3 Mindset Hacks To Get You Through The Tough Times

How do you usually react when things don’t go your way? Do you throw a fit/complain/lose your ability to focus on what needs to be done?

How different would your life be if you could be calm under the pressure? How much more successful would you be if you were unfazed even when chaos erupted all around you?

I think you know the answer already.

There are a lot of things that make a person successful, but without a doubt one of the most important ones is their ability to get through the tough times. I’m sure you’ve seen people who are cool, calm and collected even when things don’t go their way.

And you can learn how to be like that too. You can be the James Bond of handling tough situations, and we know that Bond gets himself into tremendous trouble frequently.

Without further ado, let us look at three mindset hacks that you can start using immediately to make sure your performance doesn’t waver when stressful situations come up.

1.     Pick your goals strategically.

One of the major reasons you’re unable to perform well under pressure is because there’s a negative voice inside you that reinforces your inability to deal with this situation. And one of the major reasons this kind of negative self-talk takes root is because you’ve failed at something you set out to do.

Here’s an example – say you’re overweight, have low energy and low self-esteem. Maybe one day you convince yourself to get off the couch and join the gym. Maybe one of your goals is “I want to look better.”

Here’s the problem “I want to look better” is an incredibly expansive and non-specific goal that you have no way to tangibly track. As a result, after a couple of weeks of working out, when you look at yourself in the mirror and you don’t “look better”, you’ll chalk it up as a failure.

Setting vast and ambiguous goals is a surefire way to set yourself up for failure. Instead, say you keep things simple, i.e. “I’m going to exercise for 30 minutes, five times a week” or “I’m going to eat a bowl of greens with every meal.”

Do you see the difference? Immediately, you have a way to track your progress and achieve small victories. Every morning when you wake up, you’ll know what you have to do. When you sit down at the dinner table, you’ll know what you have to do. And when you do it, you can mentally pat yourself on the back because you’ve accomplished your task. This kind of positive feedback will eventually build up your self-esteem to the point where you’re confident that you can accomplish whatever goals you set for yourself.

To reiterate – “I want to earn more money” isn’t specific enough. “I’m going to call 10 people every morning until I get 3 new clients” is actionable, specific and trackable.

2.     Get rid of things that drain your time and energy.

Once you’ve picked a goal you want to target, you need to stack the odds in favor of you being able to achieve it. One of the best ways to do this is to eliminate negativity and time wasters from your life.

We’ve all been in situations where we wanted to do something productive, but couldn’t because we felt we HAD to do something else – attend a meeting, socialize with relatives, hang out with a bunch of friends. Reluctantly, we allow these things to eat up our time and energy until we’re no longer capable of taking the actions that lead to success.

At this very moment, as you’re reading this, I’m sure you can think of at least a couple of things that are competing for your attention. Maybe your phone is showing you a bunch of new notifications, your calendar shows you that you have to attend another birthday party in the evening or a friend is coming over to talk about his/her problems. The key to achieving peak performance is to eliminate these things.

Start saying NO. anything that doesn’t serve your ultimate purpose is expendable. Believe me, the people who want to stay in your life will understand. Don’t give in to obligations resentfully and beat yourself up for not being productive enough later.

3.     Stop criticizing yourself.

There are always going to be moments of doubt. There are no great endeavors achieved without the people in charge of them having moments where they weren’t sure about what they were doing.

The guy you passed on the street doubts himself frequently. That hot girl/guy you think is unattainable has several moments of self-doubt on a daily basis. Billionaires, yacht owners and oil tycoons have these moments too.

If you’re a human being, you’re going to doubt yourself. But, here’s the secret – every time you catch yourself criticizing or doubting what you’re doing, you don’t let that voice stop you. You acknowledge the voice, but you keep on trucking.

Here’s an exercise you can use the next time you feel yourself letting your inner critic slowing you down. Imagine a successful version of yourself, several years from now. You’re in your dream home, and you’ve got all the money and success you ever dreamt of having. Now let this version of yourself tell you that it’s going to be alright. Let your future self tell you that if you don’t give up, things are going to work out.

Simple, right?

Learning how to deal with pressure and tough situations doesn’t come easily. But it’s a skill. And just like any other skill, you can become a master at it if you practice it enough. Think of adversity as your friend. Think of it as a chance to prove your mettle. Don’t let it slow you down.

We talked about eliminating things that drain your time and energy before. And one of the biggest time-drainers for entrepreneurs and business owners is managing things like invoices, client-follow-ups, schedules and workflows. Which is why we created Dubsado – an automation solution that lets you manage all of these aspects of your business in an almost completely hands-off manner. So, you can go to bed at night knowing that all of your invoices and other documents will go out on time, guaranteed. Like magic.