The Power Of Mindset in Pursuit of Health: It Can Make or Break You

Power of Mindset: Mindset makes or breaks us: from the pursuit of health, to succeed in business, life, or relationships– cultivating the mindset of success is imperative to achieving your goals. Learn to change the way you think, and you will change your life.

Today we explore how mindset influences achievement and tips to cultivate the art of motivation thanks to the story of Craig Blanchette, one of the world’s mindset masters. What makes his story so special is that his incredible mindset is proof that our physical attributes are only a tiny piece of the puzzle. Learn to turn pain into purpose, thanks to the power of your mindset.

The Power of Mindset: Craig Blanchette’s Story

Craig Blanchette is a 21-time world record holder in wheelchair racing, nine-time world champion, Olympic Medalist, and Nike walk of Famer. This father of two has been married for 27 years and is a master of mindset.

Craig was born with a condition called PFFD, which essentially meant he had no femur bones and, therefore, very short legs. From the time he came into the world, Craig’s legs looked like an above-the-knee amputee. At 3 foot 9, Craig lives by the motto that whether you think that you can, or you think that you can’t, you’re probably right.

Growing up, Craig was no different than other kids in the sense that he was trying to fit in. “Can I measure up” was a common question he asked himself as he compared his abilities to that of his peers. His competitive nature came out from a young age, and this nature carried him through to adulthood.

Having the courage to step up to the line and measure up gave Craig the identity of someone willing to try and figure it out. This confidence is a mentality that enabled Craig to see challenges as an opportunity for growth, stepping up to the plate time and time again when others may have crumbled under pressure.

“Hard things are necessary for the feeling of satisfaction in life.”

– Craig Blanchette

Many people can’t fathom life without legs, but from his hardship, Craig catapulted himself into success. Apart from all his physical achievements, Craig also launched his business: Crave Optimal Health. Today, Craig has been able to not only achieve the unbelievable. He has been able to take these lessons and share them as a health coach with his clients.

Despite, and thanks to his life’s challenges, Craig has carved out success in the mind, body, and soul. He has been able to take charge of his narrative and re-write the pain into purpose. No matter what, life is going to throw you some curveballs, the question is will you passively let life happen to you or will you take authorship of the outcomes. Or as Craig would ask: your life story will be written, who will be holding the pen?

The Power of Mindset: Reconnecting with Your True Identity

You don’t truly breakthrough in success, happiness, and fulfillment in your job, whatever it is, until your functioning fully from this true identity.

So often, our traumas, people, teachers, friends, or society, in general, lead us to have a false sense of identity. We are primed with fear, shame, and guilt to feel unworthy of success and brilliance— and we allow this identity to carry us through life.

Transcending this story, you’ve been told about who you are is reconnecting with your real identity. You can know you’ve successfully done so when challenges no longer generate fear, but rather an inspiration; when competition instigates the possibility of achieving success beyond your wildest dreams.

The essence of reconnecting to your real identity is the fundamental knowledge that bad things don’t happen to you; they happen for you. This knowledge goes counter-intuitively to almost all the things that were taught as a society and culturally. So, rewiring your brain to relish the struggle often requires some work. Society primes us to equate hard with bad, and ease with good. However, true satisfaction generally stems from the conflict and overcoming the challenge.

Thankfully there are ways to help navigate your way from the victim to the hero of your own story.

The Power of Mindset: The Hero’s Journey

The hero’s journey is a narrative in mythology whereby the hero of the story goes on an adventure. S/he is faced with a decisive crisis that he or she overcomes. The hero comes home changed or transformed. From there, the hero share’s his or her journey in hopes of inspiring those back home. This narrative is a foundational story of the human experience and drives so much of our purpose.

Turning pain into purpose is one of the greatest gifts we can experience in this life. It can be your health struggle, relationship struggle, or a challenge in business. The overcoming provides one degree of satisfaction that is so crucial. However, sharing the lessons with others to support them through their pain is a type of happiness that goes even beyond the overcoming itself.

This passion is what drives so many people to succeed in their careers: the will to help other people. One of the greatest gifts life gives us is our struggle, because when we learn to overcome it, we can turn this pain into our purpose.

Tips To Improve Mindset

Mindset is often deeply rooted in social culture and norms. It has been primed in you since childhood (if not intergenerationally interwoven into your DNA). Breaking these patterns won’t necessarily happen overnight. However, with time, you can start to reframe the way you perceive the world and your struggle.

Improving your mindset can be done in so many ways, get started with some of these tips:

• When you’re experiencing any struggle, ask yourself, “what am I learning.”
• When you experience jealousy, take a step back and try to see how the same emotion can drive inspiration
• Change your self-talk: catch negative talk as soon as it happens. It can be useful to try and hear this voice in a different tone than your actual voice. We wouldn’t let other people talk to us the way we often speak to ourselves, so hearing the negative self-talk from the tone of another person’s voice can help you put a stop to it
• Surround yourself with people who have the kind of mindset you aspire to have
• Apart from physically surrounding yourself with all-star mindsets in real life, you can also get inspired with people via podcasts, blogs, social media, and books– fill your cup up with the wisdom of those living the life you aspire to live
• Set boundaries with people who drain your energy, put you down, or harm your sense of self-worth; learn to say no, and put your happiness and wellbeing first
• Jump out of your comfort zone: trying new things that scare you can be a powerful catalyst to realizing that fear doesn’t determine your path
• Set goals and reconnect with your purpose regularly. You can sit down daily, weekly, and monthly to reconnect with your intention to create the life of your dreams. Reconnecting to your purpose ensures you stay focused on what matters, and actively take steps to get there. Get yourself a “Life Book” and use it diligently
• Take on a physical challenge that is realistic, and achieve it. Whether it be re-learning walking around the block after an accident, or run a marathon: using physical struggle can teach the mind how much we can achieve with perseverance and practice
• Help someone else with a struggle that you have been able to overcome. The hero’s journey is all about overcoming and then extending your arm back to help someone else; experiencing this gift is a catalyst for continuing to strive for success. How can you turn pain into purpose?

The Power of Mindset: Summary

Although society primes us to believe that hard things are wrong, and easy things are good– mindset masters like Craig Blanchette share the power of the struggle in creating the life of your dreams. By rewiring your brain to see challenges as opportunities for growth, you can start navigating life from a place of power. Taking steps little by little to reframe your self-talk, surround yourself with empowered people, and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone will enable you to shift out of victimhood and reconnect with your real identity. Whether you’re trying to achieve success in health, your career, or your relationships: the power of mindset is everything.

Humans have anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day.

But according to some research, as many as 98% of them are exactly the same as the day before. This is great if your thoughts are driving good habits like eating your veggies and hitting the gym. Not so great if you’re broke, unhappy, or your health is on the decline. The good news is, scientists have proven that the human brain is elastic. That means you can build new neurons, learn new things, and even change your thought processes well into old age. Still, changing your thought patterns isn’t easy and can years to perfect.