|
© Copyright - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic
means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly
prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written
permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
The information provided herein is stated to be truthful
and consistent, in that
any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise,
by any usage or abuse of any policies, processes, or directions contained
within is the solitary and utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under
no circumstances will any legal responsibility or blame be held against the
publisher for any reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information
herein, either directly or indirectly.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Legal Notice:
This book is copyright protected. This is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote or paraphrase any part or
the content within this book without the consent of the author or
copyright owner. Legal action will be pursued if this is breached.
Disclaimer Notice:
Please note the information contained within this
document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Every attempt has
been made to provide accurate, up to date and reliable complete information. No
warranties of any kind are expressed or implied. Readers acknowledge that the
author is not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or
professional advice.
By reading this document, the reader agrees that under
no circumstances are we responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, which
are incurred as a result of the use of information contained within this
document, including, but not limited to, —errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Start Small To Finish
Big........................................................................ 64
Be Open To
Feedback.............................................................................. 74
Resilience And Growth............................................................................ 79
Introduction
In this world, you’re either GROWING or you’re DYING…
There's no middle ground.
If you're standing
still with zero progress, you're decaying. The same goes for
success. It requires you to engage in the process of your personal growth at
all times. And of all the things in life, what you believe about yourself can impact your success or failure.
People who believe that their abilities can be improved
through their hard work and dedication typically move ahead and take action without coming up with
excuses. These same people also demonstrate an open mind, are willing to learn and have been seen
as most successful in different aspects of their life. So how do they do it?
This book will tell you how. You will see that the mind
is the ultimate force to get you where you want to go but you need to harness
its power correctly. How can you do that? Let’s find out together.
|
The mind is a very powerful tool and it ultimately
determines who you are as a person. Also known as mindset, this thinking pattern or your frame of mind impacts how you make sense of the world as
well as of yourself.
So in other words, a mindset is a set of beliefs and
thoughts which influence the way you handle any given situation. It pretty much
dictates your personality helping you sort out what’s going on around you and
what you should do about it.
How Mindsets Are Formed
Since time immemorial, people have thought, acted and
fared differently from one another. For the most part, common sense dictates
that these differences arise from the variances in one’s background, learning
experiences and training. Plus, research also points in the same direction.
So while experiences, backgrounds and training are all external variables, even internal variables like genetic makeup
have a part to play.
Most experts today agree that forming a mindset is a
combination of the two. For instance, while everyone comes with a unique set of
genetics, their experiences, training and personal
efforts take them the rest of the way.
 |
So your life experiences and genetics together help
frame your attitude and beliefs. And since both have an
important part to play in your
mindset, it helps to know what these two factors are all about.
First off, your attitude to something is how you think
or feel about it, especially when it shows in the way you behave.
Your attitude can have different components such as an emotional component or how something or
someone makes you feel. Then there is the cognitive
component which is how or what you think about the subject. This is finally
followed by the behavioral component which
shows how you behave when confronted by the subject.
Then there are your beliefs which are merely feelings of
certainty about something. Beliefs are based on ideas and when at a specific
point, these ideas start to feel certain,
they turn into beliefs. Beliefs, in turn shape your attitude
which in turn shape your mindset.
Attitudes and beliefs then give rise to habits which are
a direct reflection of your mindset.
Perhaps the most common and well known example of a
mindset is seeing the glass as “half empty” or “half full”.
Types Of Mindsets
There are different types of mindsets that can either
help you unleash your best or contain your potential. There could be a long
list of these but here are a few which have been backed by research.
Here’s a quick glance at the following:
Abundance Mindset vs Scarcity Mindset
The way you view abundance or scarcity in different
aspects of life greatly influences your success in life, For instance, imagine
that two people are walking down the street. They are talking to each other, laughing,
joking and all the while breathing in and breathing out.
Now do you think that one of the two might worry that
there may not be enough oxygen for the both of them? Likely not, since air is
abundant.
Now place the same two people scuba diving where one’s
tank starts to malfunction. That person signals the need for oxygen and
suddenly the air around them becomes a precious commodity.
This scarcity could easily make the two worry with a
concern that what if there isn’t enough oxygen for the both of them?
For the most part, the general population seems to be
more inclined towards a scarcity mentality. They often view life as having
only so much and if they had to share, there wouldn’t
be enough for them.
This sad mentality makes it very hard for such people to
share anything including credit, recognition, responsibility or even authority
with others. Instead they only end up competing for available resources
even when there
may be an abundance of them.
On the other hand, those with an abundance mentality are
not limited by this thinking
pattern. Instead of seeing
opportunity as
limited, they strive to create more opportunity for
themselves and embrace change instead of fearing it.
To sum up, a person with a scarcity mindset chooses
negative thoughts and adopts a victim mentality. At best, their everyday focus
is on all the things that may not be
working.
But others with an abundance mindset tend to put all
their energy reserves into what is
working and see endless possibilities to improve their current situation.
Productive Mindset vs Defensive
Mindset
This combo basically deals with everyday performance.
Many people may think that they have a productive mindset or that they are
being productive, whereas they are actually just being busy; in reality, they
may not be productively finishing tasks and completing projects.
Think about your daily to-do list and the ten or so
things you need to get done by the end of the day. You may have spent all your
day running around and ‘doing’ stuff but when it’s 5 pm and you wrap up for the
day, you realize that you only managed to tick off three
of the ten things you were supposed to do. You feel like
you’re working all the time but don’t actually get much done.
Does this mean that you’re lazy and don’t want to
achieve your goals? Or perhaps it has something to do with your mindset.
Having a productive mindset means that you utilize all your
resources including your time, energy and efforts in the best possible way. At
the same time it also means that you don’t
try to do everything, be everywhere or even do it in the fastest way possible.
