Most of us try to change our lives by changing our circumstances—new job, new routine, new productivity app. Dr. Alia Crum’s TEDx talk, “Change your mindset, change the game,” flips that logic: if you don’t change how you see things, your results will keep repeating the same patterns. Your mindset is not just a “nice-to-have” attitude; it’s a powerful filter that shapes your body, your stress, your performance, and even your health.
What Does “Mindset” Really Mean?
In this talk, Dr. Crum defines mindset as the core set of beliefs you hold about a situation—what it means, what it says about you, and what’s possible inside it.
Examples of everyday mindsets:
“Stress is toxic and always bad for me.”
“Exercise only counts if it happens in a gym.”
“Healthy food means restriction and suffering.”
These beliefs don’t just float in your head. They influence how you feel, what you notice, how your body responds, and what actions you take. Change the mindset, and you literally change the game you are playing.
The Hotel Housekeepers Study: Exercise Is in the Eye of the Beholder
One of Dr. Crum’s most famous studies involved hotel housekeepers who believed they “didn’t get enough exercise.” In reality, their work required them to walk, lift, bend, and move all day.
Researchers told one group that their daily job met or exceeded recommended exercise guidelines.
After a few weeks:
The group who now saw their work as exercise showed improvements in weight, blood pressure, and body fat—purely from a mindset shift.
The lesson: when you believe your actions are beneficial, your body and behavior start to align with that belief. This is the placebo effect, but applied to everyday life, not just sugar pills.
Stress: Enemy or Secret Performance Fuel?
Another big theme in Crum’s work: your stress mindset matters as much as your stress level.
You can see stress as:
“Stress is harmful, it will burn me out.”
Or: “Stress is helpful, it’s my body gearing up to meet a challenge.”
Studies show that people who adopt a “stress-is-enhancing” mindset:
Report better health, more energy, and less depression and anxiety.
Show more favorable hormone responses during stressful events.
Handle tough situations with more cognitive flexibility and positive emotion.
Stress doesn’t magically become fun—but when you view it as energy and information, not pure danger, you perform better and protect your well-being.
Mindset, Placebo, and the Biology of Belief
Crum’s research connects mindset to the placebo and nocebo effects:
Placebo: positive belief leads to positive physical change.
Nocebo: negative belief leads to negative physical change.
Doctors who communicate with warmth and confidence can speed up healing and reduce symptoms—even when giving standard treatments—because patients’ expectations shift. The same principle applies to how we talk to ourselves:
“This challenge might bring out my best.”
“Learning this skill now will open doors later.”
Your body is listening to the story your mind is telling.
How to Change Your Mindset in Daily Life
Mindset work is not magic; it’s a practice. Here are science-informed, modern-life-friendly ways to start changing the game:
1. Name Your Current Mindset
Pick an area that stresses you: work, health, relationships, money.
Ask yourself:
“What do I really believe here?”
“Do I see this mainly as threat, burden, or opportunity?”
Just naming your default lens already gives you a bit of distance and choice.
2. Choose a “Better-But-Still-Believable” Story
You don’t have to jump from “stress is killing me” to “I absolutely love stress.” That’s fake. Instead, upgrade your mindset one notch:
From “Stress is ruining me” → “Stress is my body trying to help me focus and perform.”
From “I never exercise” → “I actually move more than I admit; I can build on that.”
From “I’m terrible at change” → “Change is uncomfortable, but I’ve adapted before.”
The key is credibility: the new mindset should feel stretchy but honest.
3. Reframe Stressful Situations as Training
Next time something stressful hits (a deadline, presentation, tough conversation), experiment with a “stress-is-enhancing” frame:
Notice your racing heart and say, “This is my body giving me fuel.”
Treat the moment as reps in the gym for your nervous system: each rep builds capacity.
Over time, this teaches your brain that stress can be growth material, not just danger.
4. Audit Your Self-Talk and Media Diet
Modern life is full of “nocebo messaging”: headlines, posts, and conversations that say everything is hopeless, toxic, and broken.
Limit content that constantly tells you you’re not enough or the world is only getting worse.
Seek out science-based, empowering content about mindset, resilience, and growth.
You’re not ignoring problems; you’re refusing to live in a mental environment of permanent defeat.
5. Turn Mindset into a Daily Micro-Habit
Mindset changes stick when they’re small and regular:
Start the day with one question: “What’s one thing I can choose to see as a challenge, not a threat, today?”
After a tough moment, ask: “What did this teach me about my capacity?”
These micro-reflections train your brain to default to a more growth-oriented mindset.
When you really understand this talk, the promise “change your mindset, change the game” stops sounding like a slogan and starts sounding like a practical operating system: you may not control every situation, but you can upgrade the lens you bring to it—and that upgrade can change your health, your performance, and your entire experience of life.
Additional Credible Resources:
TEDx Talk – Change your mindset, change the game (Dr. Alia Crum):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tqq66zwa7gFull transcript and summary of the talk:
https://singjupost.com/dr-alia-crum-change-your-mindset-change-the-game-at-tedxtraversecity-transcript/Research paper – The Role of Mindsets in Determining the Stress Response:
https://sparq.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj19021/files/media/file/crum_et_al._2013_-_rethinking_stress.pdfPubMed article – The role of stress mindset in shaping cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28120622/
Conversation with Dr. Alia Crum on mindset, placebo, and nocebo (Huberman Lab clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWLP4le1caA
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