past and freedom from the known. The known and your past is a prison of conditioning, it doesn’t allow you to move beyond, so you stay put with the same thoughts, feelings and behaviors. In your willingness to step into the unknown, where all possibilities exist, you surrender yourself to the creative dance of the universe.

How to put this into practice:

• Practice and commit to detachment by allowing yourself and everyone around you the freedom to be as they are. Don’t impose your ideas on how things should be or how you wish things to be, don’t force solutions and don’t try to change a person or circumstance with unnecessary force. Instead, participate in everything with a detached involvement.
• Embrace uncertainty and perceive it as an ingredient of creating new experiences. When you have a prior openness to accept uncertainty, solutions and opportunities emerge with effortless ease. Practice the feeling of security in times of uncertainty, because uncertainty is your path to enlightenment and freedom. Utilize the wisdom of uncertainty and discomfort for you to find security.
• Practice stepping into the field of the unknown, where all possibilities exist and invite the feeling of excitement when you remain open to the infinity of pure potentiality. Remind yourself that when you step into possibility, you will experience anything life has to offer: adventure, love, fun, magic, wealth, abundance and mystery.

7. Law Of Dharma

The Law of Dharma also correlates to the Purpose in Life. Your purpose is a unique gift that you give to others – it’s your contribution to the experience of life. When you merge your talent with the service you offer to others, you experience an immense ecstasy of your spirituality and therefore the evolving of your spirit.

How to put this into practice:

• Nurture your being. Lovingly embrace the potential that lies deep within your soul and consciously place your attention to the spirit within yourself that reflects your body and mind in the outer world.
• Become conscious of your talents and lessons and what you do in regards to nurturing your talents and learning the lessons. Understand that when you express your talents and use them in service of others, you create abundance in your life, as well as in the lives of others.
• Make the Law of Dharma a daily practice. Ask yourself how you can serve, how you can help and provide guidance. This fuels the capacity for love, contribution, compassion and ability to find success.

The Endnote.

Here I have laid out the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success that will guide you into making the step to a happier, harmonious and more abundant lifestyle. Make this a daily practice and take responsibility for your spiritual growth.

After all, it’s never undesirable to make the change for your truest self and a resilient mindset that never backs down, wouldn’t you agree?

Step up & change your world. You are the only limit.

Anne

In order to thrive in knowledge mastery, self mastery and self discipline has to come first. Case closed. What is the point of learning a skill, when you haven’t even learned how to overcome procrastination, recognize self-sabotage and to get rid of limiting beliefs? This is just to name a few, but in conclusion, my dear friend: adversity has to become part of your life.

In this guide I will cover the 7 steps on how to achieve self mastery:

• 1. Check your thinking.
• 2. Know how your brain and thoughts work.
• 3. Evaluate your environment.
• 4. Forgive yourself & be grateful.
• 5. Channel your thoughts.
• 6. Never stand still – Enhance and improve.
• 7. Make it a daily living.

What Is Self Mastery?

Self mastery is the process of taking a deeper dive into your thoughts, how you feel and how it relates to your demonstrated behavior on a daily basis. It’s not only about changing and transforming yourself, it’s the awareness of the prior state that’s most important to get a grasp on first, because then you will understand why you want to see a change happening.

Mastering the self creates an inner strength and resilience in situations that put you off-guard and make you feel negative emotions like anger, frustration and disappointment. That resilience causes you to recover from it, because you’re able to put things into perspective, you lose unjustified judgment for example.

While the name suggests that there’s less you will have to do once you master the self, it is definitely the opposite. It is a never-ending process, because life simply does not ever pause and facing things in this experience on a daily basis, will have you challenged to question your thinking and coping every time. It is about gaining control over how you respond to certain situations, whether that be from within or in your outer environment.

In today’s society, with all the distractions around us and the quick gratification you can grab in just one click, people are in need of long-term strategies to get the fulfilling life in which they can face (unforeseen) situations with a mindset that doesn’t back down. 

The 7 Steps To Achieve Self Mastery

If you have made it to this point, then simply go for it. After all, the worst thing that can happen is that you learn. 

So, let me help you out. But remember, it is you who has to do the work to create a more authentic self. Now, let’s go.

Step 1. Check Your Thinking

Gather your courage and confront yourself. This is where you discover at what point you are right now and that you decide it’s time to change the position of your pawns on the board.

Questions that help you:

• Am I happy with the way I’m living right now?
• Have I actually become the person I want to be?
• Is this how I want to be remembered?
• Am I giving myself what I deserve?
• Is this how I wish to continue for the next few years?
• Have I given myself enough to bloom, flourish and thrive?

Now, how do you put this into practice? First and foremost, this is a step that never stops. Self mastery is about becoming the master of your thoughts, therefore of how you feel and how you will act. As you think, so you feel, so you act. And this is a constant process.

Your thoughts hold more power than people sometimes like to think, because, thoughts create reality. Think of it this way. Everything we use, came from thought. Every implemented idea, came from thought. Every demonstrated behavior, came from thought first. The thought energy is a fundamental energy that’s behind everything.