Quite the contrary, it means making the most of what is
available while enjoying the process. Those with a productive mindset seek out valid
knowledge that is testable and
use their reasoning to make informed choices.
As such, these people find a way and spend more time
finding solutions to better performance instead of finding problems and getting
stuck.
On the other hand, the defensive mindset, like its name
suggests is both self-protective and
self-defensive. This type of mindset only seeks out information that it feels
comfortable with and shuts down
when perceived as threatening. Obviously this thinking pattern
can become very limiting.
It’s also an apparent way to shun creativity, find better alternatives to existing problems and very
easily fall in a rut. But perhaps the biggest setback of this mindset is that
you learn something based on false assumptions or prevent learning altogether.
Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset
This combo is perhaps the best known in terms of
mindsets. Very briefly, a fixed mindset is a static view where you believe that
you are either good at something or you just aren’t, with no way to change that
so called ‘Fact’ or ‘Destiny’.
On the other hand, a growth mindset is a learning
mindset with a dynamic view. This mindset allows you to believe that you can
change, improve, prosper and get better at anything through the right training.
Now going back to the three pairs of mindsets,
it’s fairly easy to see that
one mindset from each pair allows you to explore,
grow and be more content in general. The other does
the opposite.
These limiting mindsets may appear to offer more
comfort, be easier to follow and require less effort but do come at a cost. Not
only do they repel the good opportunities in life but can also hold you back
from achieving your full potential.
Page | 17
Chapter 2
Why is Mindset Important?
Now every mindset
can work in a dual manner. For instance, while your individual mindset can open
doors for you, it can also set serious limitations based on your beliefs and
approach in different scenarios.
This means that just as mindsets can help you spot
opportunities, they can equally well trap you in self-defeating cycles as well.
The stories that you tell yourself and the things that you believe about
yourself can go either way.
First off, if you become trapped in a negative or
limiting mindset then your mindset
will prevent change
from happening in your life. But if you develop a positive
mindset then you allow new skills to blossom.
Importance Of Mindset In Life
Because your mindset holds your set of beliefs, it has
immense potential to make a difference in your life. For most people their
beliefs are the core of their efforts. As such, beliefs distinguish people who are successful at what they do as opposed to others who continually struggle.
These beliefs form the basis of where your abilities
come from. Just think about your talents, your
intelligence, and your personality. Do you consider these traits to be simply
fixed and permanent, or do you think these are aspects which
you can cultivate and improve on
through life?
The rigidity or flexibility about these beliefs is what
determines your mindset.
Having the right mindset for any particular task is
almost a prerequisite for success.
Whether you’re a parent, teacher,
student, entrepreneur, or in any other profession, you need the right
mindset to be successful at what you do.
Every profession comes with its own hurdles and
obstacles and having a positive mindset allows you to not only overcome those
obstacles but even welcome them as challenges or an
opportunity to learn and grow.
If you look around you, you’ll see that often people
with similar circumstances have very different results in life. This happens
because of their mindset.
Since your mindset
regarding events and situations influences your interpretation of them, the results will be different from
someone else with a different mindset.
If you’ve got a positive mindset, you’ll find it easier
to overcome setbacks than others
with a negative or limiting
mindset. Or, if you
have a negative mindset, you’ll feel the world collapse under your feet every
time there is an unpleasant experience.
If your core beliefs don’t
support you, then you’ll likely set yourself up for failure when faced with a
difficult situation. You may be more susceptible to surrendering and admitting
failure when all you need to do is try harder or perhaps take on a different
approach. You may also need to change your frame of mind.
Mindsets Are More Than Beliefs
But mindsets aren’t mere beliefs and have the capacity
to dictate your reactions to situations and other tendencies. They serve a
number of cognitive functions and let you frame situations. At the same time,
your mindset will also direct your attention to the most important cues and filter out irrelevant information so
that you don’t overwhelm yourself.
Your mindset will also give you direction by
recommending sensible goals to achieve so that you have a sense of direction. Once your mindset becomes habitual, it defines who you are and what you can become.
Life
Experiences Reinforce The Mindset
For the majority of people, their mindset is created for
them at an early age. It may be through parents, teachers, friends or others
that you readily absorb what you are told.
And because when you’re young and have no other point of
reference, you accept the offered knowledge. This basic
information then becomes
embedded within your
psyche and starts to shape your beliefs about the
world and your place within it.
As you grow and mature, life experiences and events may
contradict that earlier knowledge and somewhat change your mindset. However,
the earlier knowledge continues to stick and becomes your reference point for much of your life. For instance, if you’re surrounded by people who are in
a constant state of anxiety and overwhelm then there’s a good chance that
you’ll develop a mindset that mirrors reactions to life in ways that are
anxious and overwhelmed.
Your mindset continues developing and becomes stronger
the more you repeat and practice your beliefs.
Now if you become locked in a negative or limiting
mindset, then you’ll likely keep repeating negative
self-talk and start to see things
in a certain way. This practice can become self-fulfilling until you completely
believe it to be true.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you have a positive
mindset then it gets
reinforced through your beliefs and consequent actions.
The Emotion Factor
However, repetition isn’t the only factor at play in the
creation of habits and beliefs. The emotion factor also plays in this equation.
When you mix repeated thoughts and actions with emotions, the expected results can alter.
Both helpful and bad habits get created the same way-
through repetition. But the habit can be embedded more quickly and strongly
when combined with emotion.
Take the example
of comfort eating.
You know that it’s not good for you but since it makes you feel good
at a time when you are down, you turn to this habit to lift up your spirits.
Once you get into this cycle, you develop
a behavior paired with powerful
emotion and an unhealthy eating habit is formed.
What Does Science Say About Mindsets?
Neuroscience or the study of the nervous system tells us
that the brain is continually creating and destroying neural pathways. These
pathways, in turn, form our thoughts and behavior patterns
which tell your brain to make decisions, choose actions and present
you to the outside world.
