Get Your Mind Right
The mind is a powerful tool. It can help you achieve a goal or it can prevent you from reaching your goals. In Carol Dweck’s book Mindset, she identifies two types of mindset – Fixed and Growth. To help better understand each of these mindsets, let’s look at how they can be characterized as they approach five different situations.
Situation | Fixed | Growth |
Failure |
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Obstacles |
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Effort Level |
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Feedback |
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Success of Others |
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Now what? You cannot change what you are not aware of. The first step is to start listening to your self-talk. Do you recognize any of the traits of a fixed mindset creeping into your self-talk? Do you avoid trying things for fear of failure? Do you take the feedback from others openly?
After listening to your self-talk, did you identify times you expressed fixed mindset characteristics? The good news is, with practice, you can move yourself towards a growth mindset. Just like practicing your snatch or double unders to improve, you can practice a growth mindset. So next time you look at a workout and avoid it because you aren’t “good at X movement.” Stop your negative talk, look at it as an opportunity to improve and get yourself to the gym.