If you are not controlling your thoughts, you can’t control your reactions. There’s things we don’t have control over, but it cannot be emphasized enough that you do have control over how you react. You create with your thoughts and that’s where causality comes in.

Show up for your thoughts, so you can grow responsibility towards your feelings and actions. You are the captain of your ship and you will inevitably face waves, that’s a lifetime promise. But, you are still in charge of how to set the sail and you are the one that has the ability to revert around those waves. 

The question is: Do you want to sail, or sink?

Step 2. Know How Your Brain And Thoughts Work

Now that you know you can create reality with your thoughts, that you therefore have a serious influence on your destiny, it’s important to know how this works in the brain. 

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between what happened in the past and what is happening now. When you are focused on the intentional, desired thought that’s from within, then your body, also known as the unconscious mind, will begin to experience the new future thought in the present moment.

Know that every person, object, thing, place or situation has a neurological network (thought energy) assigned in your brain and there is an emotional component (feeling) connected to it. 

You will find when you’re still so focused on frustration from a memory, that one person who annoyed you and the disappointment you had in yourself for any reason, that you create a thought pattern which in fact stems from the past.

When you learn something new or improve a skill, your brain creates new neurological networks. So when you wake up every day with the same thoughts and go about your day with the same thoughts, feelings and behaviors, you live in the past each day. And you can’t create from living in that place. 

In conclusion, train and activate your brain by pursuing the new and the beautiful unknown that is outside of your comfort zone. Embrace the discomfort that comes with it, because you’re finally learning and moving forward. It will pay off, guaranteed.

Step 3. Evaluate Your Environment

Yes, you become who you hang out with. Now, I’m not saying you should question your family members, that’s not ever anyone’s business except yours. What I can say is, love your family, but choose your friends. 

This doesn’t come from an egotistical mindset, because if you think you’re better than them, so therefore they’re not good enough to be in your circle, then you’re really in the same place. This is about recognising that everybody is on a different journey and there’s people who will meet you on that path, and some don’t. 

How do you approach this step? 

Let me share some guidelines with you:

• Understand the power of a peer (group). The biggest influential factor of your environment, the one that has the biggest impact on who you are, are the people who you surround yourself with. The fastest way to make lasting changes in your life is to surround yourself with people who are either at or going towards the same destination. 
• Define your criteria. What criteria would you want someone to meet, so that they resonate with you? I’ll give you some examples: one pursues possibility thinking over problem thinking, is direction focused, intentional, driven by growth, explorative, investing and nurturing, emotionally developed.
• Decide who you are willing to lose. You may attempt to try to change someone, and maybe they will have a genuine change at heart. But if there’s no intrinsic change, you’re just trying to raise the dead. Again, it’s about recognising not everyone’s on the same journey.
• Structure your peer (group) relationship. This is about using intention and direction. The intention sets the compass that allows you to strategically think about what you want the outcome to be. When there is a clear intention, it will show the direction. So, ask yourself this: what is my desired outcome?
• Live by the formula of constructive interference and accountability. Constructive interference is when two frequency waves (of two people) are vibrating at the same frequency; you share the same criteria, values, you thrive when the other thrives – you resonate. Accountability is not letting the other person down, nor letting yourself down in front of this other person. When you both have a resonant frequency, it becomes fun to grow together. This is when 1 plus 1 doesn’t equal 2, but 11. 

Take some time for this step and don’t let the realizations scare you, because that’s actually telling you it’s time to take responsibility for your self mastery.

Step 4. Forgive Yourself & Be Grateful

I’ll immediately tell you that this is no floaty, ‘woo woo’ stuff. Yes, there’s things you’re not proud of maybe. Yes, you have your regrets and things you have a hard time letting go of. Now, do you see this is about the past? It happened, it’s history, it’s unchangeable. 

You can choose to stay in that place and live with regret and misery all you want, but you will never move forward if you do. Stop making excuses for why you’re thinking, feeling and acting a certain way, because of what happened in the past. Wouldn’t it be a waste of time if you were to spend X years in history where nothing can be changed? You know it is a waste, so get up.

Now, what is the approach?

• Understand your past. It is there to show the lessons you are born to face.
• Know you are human. Mistakes will be made your entire life. Forgive, learn and move on.
• Be grateful for your experiences. They pushed you into directions, gave you valuable lessons and made you the person you are now.
• It’s not about forgetting about your past, it’s the change of attitude. Allow it to be a part of you, but stop letting it dictate how you think, feel and act in this present moment and in all other moments to follow. Is it really worth letting negative thoughts get in the way of your happiness?

Take a moment each day to show acceptance and gratefulness towards your life in its entirety. Align with your truth, because truth is “that which is”. It’s everything that has happened in the past and what’s happening in the exact moment. 

Take responsibility over your own path and control over the present and raise from self suffering, as it’s the ultimate way to self knowledge and then self mastery.

Step 5. Channel Your Thoughts

Let this saying from William Buhlman sink in:

“Souls create their own heaven or hell by the way they manage their thoughts.”

