How Are You Going to Make Your Dream a Reality in 2024: The Untapped Potential Foundation That Lies in Harnessing A Growth Mindset Revealed (Episode 148)

Ever wondered how your past experiences can catapult you to future success? I'm Dr. Jason Wiggins, and in our latest heart-to-heart, I reveal the untapped potential that lies in harnessing a growth mindset and the art of self-preparedness. Reflecting on the lessons of yesteryears is not about dwelling on the past; it is the first step to forging a path toward personal triumph. As you tune in, you'll discover the challenge I've set for 2024 that's sure to spark a fire in every Gen Z and Millennial listener, turning flickers of hope into a blaze of accomplishment.

Then, let's tackle the beast of self-doubt together. I'll share my personal saga of metamorphosis—from underestimated to a beacon of empowerment—providing the kind of uplifting narrative that resonates with anyone fighting to make their mark. We'll explore the value of mentorship and the vitality of shedding worries that weigh us down. By the time you finish this episode, you'll be equipped to transform your wildest dreams into a set of actionable goals for the year ahead, all while shedding the fear of failure. Inspired by the likes of Thomas Edison, this conversation is a rally cry for resilience, leadership, and the relentless pursuit of success. Thank you for walking this journey with me, and for being an integral part of our community's growth and empowerment.

Transcript

Dr. Wiggins: 0:07

Well, hello friends. Welcome to your motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert podcast. I'm your host, my name is Dr Jason Wiggins and thank you very much for being here. This podcast is for the week of December 25th. My apologies, with the Christmas holiday being here just a couple days ago, we are a couple days late on our normal weekly podcast. Typically, our podcasts are generated on Mondays and therefore we have the content available for you depending where you are late Monday afternoon or early evening. Well, thank you very much for being here.

Dr. Wiggins: 0:54

I hope everybody had a great holiday, and the holidays can be difficult Sometimes. It can be emotional, it can be stressful, it can really impact you emotionally, physically and, just at the end of the day, be very draining. However, spending time with the family gives you that sense of the ability to understand that what's really important in your life and how you can embrace that, because you never know how long somebody will be there, and so it's important to cherish those family times that you do have. And again, for those that had a difficult holiday season, I feel for you. I understand things will get better and it's going to be 2024 is going to be a great time for you to get back on the track that you would like to be on. Today's podcast is really going to set you up for success, and we're going to cover three topics during this 30-minute timeframe we have together. The number one topic is going to be self preparedness, then we're going to go into the growth mindset and we're going to then finish it up with a new challenge for 24. This podcast is your motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert, which means we are here to provide you with tools, guidance, just the motivating aspect that we can be successful when we put everything into it, and so this podcast is for anybody out there, specifically Gen Z and Millennials, that want to find that extra inner excitement that provides you that energy to go get what you want, go get what you deserve and make those dreams a reality. And we'll kind of talk about goals and dreams a little bit later in the podcast.

Dr. Wiggins: 3:23

I'm looking forward to 2024, continuing our weekly podcast. We did have a little hiatus from the middle of 2024, excuse me, the middle of 2021 into what recently, the last three months, and I'm excited to be back. I'm excited to share my experiences, my vulnerabilities, and I hope that you're able to get some good feedback, get some good information and really take that and utilize that in your daily lives. So again, my name is Dr Jason Wiggins. I thank you very much If you've been a constant listener since the beginning of our podcast and if you're new. Please feel free to subscribe and share with others about this, because this podcast, at the end of the day, is for the emotional well-being, how to invigorate you, how to provide you with leadership ideas in the face of adversities and the barriers that exist between you and achieving the success that you want. So feel free to email me at jason at GenZ and MillennialExpertcom Again, that's Jason at GenZ and MillennialExpertcom If you have any questions or you have content, ideas, or just you want to share your thoughts about the podcast.

Dr. Wiggins: 4:53

Well, let's get started. So thank you for being here, and the topic of today's discussion is self preparedness. When you think of self preparedness, what does that entail? What it entails is there's three distinct steps within self preparedness. One is look at the past to define who you are.