Among these, the pathways which are used more become
stronger, while others that remain underused become weak and ultimately
get replaced.
This scientific data correlates with the explanation of
different mindsets because the brain is prewired with the bias to learn new
things. At the same time, there are also those people who learn to stop
learning and become trapped in a fixed mindset.
People with positive mindsets are more likely to improve
which reinforces the thought
that ability can be enhanced. On the flip
side, people with a negative mindset
appear to stagnate
which reinforces the thought
that they get stuck at their current ability level with no improvement.
These two particular are of concern to us in this book
and are known as the growth
mindset and the fixed mindset.
The difference between the
two is that while one focuses on the results achieved, the other stresses on
the process.
The fixed mindset prioritizes results such as getting
“that job” or losing “those 30 pounds” where the person thinks that they are
defined by the result. The growth mindset tells you that the effort put into
the process of achieving that result is more important.
 |
This is because you can become more intelligent, more
creative, and more successful by focusing on the process and not the outcome. It leaves a lot of room for improvement which means you continue to grow as a person.
Going forward, let’s take a closer look at each type.
|
Chapter 3
Fixed vs Growth Mindset
By now you know that the way you think about your
ability has a very real impact on the results you achieve in life.
Interestingly enough, both fixed
and growth mindsets are highly self-reinforcing, but in vastly
different ways.
If you believe
that ability is an ingrained or fixed feature
which you were born with and can’t change,
then you possess
a fixed mindset. But if you think that you can develop this ability through
effort and practice then you
have a growth mindset.
Each belief leads to different behaviors and
consequently different results. Of the two, having a growth mindset, where you
are ready and willing to learn and improve, is the key to success.
Having said that, it doesn’t imply that hard work,
persistence and struggle aren’t important. They are, but only when you believe
that you aren’t limited and are in full control of your destiny.
Mindset In Practice
Individuals with these two mindsets not only think
differently but also react to information in a different manner. In fact, the
differences can be stark when they respond to information about performance.
 |
For instance, people with a fixed mindset respond very
well to information about how well they have done something. It could be
anything from trying out a new recipe, learning a new language, working on a
DIY project, or doing well on test results and grades.
Their minds are most active when they learn about their
good performance. Their prime, but somewhat limited concern is with the results
achieved with stress on the praise they receive.
On the other hand, people with a growth mindset tend to
be most responsive when they are told about the ways they could improve their
performance. These folks want to learn how to better themselves which leaves a
lot of room for growth.
They are more interested in strategies to help them
evolve and the process of doing so, not merely their talent or ability.
The two are, in fact very different approaches, with the
former being focused on “How did I do?” as
opposed to the latter which deals with “What
can I do better next time?”
The fixed mindset is all about how the performance was
perceived and the growth mindset is about how improvement can take place. It isn’t hard to see which
mindset will yield better results
in the long run.
Mindset In Action
When it comes
to taking action,
both the fixed as well as the growth
mindset are also poles apart. To refer to a very well-known example, let’s take
the story of the tortoise and the hare.
In the story, the hare was so certain that he could win
that he sat down and went to sleep during the race. On the other hand, the
tortoise was persistent and kept going believing that that he had a chance of
winning.
When the hare woke up, he started running as fast as he
could but he was just too late. In the meantime, the tortoise had won.
So the story shows that the hare had a fixed mindset
where he believed that his inherent ability for speed would guarantee a win.
But the tortoise showed a growth mindset where he believed he needed to work
hard to get to a certain point. At the same time, he was not afraid of failure
but ready to take on a challenge.
This also points out to the fact that a fixed mindset
can be susceptible to an overly perfect finished view of oneself. Much like the hare,
this thinking pattern
suggests that you are already
perfect.
And so your brain becomes less adept at recognizing opportunities for improvement.
The Basics
of Fixed vs Growth Mindset
People with a fixed mindset accept their traits as a
given. They believe there is a certain amount of intelligence and talent and
there is nothing that can change this fact. So people with this mindset are
often concerned about their traits and how adequate they are.
With a fixed mindset you believe that your ability
is innate and you
find failure unsettling as it makes you question how good you really
are. Another belief shared by people with this mindset is that there’s a hidden
upper limit to what you can achieve.
For instance, if you’ve struggled through school, you
may well believe that you’re not cut out for college. You may never even try
out for college but get stuck in a low paying, non-engaging job instead. Such a
job won’t do anything for stimulating your brain and the belief of inadequacy
becomes your reality.
On the other hand, if you have a growth mindset, then
you accept that you can improve your ability and failure only tells what you
should work on.
Those who have a fixed mindset are all about proving
themselves and often become defensive should anyone point out that they made an
error. This mindset only allows people to measure themselves by their failures.
The growth mindset, on the other hand often exhibits
resilience and perseverance in the face of errors. Instead of adopting a
defensive approach, they become motivated to better their performance.
Take a look at these
state of mind statements by people with a fixed and growth mindset:
Fixed mindset
I’m horrible at math.
I can’t seem to get
organized.
I love cake, but I can’t
bake.
I’m no good at origami.
|
Growth mindset
Math has been challenging for me.
I’ve tried my hand at organization, but without much
success.
I’d like to learn baking, but I haven’t started yet.
I
haven’t learnt how to do origami yet.
|
It’s easy to see from these examples that quotes from
the fixed mindset group are more of a statement of resignation such as
“horrible at”, “can’t seem to”, “can’t bake” and “no good at”. There’s
an implied unwillingness to try as the person believes
that these
skills are beyond their scope. A sense of finality
prevails within this group.
The growth mindset
group presents examples
which are more of an observation than a statement. These
opinions reflect that there is the possibility of learning a skill if the
person puts in some more effort and tries harder.
So when distinguishing the fixed
mindset from the growth mindset, keep the following in mind:
Goals: The fixed mindset wants to look smart whereas the growth mindset wants to learn and improve.