The higher you aim and channel your thoughts, the quicker you can recover from a moment of anger, frustration, disappointment or another emotion that carries a denser frequency. The denser, the more materialistic, the closer to hell you could say. The higher the frequency, the finer the energy particles, the closer to heaven. It is why the underworld is beneath and the angels are able to fly. 

Now, this is taken from a philosophical and spiritual point of view, but I will break it down for you in a practical way.

How you can put this into practice:

• Catch your negative emotions (towards yourself, others, and situations). decide if it’s serving you, if it was justified to blame the other person or if it’s worth letting a situation dictate your response before you yourself decide how to act on it.
• Understand the input-output principle of the universe. How you think, how you feel and how you act have an effect on what you get back in return. 
• Transcend problems through love, not through fear. Through fear, you will expect the worst, you will anticipate on the worst and with that you will most likely create that undesirable situation and when you do this by love (umbrella for kindness, non-judgment, prosperity, et cetera), you open up to the possibility of positive outcomes that are in favor of you. Through love, you keep in mind the deeper meaning, your purpose as to achieve something.

The ultimate goal is to channel your thoughts through the highest potential. This should not be taken as an egotistical outlook on how we manage our thoughts and demonstrate our behavior. 

So many of us are so preoccupied with taking care of others, and in the process we forget ourselves far too often. In order to be of sustainable service to others, is to first take care of yourself and that’s a never-ending process. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself and have a constant want of improving yourself, it’s a selfish thing if you don’t. 

To put a bow on this one: bettering yourself and self mastery means a commitment to questioning your thoughts. And facing fears, really, can only be done by you.

Step 6. Never Stand Still – Enhance And Improve

As explained in step 3, in order to maintain the changes and creating new neural networks, is to keep on investing in your growth work so you stay on top of mastering the self. Self mastery is a life-long process and it should become a daily part of your life to grow your wisdom and engage into establishing personal success. Otherwise, it will fall apart. Let that be the dragon behind you pushing you forward. 

Things you can do for enhancement and improvement:

• Find a mentor: Preferably one that doesn’t know you on a personal level.
• Learn about topics that teach: Learn about the deeper depths about you and your environment. Examples would be: philosophy, spirituality, psychology, stoicism, leadership and the fundamentals of a business mindset.
• Find a course that fits your desires: And one that holds you accountable.
• Trigger your senses: Learn by using multiple senses. Find and watch inspiring videos, read books about transformation, listen to podcasts.
• Free yourself from distraction: Eliminate things that trigger your old thoughts and behaviors, by for example banishing social media for a while. It really is a wonderful and effective medicine.
• Get moving, dance it out: It is scientifically proven that physical activity activates your creative thinking.
• Step out in the open world: Do this every day. Smile to strangers, invite new and inspiring conversations to come your way.

Every day, do things that make you 1% better. And 1% is a lot, considering you would be 100% better in 100 days (!), if doing this consistently as you should. Aim high for yourself, because you don’t deserve anything less. You are the CEO of your life, claim that ownership.

Step 7. Make It A Daily Living

It cannot be said enough, but knowing and bettering yourself is a daily practice. Each day that goes by without you investing into yourself, is a step closer to your old, limited thinking, closer to hell you could say as you now know that it is both heaven and hell you can create from your thoughts.

Instead, wake up every day knowing you are going to improve something again, that you’re going to learn something new and at the end of the day, you may even realize you recovered from a limiting belief faster than you did earlier. Kudos. This is the way to go my friend.

Become passionate about uncovering the deeper layers of yourself, what makes another person tick in their daily life and then in return what makes you tick. 

As Marcus Aurelius would say, you’re going to die, you’re a mortal and you run out of time. It’s not about fearing death, but about growing appreciation and love towards being alive and everything you want to experience in this life of yours. And it starts with self awareness.

Remember, now is the time and your personal growth is forever when you’re in it.

The Endnote.

And there you have it! I hope I’ve given enough kicks in the butt for you to get moving. It really cannot be expressed in words enough how important it is to show up for your personal development and the mastery of the self, as it’s only possible to be of service to others if you are of service to yourself first.

Remember that life is an experience and we are all here to learn, grow and contribute. Why not make it the best you can by unhooking that full potential inside of you? 

You are the only limit. It’s for you to decide how far you go. And I would say, go further and beyond. Outlive your peers.

From my thriving heart to yours,

Anne

Not only can you apply this for your business, you will find it transforming in your personal life as well. It will make you curious about many more ways to influence your mindset for good.

In this guide I will cover the 9 steps on how to develop a business mindset:

• Step 1. Define your why.
• Step 2. Identify your blind spots.
• Step 3. Get rid of limiting beliefs.
• Step 4. Setting goals.
• Step 5. Cultivate patience, consistency & persistence.
• Step 6. Become visual.
• Step 7. Working in your business → Working on your business.
• Step 8. Become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
• Step 9. Think like a business owner – Become an entrepreneur.

What Is A Business Mindset?

There is no one definition of a business mindset. It depends on the niche or brand you are in and what personal meaning you put into it, but in every process of building a business mindset, there’s fundamentals involved. I’ll gladly spoil a few key points: purpose, discipline, vision and ownership.