Dr. Wiggins: 5:23

Everybody within the structure of our background, all the individuals we met over time, all the life lessons, everything and all the people that we have met are a big part of who we are today. Without those experiences, those relationships, those teachings, those instrumental people in your life. We wouldn't be where we are today without the impact that they made on us and the impact that you and we had made on others. They could have been negative impacts, they could have been positive impacts, but you're regardless. They all mold us into the individuals that we are today. We are who we are because of our past experiences, from our earliest memories. If you're three, four, five years old when you had your first memory, think of all of those difficult times, those barriers, those fights in the neighborhood, those arguments getting kicked off the bus, doing things that weren't right, doing things against teachers that you would never do today, about the respect or lack of respect level we had growing up. Those experiences are defining who we are today.

Dr. Wiggins: 6:54

Many individuals experienced some horrific past experiences that define who you are and guess what? It doesn't define who you will be. It only defines who you have become. If that's the person that you want to be and you just want to improve on that, then that is going to be a good starting point for you. But first we have to look in the past to define who we are. My personal experiences, my trials and tribulations, my relationship, all the people that have been a key focus in my life or even just a distant memory in my life, all made an impact for who I am today good or bad and what I can do is take all those experiences from my past and take them and move them forward and build a better path or better direction to where the future is going to end up.

Dr. Wiggins: 8:06

The only thing that we can guarantee in life is we you and me. We have a direct impact and correlation of how we drive our success or lack thereof in the future, the reasons why it's wrong to go about sometimes going the exact way we were. If we don't change our habits and we continue to just kind of bumble through life with no sense of direction, and if that's where you are right now, that's okay, but if it's the wrong way to go about it, you have to change it, and the only way you can change it is going back to self-preparing planning. Take what you like about the successes you've had, some of the core defining concepts that have made you who you are in your life, and then taking those and finding out how you can improve yourself and get away from the wrong way of going about it, because what you were doing before, if you're not where you want to be today, is the wrong way. And now, how do you become the new you, the person that you haven't been before? It's a simple flip of the switch.

Dr. Wiggins: 9:45

It goes into what we're going to discuss next, which is the growth mindset. It is about you clearly defining what you want in life. Do you want to start an education process? Do you want to rekindle an old relationship? Do you want to start a new relationship? Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Are these dreams that you've had in the past but never took the step forward? We've all been there. We are all in those transitional phases at one point in our life. However, we can change that. We can prepare our mindset to get to the point where we are happy, where we are on a promising trajectory to meet the successful initiatives that we want. But you have to have clear, defined goals, as we will talk about in the future. A dream is a dream unless you have goals. Goals are planning stages that you plan to meet those objectives. So, self preparedness.

Dr. Wiggins: 11:19

We talked about looking in the past to define who you are, the reasons why it was the wrong way and you have to shift your mindset. And that's the process of becoming the new you that you haven't been before. This is the time. 2024 is the time to increase your initiatives, increase your mental attitude, increase your ability to want to move forward. And the topic two is the growth mindset. And, as we talked about that segue there, it's about strategically aligning your focus to optimize your inner happiness.

Dr. Wiggins: 12:14

If you're depressed or you don't have the initiative or the motivation inside to want to continue to push forward towards your goals, we've all been there I call it the transitional phase. That transitional phase is only a brief moment of lapse before you get back on the driving path that's going to help you meet your goals, and that driving path is going to continue to stimulate and push you and motivate you to where you're going, to optimize your inner happiness. Because you've aligned your focus, you're not gonna let anybody get in your way. So this is where, if you say you want to go back to college as an example, you share that with your significant other, you share that with your friends, you share that and let them know. This is my goal. I'm going to let you know that I'm going to be focusing on my goal, and this is how you can help me focus on my goal.

Dr. Wiggins: 13:31

And if you have the buying from your family, your friends, your significant other, that is going to provide you the skills because of your inner happiness, and then that inner happiness will help you become a better person. And when you become a better person, it helps you not only lead your own life, it helps you lead others and helps you increase your happiness and be able to increase the happiness of others around you. This is that growth mindset. This is the growth that allows you to be able to meet your needs, meet the needs of others. And if they see you as a happy, a person that is fun to be around or a person that has a motivational drive to succeed in many cases we are leaders by example. If they know where we were before, we are where we are today and they've seen us continue to climb that mountain and continue to exceed those objectives, they see you as a source to follow.