Challenge seeking: The
fixed mindset avoids challenges but the growth mindset seeks it out.
Change: Change is seen as a threat by the fixed mindset but the growth
mindset views the same as a challenge.
Response to
setbacks: People trapped in a fixed mindset respond
poorly to setbacks, appearing helpless but those with a growth mindset appear
resilient.
Response to
criticism: The fixed mindset will appear defensive
when faced with criticism but the growth mindset will learn from it.
Response to
wrongdoing: The fixed mindset tends to punish and
retaliate in this situation whereas the growth mindset tends to educate and compromise.
Viewing others’ success: The
fixed mindset views others’ success as a threat but the growth mindset sees it
as inspiring.
|
Chapter 4
The Dangers of a Fixed Mindset
The advantages of a growth
mindset may seem apparent, but many
people have a fixed mindset in certain situations. This can be very
counterproductive because this mindset prevents important skills from
developing and growing. This, in turn sabotages your happiness and health in
the future.
As an example, let’s assume that you aren’t a science
whiz. If you keep telling yourself
that you aren’t
a science person
or that science isn’t your thing, then that assertion becomes an excuse to not study
science.
While with a fixed mindset, you may avoid short term
failure, you are also hindering your potential to grow, learn and acquire new
skills in the long run.
On the other hand, your peer with a growth mindset tries
to give science a go despite failing at first. Now this person likely sees
failure as a sign to continue working on their skills instead of accepting that
they aren’t good at something.
In the long
run, your peer
will optimize their
potential as they chose
to benefit from criticism instead of ignoring it. They decided to overcome a
challenge instead of avoiding it and see it as a learning opportunity rather
than feeling threatened.
So if you think things like “It’s impossible to lose the
weight”, “I’m not a natural artist”, “I’m not creative”, or “I’m a
procrastinator” then you’ll miss out on many experiences. In the end, you quit,
don’t learn as much and it becomes decidedly harder to get any better.
Here are other
aspects you’ll miss out on:
Undermining The Importance Of Effort
In a fixed mindset, basic
qualities, such as talent
or intelligence are considered fixed traits. Such
individuals have a tendency to document their talent or intelligence rather
than develop them. They may also credit talent alone to success, without
effort. When they are good at something, they gladly attribute it to their
talent such as scoring high on a test or doing well on a project.
However, at the same time, they also consider their
shakier skills to be fixed
as well. So instead of developing these skills they tend to accept them as is with no effort
invested on improvement, such as “I’m not cut out to handle a paint brush”.
They accept that they are the way they are and can’t get
any better at it or change.
The Obsession To Prove Worth
People with a fixed mindset feel a need to prove their
worth. Every scenario demands a confirmation of their personality, intelligence, or character.
Every scenario is also overly evaluated resulting in
questions like “Will I succeed or fail?”,
“Will I look dumb or smart?”, “Will I be rejected or accepted?” and so on.
Although they seem desperate for approval, they aren’t
going to go beyond their capabilities to achieve the success they want so badly.
They tend to get stuck because they’re terrified of being rejected that they’re
not willing to grow beyond their shell.
The Desire To Be Flawless
Taking it a step further, the problem with a fixed
mindset is that it is not enough just to succeed neither
is it enough to look smart and talented. If anything, the desire is
to appear pretty much flawless.
So what happens in the end is that if failure means you
lack potential or competence, then you are stuck being a failure. There is
nowhere to go from this point.
Instead you end up focusing on avoiding failure at any
cost and try to preserve feelings of
success. You don’t try anything new
because if you don’t think you’ll
excel at it, you don’t want others
to see you fail. In the end, the entire process can be very
restricting and frustrating.
Decreasing Self-Knowledge
Perhaps one of the most damaging effects
of a fixed mindset is that
it decreases self-knowledge. Instead the focus shifts to external rewards and validations. With this mindset,
attention is taken
away from internal development.
By constantly striving
for external recognition and signs of success,
you tend to deceive not only others
but yourself as well. It also takes away from who you really are.
The Need
for Constant Validation
Your mindset can also impacts
your relationship with others. Often individuals with a fixed mindset
feel insecure and expect their partners, friends, peers and others to support
them in every situation.
They only want to be around people
who praise them for their skills
and give them confidence they were unable to establish for themselves. However,
this can present problems for what if the romantic liaisons end, friendships
fall out or conflict arises among peers?
Any of these situations would leave a person with a
fixed mindset with low esteem, poor confidence and a lot of doubt and fear.
To summarize, here is how a fixed mindset looks at things:
Skills: The fixed mindset believes this is something you’re born with which
can’t be changed.
Challenges: The fixed mindset regards
this as something to avoid
at all costs. There is the constant threat that a challenge could expose your lack of skill and you tend to give up easily when in such
position.
Effort: This is considered unnecessary by the fixed mind. It’s something
that people resort to when they aren’t good enough for the job.
Feedback: Feedback makes the fixed mindset get on the defensive. When given
feedback, people with this mindset take it personally and consider it an exclusive attack on their performance
or skills. If it isn’t to their
liking they may even ignore
the feedback completely.
Setbacks: When faced with setbacks, people with a fixed mindset will put the
blame on others. They also get discouraged easily and are more likely to quit
completely.
Remember that these are all triggers that not only establish but also
give away a fixed mindset.
Switching from one to the other can be hard but is
possible. You need to watch out for these triggers because a fixed mindset can and will hold you back. Specific behaviors to move away from a fixed
mindset can include the following suggestions:
·
Listen to your inner voice- if you
don’t do so, it will rule your behavior in a habitual way, keeping you stuck
where you are.
·
When you find someone better than you, learn from them.
·
When you are faced
with a choice between something safe and something
challenging, go for the challenge.
·
When you hit a bump in the road,
ask yourself what you can learn from it or what you can do next.