How To Develop A Business Mindset?

I won’t have you waiting any longer. Let’s go.

Step 1. Define Your Why

Take the time for this. If you don’t invest enough of your effort into this, it will be impossible to set clear goals. Not moving forward is useless, so close yourself off from the environment, have no distraction and go into the depths of why you want to have a successful business.

Questions that help you:

• What do I see myself doing?
• What are the benefits for me?
• What are the benefits for others or my audience?
• What problem(s) will be solved?
• How would it feel when I do?
• What is my influence?
• What values do I want to add?

Step 2. Identify Your Blind Spots

Overlooking your blind spots will inevitably happen, but remember that it’s the awareness that’s the most important. Once you’re aware of them influencing you negatively, you will catch them and take action.

Blind spots to look for:

• Perfectionism.
• Being completely new to learning a certain skill.
• Procrastination.
• Self-sabotage.
• Self-doubt.
• Caring too much about other people’s opinions.

Step 3. Get Rid Of Limiting Beliefs

With the blind spots identified, you will want to get rid of them and other beliefs you have. And don’t just want to get rid of them, but let them be the urgency drivers to actually step up.

It’s important to understand that limiting beliefs stem from things you learned in the past. Experiences together form an attitude, attitudes together form a belief and eventually, a belief turns into an unconscious/subconscious perception. This happens when you feed it enough by affirming your belief. You then create an ongoing pattern that doesn’t allow you to move forward.

In order to break out of that unconscious/subconscious belief is to become aware of it. Not just once, because a change of mindset is just like muscle building: it needs rehearsal.

How to do this & establish self improvement:

• 1. Become aware: Listen to self-talk and inner speech.
• 2. Ask yourself: Does it serve me?
• 3. Confront yourself: What if I keep on believing this?
• 4. Empower yourself: What if I get rid of this belief?
• 5. Transform yourself: I don’t identify with my limiting beliefs.

Step 4. Setting Goals

A business owner’s mindset is innovative and purpose driven, they feel the thrill of the ride as they are working towards a goal in their business plan. Don’t be afraid to aim high or to be unrealistic, because that activates your creative thinking.

Setting goals sets you into motion and it creates discipline to keep on moving forward. And with your why defined, your discipline will have an intention and meaning: you know what you’re doing it for, so you won’t quit the game. You run your race.

How to set a goal:

• Think about time framing.
• Be specific about the end result.
• Don’t aim for average or less – especially with your limiting beliefs out of the way.
• Go for quality, intention and meaning, not perfection – perfectionism only delays you.
• Include how you would feel when you have achieved your goal.

Step 5. Cultivate Patience, Consistency & Persistence

Let me break this down for you. A lack of patience puts you at risk of quitting, and maybe right before you achieve your goal and financial success or even financial freedom. Cultivate trust in the process and observe not only the big steps, but don’t miss the significance of the smaller steps.

With consistency, you build a constant pattern of effort. You don’t want to focus on intensity in the beginning, as you will run out of energy very soon. Consistency is a winning indicator.

Work on consistency first and when you can persist in being consistently invested in your mindset and goals, that’s when you can experiment with higher intensities.

Step 6. Become Visual

Business owners have a vivid imagination. If you want to be great, you have to think and imagine greater. The biggest mistake most people make in life is not aiming high enough (it’s why you need limiting beliefs out of the way), they think inside the box.

Outlive this and think outside the box. Think in the big picture. What is it that you want to achieve?

Goals, imagination and a vision is not 1 and 1 and 1 equaling 3, it’s 1 and 1 and 1 equaling 111. Use your imagination with every goal and lean into that end vision. Assume that which you want, has already happened.

How to successfully visualise:

• Create a vision board.
• Find inspiration in other people, images or videos.
• Meditate.
• Have no distraction.
• Listen to powerful music.
• Visualise right before falling asleep, you’re then the least suggestible to overthinking.
• Mentally rehearse until it gets all tones of reality: repeat, repeat, repeat.
• Add meaning and emotion: How would it feel when you achieved your goal?

Step 7. Working In Your Business → Working On Your Business

This is a crucial, entrepreneurial mindset change for entrepreneurial success. Get this right.

Working in your business means managing the business as it is today, it’s the day-to-day activities that someone else could easily do.

When you make the shift to working on your business, and you should, you constantly invest time and effort to give your business a better tomorrow. It’s the specific business operations that are based on the future and its survival.

Working on your business is about:

• Growth strategies.
• Planning for the future.
• Goal setting.
• Process automation. 
• Learning and education.
• Mentorships.

Step 8. Become Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

Every successful entrepreneur applies this principle. Simply said, if you stay in your comfort zone of familiarity, not pushing yourself to explore and learn new things, you will stay put where you are and so will your business. Case closed.

Why this shift is so important:

• Tolerance of discomfort: It pushes you to try new things.
• Acceptance: It lets you move past fear. Otherwise, you may fall into the pit of walking away and quitting.
• Willingly taking risks: When calculated and considered confidently you know they will pay off.
• Less pressure to interact with new people: You are open to learn about new perspectives and skills and you increase your network of potential connections or followers.

