If you’re a regular listener of The Simplifiers Podcast or reader of our blog posts, you’ll know that mindset is something we talk about A LOT of the time.
Your mindset is often key to making positive changes in your life or business and handling whatever is thrown at you. Taking the idea of mindset back to basics, we can often categorize people as having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
So, which kind of mindset do you have?
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Signs that you have a fixed mindset:
- You believe that abilities, intelligence or traits are pre-determined and cannot be changed
- Success comes from natural talent
- You worry about not being seen as intelligent or are afraid of saying the “wrong” thing
- You feel threatened, jealous or as though you have somehow lost out when you see the success of others
- Challenges or difficult situations are something you avoid because you don’t want to risk failure
- Obstacles have a tendency to stop you from achieving your goals. You find them difficult to overcome and perhaps even use them as a reason or sign to stop what you’re doing.
- Constructive criticism or negative feedback is something you avoid listening to.
Signs that you have a growth mindset:
- You believe you can change and develop your abilities by putting in effort
- Intelligence and success increase when you put in work
- You’re open to asking questions and learning from others even when that means admitting not knowing something.
- The success of others is something that motivates and inspires you. You can learn from them
- You’re more likely to take risks or challenges and view failing as a learning opportunity
- When faced with an obstacle, you persist and may even find that it motivates you more
- You consider criticism to be a learning opportunity and understand how it can be constructive
Not sure which one you fit in?
You might not fit neatly into one category and interestingly, you might find that the reason for this is that you have a different mindset in different situations.
For example, in business, you might be very open to learning, developing, trying new things and seeking feedback so you can improve.
However, in relationships with friends, family or partners you might be the opposite. For example, you may feel that the dynamics of your relationship are set in stone, they’re unlikely to change or improve and you avoid having uncomfortable discussions about changes individuals might want.
Is your mindset holding you back in your business?
It’s important to analyse your mindset because it could be negatively impacting your business. If you have a mindset where you believe things can’t really be changed, you set yourself up to fall at the first hurdle. It will result in you avoiding uncomfortable situations or challenges that you need to experience in order to develop.
If you want things to get better, you need to believe that you have the power to change.
Changes you can make today!
- What’s one thing you want to change? Perhaps you want to stop your addiction to the snooze button or you want to stop procrastinating in the office. Choose just one and brainstorm all of the different things you can do easily to help overcome your problem. Keep it simple – move your alarm clock across the room or set a 20 minute timer to help you focus in shot bursts.
- Get out of your comfort zone. That might mean trying something new or setting yourself a challenge. Start small for example go to a life drawing class, try a recipe that intimidates you, make small talk with someone while you wait in line. Everyone has different comfort zones – just work out what will stretch yours. Then keep going..
- Ask someone you trust for feedback. It might be asking someone in your industry for their thoughts on your website or one of your team members for what they would like to receive from you as a manager and mentor. Keep in mind, someone you trust means someone with good intentions who wants to see you succeed. NOT someone who will saying nice things just to keep you happy!
Resources we recommend
- Book: Mindset by Carol Dweck
- The Power of Believing You Can Improve – TED Talk by Carol Dweck
- The Simplifiers Podcast, featuring Spike Gillespie this week – We talk to lots of experts who share how changing your mindset in various ways is essential to changing your life and business.
Have you listened to our latest podcast episode? Our CEO – Mary Baird-Wilcock, CSEP helps you simplify in life and in business.