·
When you receive feedback, don’t
get offended or take it as personal criticism. Think of ways how you can use
this information to better your performance.
Page | 45
Chapter 5
The Power of a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset allows people to view themselves as
capable of doing well in most, if not all settings. They definitely don’t consider
themselves as restricted by their current abilities, but believe that they can
do whatever they want as long as they practice.
Consider the example of being given a new project,
something that you haven’t worked
on before. Now your response could go either way.
You could look at this new challenge and think that
you’re not qualified to do this work or that such numbers, techs or designs
weren’t your cup of tea. This would obviously reflect a fixed mindset and you’d
miss out on everything mentioned in the previous chapter.
However, you could also look at the same and start
planning how you could make it work. You could deliberate what you’d need to
bring to the table and what it would take to get the desired results.
This optimism and creativity indicate a growth mindset
which will also empower you to gain the following:
Improvement Through Effort
A growth mindset allows people to believe that their
basic abilities can develop through hard work and dedication. For this lot, brains
and talents are merely the starting points and allow them to build on these.
This group of people exhibits an eagerness for learning
and resilience which is a must for accomplishment. People with a growth mindset
view their qualities as traits which can be developed through their commitment
and effort.
Being of a growth mindset you’re willing to try out new
things because you know your success
depends on your effort and not any innate ability. You’re not focused on
avoiding failure because you believe that if you do poorly you can improve and
succeed in time.
Plus research also indicates that growth mindset allows
people to navigate stress and challenges better and lead to higher levels of
wellbeing.
Offers A
Sense Of Fulfilment
Unlike the fixed mindset, one of the most obvious
benefits of the growth mindset are the endless opportunities to be availed.
With a growth mindset, you
continually pursue betterment followed by a sense of achievement and fulfilment.
A sense of achievement is also a precursor to a higher
standard of excellence. In the process you learn that success is a continuous
work in progress rather than instant gratification.
Develops Resilience
A growth mindset also lets you develop resilience. When
you face challenges or setback,
your mindset takes
a more positive approach
handling these.
For instance, when you’re given feedback, you know that
it’s an effective learning strategy that will help you set appropriate goals
and standards for the future.
Buffers Against Demotivation
People with a growth mindset seek out opportunities and
challenges to engage them rather than get their satisfaction from results. This
means being motivated to do more and more.
Being more process oriented, rather than purely result
oriented, these people thrive when they are in the process of doing something. The process presents
a learning opportunity, stimulates them and drives them on to do even more.
As an example, rather than wishing for a completed book,
written perfectly, the growth
mindset is motivated to show up daily to work
on it constantly until it is done, no matter what it takes. Instead of being fixated
on a number on the scale, a growth mindset
will focus more on working
out every day to become more fit and healthy.
Encourages Perseverance
A growth mindset also demands perseverance. The focus of
a growth mindset is not to concentrate on what happens to you but on what
happens for you.
Perseverance also means kicking fear of failure out the
door. This amounts to taking chances when opportunity presents them and not
limit yourself to living an overly cautious or paranoid life.
Tenacity is an essential ingredient for a growth
mindset. And since you can’t
always have a 100% success
rate with every challenge you tackle, tenacity will help reflect on
your failures in the right manner.
Failure to find a solution usually opens up an
opportunity for you to work on your skills
and learn something
new. When most people
hit a wall, they either make an excuse or simply give up. However, a person
with a growth mindset realizes
that failure is an inevitable component of achieving success.
As such they prepare for failure mentally,
knowing that it will come at some time or the other. The
thought neither scares them nor makes them give up.
Plus, allowing yourself
to fail a little takes
the pressure off of getting a perfect result every time.
Promotes
Critical Thinking
When you talk about learning, making mistakes is a must
because it forces you to identify where you made a mistake. This effort also
helps you not only pinpoint a solution but also develop critical thinking.
Let’s assume you get a somewhat tricky question in
class. Should you switch off your brain because you feel overwhelmed, you’ll
never grow or learn anything.
However, if you acknowledge the problem by working it
relentlessly, asking questions and evaluating critically, you have a better chance of finding
an answer. At the same time, the effort that you put in will help your brain
create new neural connections and become better equipped at solving similar
problems. That’s how you grow and be better at
anything.
Practice Makes Perfect
Not to overuse an age old cliché, but for a growth
mindset practice does indeed make perfect, or more accurately a lot better at
what you practice.
Since the growth mindset is triggered more by a
dedication for learning as opposed to a yearning for approval, practice and
effort promote qualities like creativity and intelligence. Individuals with
this mindset neither get discouraged by failure, nor do
they consider themselves as failing but as learning.
In fact, practicing repeatedly does have a significant
role in the learning process and is necessary to achieving expertise. One thing that most experts agree on is that
training improves performance and changes the brain.
 |
To summarize, a
growth mindset sees the following situations as:
Skills: The growth mindset believes that skills are something that you can
constantly change, improve and develop. Skills come from hard work so you can’t stop working.
Challenges: The growth mindset is eager to embrace challenges and views them as an opportunity to grow. The chance to engage in a challenge makes the growth mind more persistent.
Effort: Effort is essential for a growth mindset and may even override talent.
When the growth
mindset sees effort
as the path to success, it
realizes the necessity for lifelong learning.
Feedback: The growth mindset views feedback as something constructive and an
experience to learn from. It is an effective means to identify areas that need
improvement.
Setbacks: Instead of putting a damper on things, setbacks are seen as ways to
improve on current talents and efforts.
|
Chapter 6
Can You Change Your Mindset?
Beliefs can be changed when they no longer serve
you or enable you to get to
your goals.
Resistant To Change
Although mindsets can change, this only happens
very slowly. This is
especially true if you have long held beliefs about something. For instance, if you have been told that eating
an apple a day is good for you, you may find it difficult to
believe if someone told you otherwise.
