Hello Felix Brabander,

It’s Monday and although today may still be your holiday, it is a fresh start of the week and a great opportunity to reflect on a strong foundation of success: your mindset.
For sensitive high achievers, emotional resilience isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. Today, let’s talk about how you can cultivate a growth mindset and fortify your emotional resilience to thrive in business and in life.

The Power of a Growth Mindset

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I’m not good at this,” or “What if I fail?”? If so, you’re not alone, even the most successful people fall into that sometimes.
Not so positive self-talk is a natural part of the human experience, especially for those of us who process emotions deeply and hold ourselves to high standards. But here’s the thing: a creative way of looking at those thoughts is that they’re just stories your mind is telling you.

A growth mindset shifts those stories from limiting beliefs to empowering possibilities. Instead of thinking, “I can’t do this,” you reframe it as, “I’m still learning, and I can improve.” This subtle yet profound shift unlocks new levels of performance, creativity and self-compassion. Another thing that helps tremendously is to remember what you are here for or what you have set as an important goal for yourself. It can instantly positively recalibrate your mood and your mindset.

Emotional Resilience: The Secret to Thriving

While mindset is about how you approach challenges intellectually, emotional resilience is about how you handle them emotionally. For sensitive high achievers, resilience doesn’t mean ignoring feelings or “powering through.” It means acknowledging your emotions, honoring them and then choosing how to respond.
Besides, feeling what you don’t want in any situation may very well help you discern or rediscover what you do want.

Imagine this:

• You face a setback at work or in a personal project.
• Instead of spiraling into self-doubt, you pause, take a deep breath, and remind yourself: “This is part of the process. I’m growing through this.”
• What also helps is to take a pause and ask yourself “what questions should I be asking myself right here and now?
  Note: The deeper you breath into your discomfort (without totally disappearing in it) the more clarity will emerge. Tip: be patient.

That’s resilience in action. It doesn’t deny the difficulty, but it ensures the difficulty doesn’t define you.

Shifting Your Inner Dialogue

At the heart of emotional resilience is the way you talk to yourself.

• When your inner voice is encouraging, you build confidence, creativity, courage and energy to keep moving forward.

Example of Shifting Self-Talk:

• Negative: “I can’t believe I made that mistake. I’m so bad at this.”
• Growth Mindset: “Mistakes are part of learning. What can I take from this to do better next time?”

Small changes in language create massive shifts in perspective.

Mantras and Affirmations: Rewiring Your Mindset

When repeated regularly, these short, positive statements can retrain your brain to focus on your strengths, potential, and progress.

Here are a few to get you started:

1. “I am capable of handling whatever comes my way.”
2. “Every challenge is an opportunity for growth.”
3. “My worth is not tied to my achievements—I am enough as I am.”
4. “Progress, not perfection.”  or  “Better done than perfect.”

Today’s Action Step

1. Choose a Mantra: Pick one of the affirmations above (or create your own) that resonates most with you.
2. Repeat It Often: Say it out loud, write it in your journal, or repeat it silently during moments of doubt. For best results, practice it daily—first thing in the morning or before tackling a challenging task.
3. Notice the Shift: Over time, pay attention to how your inner dialogue evolves. Do you feel calmer, more confident, or more motivated after repeating your mantra? These small wins will reinforce the habit.

Do you feel this matters?
It does appear to me that you may not see yourself as being ‘highly sensitive’. You don’t have to be, by the way, in order to benefit from my services. Still I would like to point out that there are great results waiting for anyone who has an eye for the sensitive side of both business and life. Sensitivity is what enables any person to be more present in any interaction, which leads to a myriad of advantages like easier trust building, finding out what’s really important for someone else or for yourself, be much more effective in your sales or in your role as a leader or a partner.

Personal Note
Being highly sensitive has it’s pros and cons. I believe that in certain cultures sensitivity is being frowned upon. Or it can only have it’s place in a restricted way. There is one thing I need to stress: if you are actually highly sensitive, but you shy away from the term and call yourself an empath instead, you have a problem. Why? High sensitivity requires more advanced self-care. If you do not comply with this, you may ignore important boundaries and conditions resulting in higher health risks. You also lose access to the typical special talents that are part of being an HSP (highly sensitive person).

Warmly,

Felix Brabander
Founder of SensitiveHighAchievers.com