Ep 4: The one with the Mindset
#cumindset #cubookclub
Why, Habits, shoulds, intentions - all behavioral change. Today we review a book that brings this all together, Mindset by Carol Dwek. Starting with a quote: “Our studies show that teaching people to have a growth mindset which encourages a focus on effort rather than intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.”.
This book discusses two different mindsets that people live in - growth and fixed. You can challenge yourself in different scenarios to have a different mindset. For example, you may have a fixed mindset as a parent and a growth mindset as a professional. How do you shift and change and do you want to shift and change. Alex asks how the areas of your life and different mindsets might intersect and play together. This mindset can play into why certain areas of your life are more stressful.
Learning to apply the growth mindset is critically important, for example, applying growth strategies at work to your health and wellness, your habits, intentions, why’s.
In a fixed mindset: “intelligence is static. You were born as smart as you were ever going to be, leads to a desire to look smart and a tendency to avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort as fruitless or worse, ignore useful negative feedback, feel threatened by the success of others.” Does any of that resonate? Any of these can completely impact your ability to move forward positively.
People pleasing is one of the fixed mindsets that Sandy struggles with but we have a why, so we are going to challenge each other to a growth mindset, not give up. A feeling of not being good enough. Alex stops herself from the growth to protect herself from the negative feedback.
Growth mindset: “intelligence can be developed, leads you to a desire to learn, then you have a tendency to embrace challenges, persist or move through in the face of setback and see effort as the pathway to mastering or accomplishing. you learn from criticism and you learn and find inspiration from the success of others.”
“I’ve seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves, in the classroom, in their careers, in their relationships. Every situation calls for confirmation of their intelligence, personality or character. Every situation is evaluated, will I succeed or fail, will I look smart or dumb, will I feel accepted or rejected, will I feel like a winner or a loser.”
You only need yourself to grow and change.
“People with a fixed mindset have read the books that say success is about being your best self, not about being better than others. Failure is an opportunity. Their basic mindset, their belief in fixed traits is telling them entirely different, that success is about being more gifted than others, that failure does measure you and that effort is for those who can’t make it on talent.”
Recognizing you have a fixed mindset and then not allowing that to dictate what you do next. Dig deep.
GIVEAWAY: Sandy has a physical copy and will send it to one special person, post with #cubookclub #cumindset something that resonates from our last few episodes - why, habits, shoulds, or a book you love.