Now, how can you make yourself more comfortable with discomfort?

Here are some strategies:

• Understand & embrace the power of being uncomfortable: It keeps you moving.
• Engage with people: Remind yourself you’re not alone and that you can take important insights from these experiences.
• Mental coping strategies: Use affirmations, meditate to stay present, connect with your visualisations, and reframe unhelpful thoughts to thoughts that empower you.
• The mental shift working sustainably: Start in minor situations and scale up your input and efforts.
• Actively lean into excitement: Grow excitement towards the new possibilities, try-outs and how you evolve as an entrepreneur.

Step 9. Think Like A Business Owner – Become An Entrepreneur

Don’t fall for the false belief when you’re just starting or learning something new, that you can’t claim ownership. It’s time to move into identifying yourself as the entrepreneur, the owner of your business. 

The business is your property, the mindset behind it carries the viability. When you think and feel as a business owner, your whole state of being shifts into you identifying as the entrepreneur, the leading one running the race. 

Don’t just think about it, but become it.

Why Is Mindset Important In Business?

In order to face risk, adversity and cultivate resilience, a business mindset that is growth driven is crucial. Growth comes with both victory and failure.

Therefore, entrepreneurs have to be able to have an objective perspective on failure, so they can understand that failures and making mistakes are not the end of the world, causing them to walk away and quit the game.

Adversities are lessons to push you to conquer setbacks, move on and improve the craft of a business strategy and therefore business opportunities.

The Endnote.

Your mindset is what keeps the business alive and thriving. When you develop a resilient, purpose driven, growth focused, failure and discomfort embracing mindset, you will set yourself up to lead and win.

Aspiring entrepreneurs with a success mindset can create business success.

Until the next, and remember to never give up when things get difficult. 

Thriving with you,

Anne

You are, so I am glad to have you here.

With the best intentions and personal experiences, I would like to invite you to start the change of your mindset from this moment on, because, there’s obviously a reason you found my article. 

So, let this be the invitation for you to step into the change of your mindset. It will make all the difference.

How to change your mindset?

Here is my list about the best ways to change your mindset for you to get your hands on and to get that mindset shift going.

Let’s get into this.

1. Become Conscious Of Your Thinking

Awareness is the major step. Take a moment for this every day. Was I overthinking? Was I doubting myself? In order to change and master yourself, you have to become conscious of what’s limiting you in your (desired) growth. When you catch that thought or feeling, ask yourself: does it serve me? When you start to increase that awareness, you will want to compel action.

2. Create Routine

Set up the essentials you want to be doing in your days. Aside from stress reduction as a result, this will also cause you to have a solid base to start developing other habits. You literally decide the use of your time from then on. Also, recognize and acknowledge that no routine is also a routine. Let that one sink in.

3. Get Up Early

Maybe you’re not a morning person, but I invite you to let go of that, because I know you want to have this in your system. Getting up early is an indicator of daily successes for one simple reason: you have already achieved something early on and that victory carries on in your other tasks. Another bonus: more time.

4. Meditate

Meditation literally means becoming familiar with a new future. With meditation you separate from the material world and it slows down the brain waves (from beta to alpha, the relaxed and uncritical state or even theta, twilight zone awake-asleep). You enter your subconscious mind, allowing you to uncritically think, feel and visualize what you want.

5. Manage Your Sleeping Schedule & Sleep Quality

Your sleep carries your functioning. During sleep, your brain processes and organizes and this allows you to build on that for the next day. By optimizing your sleep, you increase your productivity, focus, organization and the execution of your daily schedule.

6. Get In Touch With Nature

Being in nature separates us from the busy and rushed civilization. It reconnects you to your inner self and provides a ‘reset moment’. Step into nature every day so you can treat yourself with a closer and more grounded connection.

7. Get Present And Live Moment By Moment

Too floaty? Let me break it down for you. If you want to (re)gain control, go to the space and time where you have control, the here and now. The past is out of your control, you can’t change it, and the future is dependent on what you do, think and feel right now. Everything draws back to now.

8. Invite Wisdom From Your Past

Think about what you would not have learned if something didn’t happen back then. Then, utilize this wisdom and merge it with who you are today and see yourself becoming. By doing this, you reframe situations; you make a core change in the attitude towards them.

9. Forgive Yourself

We are humans. We do things we regret, we feel resentment or disappointment towards the actions we’ve done, but when you’re still strangled with these emotions that stem from the past, you are LIVING in the past. Forgive yourself, learn, and move on.

10. Eliminate A Bad Habit

I’m sure you can think of that one habit that stands in your way. Rid yourself from blaming your environment and take responsibility to step up. You are the only limit.

11. Cultivate A New Habit

Start to understand that habits are carriers of who you are. Find something that enhances your identity, that solidifies with the kind of person you want to become and implement this behaviour every single day. Start small by becoming familiar with the 2-Minute Rule and optimisation can follow from that point on.

12. Understand Your Resistance

Resistance doesn’t only stem from not wanting to do or change something. In most cases – if not in all of them – resistance mirrors your feelings of lack, thinking you can’t do it or that you’re not good enough. I am here to tell you that you can & you are.

13. Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

A comfort zone is an internal place where you’re not pushed enough to explore boundaries, discover opportunities and learn in new situations. Become aware of this and invite yourself to not only say yes, but to actuallydo it and see what happens.

14. Let Go Of The Illusion Of Control

Remember that time you had something in your control and it then slipped from your fingers? While the circumstances may not immediately change, there’s a secret: you do have control over how you internally deal with what happens and you can alter your approach at all times.

15. Cultivate Gratification Moments

Our society is obsessed with providing quick satisfaction and gratification. Don’t settle for this, as it’s only temporary and will therefore lead to disappointment. Have a deeper dive into what you’re actually grateful for, like connection or love, as these are unconditional.

16. Become Familiar With Reading Books

Put your screen and the addiction away. Find something you want to learn about and become a (habitual!) reader. Reading books on transformation is an excellent means to connect with yourself on a higher and deeper level.

17. Get In Touch With Music

Music releases the hormone oxytocin and this hormone is related to positive and happy feelings (‘love and connection’ hormone). Not only that, music gives a rewarding feeling, and that rewarding feeling releases dopamine, the ‘feel good’ hormone. This has in turn an influence on your motivation and willpower.

18. Grow Belief In Yourself

It’s not worth it to have your limiting beliefs stand in the way of your desired successes. Not just that, by increasing your belief you will have less of a hard time both acknowledging and facing obstacles.

19. Say “No”

Get straight on things that do and don’t serve you, as well as on people who ask you to do something for them. Ask yourself this: do I actually want to, or am I doing this to externally validate my worth? If it’s the latter, consider saying no.

20. Verbalise How You Feel

You matter. It’s not worth being run over when you could’ve said something to stand your ground. Express how you think and feel, because this is where you will find out if you’re being listened to and understood by.

21. Turn Perfectionism Into Being Quality Driven

Aren’t these the same? In a way, but it’s about the attitude and approach towards it. While the term perfectionism carries negative associations, being quality driven does not. Evolve your perfectionism into being quality driven.

22. Check Who You Hang Out With

There is a saying: “You become who you hang out with”, or this one: “You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with”. Observe and become aware of the influence people have in your environment and decide if their energy brings out the best in you.

23. Become (More) Assertive

Let this thought go through your mind: What if I don’t show up for what I want? And: What would I miss out on? Let the outcomes of those thoughts be the drivers to put your foot on the gas pedal.

24. Learn From People Who Inspire You

Observe what they do, how they think, why they express themselves in the way they do and what it gives them. Have their teachings be driven home, for you to use them as well.

25. Get Rid Of Self-Sabotage

Become aware of your limiting beliefs and how they have an influence in your daily life. Self-doubt, unworthiness, lack and separation are examples everyone has dealt with for at least a few times. And it stops you from success, let that be the urgency driver to eliminate self-sabotage.

26. Eliminate Procrastination

Create a winning environment for yourself. Things you need to do your tasks, have them prepared and close. Setting yourself up to win = destruction of procrastination.

27. Clean Space ⇔ Clear Head

This is an ongoing loop. A space tells me a lot about one’s mind and vice versa. Set up your environment, get rid of stuff that distracts you, clean your space on a regular basis and you will literally create room in your mind. The same goes for your mindset (organizing your brain).

28. Embrace Adversity

Adversities give you insight into what you need to alter in your path. Instead of letting it bring you down, use the knowledge to step up and rise even higher.

29. Let Mistakes Be Part Of Your Steering Wheel

Mistakes don’t mean failure when you choose to turn them into learning assets: you wouldn’t have your successes if you didn’t make mistakes. You can have them determining your lack or growth. You decide.

30. Be Curious About Opportunities

Expect the unexpected. Lean into your curiosity about new opportunities and the prospect of increasing your growth as a person. It’s all about that change of mindset.

31. Try Out New Directions

Don’t get strangled with the idea that choices determine one specific path, because that’s a flawed belief. Put yourself out there to explore, think outside the box and take the leap.

32. Turn Resourcefulness Into Your Ultimate Resource

Where do resources originally come from? There you go, resourcefulness. Make this your greatest solutionoriented asset, for then the resources to come your way.

33. Become Your Own Best Friend

For the purpose of creating a positive mindset, increase your self-value, as it will result in a rise in your resilience. You will want to have this when it comes to adversity, problems in a relationship or friendship, loss and limiting beliefs. By becoming whole with yourself, not so many things will bring you out of balance.

34. Swim In The Good Opinion Of Yourself

Because swimming upstream in the river of others is a road to nowhere. Negative thoughts create negativity. So, instead, think positive about yourself, as it’s the key to have the belief in achieving your goals. When you’ve created a resilient self, you wouldn’t even feel the need to get validation from others (in the end most don’t actually care).

35. Practice The Art Of Showing Up

What makes a habit a habit? You put consistent effort into it. Show up to your developing habits, your growth work and build momentum. Don’t try to go from 0 to 100 (I know you like to do so), but work on consistency, for then persistence to follow.