Even though a fixed mindset is easy to form, it is
resistant to change. Take the example of a stake holding a tent in its place in
the ground. Although it can be moved,
once it has been placed,
you are reluctant to move it unless there is good reason to do so.
So once you have formed a mindset about something, it conditions your future opinion about
that thing. For instance, if you consider an upcoming event boring because the
last one of the same kind was actually boring you may not want to go at all.
However, if you do go and find it to
be not boring at all, it may take you some time to change your mindset.
Using Fear
To Change Your Mindset
An individual with a fixed mindset is more keen in
looking smart than to fail when learning
new things. They will do everything they can to avoid embarrassment and
ignore what they truly lack of. In other words, they become fearful of looking stupid.
This in itself is an inhibiting factor. It’s a
possibility that this stems from a
feeling of rejection or ridicule from childhood experiences or events stored in
your unconscious mind that you may not even remember consciously.
As a result of this unconscious fear, your fixed mindset
avoids trying new things, resists learning, stalls your development and may
even make you act lazy.
To counter this effectively and change your mindset, you
need to become aware of the fear driving your behavior. And then realize that
this fear has no basis in your present reality. You need to overcome it and let
it go.
As an example,
students with a fixed mindset
view their intelligence level as unchanging. Their
prime concern remains proving that they are smart, or hiding that they are not.
As such, they tend to avoid situations where they might
fail. They also don’t recover well from setbacks and only prefer engaging in
tasks that they can already do well.
The same also reflects in others with this mindset where
they limit themselves and sabotage their efforts.
Using Actions To Change Your Mindset
Another approach to changing mindsets is through actions
since skills and talents get developed through repetition and constant
practice. The key to changing a fixed mindset is identifying and refuting the
fixed mindset voice and taking growth oriented action repeatedly.
Although this isn’t something that happens overnight,
you can develop new skills through deliberate and repeated practice. And for
every new skill that you develop, your fixed mindset voice weakens.
Identifying
Your Counter Mindsets
Mindsets get formed through previous experiences and
emotional milestones. But when these mindsets
do not deliver the results
you expect, they become counter mindsets.
This results in producing feelings
of self-doubt, limiting
beliefs and other negative
thoughts that get in the way of progress. For the
most part, these
negative thoughts occur so often that you may not even be aware of them.
Think about that nudging voice which makes disparaging
comments when you look in the mirror. It is the same voice which makes you
unhappy with the way you look, makes you hesitate when approaching someone new
or even when you want to consider a career change.
 |
Now everyone experiences negative thoughts, or counter mindsets to a
different degree, but the damage is collateral. It allows you to
habitually destroy your dreams and makes it very hard to
remain positive. The only thing that remains are nasty reminders like “I can’t
talk to him/her”, “I’m not smart enough for that”, “I’m not qualified enough”
or “I’m out of shape” and so on.
To change your mindset, you need to pay attention to when this voice get raised and how often
it happens. This will allow you to pinpoint
the triggers of you counter
mindset and narrow
it down to a few key themes.
Shifting Gears From The Negative To The
Positive
Once you have established your negative thoughts you
need to prevent them from holding you back. Whenever
a negative thought surfaces, counter it by giving an
instant, yet positive reaction.
Say you want to go for a walk after dinner to get in
more exercise. But the problem is that once dinner is over, you start hearing
that voice that you’re too tired, too full, or that it’s too late to go out
now.
Put a stop to that thinking pattern right away by
getting up and putting on your walking shoes.
You will find that often just taking that first step is
enough to turn off that nasty voice in your head.
Understand
“WHY” You Need To Change
Changing mindset requires a lot of willpower and hard
work as formed habits aren’t easy to break. This becomes even more challenging
since many of the bad or limiting habits got formed when you were little and
you have been doing things the same way ever since.
Understanding why you
need to change a habit or mindset will make it more meaningful. Here two things
should come in handy- motivation and willpower.
First, you’ll need to rely on motivation to get you through changing your habits, and while the “why”
will provide you with motivation, it can be hard to maintain in the long run.
This is where willpower should step in and keep you going.
However, willpower can run out fairly quickly too. Think
about trying to eat healthier and then you find a pack of Girl Scout
cookies next to the fruit bowl at work. Maybe you get your willpower
together and resist the cookies.
Next, you plan on going to the gym after work but need
to stay behind for some reason. By the time you’re done, you’re not only tired
but out of willpower as well. Plus, the fact that you weren’t able to stick to
your original plan doesn’t help either.
So do you end up going to the gym or straight
home? You probably know the answer because it
happens to everyone.
So when you try to change your habits by relying on motivation and willpower alone, these might not be
enough on their own. And that’s also why so many people give up on changing
their habits soon after they start, unable to follow through.
Instead what you need to do is to become
a little forgiving
and allow yourself some space
to stumble. A fixed mindset leaves no allowance for mistakes leaving you
emotionally drained and hesitant to try anything new.
Start Small To Finish Big
One of the best ways to change mindsets is to start
small towards big goals. Trying to become healthy, wealthy or wise along with
more compassionate, calmer and successful is never easy. Once again you need to fight all your demons
embedded in your mindset
from those early years.
So if you find yourself
stressed most of the time, try to meditate for two minutes every night before sitting
in a lotus position for a straight half hour and a racing mind.
If you would
like to become
more fit, start with something as small as one push
up only. Build your strength up along with your mindset before you get to an
impressive set of twenty.
Decide on your tiny goal and pursue it with a positive
mindset. Oftentimes, you may find that you actually do more then what you aimed
for (maybe two to three push ups instead of one) and will feel great as you
over achieve. On other days you may only achieve the minimum but still feel
good since you met the goal.
Many people think that it’s pointless to start so small
but consistently hitting small goals successfully can help form new mindset
habits.