Dr. Wiggins: 14:55

If you have kids, your kids will do everything to emulate you, as you may know. They will talk like you, they will act like you. You are their biggest hero in many cases, and why? Because they see how you lead. Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad. So, therefore, we have to lead by example, but that comes from the growth mindset and the important part of growth mindset the number one important part is don't let the negative demons set in.

Dr. Wiggins: 15:35

The negative demons provide that self-doubt. They provide all those internal barriers in your head that say this is too hard, you cannot do it, you don't have what it takes to be able to meet your goals. You don't have the support, you don't have the tools, you don't have the training, you don't have what it takes. And I can tell you as a person that's been through many of these self-doubt episodes in my head. Many of you may know me as an optimist to my podcast or personally know me, but I've had those negative demons.

Dr. Wiggins: 16:19

When I was trying to work to achieve my PhD, I wanted to quit so many times. I had so much self-doubt. I was like I'm not smart enough, I'm not good enough, I don't have enough motivation, I can't do it. However, I kept on pushing on, and I know that each and every one of you is going to want to push on Because, as I mentioned in my last podcast, quitting is easy but pushing on is hard and when you have the self-barriers, that self-doubt that prevents you from focusing on your growth mindset, stimulating your awareness to succeed, those are the barriers that become isolating when it comes to if you can achieve what you want.

Dr. Wiggins: 17:20

Therefore, you want to make sure you have the support of people around you. And guess what? If you don't have the support around you, then find others that will support you. Find ways to clearly focus, have laser-sharp focus that will provide you the ability. As Gen Z and millennials, you have had more barriers. You've had more trials and tribulations, from the recession to 9-11, to COVID, to a thriving economy, to political nightmares all kinds of things from inclusion, diversity. You've had the 60s, 70s, 80s all wrapped up within your generations. So you have the ability to overcome barriers. And that's why this podcast exists. It exists to see people succeed, to see you reach your goals.

Dr. Wiggins: 18:25

So we talked about in the first two topics, self-preparedness, we talked about growth mindset, and the third and final topic we're going to talk about is how do we take those two major concepts of self-preparedness and growth mindset and turn that into successes as new challenges for 24?. It is time to put your words and thoughts into actions in 2024. We are now three plus years removed from COVID. We have now sawed many of the trials and tribulations that that has caused and now it's time to continue to push forward, as I mentioned earlier, by putting your words and thoughts into action, with direct, laser focus of how you're going to achieve those actions. Write it down, memorize it, look at it every day, put it in your calendar, put it in your memory thought provoking book, wherever you look at something each and every day to remind you how you are a success. Make sure that you complete that on a day to day basis where you know exactly what you're going to achieve and how you're going to do it. Dreams without goals are only dreams and those dreams will die if your goals die with them. So, going back to what we said before, let's reinvigorate those thoughts, reinvigorate those words and put them into action. And if you're able to continue to put that in the action and continue to process your self preparedness, remembering how you were from, how you got where you were today, because of who you became and how you will move forward in the future and how you will achieve your dreams through goals and the mental makeup and fighting the self doubt, the self demons, where everybody says you can't do this, you can't do that.

Dr. Wiggins: 21:05

I grew up in a society where it was easy to say you can't do this, you can't do this, you're not smart enough. Well, guess what? I've shared this before, but I had the second lowest SAT score in high school. I was considered not very bright. I was considered somebody that was just average. I was considered somebody that just kind of went through the motions with no overall direction. That was the negative part of me. The other part of me I was always positive, I was optimistic, I was motivating. I would never let myself quit. I was picked on. I was somebody that had a very big mouth and didn't know when to stop. I could have quit so many times. There was so many occasions where I just wanted to bury my head in the sand. But I also remembered the great people in my life that inspired me, that gave me direction, that gave me that feeling that I can succeed.