36. Nurture The Seeds You Plant

You can grow amazingly looking plants, but if you don’t take care of them, don’t nurture their needs to thrive, it’s nothing more than seeds destined to stay underground. 

37. Listen To Self-Talk

Pay closer attention to your inner speech and for those talking to themselves, listen to that negative self talk. Let’s say you think or say, ‘I can’t do this‘. Would you be doing it, let alone have the belief in it? Think about this for a moment and get to work.

38. Set Clear Goals

Become clear with what it is that you want to achieve, because that allows you to dwell into the feelings when you ticked off that goal. What do you want and how would it feel when you have it?

39. Prioritise Yourself

You are the most important person in the experience we call life. Don’t take this the egotistical way. In order to serve other people, you need to be in alignment with your self-value and standards. Get this right and what you then can give is only an addition, not a gap to fill.

40. Lean Into Your Desires & Goals

Don’t keep on dreaming. Don’t chase. Lean into what it is that you want, that is meeting the dream halfway. This is where opportunities and actions show up.

41. Cultivate Patience

Learn and understand that behind every skill you’re learning, there are stages that you go through. In order to go from conscious incompetence to conscious competence, you need vision, consistency and persistence. The carrier of all of these things is, surprise, patience.

42. Boost Your Productivity

The baseline is to have a closer look at your time management, routine, habits (good and bad) and your beliefs. Productivity is more than a quantitive concept, there is more of a mindset involved with it. Successful people are constantly invested in optimizing their productivity.

43. Become Decisive

To put it simply. Do you want to move forward? Make a decision that you feel like leaning into the most. Also, it’s not just the decision (end product). It’s the decisioning process that takes place before. Effectively and efficiently invest in this time, because that’s what will strengthen your decisiveness. 

44. Live Each Day As If You Would Learn Something New

By doing this, you create openness to possibilities, before there is even an opportunity. This prior openness causes you to be extra suggestible and you will pick up on learning possibilities a lot faster.

45. Become Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

This is famous among the entrepreneurial mindset. Change comes with feeling discomfort, because you’re stepping out of that familiar place. By becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable you’re allowing yourself to step into change. You can choose to stay the same uncomfortably or to grow uncomfortably. Your decision.

46. Develop A Leader’s Mindset

You can have life throwing you into corners and in front of lions, or you can decide from this moment on that you put the dragon carrying your goals behind you, so you won’t quit. Get rid of the idea that the environment dictates where you go, claim your path and lead the way.

47. Build Momentum In Your Focus & Attention

Momentum means a consistent movement, that is in this case having a consistent flow of focus and attention. The carriers of building momentum lie with the essentials: setting up the environment, investing in self belief and having meaningful discipline (knowing what you’re doing it for).

48. Improve Your Time Management

Decide the thing(s) you want to have done today and know your blind spots or possible delaying indicators (like perfectionism or acquiring a skill completely new to you). Then, apply this formula: good enough – move on – come back later. This allows you to put the wanted effort into it with the least risk for disappointment.

49. Persevere To Succeed

Many people quit when things get difficult. I urge you to know that this is the exact moment where you shouldn’t quit. Think about the longer run, what it will give you and hold onto that.

50. Set Your Boundaries

Have a closer look at things that hold you back in doing and learning things. It’s the same with people in your environment. Can you tell them both good and bad news? Do they invest in you? You deserve to thrive, so create that scenario by setting boundaries.

51. (Re)define Your Values

Defining your values helps you understand why you do the things you do on a deeper level. By redefining and being open to redefining them you make the active move to align with the person you want to become. 

52. Get Beyond Judgment

Think about this analogy: a coin always has two sides. What you see isn’t always what there actually is. Place yourself in that person’s behavior or situation. You will find out you could’ve been just the same. More the reason to let go of that judgment. 

53. Aim High

But what if I get disappointed? Let me drive this home. If you think like this with every goal you want to set or with every opportunity that comes, you will always be standing on the sidelines or picking up the scraps. If you want to be great, you have to think greater.

54. Stop Comparing Yourself

Comparing yourself to other people (and what they do and/or have) is a sign that comes from lack and separation. Instead, let them be the invitation for you to step up and make changes to achieve what you want.

55. Turn Fear Into Courage

Fear is a sign you think you’re not good enough to do something or that something negative happens. Ask yourself: what is the worst thing that can happen? And the most important question: what if I do go for it? Facing your fears can be daunting, yes, but don’t let it stop you, as you are the only person who can make it possible.

56. Become Okay With Not Being Okay

Allow your thoughts and emotions to be. Take a moment to tell yourself, ‘I think and feel like this, and that’s okay’. It will immediately lift off the pressure of having to feel good all the time, giving you the proper amount of room to process and take lessons from it.

57. Be Honest

Dishonesty will only lead to more disappointment and false beliefs. Align your beliefs with how you act and speak and the other way around, that is true authenticity to yourself and in turn to the environment. 

58. Ask Questions

Albert Einstein once said: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing”. Be passionately curious about yourself, what and who’s around you. Because if you don’t ask, you won’t know, let alone understand.