Page | 66
Chapter 7
Strategies
to Develop a Growth Mindset
When you let results such as your test scores,
your weight, your job
or your appearance define you, you become the victim of a fixed mindset. On the
contrary, a growth mindset is all about learning and you can speed up the
process by following some tried and true strategies.
 |
Continual Learning
A growth mindset
is foremost about
evolving and growing.
As such, instead of seeking
approval from others, you need to surround yourself with people who can help
you improve.
This means that you don’t feel compelled to justify
everything you do. Doing so only means you sacrifice your potential for growth.
Instead prioritize your learning over approval as this will help you grow and
succeed in your ventures.
At the same time, trying new things will help you come
up with different ideas and make you aware of what you are good at. You can
also start challenging yourself with new tasks to develop your potential.
Be Committed
When you pair continual learning with commitment, you
set yourself up for excellence.
Too often people make the mistake of wobbly commitment,
thinking that they are committed to their cause or goal, but they’re
really not. With a shaky mindset, people set out to try
things and then just wait to see what happens.
During the process many people only focus on the fact
that they haven’t yet accomplished their goal and can’t stop thinking about how
much further they have to go. This limiting mindset can sabotage your efforts
making you more prone to giving up.
However, when you develop a growth mindset, this problem
gets eliminated. When you decide that you are fully committed to achieving your goals, regardless of any
setbacks, you are more likely to succeed.
Here’s a very simple, everyday
example. You wake
up late, jump out
of bed, already stressed that you will miss your bus or your car pool.
In the rush, you skip breakfast, dress hurriedly and rush out the door only to
find that you have indeed missed your ride. Now a fixed mindset will likely
respond by muttering, cursing, calling names and stay in a foul mood for the
rest of the day.
But if you are working towards developing a growth, you
will see this as an opportunity to commit to a more timely routine to make sure
that this doesn’t happen again.
You will then respond by going to bed early, setting an
alarm and laying out your clothes in the evening so that tomorrow is better and
different.
Don’t just commit to planning it out in your head, but
commit to carrying it out in action.
Develop
Healthy Self Esteem
It can become very hard to aim for or achieve success
without self- esteem. Before you can hope to grow or improve, you need to
believe that you are capable of achieving your goal. Since you can’t afford to
undermine yourself, it becomes important that you stop worrying about what
others think.
Your self-esteem is how you see yourself, a reflection
of your mindset. It is created from an internal
dialogue with yourself
where you perceive and evaluate your worth whether
positive or negative.
To have a strong self-esteem, you need a strong mindset,
one that allows you to grow and evolve.
Work On Your Perspective
Every mindset has to do with perspective. Your
foundational beliefs, thoughts, biases and attitudes
all affect the way you process
information and experience the world around
you. Having a growth
mindset increases the likelihood of formulating a winning perspective and
achieving long term success.
Perspective is also the driving force behind motivation. Motivation determines whether you’re able
to achieve your set goals in long- term. It serves
as a fuel to keep you going until you reach the finish
line. Without motivation, you will lose the drive when faced with difficulties.
The best way to keep your motivation burning is to remember your ‘WHY’ – Why did you start?
Why is it important to you?
For instance, when you want to lose some weight, is it
because you don’t like how you feel in your current state or is it because you
simply want to be healthy? While either reason will move you towards your goal,
the one triggered by feeling of lack will possibly be more tenuous.
Set Effective Goals
There are many factors that affect an individual’s
growth mindset. One among these is setting effective and meaningful goals.
When goals are set realistically, it becomes more
probable to achieve them. Achieving major goals or even smaller milestones
towards a bigger goal is a positive learning process for the growth mindset.
A mind that is resilient will get you through the tough
times and help you move on to the next challenge.
Manage Your Inner Negative Voice
One of the biggest obstacles to having a growth mindset
is your inner critical voice.
This voice keeps telling you that you can’t do it,
it’s not worth it, you are who you are and you need to learn to live with that.
This inner voice reinforces the idea that things are given and you’ve
only got so much influence over your life. Everyone, even those with a growth
mindset have this voice and to change your mindset you need to learn how to
manage it.
As a starting
point turn the “can’t” in your mind into “can”
and add a “yet” to the end of
you sentences.
Facing Adversity
A growth mindset is successful in facing adversity. If
you want to get through the rough patches,
you will need to face each challenge head on.
If you avoid facing obstacles, you can’t hope to
maximize your current potential or develop new skills. Challenges present an
opportunity to learn and expand which means that you can also grow in the
process.
People with a growth mindset excel at challenges as
these propel them forward.
Be Open To Feedback
A growth mindset
always welcomes feedback
as it is another chance to learn. Feedback also provides
the opportunity to improve your performance. It helps you determine which areas
you need to improve and where you’re doing well.
And since feedback is provided by others, it’s very
important to interact with other people. Interacting or networking may involve
stepping out of your comfort zone in order to inspire creativity.
Imagine reaching your office where your boss calls you
in to complain about a report you’ve
prepared or a project you’re handling. With a fixed mindset,
you will see this as a chance
to beat yourself up. You may
also end up feeling that you’re not good enough for this job or that your boss
is absolute clueless as to what it
takes to get the job done.
In either case, the rest of your day is spent cribbing
and complaining and in worst case scenarios, even job hunting. But when you
strive to develop a growth mindset you’ll see this same incident as something
of a learning experience. You’ll be more willing to evaluate your performance
and seek constructive
feedback that actually helps you figure out how to
improve your project. Instead of muttering and mumbling, moving on will be much
easier.
Page | 76
After debating the good and the bad about different
mindsets, it becomes clearer that the way the mind responds to setbacks,
disappointments or failure is very important.
For instance, for a fixed mindset a setback becomes a
failure that distorts reality. This
distorted view prevents people from seeing a situation for what it is. And without a clear picture
of the situation, it can become impossible to pivot, solve or make any progress.
