Even the best mindset can melt down under pressure. In this raw and relatable episode, April Shprintz gets honest about her own recent mindset meltdown—what triggered it, how she spiraled, and the exact steps she used to pull herself back. Through laughter, reflection, and a bit of humility, she reveals practical tools to help you recognize when you’re overreacting, find the right information, and reframe your thinking before things spiral. If you’ve ever lost your cool despite “knowing better,” this episode will remind you that mindset isn’t about perfection—it’s about getting back to balance faster each time.
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My Mindset Meltdown – And How To Prevent Your Own
Mindset Meltdown: When Even Experts Struggle
I am so glad you’re here. I had an absolute mindset meltdown the other day. I don’t do it very often, but when I do, I owe it to you to tell you the truth. If you’re tuning in week after week and you think, “April always has it together. How am I going to get there?” Maybe you don’t think that at all, but if you do, this is me telling you that we are the same. No matter how long you work on your mindset, no matter how great you get it, I’m telling you, I’ve never had a better mindset in my life than I do now. That does not mean that I can have a shit show of a meltdown, and I did.
It was brief, but I did have one, and I’m going to share it with you. I’m also going to remind you how you can prevent this from happening to yourself. I’ll set the scene. I am going to be having surgery, and I have to do pre-op blood work. I do blood work pretty often to monitor my own health. I have an accountant quest, which meant I got all my blood work results before my doctor did. I don’t know about you, but I am straight-up nosy. I love stuff like this. I like to see how it has changed year over year, those sorts of things. I’m looking through the test.
Basically, it’s all green for things that are normal, and then if something is red, it means something is wrong. There were no reds anywhere on there except for one place, and it was a Hepatitis panel. I had tested positive for having antibodies for Hepatitis A, which I’m going to be candid, but I don’t even know what that was or how you get it. I knew it wasn’t the most serious one, but I had to look it up and even find out what it is.
Dr. Google To The Rescue: Unraveling The Mystery
Basically, it said something like you’ve been exposed to bad water or to a virus. If you have this, it can be acute. It can hurt your liver, or it can make you sick. You can’t have surgery. I am losing my mind like, “What’s wrong with my liver? I don’t even feel bad. What is going on? How did I get? Is this a big deal? Should I be scared?” Everything I know about mindset went out the window. The first thing I should have done was check that oven. My temperature went up to 500 degrees. If I was trying to bake cookies at 350, I would be burning the hell out of them. I was surprised to have anything on there that didn’t say it was A-okay.
No matter how long you work on your mindset, you can always be reminded that you could do better. Share on XThe second thing is what new information would help. Immediately, I go to Dr. Google. I’m looking up what this is about, learning what Hepatitis A is, what it could be caused by, and trying to understand how I could have had it. Can I spread it to people? Is my dog going to get it? All of this is happening over two or three minutes, then I run across something that says you could have the antibodies if you’ve ever had a vaccine. Immediately, I’m like, “I was in the military. They vaccinated us for Hep A and Hep B all the time. Of course, I have those antibodies. It doesn’t affect anything that I’m doing. It’s not a big deal.” By the way, my doctor clarified that that was the case the very next day.
Preventing Meltdowns: Checking Your “Oven” Of Overreaction
Isn’t it interesting that even someone who practices mindset all the time lost her marbles? I thought it was pretty funny after the fact, but I worked myself up big time. The most important things are, number one, check that oven. See if you are overreacting to the situation. Even if I had gotten that virus, I would just have taken whatever antibiotics or whatnot you take to have it, and then I would have maybe delayed the surgery. Maybe not. I don’t know, but it would not have been as big a deal as I was acting like it was.
The Power Of Perspective: How New Information Helps
The second thing is, of course, what new information helps? It can be true information. I was trying to find out how I could help myself, but it could also be that if you don’t have a way to access the actual information and something has upset you, what new information would make you feel better? It doesn’t have to be true, but if you can assume the best, you make sure that you don’t suffer through something twice. I was suffering needlessly because it turned out to be fine, but even if it had been a bad thing, what new information would make you feel better in the moment so that if even the worst happens, you only have to deal with it once?
The Friend Factor: Seeking Trusted Advice
The third thing that I did was to get advice from a trusted friend. What helped me, even as I was researching, was that one of my closest friends was there with me and saying, “This doesn’t feel right, April. It doesn’t seem like there would be anything wrong with you based on how healthy you are. I think everything is going to be fine.” If you’re like me, when you’re worked up, calm people don’t have any impact on you because you’ve got to figure it out for yourself, but either taking advice from a friend or family member that you trust, or thinking of the advice that you would give to a friend or family member, or even better, a child, because we tend to give them the best advice. That is the way to bring yourself into a better place and reframe the situation.
Reframing Challenges: It’s Happening For You, Not To You
You can always think about how this might be happening for you. Let’s say this had been the case. How it would have happened for me is getting it taken care of before I did another medical procedure. Just make sure that I heal better, that things go better, the surgery is easier, and all of those things. Going the way that it did was such a great reminder for me that no matter how long you work on your mindset, you can always be reminded that you could do better.
It gave me a great opportunity to share this process with you again, because you can never practice it too much. It helps immeasurably in the moment. Even as worked up as I was, I knew that it would work out. I knew that it would be okay. Practice this reframing process and understanding that even when something catches you off guard, even when it has you go nuts, it’s happening for you, not to you. It’s up to you to figure out how. Here’s to your success.
