Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” What Ford meant by that is your attitude, your mindset, is critically important in determining whether you succeed or fail at something. Your mindset matters!
The Power Of Your Mind
Your mind is truly an amazing and powerful thing. What you believe deep in your mind will have an impact on your success. Your mind can affect your health, your physical body, your behavior and actions. It can allow you to experience new heights in accomplishments or leave you in the dust believing it’s impossible to achieve something that is actually within your grasp.
Having a growth mindset will take you further with your goals simply because people with this mindset know that anything is possible. Contrast this to a fixed mindset in which a person believes their potential is capped and can’t be stretched beyond that end point.
Fixed Mindset
Dr. Carol S. Dweck is one of the leading researchers in the field of developmental psychology and mindset. She describes the person with a fixed mindset as someone who believes that intelligence, talents and abilities are fixed traits. These people believe that their efforts cannot improve their lot in life beyond a certain level.
A person with a fixed mindset wishes to look smart all the time and never appear ‘dumb’. They are more likely to avoid stretching to accomplish goals that they perceive may result in failure. In the fixed mindset, failure is equated with appearing unintelligent.
Growth Mindset
Dr. Dweck’s research shows that people with a growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that their talents and abilities can be improved and developed through effort, repetition and persistence. They’re willing to keep trying to improve. People with a growth mindset believe that failure is something positive to embrace as they travel on a journey towards improving a skill or talent.
People with a growth mindset will more likely attain maximum potentials in their efforts to reach a goal. They are willing to risk failing at something and actually regard failing as a part of the process in learning something new. They embrace practice, repetition and building habits for success. Musicians, writers, and athletes develop a growth mindset by focusing on a process and repeating their practice to improve themselves. Their focus is on not giving up and so they power on and power through setbacks.
Having a growth mindset will help you set yourself up for inevitable success with your goal setting. Train your mind to see the power of repetition and practice no matter what is your goal. Have the belief that you’re improving every day and taking steps towards that end goal and believe and know deep down that you will reach your goal no matter what.
Develop A Growth Mindset
If you find yourself with an automatic trend towards a fixed mindset leading you to feel that you’re not capable of achieving what you want, there are ways to turn that fixed mindset into a growth mindset. Merely thinking about it doesn’t work. Clarity and change happens with action, not thought.
You’ll need to commit to taking action steps, repeat them even when you fail, and keep going. Start with tiny steps and just keep repeating. You may initially think that these small actions can’t possibly make a difference towards your goal. However, remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Success doesn’t happen overnight. Train your mind to believe in yourself and know that you can achieve whatever you want by taking small action steps in the right direction. Know that you will likely meet roadblocks and you will fail at some things along the way. Rather than thinking that’s bad, embrace these setbacks and failures because you know they’re helping you grow and stretch to be able to achieve inevitable success.
If you want a step-by-step process to train your brain to work for you, then join myFueled For Fun Program. I take a science backed approach to help you achieve your goals instead of being held back by old limiting beliefs. Your mindset matters in all aspects of your life, but especially for your health goals!