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Mastering Your Growth Mindset
Mastering your growth mindset means becoming a master of habits, emotions, and attitude. Mastering those makes you a master of your life and not a slave to impulses beyond your control. Mastering your growth mindset is not easy; it takes a lifetime of training, but begins with being trained in essential habits, emotional management tools, and attitude formation practices. Let me illustrate by beginning with and then answering a question.
Would you rather decrease anxiety or increase self-esteem?
That was a question posed by a nurse in a private Facebook group I am part of. It is an interesting question and one that provides an opportunity to illustrate this idea of mastering your growth mindset. The nurse who posed the question in response to a comment explained the biological aspects of anxiety symptoms. Anxiety, indeed any emotion, does produce biological "symptoms".
It is true that physical symptoms of anxiety are common and are related to a chemical imbalance which is why medication works. If the physical symptoms are not constant then the underlying premise is the chemical imbalance is not constant, which I believe is true for the vast majority of anxiety sufferers. It is true for all the ones I have known or worked with.
That does beg a question doesn't it? What caused the chemical imbalance especially given that science tells us thoughts do create chemicals in the body? If the anxiety is beginning with our thinking, training ourselves to think differently would be the answer, would it not? And, I think that leads back to the original question.
Generally speaking I would work on self-esteem. Our Growth Mindset Training Academy personal breakthrough training uses techniques to begin to train thinking patterns that will help people build the habits that help control emotions and create the attitude (beliefs) necessary for thriving in a world that often can seem like it is spinning out of control - it tackles self-image head on. Mastering your growth mindset is the means by which we train individuals to build a self-image and work on that for a life time. For many of the teens I have worked with over nearly 30 years in public schools and private coaching, anxiety is a problem of thinking in general and self-esteem in particular more than any other factor, which does imply there are other factors. It is why our Growth Mindset Training Academy complete curriculum starts with a personal breakthrough but then works on mindset of love, faith, faithfulness, family, friendships, learning, wellness, spirit, and financial well-being. Mindsets are fluid so you want to have a growth mindset that encompasses all those components and gets applied in each area of your life: personal, professional/school, civic, and spiritual.
If anxiety begins with our thinking, training ourselves to think differently would be the answer, would it not?
Mastering Your Growth Mindset:
The Missing Component of Your Education.
Most college courses and professional development work is centered around providing knowledge or teaching a skill – teaching, not developing the skill. Seeking knowledge or to acquire a new skill is a very good thing. In the book of Proverbs, we read, “A wise person is hungry for knowledge.” Yet, without mindset training, you really won’t have all you require to become the best you can be. Ultimately, mastering your growth mindset is what will enable you to:
- embrace challenges
- persist in the face of setbacks
- sees effort as a path to mastery
- learns from criticism
- finds lessons and inspiration in the success of others
- attain higher levels of achievement.
We have several objectives in our complete Growth Mindset Training Academy curriculum, one of the most important is to build four essential habits. The habits are exercise, healthy eating, proper breathing, and meditative, prayer and reflective practices. Whether you are trying to decrease anxiety (or any other negative emotion that may be impacting your life) or increase self-esteem (or any positive emotion or belief system – attitude) those four habits are essential. Those four habits have significant impact on your mind, body, and spirit.
There have been clinical studies done that show each of those habits individually have had positive impact on a number of clinically diagnosed mental health issues. That is not to say medication or therapy would not be needed. I would argue though, that any good therapy should be about helping establish those habits for a client as part of the intervention, which could possibly mitigate the need for medication. After all, nutrition, exercise, breathing, and thinking all influence the chemical composition in our bodies.
People invest thousands of dollars on acquiring knowledge, which as I said before is desirable and I will add admirable. I believe that should be a lifelong pursuit. I will also argue that before spending tens of thousands of dollars on college courses or other professional development workshops and seminars, you should consider training your mindset. In my humble opinion, it will have the greatest return on your investment.
A common college option for many people to acquire knowledge is to take courses offered by their state university system, which is tax subsidized. In other words, lots of people who will never take a class are essentially giving you a partial scholarship. The cost of those courses is not necessarily the value of those courses. The value is ultimately decided by the individual. My argument would be the value of mastering your growth mindset is greater than the value of most graduate level courses. The cost of 10 (a one year full time load) graduate level courses at our local university is $12,600. The value of those ten courses is debatable and as already mentioned dependent on the individual. Let me relate that to a brief story.
Before spending tens of thousands of dollars on college courses or professional development seminars, you should consider training your mindset. It will have the greatest return on your investment.
Mastering Your Growth Mindset: College Training vs. Mindset Training
For a number of years I played in a church softball league. On my team was a middle aged gentleman who when I first met him was working on a college degree through the local university. He persisted and after several years finally graduated with a degree in economics. It was a very admirable accomplishment and one he was rightfully proud of. The cost was roughly $48,000 in today's dollars.
Over the next two years though he still remained essentially unemployed landing one low paying temporary job after another. In the end, he never fully broke his dependence on social services despite the state essentially picking up the entire cost of his education. Why? This man had a fixed mindset or as I call it a mindset of defeatism. While he was able to demonstrate certain aspects of a growth mindset enabling him to persevere and finally get his degree, the degree itself only provide knowledge, but did nothing to help this man develop what he needed most – to be master of his growth mindset, or to have the mindset of a champion. He truly needed to have developed skills necessary to build and maintain the habits, emotions, and attitude necessary to fully participate in our economy. What was the value of his degree? What would have been the value of him mastering his growth mindset?
Mastering Your Growth Mindset: Two Vital Components
Ultimately, there are two very important weapons at everyone’s disposal who want to train those four necessary habits. They are discovering or creating your why and establishing accountability structures. The gentleman I mentioned had both of those in place to finish and get his college degree. It would have been far more beneficial to him, his family, and society if those were in place and the focus was on training his mindset first. By mastering your growth mindset you can make full use of all the knowledge and skills you attain over time. Without mastering your growth mindset you will never attain the full value of your education and training.
Anyone I have ever worked with who has established habits of success had at least one if not both of those factors in use. Often the success we have in developing habits with our students at school is the accountability we provide. The greatest challenge we face is getting those habits transferred from school to home. Far too often there is no accountability at home and there is not a big enough why so those learning habits we focused on do not get formed at home. If someone truly wants to master their growth mindset and control their emotions and attitude, they need to establish the four essential habits previously mentioned, which requires a big enough why and or accountability, both of which begin the individual but often requires the support of friends, family, colleagues, mentors, or coaches.
Do you seek any of the following for yourself, or your teenage child. Do you believe it would benefit your employees and your business if you could provide a way for your employees to have an opportunity to address any one of these issues?
- To feel more in control of their life...
- To feel more personal power...
- To feel more fulfillment...
- To be the best person you can be...
- To have more control over stress...
- To have more control over anxiety...
- To have more control over fear...
- To be healthier...
- To be happier...
- To experience more joy...
- To have better relationships...
- To feel more love...
- To have more faith...
- To trust...
Mastering your growth mindset by applying HEAT (habit, emotion, attitude, training) is the secret weapon for doing just that. It is NOT for everyone. Only those who have or are willing to find a big enough why and or are willing to be held accountable once committing will be accepted. If you believe you meet the criteria or are a business owner (we have special opportunities for business owners), please, take a look at our Growth Mindset Training Academy complete training curriculum for yourself, your family, or your business.