Carolina Bakker

A step-by-step guide on how to jump-start your mindset transformation.

Many of us, if not all of us, have to listen to our inner critic telling us what to do every day.

For some, this inner critic is like that aunty on a birthday, that’s loud, draws everyone’s attention and does not stop chatting for one minute. For others, it’s more subtle. Like a background jazz music at the dentist, that you haven’t really noticed, but is there nonetheless.

Whichever one you have; both are equally annoying and the effect is the same: it makes us stop doing what we truly want and it makes us feel uncomfortable. And we stay in our comfort zone.

We stop believing in ourselves. And as a result, we either stop taking action, or we stop seeing possibilities. We stop moving forward, or we stop performing. We stop making powerful decisions.

Our inner critic can present us with the most vivid effects of what would happen if we were to continue, each of them ending in doom and destruction of (part of) your image, your professional life, your family, your social life, your financial security, your health…

The man that thinks he can, and the man that thinks he can’t, are both right. ~Henry Ford~

Stopping seems like the wiser decision at that moment, right?

Hmmm… No. Wrong.

The more actions we don’t take, based on what our inner critic tells us, the more unfulfilled and disconnected we feel. I think I’m stating the obvious when I say that on the long-term, this has a much more profound negative effect to our well-being and our surroundings.

So what can you do about that?

Read on for a step-by-step on how to silence that inner critic in only 5 minutes a day!

Step 1 – Accept your unconscious self-sabotage Around 65,000 thoughts go through your mind each day, and even if you have done a mindset program for it, most of them are negative.

I’ll leave out the scientific details and give you the bottom line: This all has to do with the way your brain grows and with your survival. For the X number of years that you’ve lived so far, you survived.

And evolutionarily speaking, surviving is all that you’re supposed to do.

Your brain spends most of its time calculating risks and identifying dangers. It stores the family beliefs that were passed down to you by your parents and makes sure that you don’t overestimate yourself. It creates a filter through which we see the world and the framework by which we live.

Moving out of your comfort zone means your brain doesn’t know what to expect. Putting yourself out there, trying something new, being the tall poppy, all these could potentially be dangerous, and so you’re discouraged to do any of those.

Your brain pushes forward an inner conflict, a negative thought, that makes you stop. Accepting this fact, and your commitment to become aware of it and change it, is step 1.

Step 2 – Create awareness To get a grip on this brain of yours, you need to be able to recognise what it’s doing and when it’s doing it. You need to practice awareness and bring the unconscious thoughts to the conscious mind, where you can deal with them properly.

For people already practising some awareness, you might be able to just recognise the thought, up to the point where it hits one of your blind spots. An easier way of doing that, however, is to recognise the uncomfortable or negative feelings.

Any uncomfortable feeling has a negative thought at its core. Meaning, if you’re feeling uncomfortable in any way, you are telling yourself something about the situation or yourself.

I’ll give a few examples:

Overwhelm - Getting everything done is impossible! Anxiety - They will think I’m a fool and that I’m just winging it! Sadness - I’ll be by myself all night; nobody will talk to me… Unsettled - One day, they will wake up and see I’m not that senior Lethargic - It can’t be done. I might as well give up now For the most profound awareness and noticeable changes, this awareness practice is done on a daily basis. Buy a small notebook, put it in your back pocket and drag it with you wherever you go. Write down your thoughts when they arise, or remember to write them down later.

Remember: This step is merely to create awareness, not to immediately solve the problem. But if you are up for the next step, then move on to step 3!

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. ~ Carl Jung ~

PS: All these thoughts have at its core an even deeper level: your belief system. This article doesn’t cover that part of the awareness exercise. If you find yourself bumping into the same glass walls over and over again, or if it’s always the same negative thoughts you’re battling with, it’s likely you have a something in your core belief system that’s preventing you from doing what you truly want. With a bit of guidance and another 5 minutes a day, you can easily take control over that level.

Step 3 – Get real As long as you simply accept your thoughts, and assume these thoughts are true, your unconscious brain will have all the control over you. Taking back control starts at is dealing with these thoughts.

And you have the perfect machine to do that… your brain. Your brain has stored all your experiences of the past and is a huge source of information. With only a little effort, we can tap into that information and make it work for us.

Take your thought and put it in front of you. Dig into your brain and find as much evidence as you can, that your thought is not true . Write down your answers.

