Managing Your Mindset 

Your Inner Saboteurs are the voices in your head that generate negative thoughts and emotions in the way you react to life’s everyday challenges. They represent automated patterns in your mind for how to think, feel, and behave. They cause your stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, guilt, restlessness, and unhappiness. They sabotage your performance, happiness, wellbeing, and relationships.  The 10 saboteurs are: 

Judge - The Judge is the universal Saboteur that afflicts everyone. It is the one that beats you up repeatedly and gets you fixated on what is wrong with you, others or your life. 

Avoider - Avoiding unpleasant tasks and difficult conflicts, until they become a real problem. 

Controller - Needing to take charge and control situations and people’s actions to one’s own will. High anxiety and impatience experienced when that is not possible. 

Hyper-Achiever - Dependent on performance and achievement for self-respect and self-validation. Latest achievement quickly discounted, constantly needing more. 

Hyper-Rational - Intense and exclusive focus on the rational processing of everything, including relationships. Can be perceived as uncaring or arrogant, as communication lacks empathy. 

Hyper-Vigilant - Continuous intense anxiety about potential dangers and what could go wrong. Vigilance that can never rest and leaves you exhausted from all the worry. 

Pleaser - Indirectly tries to gain acceptance and affection by helping, pleasing, rescuing, or flattering others. Loses sight of own needs and becomes resentful as a result. 

Restless - Constantly in search of greater excitement in the next activity or constant busyness. Rarely at peace or content with the current activity. 

Stickler - Perfectionism and a need for order and organisation taken too far.  Anxious and takes too long trying to make too many things perfect. 

Victim - Emotional and temperamental to gain attention and affection. An extreme focus on internal feelings, particularly painful ones with potential for a martyr streak. 

Discover your saboteurs here 

The positive mindset in Positive Intelligence® is called the ‘Sage Perspective’; sage being our wiser self.  It works on the belief that every outcome or circumstance can be turned into a gift or opportunity. It could be increasing your knowledge, enhancing your power/skills or finding some inspiration.  That gift may not always be obvious immediately, but it will be there. 

The Positive Intelligence® approach describes 5 Sage Powers that draw on natural, positive strengths to resolve any situation: 

• Empathise – compassion for self and others 

• Explore – curiosity to discover and understand 

• Innovate – creativity to identify options 

• Navigate – alignment with values, meaning and purpose 

• Activate – clear-headed, laser-focused action 

Mindfulness is about living more in the present moment, appreciating the here and now, and not dwelling too much on the past or future. 

Mindful living means paying attention to the present, appreciating what is happening and enjoying the simple things in life, thus ensuring we keep a positive mindset. 

This can help us to feel calmer, reduce stress or anxiety, sleep better and might help us cope better with difficult situations. 

Registered psychologist and mindfulness expert Dr. Becky Spelman explains more in this video: 

What is mindfulness? - Mental wellbeing tips - Every Mind Matters - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

A growth mindset is the perspective of viewing one’s abilities as constantly evolving through practice and development.  

This positive mindset allows individuals to take more risks and confront challenging experiences openly and not be held back by fear of failure, as every opportunity is a chance to learn. Obstacles are seen as an inherent part of trying something new and achieving mastery.  Setbacks or constructive feedback are used as inspiration to continue learning.  

People with a growth mindset may view themselves as highly capable, which can lead them to accomplish high-level goals through consistent work and motivation. In a professional setting, a growth mindset can allow individuals to develop resiliency and strive for continuous improvement. 

Fixed mindset 

A fixed mindset is the perspective of viewing one’s talent, intelligence and capabilities as static, innate and unchangeable and so may not actively seek opportunities for growth or development. This may lead to avoidance of challenging experiences that may be worthwhile overall, due to fear of failure. 

People with fixed mindsets may often compare their own accomplishments unfavourably to other people’s.  They can often fall victim to negative self-talk discouraging themselves from trying new things, ignoring feedback from others and giving up when faced with obstacles.  

Shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset can help you achieve more, even in the face of challenges and obstacles.  
 
Here are a few tips for developing a growth mindset: 

• Recognise your ability to improve and grow over the long term. 

• Practise positive self-talk to motivate yourself to overcome barriers. 

• Celebrate your development journey not just your results. 

• Embrace feedback to identify areas of growth. 

• View challenges as opportunities for growth rather than permanent obstacles. 

• Seek new experiences to enrich your life professionally or personally. 

This BMJ article explains the importance of a growth mindset to prepare postgraduate doctors for medical error, which can be a major cause of fear and stress. 

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your challenges by changing the way you think and behave. 

It is often used to treat anxiety and depression, which can lead to a negative mindset, and can be useful for other mental and physical health problems. 

CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can keep you in a negative cycle. 

Through a series of sessions, it aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems with a more positive mindset by breaking them down into smaller parts.  You are shown how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel. 

CBT deals with your current problems, rather than focusing on issues from your past and it looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis. 

CBT and other mental health treatment services are available to healthcare staff at Practitioner Health