3 Ways to Energize Your Mindset After a Win
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When we have a big win, it can be exciting, but there can also be a let-down feeling about what comes next. Or maybe it’s: How am I ever going to catch up on all the things I’ve let fall through the cracks? Or it could be: Well, it should have happened long time ago. The next win is the really important one.
How do you keep yourself feeling good and moving forward to your next win as quickly and with as little stress as possible? How do you keep yourself from getting stuck in the post-win funk? These three strategies will energize your mindset so you can intentionally avoid post-win malaise and accelerate moving on to your next success.
Celebrate
Slow down and savor the win. Resist the temptation to charge forward to the next big challenge. Celebrating releases endorphins telling your brain that this is something great and you want more of it. Being intentional about celebrating allows you to consciously shift that mindset to the higher levels that lead to greater intuitive and visionary energy down the line.
For business wins, include the leadership team. Better yet, include everyone in the organization, your stakeholders, and even your family. This also opens the doors to other people sharing their wins, thus continuing the connection that the human soul craves.
Write an email or post to everyone involved and share the news and share the glory with thanks and high fives to everyone who played a role. Consider including a picture or a video of the team, with big smiles, even if in little Zoom boxes. Getting together for a special lunch can be a great idea, or buy a cake to celebrate. Get that creative team member who loves connecting people to come up with ideas.
Make a big deal of family wins, too. When a child gets straight A’s or has another win, let them pick a place to go out to eat.
Remember to celebrate yourself, too. Play the classic song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang and do a happy dance. Take a break and walk around and just relax and feel good. Watch a favorite movie. Or treat yourself to those cool cowboy boots you’ve had your eye on.
Even with little wins that seem insignificant, share with your people. Tell the universe that you are happy about them and want more of that good stuff. It will come back to you two-fold.
Mindset Reset Routines
Another way to avoid the post-win doldrums is practicing mindset reset routines that keep you in a positive growth mindset and out of the pit of not knowing what’s coming next. Try one of these routines:
Journaling: If you aren’t journaling already, grab a notebook and try it. Find a time to schedule it so it becomes part of your daily routine—at night just before bed or in the morning while you have coffee. Be specific and intentional about timing.
Writing your thoughts down helps your unconscious mind process your conscious thoughts quicker into stories. James Pennebaker, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas, has found that expressive writing actually improves physical health and work performance.
Start with the story about how you achieved your win. What were your strengths? What do you need to improve next time around? Clarifying your story and capturing past strengths make it easier to revisit those strengths to help you cope with present challenges and avoid pitfalls.
Affirmations: Repeating positive messages to yourself that support your growth will be heard by your unconscious mind and acted upon more effectively
The Law of Attraction says what you think is what you will get. Affirmations are a way to train your mind to think in new ways. ThinkUp is an app that records up to three free affirmations. Try this app or other similar apps to make it easy to make affirmations a daily routine.
Practicing Gratitude: Write three to 10 things that you are grateful for each day—they can be a big gratitude or as simple as I’m thankful that I got three things checked off my to-do list. When you intentionally focus on abundance, you can’t help but crowd out those negative gremlins.
One trick is to take seemingly negative thoughts and events and turn them into positives. Some examples include: I was feeling stressed, so I reached out to a friend and feel better, or my meeting didn’t go well, but while taking a walk afterward, I had an amazing idea for a way forward. This further moves you into that higher intuition and energizes your mindset.
Goal Alignment
A past client once told me his next big goal was buying three more brick-and-mortar stores to add to the ones he already had. As we talked further, he expressed that it was important for him to travel more, but he felt tied down to his business. As he talked, his business goal’s incongruence with his personal goal of travel became more and more apparent. We started looking at new options for him that were more aligned with what he really wanted.
It’s vitally important to know what you really want, so even if you don’t get exactly that, at least you’re going in the right direction—and chances are you may get something even better.
Close your eyes and think, If I had a magic wand, what would I want? Imagine what you really want and how you will feel when you achieve it. Savor that thought.
Now, write your next big goal around that. Each night read that goal, and again, imagine how you’ll feel when you achieve it. This will feel great now but also gives your unconscious mind the cues to make it happen in the future. It also guides you in developing the steps and goals to get you to that big goal quicker and with less stress.
