How to Apply a GROWTH (VS Fixed) Mindset in your life TODAY

GROWTH MINDSET VS. FIXED MINDSET”  “Carol Dweck in her 2006 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.”

Defined: Someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort. On the other hand, someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time.

Why We need a growth mindset…. It leads to Resilience—the capacity to recover from and move through difficult situations

Example of Fixed Mindset: My historic approach to Math…..until I met….Calculus

Example if Growth:  Watching the local Orchestra Practice, Cooking (Yes, I’m a bit critical of myself), My athletic performances

  When I practice guitar / singing, I choose pieces that are just outside of my comfort zone.  This forces me into a growth mindset.

One key tip towards implementing:  Use the Phrase“Yet” more often.  E.g. I don’t speak Spanish….YET, vs I Can’t speak Spanish.

How has the podcast been an experiment in this?

“Releasing B+ content” on Time!!

I want massive amounts of editing and musical transitions….this….takes….tons… of time.

Why you need to write it down!!  Little Secret:  You do NOT need to find the answer.  You only need to properly format the question in a way that appeals to your curiosity.  This will promote subconscious reflection which can often lead to solutions.

Check out Carol’s ted talk 

Here’s a link to the Book

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Transcript

Growth Vs Fixed Mindset

[00:00:00] Hi, and thanks for joining Chasing Energy. I am your host, Daniel Lucas. I'm so glad that you chose to join us today on this mini so no interview today to talk about growth versus fixed mindset. If you've heard these terms somewhere in a social media post, or maybe you're reading an article and they mentioned them, we're gonna elaborate a little bit on it.

Today, we're going to define what a growth versus fixed mindset. , we're gonna give you examples of both, and then I'm gonna give you a takeaway that I leverage on a regular basis to trigger a growth mindset. I don't recall this being in the book. I haven't seen this tip before, so I hope that you can find it useful.

So with that being said, let's talk about where it comes from. Carol Dweck was a school teacher. For many, many years and [00:01:00] observed the two mindsets within the children of growth versus fixed, and I'm gonna read the definition for you real quickly. Someone with a growth mindset, views intelligence, abilities and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort.

That's the growth. , a fixed mindset views these same traits as traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time. An example, if you as a parent or you have heard other people say you are gifted, you are a natural, you are most likely in encouraging a fixed mindset, which is that they have these sort of natural abilities that just sort of came to.

and the, we're gonna talk about some of the dangers of, of that mindset, even though it seems like it's coming across as a big compliment. I hear a lot of parents say that as well. A fixed mindset is [00:02:00] one that probably historically was more encouraged, which is you find the things you're good at naturally and then you just sort of go with it.

And the problem with it is that it serves you. Initially until you come up against resistance, and when you come up against resistance, what often happens is the most talented people or the ones who have been saying, you are so gifted at this, when they fail for the first time, or they don't win the race, or they don't get a straight A, they think to themself, well, I was always told I was a natural.

This must not be the thing that I was supposed to be. because it feels uncomfortable. And history has taught us that a growth mindset, which is one where when you take adversity and you take setbacks and you learn from them, that's the [00:03:00] big achievers in life. They've, they've looked at these setbacks, they've reflected and they've adjusted.

So that's the definition of it. Let's give a few examples of it. I'm gonna give you a personal example of where I had a fixed. And that would be this wonderful topic that makes me dry heave when I hear the word, and that is calculus. When I was in high school, and even when I went on to college, I had zero issues with math.

I could wing it. I did not do my homework regularly. If I did it, I just did it so I, I wouldn't fail the class. , but I didn't really have to work at it. I generally would listen to what the teacher had to say, a few minutes of the class, and then when the paper was in front of me, I could figure it out. I was pretty much a natural with math.

I wasn't a straight A student. I don't want to pretend I was a straight A student. I I could just get a few minutes of the course in, in a given week and [00:04:00] sort of figure it out from there. And then, About two or three years into college, I met this wonderful topic called calculus and thought that it would go the same way until I got the lowest math test score I have ever seen handed back to me before.

It was exceptionally humbling and I thought, surely this was a fluke, like this could not happen again. And the second test, the same thing. I hired a tutor for the first and only time in my college experience and worked my tail off. I ended up dropping the class and then taking it again and working harder on that one course than all my other courses that semester combined only.

I wish I could sit here and tell you it had this wonderful, happy ending. There was no a, I did not get a b I think at the. , I got a d plus, [00:05:00] maybe a C minus. I, I don't recall exactly how it came out because I blocked off some of the, the scar tissue, the cognitive scar tissue from that memory of calculus. It was a, it was a complete disaster.

