Episode #137 – Mindset WILL Determine Your Outcome

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I am a fan of reading everything I can get my hands on in the self-development realm. And I’ve recently been reading one of Carol Dweck’s books called Mindset.

I’ve had this on my list forever, and I highly recommend that you read it if you want a much deeper understanding of mindset types and much deeper than just Fixed and Growth Mindsets and the difference between those.

Carol is a psychologist and researcher and this is her topic of research and she states in her book that her belief is that mindset will determine much of the course of your life. Of course that’s no surprise to me at all. And that you learn the two major mindsets from your parents, teachers and even coaches. Fixed or Growth.

Not only does mindset shape your personality it also shapes your ability to cope with setbacks.

I’ve talked about this concept before and I see it play out with my work with my clients many times and in many ways and in my own life as well.

The concept of “talent” “natural ability”. This concept actually comes from sports and how it filters into music as well.

She talks about Golfers who traditionally believed that they shouldn’t train because it could hurt their natural swing, until Tiger Woods came along and starting winning with heavy practice routines and workout regiments.

Many stories of athletes who have possessed incredible natural ability but lacked the mindset to become a champion.

In gymnastics when coaches are scouting young children from the rec programs for their competition teams, yes they are looking for ability to a certain extent and yes natural ability children do stand out. But you cannot select a child for those programs on ability alone. Because gymnastics is a sport where mindset becomes incredibly important 

They have to possess the ability to learn, listen, fail, get up and get back on the beam and go again. And not all naturals have that, and that ability is even more important to their overall success in the sport than natural ability.

I saw this with my own daughter as a gymnast. Her favourite saying for a long time was “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” 

You often see this fixed mentality of talent in music, people are looking at the super amazing vocalist or player or songwriter that they know and thinking, how are they not famous yet? 

Perhaps they have been “riding on their talent” and haven’t yet really embraced a full growth mindset.

Many artists will also dip their feet into the growth mindset pool and it gets kinda scary so they retreat back to the fixed mindset and don’t maybe even know they are doing it.

I see this from time to time and that is the tendency of artists to surround themselves with people who they believe are of less talent than themselves.

This is a very very Fixed Mindset. I see a lot of artists who want to be the big fish in the small bowl all the time. This is a very very fixed mindset, that has to do with constant validation. Those artists will even still tell me that they have a growth mindset because they’ve failed a lot and keep getting back up etc. But you have to look at the big picture if you’re failing inside your fish bowl you still have a very fixed mindset.

Another indication that you have a fixed mindset is that you are constantly judging others or yourself. Growth mindset artists don’t judge others OR themselves. This can really affect how you view change and rejection.

So I ask a lot of my clients about their mindset of course and no one wants to think that they have a fixed mindset even some of the time, but if you’re being honest are you living in a growth mindset 100% of the time, or 80% of the time? What are some of the signs that I might have mentioned here today that you could be accidentally living in a fixed mindset that is negatively affecting your ability to go where you want to go and get what you want to get?

Do you beat yourself up a lot?

Do you like being the big fish in the small bowl?

Do you think you are more talented and therefore should have more success?

Do you interpret failure as something very personal to you?

I mean the great news is that mindsets can be learned and changed…that’s why I do what I do. 

Here is a quote from Carol’s book on the topic of mindset change.

“Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It’s about seeing things in a new way. When people…change to a growth mindset, they change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Their commitment is to growth, and growth takes plenty of time, effort, and mutual support.”

So most people have both going on at the same time, there are areas of their life where they are using their growth mindset and areas where they are fixed.
And I want you today to start to identify what those areas are for you.

A lot of people will tell me – well if I had more money and more opportunities I would be able to do more. Carol Dweck alludes to the fact in her book that some do have greater opportunities this is true but we call have a chance. While your starting point might be different, your starting point is not the most important indication at all of what your ending point will be. 

Fixed mindsets seek approval while growth mindset seek development.

 
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