18 Feb How to Develop the Proper Mindset to Accomplish Your Goals & Achieve Your Dreams

How to Develop the Proper Mindset to Accomplish Your Goals & Achieve Your Dreams

Achieving your dreams, accomplishing your goals, perfecting a new skill are all based on one’s ability to develop and maintain a proper mindset.

Without the Proper Mindset, Procrastination, Failure, Frustration, and Lack of Results Become a Way of Life Rather Than a Mere Bump in the Road.

Every year at camp I talk to the staff and the campers about the mindset needed to build confidence which ultimately leads to greater and greater levels of success and happiness with oneself.

Society has told us that if you “try your best” all is good; there’s nothing more you can do. The problem with this mindset is that there is a built-in excuse for quitting and failure.

If you try something and you run into a challenge that seems tougher than expected you can always bail-out and say, “I tried my best, it just did not work out?”

If you really have a passion or goal or something you really want to achieve, don’t set yourself up for failure by saying your going to try your best. Trying is for flavors of ice cream, shoe sizes, clothing you think might look good. It’s for new games, a crazy trick shot or listening to a genre of music you have never heard before. It is not for accomplishing goals, fulfilling your passion, or achieving your dream.

So, how do you create the proper mindset? I was truly fortunate to be taught this lesson years ago…

If You Have Something You Really Want to Achieve Don’t “Try Your Best” to Make it Happen. You Need to Intend to Make it Happen.

There’s a huge difference in your mentality when you try to do something vs when you intend to do something.

When you intend do something, you’re going to make it happen. It might not happen right away. You might fail numerous times before you achieve what you intended, but you will ultimately succeed.

Sir Edmund Hillary did not try to climb Mount Everest. He intended to climb Everest and succeeded. Michael Jordan did not simply try win six NBA titles, he intended to win each one of those championships.

A few years ago, a young boy came to camp with little to no swimming ability. He quickly realized if he wanted to go off the diving board, the sliding board and play in the free swim zone he had to swim his 20 laps (500 meters) before being permitted.

Every day he would head to the lake telling the entire camp today is the day he would swim his 20 laps. Finally, on the final day of camp, after 3.5 weeks of swim lessons and countless attempts to swim the 20 laps he succeeded.

He succeeded, not because he tried to swim the 20 laps. He succeeded because he intended to swim the 20 laps. He had the proper mindset needed to accomplish his goal.

It’s fine and it’s fun to try things. We should all try new things. At Susquehannock we encourage children to try new things every day. However, once you identify a passion for something you want to achieve don`t tell yourself you are going to simply try your best. Tell yourself and those close to you that you intend to make it happen!

Don’t Think You Need to Have a Big Audacious Goal to Set an Intent. Start with Little Things.

It can be as simple as making 10 straight free throws, washing your car – today or finishing a project you have been putting off. The point is, the more you do this the more successes you will have so when your passion and big goal become clear you can intend to make it happen.

At Susquehannock we use sports and other activities as a platform to develop confident, resilient, gritty, independent, high character, happy young girls and boys. It does not happen immediately but over time the results become clear …because we intend to make it happen!