I Grew Up with a Fixed Mindset (Posidose 4)

What point is there in trying to improve yourself if your fate is predetermined?

I grew up with a fixed mindset forced on me at every turn.

If you remember from Posidose #3, those with a fixed mindset believe innate talent determines success, and effort plays a minor role, if any.

I went to Prussian-style schools, both public and Catholic. I was told to sit quietly in orderly rows and not speak unless spoken to.

Others decided for me

What I studied was entirely out of my control. Others decided for me. The coursework was simplistic, trivial and utterly banal until about the eleventh grade.

I was told to please my teachers (by getting good grades). I was expected to please my guardians by being unquestionably obedient. Everything revolved around the Darwinistic race to get some future job and avoid a black mark on your “permanent record.”

Toxic Beliefs

I was consistently placed in groups with the smartest children, told I was bright and assured that I didn’t have to do much in order to succeed.

Toxic. To be convinced that your natural talent guarantees you success (or lack thereof denies it) is the epitome of a fixed mindset.

Because it means you can stop trying.

What point is there in trying to improve yourself if your fate is predetermined?

Years Wasted

So I did the minimum necessary and, thereby, wasted years of prime personal development capacity.

Today that fixed mindset still bumps around in the back of of my head but in a coming episode I’ll tell you how I’ve beaten it back.

Would He Make it?

Here’s the moral of this story.

If there’s something you want to do, but you think you aren’t good enough, make a conscious decision to throw out the limiting idea - the one that’s holding your back.

Anything is possible.

A young boy was born into poverty in the early 19th century in New York state to a con artist father who was largely absent. His mother, who had six children in her care, struggled to make ends meet.

What would you expect this boy to amount to? If he’d had a fixed mindset, we wouldn’t even know he’d existed.

But he had a growth mindset. He became the richest person in the US at his peak and the first US billionaire, with a net worth equal to 2 percent of the national economy.

Who is he? John D. Rockefeller, perhaps the richest person in modern history.

Anything is possible.

The Next Step

Take out a piece of paper, digital or organic, and start writing. Take a look at the life vision you wrote about yesterday. What is holding you back? Let me know in the comments or confidentially by email to [email protected].

Previous Issues

1. Introducing Posidose: Your Daily Dose of Positivity #1
2. Posidose 2: You’re Building Something
3. Is your Mindset Holding you Back? (Posidose 3)

About Posidose

Posidose is your daily dose of early-morning positivity. Start your day off right. Get a boost of confidence and give direction to your creative weekday. Posidose is written and published by George Donnelly.

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