Remember similar situations in which it did work out, ask yourself powerful questions and give yourself powerful statements, like:

What did I do in the past, that made a similar situation successful? How can I be my most powerful self in this situation? What quality do I have, that are of use now? What options haven’t I explored yet? Your brain will find you the answers and will slowly but surely unlock. Unlocking your brain will get easier with practice. It’s important to be willing to go the extra mile here and keep going, even if the answer doesn’t come immediately. If that’s the case, simply try a different question until your brain starts coming up with answers.

Step 4 - Flip the switch It’s time to flip the switch and take your power back. It is time to reverse roles, where you control your brain and not vice versa. Consciously make the decision to take over the controls from your inner critic and shift your mindset.

Determine your new mindset; If your thought is not true, then what is?

It is not impossible; I just haven’t found the solution yet . I don’t know how to do it yet – and I’m a quick study. With smart work and determination, I can do anything I want. My input is valued by my colleagues. Make new decisions with as much determination and belief as you can master.

Visualise the image of success. Enhance it, make it bigger and brighter. Talk to your inner critic, with the voice of your successful and high-performing self.

Again, dig into your brain and find as much evidence as you can, this time looking for evidence that your new decision is true. Write down your answers.

Step 5 - Take powerful action Be brutally honest with yourself, when you find that something is holding you back again… follow the process to find out what it is. However, do realise that changing your mindset doesn’t mean much, if afterwards you don’t take the next step: action.

Do what you initially didn’t dare to do. Get off the couch, break out of your bubble, face your fear, and stop avoiding situations. Take powerful action. Take the risks and live life to the fullest!

Learning how to change your mindset will be one of the most important and most effective things you will ever do for yourself. Besides from the immediate effects, which are quite impressive already, there are several short- and long-term effects when mindset work is done one a daily basis.

Again leaving out the scientific details and skipping to the bottom line: You will change. Not only emotionally and not only mentally, but physically as well. Your brain will physically adjust itself to your new reality. The filter, through which your brain scans the world, will slowly alter.

Take action! An inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention. ~ Steve Maraboli~

You will notice it will get easier to make decisions regarding your own well-being. You are less anxious in situations, or you spontaneously dare to step forward. You might notice the emotional load on you is less than it used to be. You will notice an improvement in your overall well-being.

But the most magical of doing this mindset work, is that you will notice Serendipity. A lot of it. “Coincidentally” you will notice things on your path that you have never noticed before, and things that were out of reach “suddenly” seem to be so much closer.

May your mindset help you experience life beyond your wildest dreams. Happy transforming!

PS: There´s a PDF version available. Want it? Send an email!

Carolina Bakker is an Intuitive Mindset coach. She empowers people to live life to their full potential, align their lives with their true essence and become everything that they are meant to be.

Carolina offers a free 20-minute call to get acquinted! Book it via this link: https://go.oncehub.com/ZoomCoffeeCall

Carolina Bakker

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Porto, Porto, Portugal 20 mil seguidores + de 500 conexões

Veja suas conexões em comum Ver conexões em comum com Carolina Entrar Olá novamente E-mail ou telefone Senha Exibir Esqueceu a senha? Entrar ou Nunca usou o LinkedIn? Cadastre-se agora ou Nunca usou o LinkedIn? Cadastre-se agora

Entre em contato com Carolina para serviços

Life coaching, Coaching executivo, Coaching de desenvolvimento de carreira, Diversidade e inclusão, Atividades de integração de equipe e Treinamento

Sobre

Experiência

Coaching by Carolina

Recomendações recebidas

Anna Cox

Daniel Araromi

Veja o perfil completo de Carolina

Outros perfis semelhantes

Pedro Tomé, MBA

Cristina Bacelar

Vitor Bacalhau

Farah Correia

Marta Ávila, PMP

Diogo Calvário

Rita Lapa

Delfina Coelho, PMP

Bruno Lagos

Ana Nobre Rebelo Gonçalves, PMP®

Antonio Pedro Portugal

Nuno Alves

Rute Fernandes

Marcus Vinicius Almeida, PMP

Nuno Manuel Martins

Pedro Gomes Mariano

Carlos Correia

Filipe Moita

Anderson Baum Barbosa

Luis Leite

Mais pessoas chamadas Carolina Bakker

Carolina Bakker

Carolina Bakker

carolina bakker ([email protected])

Carolina Bakker

Porto, Porto, Portugal

20 mil seguidores + de 500 conexões

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