But for a growth mindset, this setback doesn’t become
overwhelming. In fact, it is often seen as something that will redirect your
efforts in the right direction.
The Importance Of Failure
For the go-getters, failure provides the opportunity to
understand the gaps between what they wanted and the results they got.
For anyone interested in improving their performance and
results in the future, a little
setback can take them a long way forward. This is
because the setback
provides the chance to locate
the cause of the
mistake and then adapt future efforts accordingly.
Since it is important to realize that there will never
be a situation where everything is perfect, it is equally important to expect
setbacks on the way.
The growth mindset sees failure as a stepping stone from
which it can learn the following valuable life lessons:
Experience And Knowledge
The first important
lesson learnt from a mistake,
setback, or failure is experience. When you make a
mistake, you take with you firsthand experience which helps you develop a
deeper understanding.
The experience helps you alter your frame of mind and
reflect on the real nature of things.
Another aspect of the same is that it brings with it
firsthand knowledge. If you have growth mindset, you will use that knowledge in
the future to overcome that very same failure.
Resilience And Growth
Setbacks also help build resilience. To become successful
it is important that you know how to be resilient, so that your first instinct
isn’t to quit.
The same resilience also leads to growth where you learn
to evolve in the face of adversity. Accepting that it’s alright to experience
an occasional setback allows you to recover from failure faster.
Having said that remember while it’s okay to fail, it’s
not okay to give up.
Change
Your Strategy
Failure is an effective way to realize the need for
change in your plans or strategies. While it is important to have a good plan
in mind for success, it should not be set in stone.
Instead it should be flexible enough to allow you to
review your approach, adjusting and measuring things as you move along. The
important consideration in this aspect
is that your goals should
stay the same but your plan should constantly evolve.
Seeking Inspiration Through Others
As you have already seen, the growth mindset seeks
inspiration through others who are better at something, more successful and get
the desired results.
 |
You may start looking to well-known personalities from
all walks of life and realize that every successful person has gone through a
number of setbacks before achieving success.
Using Failure As Leverage
You can use any setback as leverage to not only recover
from but also to propel
forward. To leverage
your setbacks, you need to know
what you failed at and why. You also need to be aware of what you can do
differently and how to avoid the same mistakes
again.
This mindset will help you move past your mistakes
instead of equating failure with complete defeat. With the right mindset you
learn to grow and mature,
gain new understanding and perspective on
everything from love, life, business, money, relationships and people.
During this process, you’re forced to make new
connections and bridge gaps where you hadn’t connected the dots before.
Redefining Priorities And Values
Depending on your mindset, setbacks
can either make you or break
you. For the growth mindset, failure helps you reassess your priorities.
Once you realize that a setback is only a temporary
hurdle, you learn to look beyond it. You start anew reordering things that are
most important and shuffle others
around. In an attempt to recover
and improve yourself, you start to make the needed adjustments. At the same
time, each subsequent failure also helps reshape values. Since the growth
mindset centers on constant evolution
and improvement, you will
realize that what you valued
ten years before is not what you value today.
It’s a constant work in progress that learns to move
ahead leaving setbacks behind.
Don’t Let Your Failure Define You
When you come across a setback, it’s tempting to let it
shape the way you see yourself. For instance, a failed relationship may make
you believe that you’re not as attractive as you thought.
Or a job you really wanted
but didn’t get, could make you believe
that you’re not that smart after all.
However, it’s important to understand that your worth
isn’t determined by circumstance. A better option would be to assess
your skills and strengths by thinking about major setbacks
from the past.
Reviewing how you overcame those earlier obstacles can
help devise a solid strategy.
Helps Reach Your Potential
For most people, failing means that they actually tried.
They put forth effort to do something
worthwhile which didn’t
work out. But both trying and failing can become
valuable teachers for anyone with a growth mindset. Failure promotes better
thinking and prepares you to maximize your potential for future efforts.
The same also builds you up in ways you never thought
possible by allowing you to
take responsibility for your mistakes. Often times, it’s hard to realize what
you’re capable of until you push through failures. This also helps in
developing your potential.
Failure Is Always Better Than Regret
Failing is a much better
alternative to regretting. Think about living with regret not knowing what could’ve happened had you applied for that job.
And then compare it with failing to secure the job but finding out where your
shortcomings lay. At least with the failure option you’re closer to getting it
right the next time.
Success that comes easy often leave tons of room for
failure as it makes you feel that nothing could go wrong. But failure helps you
not underestimate success
and try harder next time. Regret, on the
other hand, provides no such opportunity and only leaves you feeling dismal.
Setbacks
Yield A Sense Of Direction
Most people keep second guessing
the decisions they take. They do
so not because these decisions are right or wrong but only because they aren’t
sure how things light pan out.
But should a decision hit a setback, it points to a path
for redirection. Now a growth mindset
is quick to grab this opportunity
and learns from its mistakes. It develops a sense of clarity on where
things went wrong and how to redirect your efforts to correct the mistake.
And because redirection takes you into new venues, you
get to explore more options and step out of your comfort zone. In this sense, failure
can also help you get rid of the fear of stepping
out of your comfort zone.
Conclusion
Now you know that a growth mindset allows you to take on
bold challenges without the element of fear. And even you are likely to
encounter tough times, armed with the right mindset, you become more resilient.
You also become more accepting when things go wrong but your focus shifts to
identifying a solution rather than running away from uncertainty.
In essence, when you develop a growth mindset, you
become a happier and healthier person who is not afraid to seek out new
opportunities to continue on the path to self-improvement. Just remember that
goals are a good thing to have but can become destructive if you place too much
value on them and too little on the road to achieving them.
You have the power to choose which way you want to
follow. If you’re not satisfied with how you feel about yourself or your life,
you can change your mindset to one that will let you grow and thrive.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário