Tuning your Mindset to Support your Goals
By Bel Hardman, Stress, Resilience & Nervous System Coach & Co-Creator of The Mindset Mastery Group
What is Mindset?
Your mindset relates to a collection of beliefs, attitudes, thought patterns, and assumptions that shape your thinking, behaviours, goals, and approach to all aspects and interactions within your day-to-day life. It influences how you personally perceive and interpret situations, approach challenges, make decisions, cope with setbacks, manage successes, and most importantly, how you interact with all other people, from the barista making your coffee in the morning to your close loved ones. Your mindset affects every aspect of your life.
As proposed by psychologist Carol Dweck, author of the book Mindset – Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential, there are two types of mindsets that have been studied: "fixed mindset" and "growth mindset". Each mindset is defined by distinct beliefs we each hold about our abilities and learning. Your Mindset is changeable and can be cultivated through personal self-awareness and intentional effort.
Fixed and Growth Mindsets
Why a Growth Mindset is Important for Achieving Your Goals
A Growth Mindset holds considerable sway over how we approach our goals, filling the journey with an ongoing sense of learning and adaptability. When we embrace a Growth Mindset, we start seeing challenges as stepping stones that lead us to become better, instead of these towering obstacles that feel impossible to overcome. This makes setbacks feel less like stumbling blocks and more like opportunities to fine-tune our processes and build our resilience.
Those with a Growth Mindset nurture adaptability and a graceful embrace of change. They naturally navigate new situations, shifting and fine-tuning their approaches to suit the circumstances. They believe that dedication and persistence create improvement and achievement, which propels them to take on their goals, remain steadfast through challenges, and carry a hopeful outlook towards personal growth.
In essence, a Growth Mindset not only fosters a positive and proactive approach towards reaching goals but also holds the potential to create the fullest version of ourselves.
Fixed Mindset Thoughts & Beliefs
Belief About Abilities: Those with a fixed mindset believe that abilities and intelligence are inherent traits that cannot be significantly changed or improved.
Response to Challenges: They may avoid challenges to avoid failure, as failure is seen as a reflection of their limitations.
Effort and Persistence: People with a fixed mindset may shy away from effort, that true skill should flow effortlessly.
View of Failure: They view failure as evidence of their lack of ability and may take failures personally, leading to lowered self-esteem and confidence.
Feedback: They might be resistant to feedback, especially if it highlights areas where they need improvement. Negative feedback can be perceived as criticism of their natural abilities.
Success of Others: They may feel threatened or envious of the success of others, as it can highlight their own perceived limitations.
Growth Mindset Thoughts & Beliefs
Belief About Abilities: Those with a growth mindset believe that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, learning, and perseverance.
Response to Challenges: They embrace challenges as opportunities for learning and growth, and they are more likely to persist in the face of setbacks.
Effort and Persistence: People with a growth mindset are more willing to invest effort and time to improve their skills. They understand that progress requires consistency and effort.
View of Failure: They view failure as a steppingstone to success, seeing it as a chance to learn and improve. Failures do not define their identity or self-worth.
Feedback: They actively seek feedback and use it constructively, seeing it as valuable input for personal improvement.
Success of Others: They are genuinely inspired by the achievements of others and see it as evidence that their personal goals are attainable through effort and learning.
Do you recognise some of these thoughts and beliefs in yourself?
We all have a degree of both Fixed & Growth Mindsets however we each hold more of one Mindset. Which Mindset is your dominant mindset? Take the test here.
Top 4 Actions to Develop a Growth Mindset
- Embrace the Power of "Yet": When facing challenges or setbacks, add the word "yet" to your internal dialogue. For example, instead of saying, "I can't do this," change it to "I can't do this yet." This simple change acknowledges that abilities can be developed over time with effort and learning.
- Cultivate Self-Awareness: Pay attention to your thoughts and beliefs. Notice when you are holding onto fixed mindset beliefs and challenge them. Replace self-limiting thoughts with growth-oriented statements that focus on learning, improvement, and effort.
- Practice Positive Self-Talk: Pay attention to your internal dialogue and replace self-critical or negative thoughts with supportive and positive statements. Encourage yourself, acknowledge your progress, and remind yourself that improvement is a process.
- Value Effort and Persistence: Recognise that effort is a crucial component of growth and improvement. Instead of solely focusing on outcomes, place value on the process, hard work, and perseverance. Celebrate your efforts and the progress you make along the way.
The Mindset Mastery Group
We are both passionate about helping people create a Growth Mindset to enable them to build the life they desire to reach any goal they wish, whether that’s learning a new language, improving your health, passing your driving test, gaining a qualification, changing jobs, running a marathon; any goal that’s important to you. For that reason, we created The Mindset Mastery Group membership, where we have combined our personal experiences and professional expertise in coaching to offer a unique approach to personal growth and development.
The Mindset Mastery Group is a place to learn, grow, change, and evolve. You will be supported, continually nudged, and checked in on to make sure that your mind rudder is on point and that you are achieving each and every goal that you set yourself, each landmark, and each progression. You will be encouraged to think, feel, allow and enable a different view and take a more positive approach on each of life’s experiences, ultimately supporting you to reach your goals.
Visit www.themindsetmasterygroup.com to learn more.
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