Have you got the RIGHT mindset?
Get your mindset right for success
Do you ever wonder what separates champions from normal people? Business leaders from those who didn’t quite make it? Want to learn the fool proof way of achieving success in your life, regardless of luck or circumstances?
I first learned about this really simple technique from Josh Waitzkin’s ’The Art of Learning’. Josh Waitzkin was a child chess prodigy. In the chess world he was hailed as the next Bobby Fischer (a child chess superstar in the 1970s America) and had a movie made about him called Searching for Bobby Fischer. He went on to become world champion at the full contact form of Tai Chi.
Josh credits his success in two vastly different disciplines to his ability to learn new skills. He called this, the Learning Mindset.
During many chess tournaments, Josh saw two types of kids. One set of kids would be congratulated on how well they did in the tournament and how good they were at chess. The other set of kids were congratulated on how hard they worked for that tournament and for the use of new techniques they had been learning.
The first set of kids always went on to drop out of competitive chess, sooner or later. The second set of kids went on to thrive, not just at chess but at all aspects of life.
Why?
Well, the first set of kids were being told they were good when they won. If they lost, they’d believe they were bad kids. Thinking you’re not a good child is not a nice experience. So they’d avoid new challenges and chances of losing. As a result they never left their comfort zones and so never grew to become better.
The second set of kids were praised for their hard work. It didn’t matter if they won or lost – they were doing well if they were working hard at their craft. As a result they were constantly learning. They stepped out of their comfort zones because they wanted to learn. They had the Learning Mindset.
Fixed vs. Growth
Dr. Carol Dweck is a professor of psychology at Stanford University, USA. Her work on mindset has made her world famous. In her book, The Growth Mindset, Dr. Dweck looks at how life can be approached from one of two mindsets – fixed or growth.
The fixed mindsetter believes that everything about themselves is fixed. They believe their talents and abilities are fixed entities. A fixed mindset would be, ‘I am good at Maths but not good at History’. They believe that even if they try hard at History, they’ll always be bad at History.
A growth mindsetter believes that traits and talents can be developed through hard work and dedication.
Obviously if you believe you’re not good at History, and you cannot improve that ability, you’re unlikely to work hard at it, right? If you believe that History is just a skill that you haven’t mastered yet, you’ll be more likely to put a lot of effort in to getting better.
As soon as you shift your mindset to the growth mindset, you can do anything. ‘I am poor’ becomes, ‘I am poor right now, but I’m going to work hard to make money’. ‘I am stupid’ becomes ‘I haven’t learned enough on this subject yet, but I’m going to study until I know more’.
Success
You cannot fail at anything if you build a Growth, Learning mindset. Listen to your own language – how often do you tell yourself you can’t do something. How often do you believe you’re just not good at something? That's your fixed mindset talking.
Once you start practicing the growth mindset, the sky is the limit. Each thing you can’t do or aren’t good at is just another challenge to be conquered. Listen to the language you use when talking to others and to yourself. Anytime you say something that sounds like the fixed mindset, rephrase the statement to the growth mindset.
Once you start approaching life with a growth mindset, you will never fail to succeed - because failure becomes a chance to grow, learn and finally succeed.
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Yours in health,
Coach Ben
#coachben
Wow!!! Great post! This is exactly what I needed to hear. Even at the young age of 30, I feel my self-limiting beliefs have caused me to resist change and growth for the fear of not being good enough. Instead of saying I’m stupid and there’s nothing I can do about it, now I will say I’m still learning and will keep trying until I master the subject. Quite liberating! Thanks Ben!
Thank you @victoriacalloway, I agree on how liberating it feels. Once I started noticing those 'fixed' mindset beliefs, things got easier :)
Thanks for sharing this, it is very encouraging with some great reminders.
The system of reward / punishment with children is something so often misunderstood and overlooked. We even treat ourselves in this same way, rewarding and punishing ourselves in our own minds. I see this system to be a violent language which creates confusion and damage in children as they are learning how to communicate and act in society.
Thank goodness we have the power within us to change these mindsets and free ourselves from the oppressive systems we live within.
Thanks again for your share <3 please check out my content if you would like to journey with me as I learn and explore ways we can connect to Natural laws again and bring Harmony to Humanity and this Earth.
The language we use with others and within our own heads is so powerful. Kids are even more impressionable so it's even more important to try and encourage them to grow and use life challenges as opportunities to learn :)
So true!!
i too have been training for a long while. I injured my shoulder, an A.C. separation with nerve damage. i have been doing high intensity/ cardio.... I'm looking forward to participating and posting!
Nasty - good luck with your recovery!
I love the concept of a growth mindset and also the example you mentioned about those children. So simple yet so important. The truth is that we can condition ourselves to think differently and therefore create different results. Nice post :)
Kids are so easily effected by our words - we are their idols and role models. So when they know that they'll be praised for effort and learning, and not performance, then they feel completely unafraid to fail as long as they tried! Failure is good for learning and becoming a more balanced person :D Thanks for the comment @silviaturon.
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nice post
Thanks @taukproung85 :)
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Thank you :D
So important! Thanks for this! Keep it up!
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"You cannot fail at anything" - This is very confident. Life is complex.
Life is a matter of perspective. If you set out to make billions of $, fail horribly, but you learn and grow as a person - you've not failed, that's a great success.
A wonderful food for thought there. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks @edith4angelseu :)
"Anytime you say something that sounds like the fixed mindset, rephrase the statement to the growth mindset." => A great way to improve ourselves. This sentence could be used as a quote. We can do anything we want, but we have to stay focused and be persistent. We need to truly believe in ourselves and that we can do it. The growth mindset is a powerful tool.
I like this post very much, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for reading @mystic-creature. The belief that we can change is one of the first steps to actully changing which is what makes the growth mindset so powerful!
Absolutely. 😊 😊 😊