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Being born in the 80’s with a middle class family where all my relatives did ‘real’ jobs, like builder, farmer, office worker, fire fighter (sounds like the village people, right), it was a very down to earth upbringing which I’m very thankful for. You learn most of your mindset from those around you during your formative years and I read somewhere that your personality and mindset is mostly build by the time you’re 7 🤯 During this time most ‘new age’ ideas were laughed at and ridiculed. Thinks like yoga, meditation, Mystic Meg, tarot cards …. The list could go on and on. I had it fed to me that new age stuff isn't important, it's all about the hard work and long hours
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Therefore, as an adult I’ve shied away from many of these areas as they are for hippies and people that don’t have a proper job. However, over the last few years, I’ve done a lot more personal discovery that in the 30 or so years before, which isn’t surprising now I’m almost mature 🤣 During this time I’ve realised that a lot of the things I’ve discredited due to unconscious bias built up over the years are very beneficial to my wellbeing and also my success at work, however, don’t get me wrong I still find tarot cards and astrology to be crazy, but some areas have helped me greatly The things I’ve personally found beneficial are: Mindfulness meditation Mindfulness meditation is a mental training practice that teaches you to slow down racing thoughts, let go of negativity, and calm both your mind and body. Mindfulness techniques can vary, but in general, mindfulness meditation involves a breathing practice and awareness of body and mind. This helped me slow down and be a lot less triggered with work and life Affirmations An affirmation is a sentence or two in alignment with what you want to accomplish and who you need to be to accomplish it. Creating the list of what I want to do or be has helped me focus, remind myself why I’m doing what I’m doing and take strength when things are not going well Gratitude Taking a few moments each day or week to remember what you have rather than what you have not. This had a huge impact on me and as we went into lockdown, I created a 21 days of gratitude routine where I posted something each day I’m grateful for. Things like family, job security, GIF’s. They don’t have to be big, but they make a big difference to my life or work With everything in life, not all things work for all people. Often people slam a diet plan, however, if it works for you then it works, there are some caveats to that, but diets are a great use case I’m sure I’ll talk about a number of these ideas in future newsletters or content; however, the important message is to go try some of the things you instantly discredit as a being of no value. There is little to no cost to have a yoga session, listen to a free mindfulness app or reading a book (see below) and the reward can be life changing Just to loop this back to IT, take this growth mindset back to work and re-evaluate your unconscious bias. When you say something is a crazy idea or the most used line ever “this won’t work here” and consider the risk vs reward of trying it, as you will see some amazing results, even if you just learn a little something new for the toolkit or realise it really is crazy If you’d like to learn more on a few of these areas, I’d highly recommend The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod If you liked this newsletter, please share and let you friends and colleagues know about it as I’d love to help more people!