Recently through a series of self awareness exercises and evaluating the benefit of Micro Losses for Macro Learnings I have been attempting to always remain in a positive mindset. This goes one step deeper to evaluate “Am I in a Growth Mindset or a Fixed Mindset?” its possible to be positive in a fixed mindset but it seems almost a sense of ignorant bliss. Capping your ultimate potential.
In a growth mindset you are constantly evaluating, learning, hustling, and pivoting yourself to maximize learnings and develop yourself mentally. In a fixed mindset however you accept your preconceived limitations and allow yourself to accept failure and move on thinking “Oh well, I’m just not good at this” and thats that. Drop Curtain. Turn off the lights. By staying in a fixed mindset you leave 99% of your learnings and the ability to move forward on the table!! In order to stop these thoughts and move into a growth mindset we first need to identify some of the thoughts that are limiting us mentally.
When I’m Frustrated, I Persevere vs. When I’m Frustrated I Give Up
This goes back into maximizing your learnings. If you try something once and it doesn’t work don’t give up! By taking what you’ve learned and then trying again you allow yourself to test your new thoughts, practices, and theories to get you one step closer to success. It could take several failures in order to finally succeed but as long as you walk away with a new understanding and recognizing where things went wrong you are much more equipped to tackle whatever road block stopped you the first, or second time.
I Want to Challenge Myself vs. I Don’t Like to be Challenged
How comfortable are you with…being uncomfortable? “Success in life is often determined by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have” and I think this rings true in a lot of ways. It is a good goal in life to never stop learning. Master one skill and then learn another and find a way to have the two play together to launch your ideas even farther.
When I Fail, I Learn vs. When I Fail, I’m No Good
It is important to be able to identify and get rid of limiting beliefs. Personally, meditation helps me to be able to slow my day down, think with a cool head, and be able to point these honestly ridiculous thoughts out and expel them from my thinking. When you first try something more often than not you aren’t going to be world class at it. No one who has achieved mastery in anything tried once and nailed it and hasn’t had to practice again. Being able to take a failure and turn it into a learning experience to help yourself grow is a life skill worth pursuing.
Whether is be in business, sports, or life in general it is essential to stay in a growth mindset and never shy away from a learning or assume you know everything. Learning and pushing ourselves is what keeps people young in body, mind, and heart.
Austin Fabel 