5 Science-Backed Reasons Why Mindset is Everything

There’s no way around it: Your thoughts influence your behavior. The way you behave affects the outcomes you get in life. And your outcomes further reinforce your belief systems and thought patterns until your life trajectory follows either an upward or downward spiral.

Mindset is everything.

Some people write this off as “woo woo” thinking—concepts like manifestation, visualizing success, affirmations, and other methods that subscribe to the power of the mind. But when they do, they’re missing out, because mindset strategies are rooted in science.

In this post, you’ll learn some of my favorite strategies, along with science-backed reasons why mindset is everything.

 

Reason 1: Your attention becomes your destiny

There’s a saying:

What you focus on expands.

Some might say that you get what you want because the universe delivers it through manifestation, but actually, focusing on what you want helps you get it because of selective attention.

Selective attention refers to the processes that allow an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information.

When I was dead broke and my priorities were drinking booze and smoking weed, there were no opportunities to be found. But the minute I found something worth focusing on, I primed my brain to spot opportunities.

I see “manifesting” as the process of putting your selective attention to work.

Whatever you focus on captures most of your attention. When you’re not focused on a goal, a skill, or an outcome, massive opportunities will be in your blind spot.

I’m reminded of an experiment where people were asked to watch a video of two teams playing basketball. One team wore red, another wore white. They were asked to count the number of passes each team made and provide the total at the end of the video.

After watching the video, the facilitators asked the participants:

“Did you see the gorilla?”

During the video, a man with a gorilla suit made his way through the court. More than half the students didn’t notice. When you practice that kind of laser focus, what you focus on expands and everything else fades into the background.

If you want to learn how to manifest something, start focusing your attention on what you want.

 

Reason 2: You can train your brain to get what you want

Your reticular activating system is a combination of neural circuits located between the brain stem and the cortex

The Reticular Activating System is responsible for our wakefulness, our ability to focus, our fight-or-flight response, and how we ultimately perceive the world. It can control what we perceive in our consciousness, essentially a gatekeeper of information.

Take a look at your surroundings. Notice everything with the color blue.

Isn’t it weird how all of a sudden every blue item near you seems to be more blue than usual?

That’s your reticular activating system at work. Once you prime your brain to spot something, it’ll do a damn good job of spotting it.

If you’re looking for a certain outcome, train your brain to help you get it.

Meditation helps clear the clutter in your brain and enhances your ability to focus. If you add time spent visualizing what you want, you have the combined power of a more focused brain and a specific target.

There are examples that speak to the power of visualization like basketball players making more free throws by picturing themselves making free throws over and over again.

Some people use techniques like affirmations.

When you say affirmations (such as “I am successful” or “I am confident”), you’re attempting to manifest a result by repeating a mantra over and over again. This doesn’t cause anything to happen, but it can help prime your brain.

Your brain isn’t a muscle, but it can be trained like one. Most people go through life with minds that aren’t consciously trained, so they achieve random results—some good, some bad.

Because mindset is everything, taking an active role in developing a mindset that’s primed to spot opportunities can increase your odds of getting them.

 

Reason 3: Your mind creates self-fulfilling prophecies

Training your brain alone isn’t enough. Once you have an outcome in mind, you have to become the type of person who gets that outcome.

This is where feedback loops come in.

Your thoughts and beliefs guide your behavior and your behavior sends a signal out to the world that pings back to you, further reinforcing your thoughts.

Take someone who struggles with confidence. Since they think lowly of themselves, they have the behaviors of someone with low self-esteem—slouched posture, meek voice, inability to make eye contact, etc.

Others subconsciously notice these traits and respond accordingly, which makes that person go, “See, people don’t like me” and further reinforce those behaviors.

The opposite is true as well.

Invert that process and you become more confident. In my life, as soon as I started to believe I was capable of living a better life, I started working on myself. Working on myself changed the way I carried myself.

People would tell me things like “You’re going places,” which made me feel like I was going places, so I worked even harder.

Focus on the outcomes you want, but focus on working on yourself so you can become the type of person who gets those results (instead of directly aiming at them).

Don’t just think about making more money. Start studying finance and learning about business.

Don’t just think about the goal itself, but create systems in your life to help you achieve those goals.

Create an upward spiral. Embrace the “mindset is everything” philosophy by coupling positive thoughts, visualization, and focused attention on your goals.

 

Reason 4: For longevity and quality of life, mindset is everything

Let’s take a look at a few anecdotal examples of superhuman feats performed by people who used mental training to achieve them:

It’s difficult to determine exactly how much someone’s mindset matters when testing our physical limits, but it seems to make up at least part of the equation. 

While you and I likely won’t be walking across hot coals anytime soon, the mind-body connection is real.

If we can achieve even a fraction of these types of results when it comes to improving our physical health, we can live higher quality and longer lives.

Here are science-backed ways your mindset can affect your health:

These studies aren’t 100% definitive or conclusive, what have you got to lose? Apply the “mindset is everything” principle to your health and see what happens.

You can feel the physical differences in your body when you’re in a good or bad mood, right? Training your mind—or failing to do so—can have long-term consequences when it comes to your health.

 

Reason 5: Mindset influences relationships and social connections

Your social life is one of, if not the most important areas to focus on when it comes to living well. You can have all the money and success in the world, but if you have nobody to share it with you’ll be unfulfilled.

There’s a lot of talk about the loneliness epidemic in 2024. 

Technology that was supposed to connect us has made us more isolated.

Tools that gave us convenience robbed us of experience.

Even deeply personal social realms like dating have been commoditized to “swipes” on dating apps.

Loneliness is linked to anxiety and depression, so it’s no wonder why both seem to be at all-time highs. 

Some people let themselves sink into nihilism.

Others learn how to change their mindset around relationships to have better ones.

The way you see the world doesn’t just affect you, it colors every interaction you have. It pays to have a positive mindset about yourself and the people you meet, so you can spark new connections that will improve your life.

Say you’ve got this open, positive vibe going on. You’re curious about people, you actually care about what they’re saying.

What happens? People feel it. They open up.

Suddenly, you’re not just making small talk; you’re having real conversations, building connections that mean something.

But flip that around. If you’re walking around thinking everyone’s out to get you or that deep connections aren’t in the cards for you, guess what?

You’re going to act in ways that push people away. It’s yet another self-fulfilling prophecy.

Science backs the idea that you can create an upward spiral in your relationships by having a positive attitude toward them.

There’s this concept in psychology called the growth mindset that means our personality traits aren’t fixed. If you adopt a growth mindset, you can re-wire your personality. Doing this helps you build deeper connections with people, which will make you happier and motivate you to excel in every area of your life.

A positive mindset isn’t just thinking happy thoughts. It’s changing how you talk to people.

You listen better. You’re more empathetic. Even when conversations get tough, you’re more likely to find common ground instead of burning bridges.

This has a ripple effect. When you’ve got this positive, growth mindset in your relationships, you become the person everyone wants to be around. I know because it happened to me. 

When I started focusing on self-development, I carried myself differently. I had an upbeat vibe that literally made people go, “There’s just something about you.”

I once had a guy offer me a job just because he liked my vibe. To this day my mindset about the world carries into my personal interactions with people. They can just feel it.

You’re building a network, sure, but more than that, you’re creating a community.

Be the person people come to for support, for opportunities, for that sense of belonging we’re all looking for.

Mindset is everything, especially in your social life. By focusing on connection, empathy, and growth in your relationships, you’re not just improving your life. You’re lifting up everyone around you.

 

The human mind is a thing of beauty

It is more powerful than any computer in the world, with enough neurons to match a third of the stars in our galaxy.

It’s responsible for the creation of language, art, civilization, countless inventions, medical miracles—you name it.

From elite-level athletes to business moguls to Hollywood stars, you’ll be able to find plenty of A-players who can attest to the idea that mindset is everything.

Use these strategies to level up your mindset today. You won’t be sorry.