Dr. Wiggins: 22:15

This podcast is about motivating Gen Z and Millennials and sharing my vulnerability, sharing my insights, as well as all the reflections that I've had in life that negativity, the ability to overcome obstacles and when things got tough, you've got to find ways to turn that toughness into a positive situation. One of the things I learned by somebody I know and this was basically from an older gentleman the only crisis that I ever knew never happened. The crisis that I thought I knew never happened. What does that mean? What that means is you sometimes worry about things so much that aren't even going to come into a reality, because you are fearful of what's going to happen. You are fearful that this is going to be a negative situation because you had that self doubt. Well, guess what this person has shared. That was 80 years old and the reason why he shared that was if he hadn't worried all about that, that never happened. He would have been less stressed. And that's where we are.

Dr. Wiggins: 23:37

In today's society, everything is moving at a hundred miles an hour and we start to worry about things that we don't need to worry about. And when you have focus, when you have self preparedness, when you're preparing your mind, mental mindset, to be able to have that ability to grow your mindset, then you're going to be able to find ways to succeed in whatever you want to do in life, and that's where we talked about this last topic is challenge yourself in 2024. This is our last podcast of 2023. So I really want you to think about what you want to do in 2024. What are the actions that you are going to take to move the needle from wandering to something? Maybe I want to do this to putting those wandering words, those wandering thoughts, into action in 2024.

Dr. Wiggins: 24:52

Dreams without goals are only dreams, so I'd like you to think right now. Give yourself a minute. What is something that you've been putting on the back burner? Or it was a dream you had before and you still want to do that? Let's keep in mind that one day, when it's our final day in life, whenever that may be, you're laying wherever you are and you're contemplating life. As you know, you move into a different phase and move on in this human life, and you sit there and you think you have, you have the all your ghosts of who you are surrounding you, and those ghosts are saying why didn't you do this? I gave you this idea. Why didn't you do that? This is your dream. Why didn't you go for it?

Dr. Wiggins: 25:52

Do you want to be at that point at the end of your life where you start regretting you didn't do what you wanted to do and why did you not do it. The number one reason is fear fear of the unknown, fear of failing that most people that have successes in life have failed so many times. Thomas Edison had a thousand inventions a thousand inventions and that can failed all the time, but then one, as we know, it was electricity, and that has a huge impact of success in our life. That leads me to going forward, preparing your goals, preparing what you want to do, and I'm excited to hear what the impact that you made by putting those thoughts and words into actions. Now I'd like to just share what my plans are for 2024.

Dr. Wiggins: 26:58

As we continued our weekly podcast is. I will continue to provide content that is valuable. I will continue to provide you means of an outlet that you can get things that are important to you as a Gen Z and Millennials. I cover all topics, but usually there's a motivational spin on it. We'll talk about leadership. We'll talk about change. I have so many exciting ideas for 2024 and I cannot wait to share them with you. Some other goals that I have is to continue to pursue other speaking opportunities.

Dr. Wiggins: 27:35

I look forward to speaking in the classroom, in the workforce, and sharing those ideas about removing barriers and creating opportunities in the workforce and in the classroom, while helping organizations retain and motivate the talented Gen Z and Millennials in the workforce. This is an amazing generations. These are amazing generations and I can't wait to continue to promote those ideas and I want to continue to grow the podcast by continuing to share with others. So please subscribe and share with your network, as if you enjoy this podcast. And again, I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for continuing to listen, continuing to grow as I continue to grow with this podcast. I did review my podcast on this 148th episode compared to my first episode and it was night and day. So please, if you listen to the first episode, I would hope you would see the difference as we continue to improve the content, the ability to speak on air and to continue to drive and help Gen Z's and Millennials be successful in the workforce within your dreams and how you pursue your goals. So, thank you very much. I wish everybody a very happy New Year. I look forward to talking to you in the New Year and sharing more ideas. So, if you haven't had a chance, please feel free to listen to previous episodes and it's exciting continuing to grow with you and I look forward to it. So thank you very much.

Dr. Wiggins: 29:39

My name is Dr Jason Wiggins. I am your Gen Z and Millennial expert. I can be reached via my email, jason at Gen Z and MillennialExpertcom. I can be reached via my website, jasonphdcom. Again, that's JasonPhDcom, and again, thank you. It's been fun and I cannot wait to talk to you in the New Year. Take care, bye, bye.