Mindset Hack for More Positivity and Productivity

Today I’m really excited to tell you all about an awesome mindset hack I’ve been experimenting with lately. Essentially, this hack is learning to ask myself helpful questions (and recognize when I’m asking myself very unhelpful questions too), in order to reframe my state of mind. By changing your mindset, you can help yourself move towards positive, motivated thinking, which will really pay off when you’re busy trying to run your business.

Specifically, today we’ll cover why asking yourself better questions is so helpful, examples of helpful vs unhelpful questions, and how to know when you’re asking yourself the right questions.

Click “play” on the video below, or continue reading this post to learn all about this strategy of asking myself better questions.

When I interrupt my own crappy thoughts and start asking myself better questions, it helps increase my positivity, productivity, and increases my creative problem solving. This is definitely a tool you’ll want to have in your belt for when you feel anxious, stressed, or stuck in your work.

but, How Often Do We actually Ask ourselves Questions?

There’s one thing absolutely every one of us has in common when it comes to what’s going on in our minds: We all constantly ask ourselves questions! Bear with me, even if you don’t think you’re asking yourself questions all the time, I assure you, you do!

While you might feel like you spend a majority of your day taking action, what you’re actually doing is taking action in response to a question you have asked yourself. For example, if you’re heading to a coffee shop before work, you might subconsciously or even consciously ask yourself “Should I take the main road or the back way to the coffee shop?”. Then, you’ll base the route you take off how you answer yourself. 

When you get there, you might ask yourself “What do I feel like ordering today?” and order based off your answer. Then, while you’re waiting for your order you might ask yourself, “What project is my priority to work on today?”, and then once at work, you’ll focus your attention there.

Why Are the Types of Questions We Ask Ourselves Important?

We spend a whole lot of our time, energy and brainpower during the day asking ourselves questions. And, pretty much everything we end up doing is a result of the questions we ask, (and then answer), for ourselves. 

What I’ve noticed in my own experience is that depending on the type of questions we ask, we might feel positive and productive, but we could also make ourselves feel anxious, stressed, or unworthy.

Something you need to keep in mind about your brain is, it’s wired to answer the questions you ask it.

Your brain is wired to answer the questions YOU ask it.

Because your brain is wired to answer the questions you ask it, the answers you get are only as quality as the questions you ask yourself. This highlights the importance of recognizing when you’re asking yourself an unhelpful question, which will allow you to pivot to asking yourself a better, more helpful question. This concept is INSTRUMENTAL in elevating your mindset upwards, rather than unconsciously letting it spiral down, crash and burn, or just feel really stressed out. 

What Types of Questions are Unhelpful?

When I say “unhelpful questions”, I mean questions like:

• Why is it taking so long for me to reach my goals?

• Why do I feel so bad?

• Why did this happen to me?

(Even just typing out those questions felt terrible!)

What are some Better Questions to Ask Ourselves?

Instead of those less-than-ideal questions, you might try asking yourself something like:

• What can I focus on completing that would make me feel like I’m making progress on reaching this goal?

• What can I do to feel better?

• What did I learn from this?

These kinds of questions will offer your brain new pathways of thought. Maybe you even feel a difference in your body reading these questions compared to the last ones. I know I definitely do!

With all this in mind, when you start to feel stressed, hard on yourself, or stuck, keep in mind it may not be that your self talk is the actual problem, it might be what comes BEFORE that — the QUESTION you’re asking yourself that brings out answers that are far from helpful.

I would love if you guys would give me some feedback on this. It’s a bit of a different way to think about negative self-talk. So, leave a comment below to let me know what you think, or let me know if you have ideas of typical unhelpful questions (and better ways to ask them!).

I do want to take a moment to mention here that this is not meant to be a mindset cure-all. It’s really important for us all to figure out WHY we might be asking ourselves our own particular brand of unhelpful questions, rather than just change the question, stuff it, and move on. So please don’t mishear me on that. What we’re discussing in this post is a strategy to use that assumes you’ve already doing self discovery work.

How to Identify a Helpful Question

As one final point, I want to quickly cover how to know if you’re asking yourself a helpful question. So, here are a few ways to know:

• You’ll feel empowered by the question - this isn’t to say you won’t feel challenged, but if you do, it will be a healthy, productive kind of challenge.

• And, a helpful question is: solution-focused…..actionable…..and specific enough to spark creativity and new ideas.

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you’ll remember this strategy the next time you could use it. If you did enjoy it and you want in on ALL the free resources I have for entrepreneurs, you can sign up for my email newsletter. Once you sign up, you’ll get instant access to my free resources library for entrepreneurs, which has a bunch of awesome downloads and links that I don’t share anywhere else, like PDF guides to help you get clarity, grow your instagram following, and even links to my favorite books, the software and gear I use to run my business and more. If you want to join my email newsletter and get all those free resources, click here.