Are you wired for a growth mindset?
I love the phrase “let’s open the windows and let some air in” as Carol Dweck uses it.
The watershed of Covid-19 has shaken our assumptions, our ways of working, living and being, probably like nothing else in your lifetime. You may have been relatively fortunate, even personally benefitted from our new world order, but one thing is for sure, with more time for reflection, you have the opportunity to pay attention to who you really are. Now is a perfect time to dust off Dweck’s Mindset (originally presented at the turn of the 21st century!) and check that we are poised for whatever unfolds, whether good, disastrous or just slightly troubling.
An unconscious “tune” for people striving in the corporate world, is the unspoken hope “validate me”. Organisations of people anywhere create this need to be noticed and seen as successful because running like a backing track in our brain is our survival instinct. It’s not your fault that your synapses are on autopilot to twitch if a tiger saunters into your living room or equally if an attractive person catches your eye on Zoom. It is now well known and documented that if your brain imagines something happening, to your brain it doesn’t in fact matter that it has happened or not. Your body anticipates the threat, or the pleasure, sending out brain chemicals to prepare you. This is part of the reason why change can be so challenging but also if we are smart we can play our “humanness” to our advantage.
Turning now to the imagination; we can trigger perceptions of reality that can be anything ranging from tragic to amazing. Your powerful mind has limitless potential for imagination and is determined by thoughts, feelings and your sense of self, your personality. Imagination can then tie you in knots of anxiety, embolden you, or even generate joy. It’s up to you.
Dwecks Growth Mindset provides helpful guidance that lays down good hardwiring habits for our brains which we can then expand on with our imagination.
Are you poised for growth – yet?
What is your catalyst for change?
A wise man once said: “What your think you will become.”
Mind mastery can be your choice.
Challenges, obstacles, criticism or others’ success can be highly valuable if you decide to make them a lightning rod to evolve with a growth mindset.