Hello ….how are you today?

Today we’re going to talk about mindset or “mental frames”. Adopting one mindset or the other can be a catalyst for opportunity and fulfilment or for withdrawal and fear.

Let me ask you a few questions

• At school, did you feel that your intelligence was okish but you weren't outstanding like the best students?

• Did you feel that you were very good at academic subjects but that you weren’t born for sports?

• In your life nowadays, do you obsess when somebody criticizes you, your behavior, or what you’ve accomplished?

• If you see that someone like you is suddenly doing very well, do you secretly feel jealous or envious?

You can listen to the podcast with this player, or if you prefer reading you have a written version below. Enjoy it!

If the answers to the previous questions were mostly yes, welcome to the world of human beings!

When we think of mindset we associate it with “entrepreneurial or conservative mindset”, “positive or negative”, “bureaucratic or agile” and also with actions “she thinks big”, “he always sees the half empty glass of water”. Does it sound familiar? Our mindset consists of the thoughts and attitudes that impact on how we feel, behave, and shape our belief system. For example, a person with an agile mindset wants to learn, interact with others, and embraces challenges. This person will enjoy embarking on a new project. They will experiment and take risks. They will fall but they will rise with their new learning. Their mindset will foster happiness, curiosity and hope. In turn, these emotions will give birth to an empowered belief system.

The 2 Mindsets

If we go back to the sources, we can divide mindsets into two main groups:

1. Fixed / rigid mindset

2. Growth mindset

Below these two large groups, we can find other related types. Once you understand what I mean by each of these mindsets, you’ll easily place the rest of the mindsets under the right category. Carol Dweck, Ph.D. in psychology and professor at Stanford University is the pioneer in the subject. She’s studied how these two mindsets affect our lives, and she’s concluded that people with a growth mindset do better in their lives and experience more success. They also tend to experience more peace of mind. On the contrary, people with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is innate, that everyone is endowed with certain skills and that these cannot be improved. These people tend to feel overwhelmed by challenges and unforeseen events and consequently, they tend to experience more stress and tension.

Below you’ll find a description of the fixed and growth mindsets. By the way, try to see which one you identify with the most:

Fixed Mindset

A person with a fixed mindset will avoid challenges and stay in their comfort zone. When obstacles that seem hard to tackle turn up, they’ll tend to feel defeated. They’ll avoid making an effort because they’ll find it fruitless. “If I'm bad at this or that, why am I going to push myself to do it? It’s a waste of time”, they will think. If someone gives them feedback that they perceive as negative, they’ll take it personally and they’ll either feel offended or they’ll ignore it. When they see another person succeed, they’ll feel threatened. They’ll probably think that they don’t have what it takes to get to that place or that the other person has taken away what was meant for them. People with a fixed mindset are sometimes addicted to work and study and they might stretch to achieve their goals but they’ll tend to do so out of fear. They’ll constantly check how others perceive them or they’ll attach to their place in the environment where they move. There is no joy in this because they’re always seeking approval from external sources.

Growth Mindset

In contrast to the fixed mindset we have the growth mindset. People with this mental frame are motivated to learn, they feel curious about things, they persist even in the face of difficult obstacles. They see opportunities to become a better person and to grow at every turn in their way. They make an effort because they know that this is how they can master what they are passionate about. They are not moved by what other people think about them but by their personal aspiration to improve in every sense. When they receive criticism, they understand that it’s feedback about their actions, they don’t take it personally. They listen to others because it’s information that will help them perform better. When they see others succeed, they feel inspired. They know that if the other person could make it, they will too. They feel there’s more than enough for everyone. They love modeling those they look up to because they understand that that person’s experience will now help them.

We are all somewhere in between

I find it important to clarify that no one has a fixed or a growth mindset a 100% of the time but we move from one mindset to the other depending on the situation. In fact, Carol Dweck pointed out:

“Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. You could have a predominant growth mindset in an area but there can still be things that trigger you into a fixed mindset trait. Something really challenging and outside your comfort zone can trigger it, or, if you encounter someone who is much better than you at something you pride yourself on, you can think “Oh, that person has ability, not me.”

Carol Dweck

Next week I'm going to give you real life examples of these mindsets. The important thing is training our growth mindset muscle little by little, not taking things so personally and focusing on the process while doing our best, without obsessing over the result or how others will see us. You'll see how life surprises you and how everything falls in alignment. Tell me what you’ve learned, I’ll read you.

If you know someone who might benefit from developing a growth mindset, please forward them this post and invite them to subscribe to the blog. Remember that you can also listen to this on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

A big hug ❤