59. Improve Your Memory

By increasing your memory abilities, the logical outcomes are not only that you will be able to acquire a skill faster, it allows you to hold the understanding (what/why you’re learning) and the execution (how it’s done) for a longer amount of time, if not forever built-in.

60. Tame Your Overanalysing

Overanalyzing has you thinking in doom scenarios and if this endures for a longer time, you will actually start living as if that doom scenario is happening. Stress hormones rise and there is less and less room to create. It slows you down, so get present and take your place in the driver’s seat.

61. Find A Mentor

A mentor can help you to hold yourself accountable and to give feedback. They check with you if you’re still on the right track and thrive with your goals and victories.

62. Meet New People

Open up to the possibility of meeting amazing, resonating people. It is guaranteed you will find out more about your own standards, values, perspectives and become inspired by others to invest even more in your mindset.

63. Share Your Journey

I’ll be honest with you. People don’t like complete, fulfilled stories. Don’t be afraid to tell where you came from, how many times you started over and the countless lessons you learned, because it’s what it took to be where you are now and what your next steps are.

64. Continue When You Stumble

Stumbling and struggling are signs you’re learning. Instead of deciding to give up when things get more difficult, be curious about exploring new ways to optimize your learning. We can only grow when we also discover the things that don’t work and it’s in your power to either learn stumbling or give up losing.

65. Ask & Embrace Feedback

Asking feedback shows dedication to your learning process and embracing allows you to step off the human urge to have it validating your worth. Don’t be afraid to ask them to further explain for your own understanding and then use what resonates with you.

66. Be Bold & Peristent

Success is determined by confidence and fortitude. Have your words and actions aligned with your mindset. Determine what you want, claim it and live by it.  

67. Utilise Confrontations

It’s inevitable you stumble upon walls or that you discover something about yourself. You most certainly will with your awareness rising. See it as the best thing happening for you, because this is the opportunity to grow and transform. Do you want it to be a setback, or the drive to move forward?

68. Speak Empowering Words

A quotation from Plato: “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something”. When it comes to practicing what you preach, you have to be practicing your speech first. Learn the semantics about something and align that knowledge with your being.

69. Have A Winner’s Mindset

It’s time to get beyond the ‘this always happens to me’ mindset. Instead of limiting yourself to being a victim of life, become the CEO, the conqueror, the resilient human being setting themselves up to win. 

70. Enjoy The Process

Lean into the end, but enjoy the process and acceleration that goes on beforehand at least as much. If you don’t include that in your victory and during the journey, you will miss out on the valuable lessons. No process, no end. So: enjoy the ride.

71. Focus On Mission-Management

Efficient time management is only effective when you have your mission clearly in mind at all times and how this relates to how you best divide your time. Combine the two together and you’ll have the formula to success.

72. Distance From Social Media

As much as you like to say it’s not distracting that much or that it’s not leaving you dependent, open up to the idea of how much extra mental room (and hours) you will get so you can be even more productive and investing in the future you want.

73. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help

Asking help does NOT equal weakness. See it as the opportunity to become inspired by new ideas and to get a broader spectrum of possibilities to pursue. In the end, it’s your decision to follow up with the given advice or not, but be passionately curious about what others like to share with you.

74. Consistency Is The Winning Indicator

Consistency is an early sign you’re on the right track. As soon as you start working on consistency, you will notice how it turns into a solid habit. It’s a solid habit you won’t quit, and it will therefore lead you to the path of success.

75. Step Into The Unknown

The known and the familiar don’t invite you to make the big changes you want. Step out of that unfulfilling comfort zone and surrender to greater opportunities and possibilities, because it’s the unknown that you can create from. So, get up and expect the unexpected.

76. Find Your Purpose

Want to put that mindset on sharp? Get clear on what it is that you want to fulfill in life. What is that deeper purpose and why is it important to find your purpose now? What makes the fire go on inside you? What is it you want to offer to the world? Living by a purpose adds meaning, substance, depth and therefore success in how you make your way in life.

77. Channel Your Thoughts

By channeling you steer your thoughts to a particular potential. Now, with a mindset change, you want to channel your thoughts up to the highest potential. What you put out there, will reflect its way back to you and what you create with fearful thoughts, manifestation will find its way back to you in a similar sense. It’s for that reason to aim high and through love.

78. Work On Energy Managment

Increasing your energy is the best way to get more done faster and better. Take your breaks, protect your emotional energy by viewing events through the lense of acceptance and growth, spare energy by avoiding distractions and seek activities that give you a sense of meaning and purpose.

Want to change? Good. Now go for it.

Because the discomfort of growth is always less dangerous than the illusion of safety. Until the mindset change becomes an obsession and you’re not aware of the negative patterns, your goal will never grow into movement. Make it a practice in your everyday life, acquire new skills and see how this plays into self improvement.

Changing your mindset can alter your perspective and help you to see your life differently, as well as how you continue to approach life. What it needs is intentional effort and ultimately, it will pay off. Guaranteed.

It’s the mindset that shows how you perceive everything within and without and a growth mindset creates power. With that being said, your mindset matters.

And remember, you can because you will.

Until the next.

Thriving with you, always.

Anne