The Power of Mindset
by Joshua Peters
A pair of identical twins, John and Robert, grow up in the same abusive household. John grows up to become a successful CEO of a fortune 500 company. Robert becomes an alcoholic and is never able to get his life together. Why is John able to find success while Robert can’t?
Two people can have the exact same experience, yet one will let that experience hold them back and the other will thrive. Is there something inherently better about the one who succeeds and the one who fails? Were they just born that way?
The difference is their mindset.
In Carol Dweck’s influential book “Mindset” she uncovers two types of people. Those with a growth mindset and those with a fixed mindset. Think of the mindset as a frame used to view life. A frame that shapes reality.
Growth vs Fixed Mindset
Those with a growth mindset look at problems and failures as lessons to be learned. They recognize that they are always learning and growing and learn from their mistakes. They believe that hard work and perseverance will prevail in the end and are generally pretty optimistic and excited about learning and trying new things.
Someone with a fixed mindset believes that they are either born with talent or not. Intelligence is a fixed trait. If they’re not naturally good at something, they’ll never become successful. They tend to stick with what they know and don’t step out of their comfort zone.
A fixed minded person wants validation while a growth minded person wants to develop themself.
The problem with a fixed mindset
Because an individual with a fixed mindset believes that they are born with a fixed amount of intelligence and talent they spend their energy trying to look smart rather than learning and growing.
When they try something they’ve never done before they’ll often give up if they don’t find immediate success. The failure will fell humiliating and they’ll likely never try the activity again for the rest of their life. They’ll come up with excuses – “I’m just no good at that.”
They often feel threatened or envious of the success of others. With a fixed mindset, they’re so worried about looking smart that they don’t get the chance to develop their potential.
It’s a very difficult way to live life, to believe that talent or intelligence is unchangeable. Most of us carry a fixed mindset in several areas of our lives.
The Benefit of a Growth Mindset
Individuals with a growth mindset believe that dedication and hard work can develop their abilities, and this creates a desire to learn. They face challenges and move forward even when the inevitable setbacks occur during the learning process.
They embrace the effort as an important part of mastery. They find inspiration in others succeeding and use that to encourage their own development.
The growth mindset creates improved relationships, higher levels of personal and professional master, and greater achievement in all their activities.
What is Your Mindset?
Carol Dweck supplies a self-test in her book “Mindset”.
Read each of the following statements and decide whether you mostly agree or disagree:
- Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.
- You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
- No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.
- You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.
The first and second question reflect a fixed mindset while the third and fourth point to a fixed mindset.
Most people have a mixed mindset. In some areas of life they’ll be fixed, in others they’ll be growth oriented.
Luckily, there is a choice. As Carol Dweck explains: “Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.”
How do you create or encourage a growth mindset?
1. Surround yourself with positive people
The people and the situations you spend the most time in affect your mindset.
Pay attention to the people and situations around you. To encourage positive thinking, spend time with optimistic people. You take on the beliefs and behaviors of those around you, make sure you are intentional about those you spend time with.
2. Become Aware and turn negative talk around
The words that we say to ourself create how we feel about ourself. Do you constantly criticize yourself? Are you your own worst enemy? This inner critic is the fixed mind.
Flip the fixed mind around. When you notice negative thoughts, shift the perspective around and change it to a positive.
When your critic says “I don’t think you’re talented enough” change it to growth with “I think I can learn this with a little effort and enough time.”
When your critic says “You’re going to fail and look stupid” turn it around with the growth statement “Every successful person failed at some point along the way”
When your critic blames everyone else “it’s not my fault!” shift it back to the growth mindset “I take 100% responsibility so I can learn from this”
The more you do that, the easier it becomes. You are creating a growth mindset.
3.Trick yourself by taking action
Sometimes it feels impossible to do what we want. Perhaps the vision is so big that you feel overwhelmed when you imagine all the steps it’s going to take to get you there. This overwhelm can stop you from even starting.
Sometimes it’s a fear. Fear of not doing well enough or even a fear of looking stupid. The fixed mindset thrives on fear.
In moments like that trick yourself by taking a small action.
Take on that fear. Learn something new and see what happens. Keep moving forward. Use the feedback you get to make adjustments.
Create a mindset of action, no matter how small. Then use that repeated, deliberate approach to create new skills.
4. Get Curious
When faced with a fixed mindset challenge, it often helps to ask questions to understand the best action to take.
Here are a list of questions to help you create your own growth mindset (taken from the Mindset book):
- What can I learn from this?
- What steps can I take to help me succeed?
- What is the goal or outcome I want?
- Where can I get constructive feedback?
- If I had a plan to succeed, what would it look like?
- When, where, and how will I follow through on my plan?
- What did I learn today?
- What mistake did I make that taught me something?
- Is my current learning strategy working? If not, how can I change it?
- What did I try hard at today?
- What habits must I develop to continue the gains I’ve achieved?
These questions and the answers they give you will begin to shape your life. When you live in a fixed mindset you stay comfortable and small. As you become more and more growth mindset oriented the possibilities around you explode. Your reality becomes big and bright and loud.
Summary: How to change your mindset
When you have a challenge or a setback in your life you have two choices:
- Let the fixed mindset take over and believe that you’ll never be smart enough or talented enough to move past the challenge.
- Encourage a growth mind and accept that challenges and failures are simply lessons being taught.
We all have growth oriented areas and fixed oriented ares of our life. The fact is, we can’t always affect what happens to us in our life, but we can always choose how we react to the situations. We are ultimately 100% responsible for how we show up in our lives.
To cultivate a growth mindset:
- Surround yourself with other growth minded individuals.
- Become aware of the negative talk and turn it around to positive talk.
- Trick yourself into taking repeated, deliberate action, no matter how small.
- Get curious and ask yourself growth oriented questions.
The single most important factor for success is cultivating the right mindset. Use the tools above to encourage your mindset to shift into growth and watch your life unfold with possibilities.
Joshua Peters is a speaker and hypnotist based in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. He empowers business owners, entrepreneurs, and other professionals to get out of their own way and create a life of freedom and joy.
Since 2004, Joshua has transformed his own life from one of mediocrity and strife to intention and creativity. Along the way he’s learned to push through his own fears to walk on fire, dance on broken glass, and to escape from the chains that held him back.