We both hit rock bottom.

Our minds were so busy and anxious, we had no self-worth and self-belief. We basically only experienced negative thoughts and couldn't think of any success.

For example, I was afraid to ask questions during our group seminars because I thought I was too stupid and everyone would laugh at me because of my dumb questions.

I also did not dare to go to my boss and ask him questions about my projects and experiments Because I was afraid he would realise how stupid I was. And that I was not good enough to do a PhD.

Hello, imposter syndrome…

I did not like to do new experiments or analyses because I was afraid to fail and embarrass myself. I really wasn’t fond of having new challenges all the time.

All the things you need to work on, while trying to figure everything out, how the hell should this work? How should you manage to finish a PhD when feeling so stupid and not good enough?

We just wanted it to be over, to stop thinking.

To stop worrying.

To stop the fear.

We started to eat unhealthily and didn't do any kind of physical exercise.

The thought of failing after all this hard work… the fear of getting blamed by others and all the time we would have lost… It let us stay at home, worrying and in many negative thinking spirals.

But luckily we thought that there had to be something different than this, and this kept us going.

Then we realise that our mindset is part of the problem but also the key to change basically everything.

After hitting rock bottom, we wanted to change for good, so we could finish and start living again.

We hoped for a rock-solid mindset.

We wanted to be successful and healthy.

Confident enough to ask questions and learn from the answers. Feeling competent enough to also make remarks and give tips to others in the group seminar.

The person who stays focused, without worry and negative thoughts. To cheer everyone around us up and help them also to be successful. Seeing our friends and family, having a good time with nice people. We searched for a calm and strong mindset which can handle everything.

We thought that it would be so easy and everything would be like that forever if we train our minds.

Today we know that our wish was a good one. Our mindset is basically the foundation of everything.

• Your mindset is your way of seeing the world.
• How you treat other people and yourself.
• How you move into situations.
• You could call it your inner attitude.
• How you react to and deal with challenges and problems.
• And it affects all areas of your life.

But thinking that everything will be easy after working on our mindset for a few days or a week was dumb. To be honest, working on our mindset wasn’t easy at all! And it is still a work in progress.

We found a way to stay on top of our game

After we started to educate ourselves more and more, we understood that the right mindset is key to many of our problems.

The work on our mindset, with all the books and videos, was improving our mental health quite quickly.

First, you have to become aware of your current, in our case very negative and fixed mindset. This is the basis for change.

Second, you have to implement the tools you learn. Only knowledge does not lead to change, unfortunately.

Working on your mindset might feel strange at first. For us it did.

But after some time you get used to it and develop positive habits.

We started to work on our mindset every day and the same as with physical muscles, we got stronger and better.

Our whole life started to change. The pressure and stress levels got lower and lower. Our confidence grew and the imposter syndrome decreased slowly over time. We managed to achieve little wins here and there and we were finally in the position to realise the wins and successes in the first place!

This change also helped us with friends and family, because we weren’t so busy with our own thoughts. We could laugh again. We could start to enjoy quality time again without worrying too much. Our relationship with different people improved, and fun was happening again.

The result of working hard on ourselves, and on our mindset, was that we gained back control. We started to use tools to dig ourselves out of our holes. We started to transform for good.

Finally, working on your mindset will change your life for the better.

The problem is that there is still too much of old thinking in academia. Working on your mindset and mental health just started to get recognised as something good and needed.

Therefore is it more and more important to gain consciousness of this topic. Without that, we wouldn’t be where we are now, couldn’t help others who are in the same spot or running straight into it.

You should be willing to work on yourself, and your mindset, like you should work on your physical muscles. When you have a strong mindset, it is the foundation for every success and dream. The key is to start, and do one step after another, like we did.

So go ahead and start by forgiving yourself for all the negativity, then build up your education about mindset and mental health.

Start small. The magic word is yet. Instead of turning your negative beliefs into their completely opposite, which might feel strange and awkward, just add yet at the an. I can’t do this YET. I am not good at this YET. I don’t know the answer YET.

This newsletter revealed why it is important to work on your mindset. In the coming newsletters, we will share various tools, ideas and tricks that will help you improve your mindset.

See you next week!

If you want more help:

We're excited to share the PhD Survival System with you because we know how tough it can be to get through a PhD program. We have developed a holistic system that combines all the necessary areas needed to obtain optimal results.

We start with the foundation, your mindset and on top of that we building two pillars with time management and stress management.