How to Be Ambitious: Part 1 Getting in the Right Mindset

 Tell yourself positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are statements that are almost like self-compliments. These aren't just to boost your confidence; they can actually increase your problem solving skills under stress.

Think of your most valued personality traits. Do you consider yourself creative? Intelligent? Talented? Make your positive affirmations revolve around the traits that best describe you as a person.

• Say to yourself ten times every day: "I am intelligent. I can use my intelligence to achieve my goals. I am creative. I can use my inventiveness as a problem solving tool. I am a gifted individual."
• Be sure you say positive affirmations that are realistic and which revolve around you. Don't say things like "I am good at focusing on the task at hand" if you actually struggle with focusing on tasks. This can have a negative effect and may actually lower your esteem.Instead, say things like "I am able to work hard on getting focused," or future affirmations like "I can get better at being more focused."

Focus on the what you can gain instead of what you might lose. Obsessing about all the things that can go wrong only increases anxiety and places your focus on what not to do, instead of what to do.

• Think to yourself, "If I work out regularly, I will look amazing." You will find yourself optimistic and eager to work out every day. If you constantly think to yourself, "If I don't run today, I'll get fat and won't look attractive," then you'll be too worried to perform the task properly and it will be preformed rushed and unprofessionally.
• Working from a place of doubt and anxiety can cause you to take no action at all. Since you'll be so afraid of screwing up, you may actually not take any action just to be "safe." Not taking actions will not get you where you need to be.

Remove "I don't feel like it" from your vocabulary. The idea of only being able to do something when you "feel like it" is toxic to success. Sure, inspiration often strikes us at random times, but don't be reliant on inspiration to get things done.

• When we say to ourselves, "I just can't get out of bed to exercise," we are really saying, "I just can't get myself to feel like exercising." Nothing is tying you to your bed, physically keeping you from jogging in the morning. The real hurdle is the idea that motivation only comes from inside, instead of from routine physical efforts.
• The most prolific artists and writers are prolific because they became reliant on work routines that forced them to put in a number of hours of work per day, regardless of how uninspired they might have felt.
• Think of motivation as a verb, not a noun. Motivation is something you have to do consistently, not something you wait around to become.

Use "if-then" planning to think of the things you need to do. Give yourself specific parameters within which to do a task, otherwise you will constantly find yourself putting the task off until the last minute.

• Don't say, "I'll get around to writing that English paper later." Say, If it is 2 p.m., thenI will start writing my English paper. By deciding in advance what you're going to do and when you're going to do it, you won't be tempted to deliberate when the time comes.^[6]
• Since you've already made your decision in advance, at 2 p.m. you'll be less likely to ask yourself, "Do I really have to do this now?" or, "Can this wait until later?"
• If-then planning has been shown to increase goal attainment by 200-300 percent on average.

Think of failure as a process of elimination. Don't think of it as an end result of your efforts, but as a crossed-out method for trying to achieve a goal.

• When Thomas Edison finally created the light bulb, he famously said, "I didn't fail; I just found 2,000 ways not to make a light bulb.
• Both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have set multiple scoring records in basketball. What you might not have known, however, is that both are also all-time leaders for the most missed shots in the NBA.When you try a lot at things, you are naturally going to fail. Don't be afraid of making mistakes or falling short. Failure .is only permanent if you stop trying.

Enjoy your successes, but don't dwell on them. This is known as "resting on your laurels," and can cause you to become complacent about what you have already achieved rather than focusing on your next achievement.

• It is important to enjoy things you have done right, but know that basking in the glow of your achievements can make you less likely to want to chase another goal. Since success is certain, enjoyable, and rewarding, we can often find ourselves back to being afraid of venturing out and possibly failing again.
• Basking in success is usually most beneficial if you haven't yet set a specific goal. When you are working towards a goal, however, enjoying your success for too long can actually halt your progress and keep you stagnant.