Blog 1: Deliberate Mindset? A suggestion for a mental habit … always asking yourself “what should my mindset be, here and now?” Mindset comes from the Buddhist concept of “mindfulness”, it is all about focus and attention in the present AND it turns out it also helpful to your future ability to recollect and retain what actually happened.

If a deliberate mindset can become a lifelong habit, then we know you will be more successful than going into meetings and work sessions without an express attitudinal purpose … which makes you more vulnerable to having someone hijack your attitude, or to having an uncontrolled, emotionally-unintelligent reaction.

The fit with Modelling the Way? A deliberate mindset operates like a personal value: it anchors what you say and do. Examples:

as you meet someone new, if you choose to be ‘interested’ instead of ‘interesting’, you will keep the conversational focus on the other person, you ask a lot of questions and you will gain terrific information that the other person considers to be important about them. If you choose to be ‘interesting’, you will likely make sure you talk about yourself and you will miss the opportunity to show respect (a personal value)
faced with a difficult meeting? Perhaps the deliberate mindset of ‘resilient’ will serve you well, help you surf the waves of challenge coming your way
have a personal goal of becoming more strategic in your thinking? Mindsets in search of ‘outsight’ (see Challenge the Process) and ‘forward-looking’ can become useful mental habits.