It was absolutely humbling, and it was because I had a fixed mindset towards math. I thought, well, it should just come naturally. All I should have to do is pay a little bit of attention, and I should be able to pass this class without a problem. So that was a very big learning experience. And then I'd like to contrast that by saying a growth experience, a growth mindset that I saw recently.

And uh, the local orchestra was performing Beethoven seventh, one of my favorite pieces, I love Beethoven, but specifically the seventh has always spoken to me at a personal level, and I think they were performing the actual. Concert on a Thursday, and then they sent out an email and said, if you want to come to the rehearsal on Tuesday, you can [00:06:00] watch the rehearsal then.

And I, and I would suspect some of the other patrons were thinking the same thing as well, thought, oh, this is a good deal. I'll go to the rehearsal for a couple bucks. I will not have to deal with all the parking and the lines, and I can just watch them run through Beethoven. in their blue jeans, uh, which the conductor was wearing blue jeans that as, as far as an experience, it was an absolute complete disaster.

I got there and realized very quickly along with some of the other patrons that this was not what we were expecting. What we saw was 90 straight minutes of that conductor going through the. Awkward, difficult P passages that are in the piece. It was not enjoyable at all because they would just repeat the same thing over and over [00:07:00] and over and over and over.

And the conductor, as soon as they would mess up, would say, start again. 1, 2, 3, da, da, da. So as far as enjoying the piece, forget about it. It was. But as far as learning what it means to see a world class performers go through a growth mindset, it was perfect because two days later they were gonna perform this piece.

And I, I've seen this orchestra perform on a few occasions. They were, they, I'm sure they're gonna nail it and go through it, like there really is no issue. But to see them struggle and struggle and struggle with those transitions and the, the, you know, the. Nailing the notes in the exact precise order in time.

That's a perfect example of a growth mindset. That conductor wasn't willing to just settle and say, oh, we can, we'll get through it. It'll come together when we perform. She, she made them go through [00:08:00] that thing over and over and again, so I really applaud her. That is an example of growth. They're looking at the situation saying, okay, we don't have.

we've got to learn from this and move forward. So what are some tips that you can start to do? Uh, this, this is actually in the book. I did not come up with this particular one, which is not yet, and if, if you wanna nail that down, you can even use the word yet. So here's an example. If you hear someone saying, I'm no good at.

which by the way, I've just laid out a situation where I was good at one form of math but not the other. Or I can't speak another language. I can barely speak English, which I can't tell you how many, or I'm no good of a runner. When I was a very serious runner, people would say, I'm, I've never, I'm not good at running.

My first thought was, well, how much time have you spent practicing? . [00:09:00] And so when you use the word can't, I, I would encourage you to say yet, I don't speak Spanish yet. I don't speak Italian yet. I'm not a good runner yet. Meaning you can actually put the work in and probably get better. You just haven't done that yet.

Uh, I don't, I I can't play piano. I could never play piano. No. I just haven't learned how to p play piano yet. I haven't put the time into it, and that's why I'm not good. . That sounds like a really simple, stupid thing to do, but think about the way your mind interprets those two phrases can't, meaning you are unable to think of a fixed mindset.

This is what I can do, this is what I can't. That's the end of the story. A growth mindset says, I don't have it yet, but I can figure it out. Or a growth mindset will try to do so. , it won't go as planned or you'll get so far, and even if it [00:10:00] goes well, you stop and reflect and go, how can I do it better? I leverage a growth mindset almost every time I ever cook.

Certainly if I ever cook for guests, I am known for being super critical on myself. Whenever I serve food to my guest, like if someone comes over, I'll be sitting back and going, how could I have made that better? How could I have. and it was, it was something, I was never a natural chef. I didn't pick up cooking seriously till I was probably 34, something like that.

So a little over 10 years ago, I, I became obsessed with it. Uh, I j all I ever wanted to do was be comfortable with the chefs. I specifically remember thinking, I just wanna be comfortable with a chef's knife in my hand. That's all. I'd wanna be able to walk into a kitchen and grab a chef's knife and feel pretty comfortable, however, as part of a growth mindset.

Every time I would cook or prepare [00:11:00] something, I would sit back and reflect and go, how could I have done this better? I'll taste the food. And with few exceptions, I'm, I generally find something where I'm like, I could have, I could have done a little bit better on that. I hate to, uh, inquire that I, I can't enjoy food.

That's not the truth at all. But when it comes to food that I've prepared, I, I generally want to always try to up my. So that's an example of that. I have a lot of things that I'm working on in my life that leverage a growth mindset right now, one of which is music. I am, I've been playing music about an hour a night, maybe four or five nights a week for the last several months.

