Mindset: Take command of your life by tweaking your mindset
%sitename% | The Self Improvement Blog | Self Esteem | Self Confidence
Before answering questions like: What is mindset? What is the importance of mindset? What is a fixed mindset? What is a growth mindset? How can a person change his/her mindset for success? I want to mention a proverb for you:
“If you change the way you look at the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Wayne Dyer
Refer to one of my previous blog posts- how to improve on yourself. It deals with the primary mindset to lead a peaceful life. Without beating around the bush, let’s continue.
What is mindset? What are the types of mindset?
Anyone who asks me the question, “What is mindset?,” I will answer him/her that a mindset is nothing but the choice-making faculty which decides the response to a particular stimulus like an idea or an event.
There are two types of mindset:
- Fixed Mindset
- Growth Mindset
Fixed Mindset
A person with a fixed mindset will have the thoughts or traits that we are born with the beliefs. None can change them. In my opinion, a fixed mindset does help to overcome tough situations with the capability to stay immovable. Since we know too much of anything is terrible, overdoing anything will cause trouble because everything changes with time. So our mindset needs to change according to time.
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset can easily be defined by the approach to overcome the obstacle, i.e. development of the abilities by way of smart and persistent efforts. The belief associated with this is that intelligence isn’t permanent, and it can develop and mature over time.
Carol Dweck, in her book Mindset: The new psychology of Success tells us about research regarding the mindset carried out on a group of students. They were given a tough question to answer. There were two types of students observed from the experiment. One was a group of students who were convinced that they were unable to solve the question and thought they would be judged for their failures. And the next set of students were treating the inability to answer that question as a learning experience. They believed that there is nothing out of reach of their knowledge and their abilities.
What is the importance of mindset?
The mindset plays a crucial role in coping with the challenges faced by us in life. A growth mindset contributes to more significant achievement, smart and persistent efforts. For example, while meeting the uphill task to crack a job, people tend to be resilient for facing setbacks while those with a fixed mindset tend to give up more quickly.
The fixed mindset creates the need for approval for people achieving in their education, careers, and the relationship. And this calls for conformity with their intelligence, character, and personality. They attach the outcomes to every situation.
On the other hand, a growth mindset is all about the hunger to learn more—a desire to work smart and discover new things. Whenever facing the challenges, the proactive approach is taken up to try, fail, and not stop, till a lot is learned, and the goal is achieved.
How does a mindset form?
Mindset is formed by the conditioning received by the environment in which we reside. Example: the way we are raised and the experience we have in our home, school and playing environment.
Carol, in her book, tells about the formation of a fixed mindset due to the belief that we should look smart and learn to be stylish. Fixed mindset people think that their inefficiencies will be judged and they will not live up to the expectations.
A person on the other side with a growth mindset learns- new experiences, embracing the challenges. For them, mistakes are opportunities to learn and always striving to do something new and achieve the maximum potential.
The growth mindset is about reaching one’s potential, which is unknown to the person himself. The person believes the efforts into learning and deepening one’s understanding is well worth the toil and trouble.
What mindset do you have?
The level of agreement to the following statements can help you to evaluate your mindset:
- People have a certain level of intellect; there isn’t a way to change it.
- There isn’t much scope to improve the primary personality and abilities.
- People can change their capabilities.
- One can learn new things and improve intelligence.
- You can acquire a talent like art, writing, athletics etc.
- Trying out and practicing new skills, studying and working hard develops new abilities and talents.
If you agree with statement 1,2 and 5, then you are more likely to have a fixed mindset. Whereas your agreement to statement 3,4 and 6 suggests, you have a growth mindset.
How to change the mindset for success
Changing the mindset for success can be done by carrying out a set of actions. The changes for long-term and stable positive results are as follow:
- Your mindset has a voice
The voice in your head stays with you throughout your life. It’s nothing but you talking to yourself in your privacy. Always pay attention to your thoughts, if they are demotivating you to try harder and conform your results to others’ opinions.
- Choosing growth
The interpretation of the results play an essential role, how do you see the setbacks and criticism; indeed, it’s a choice. Fixed mindset would be interpreted as a sign of fixed talent or deficiency. Or one can have a growth mindset as a sign that one needs to ramp up the efforts, strategies and expand the abilities. Trying out dopamine fasting can be one.
- Talking back to the mental voice
Please be responsive to the inner voice and reformulate the approaches to challenges and setbacks in growth. I hope this quote helps you:
If the fixed mindset questions, maybe you don’t have the talent. Are you sure you can do it?
The growth mindset will answer that it might not be sure if it can do it now, but it can learn with time and effort.
Fixed mindset says you’ll be called a failure if you fail.
Growth mindset replies that most successful people had failures as a part of the process.
The way we can train the voice in our head is with meditation.
- Bring the thoughts into action
Please don’t contend yourself just with remodeling your inner voice. Get onto the field and act the way you preach. This will work in a loop to provide you with the confidence to better yourself. The most significant booster for this will be semen retention.
- Add these three magical words-” not yet” or ‘yet’
Using specific phrases, like ‘not yet’ or ‘yet,’ can boost confidence. So if a student says to himself/herself- I’m not a math person-yet’, or I can’t do this yet. It gives a fixed mindset to a growth mindset context of learning over time.
About the Author
I am Rhythm Bhardwaj from India. I am an electrical electronics engineering graduate but a footballer by heart, self-improvement and fitness enthusiast. The various experiences which helped me get my life back on the track in multiple aspects of it. My sole purpose of life is to share with you everything that I learned till now and mend your present for the beautiful future.
https://rhythmbhardwaj.com
https://www.quora.com/profile/Rhythm-Bhardwaj-4
https://www.instagram.com/rhythm_bhardwaj/
https://twitter.com/rhythm_bhardwaj/
https://www.facebook.com/rhythmbhardwaj9/
%focuskw% | Mindset: Take command of your life by tweaking your mindset