And I, I'm doing it just because, uh, , I want to use it as a creative outlet. So what I do, instead of playing all the pieces that I'm very comfortable with, I specifically choose things that are just outside of my range, [00:12:00] to where when I practice, I have to make a concerted effort to get a little bit better, and I'm not pretending that I'll make money or make a living.

playing music. I, in fact, I'm actually kind of relieved that I don't have to rely on that as part of my income . It wouldn't, it would not be pleasant for me. But I enjoy the process of learning and getting a little bit better, and it, what I have found is by putting that creative part of me up into a situation where I have to learn it is very fulfilling exercise because I fall in love with the practice, fall in love with the practice, and leverage your c.

So let's talk about a key takeaway. Carol Dweck's wonderful book of mindset, the New Psychology of Growth. Uh, you can watch the TED Talk. It's, uh, the book and the Ted talk. I'm, I'm gonna warn you are a little bit on the dry side, but at the [00:13:00] same time, they're super, super practical. One key takeaway is for me is reflection.

The. One of the biggest differences you're gonna see between a growth and fixed mindset is the ability to reflect. So with that being said, I don't recall this being in the book. I don't recall seeing this anywhere else, but this is how I have managed over the years to trigger a growth mindset to trigger it.

Okay. What I do as a, uh, my, my history in the corporate world is, uh, lean Six Sigma, project management and things like that is we work very hard to come up with what's called an operational definition of success, which means the words have to be very specific. And so in this case, what I'd encourage you to do is when you write out something that you [00:14:00] consider worth.

And when I say worth achieving, that means when you write this question or goal out, how am I going to accomplish this? How am I going to run this marathon? How am I gonna lose this many pounds? How am I going to get this promotion at work? When you write out that goal, it should be so important to you that it triggers your curiosity, and you should write it in such a way that it does.

focusing on the words and not the solution. And that's the key part here that I think is probably surprising to people is when you write it out, don't try to solve it. Just write it in such a way that it triggers your curiosity because your subconscious will work on that issue. We'll work on that question in the back of your mind.

It will do you the service of working on it because you didn't try to answer it right off, and you worded it in such a way that it triggered your curiosity. [00:15:00] Curiosity is something that I'm more and more and more. As someone who's getting into middle age, we get very bored. We've seen all this stuff before.

We've been through here. We've been done this. Curiosity is the way around that to where you say, I see this problem, but what am I gonna, how am I gonna learn from it differently? How am I gonna do it better than anyone else? That's when you trigger that curiosity. It puts your mind in a different state to where it's looking forward to solving it, as opposed to saying, how quickly can I make this whole thing go away?

How can I be done with this? So that's my advice to you. Write out the question in such. that it triggers your curiosity. You do not need to answer it. There's an old phrase in the scientific community, a problem well worded is half solved. There's a lot of truth to that. I don't know if it's half , but it's a, but it's a decent chunk of it.

And then the last thing I'll say about that is when [00:16:00] you think about a prolific thinker, and yes, he's very popular, but rightfully so, Jordan Peterson, a prolific. . If you notice a lot of his interviews, they actually edit out a lot of blank space because they'll ask him a question and he will not, in a lot of cases, just spit out the answer.

He'll sit and think and reflect on. He'll start saying words and then he'll reflect, and then he'll say a few more words. Now, this is a man who has spent tens of thousands of hours thinking, journaling, researching, and coming up. His thoughts and core values of how to implement, you know, psychology in modern day world.

And he has to stop and think constantly when he's asked a question. Now, is that because he's slow? Is it because he's stupid? Of course not. It's because he wants to reflect and make sure that each time he speaks, he's, he's [00:17:00] doing it in such a way that he's getting clarity of thought that. between hearing a question and answering is part of why Jordan Peterson sounds so prolific.

He doesn't just spit out stupid words off the cuff. He thinks about it. He reflects, and it's a combination of the amount of work that he's put in. Uh, I I w I wish that I, I sounded as eloquent on this podcast, , but we've now defined what a growth versus fixed mindset is. You know what it is. Now we've given you example.

You know, I talked about calculus and the orchestra, and then I've given you a tip that I haven't seen anywhere else, which is write it. Write down the question clearly in a way that triggers your curiosity and watch yourself grow. And please don't think that asking yourself the question is the same as writing it down.

It is not. Write it down. So the thing that you find [00:18:00] yourself challenged with. and granted this podcast focuses on mindset. No, no. Uh, no irony there that, that's part of the topic today. Uh, training and nutrition, those are the three topics I focus on. If you have a question that, that you are focused on and you see it's a.

Curiosity worthy goal. Write it in such a way that your subconscious is gonna help you tackle it. This is part of you implementing the growth mindset in your life today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for following. I look forward to bringing you content. We're actually gonna talk more about some of the more advanced principles that build upon mindset, which are like grit and flow.

I look forward to bringing that to you. Have a great day. [00:19:00]