Maximum Potential: The Power of Mindset

Over the course of the last several articles, we have started to scratch the surface of this enormous concept of mindset. We have compared and contrasted attitude and mindset, growth versus fixed mindsets, and even looked at limiting beliefs can hold you back. Mindset is a powerful engine for all our progress. Fueled in the right way, it will take us as far as we can imagine. To round out this series on mindset, I want to pull together many of the pieces we covered into a final look at how you can maximize your potential through the mastery of mindset.

Our thinking leads to our actions, our actions lead to results.

I think the important piece to remember is: there are results are any outcome, good or bad. Factoring that in, you could amend the original statement to be:

Positive thinking leads to productive actions. Productive actions lead to positive results.

The above thoughts frame up mindset. It is about our thinking first, and then our doing. We simply do not act without having a mindset in which to guide those actions. Even when we say, ‘he’s not thinking, just doing’, it is driven by a mindset of it doesn’t matter what I accomplish, I just need to get something done. “Think before you act’ is not instructions on having a plan, as much as it is to ensure you have framed up your mindset productively to complete the right actions for what you want to accomplish.

Hope is not how we feel, it’s how we think. — Brené Brown

Right Brené. It's a mindset. Hope is a belief that something can be better or improved. It is not a strategy, but it can certainly be the foundation for building one to get the results you are looking for

Effort

Effort is learning and growing. Not everything can be or should be easy. The best things come from when we work hardest. Having to work hard at something doesn’t make you any less. Again, don’t compare your starting self to others at a mid or ending point. True, some people appear to have more of a natural ability in certain things, but even for them, they will have to put work in to improve and get the most from those innate abilities.

Failure

Failure is part of the process. In fact, it is an important part of mindset from every perspective. If you fear failure, you are working with a fixed mindset. The fixed mindset doesn’t want to change, or is holding you back from potentially negative consequences, that may or may not have the impact your brain tells you. Do you believe that some of the greatest performers in any area — thinkers, painters, authors, athletes, or leaders — never had any failures? Impossible. I would be willing to bet the most successful people we can think of throughout history had 100 times more failures than successes. It was how they became so successful. They tried, learned, and tried again. We only hear about the final outcomes.

Progress matters

Progress is critical. It’s the idea and power of yet. And progress always trumps perfection. A fixed mindset will tell you it must be exactly right before you can even get started on something new. A growth mindset encourages you to get started and realize that you are new and that you will get better. You're just not where you want to be yet. Yet encourages progress. It demands it. Practice builds experience that can be used to build even better things than you may have imagines at the start. Just as was mentioned above, with effort, the learning comes from doing the work. Falling down is progress. Getting up and trying again is progress.

Mindset is a journey

With no destination.

That is how that full thought looks. We will forever be on the mindset journey. Each situation and experience will pull on previous mindsets, but allow for a new one to lead the way on this next specific action. There may be certain topics and areas that you function very much with a growth mindset, and in others you are very much a fixed mindset person. Our journey allows us to recognize that, and make changes to steer more areas of our lives to thinking and acting with a growth oriented mindset.

Make it positive

Keep things in the affirmative. Don’t tell yourself what to avoid, have the mindset of what you should do. The skier thinks, “don’t hit a tree,” is much more likely to hit a tree than the skier who tells themselves to follow the open snow path. The brain doesn’t do well with the negative. Simon Sinek illustrates this in a short clip and proves to the group that the brain handles the negative poorly. “Don’t think of an elephant,” he commands. Of course, we all immediately think of an elephant. Use that to your advantage when you reframe things in your mindset.

The infinite mindset

Simon Sinek has spoken and written extensively on this. His book, The Infinite Game, is really a tale of mindset. You can use an infinite mindset in any area of your life. Much like the growth mindset thought process, having an infinite mindset moves you away from specific markers. The rules aren’t defined, there is not a clear start, middle, or end. Winning is not the outcome because things continue forward. We can’t win leadership, but we can always improve, learn new things, or find new challenges.

The subject of mindset is wide and deep. I hope you can understand and share my enthusiasm for this fascinating subject. The last several articles have touched on several different elements and aspects of mindset and how you can influence yours. My intention from the start was to share some concepts, and offer practical information on what you can do it with now, while continuing to learn more on the subject. I will build on this in the future for sure. I know my journey of learning on this subject is only beginning, and I invite you to continue yours as well. After all, that would be the growth mindset oriented thing to do.

Below are some additional resources to help you get started.

How to Teach the Neuroscience of Growth Mindset in 5 Steps

Four Minute Books: Soundtracks by Jon Acuff (Summary)

15 Ways to Build a Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset: 15 Ways to Build a Mindset for Success – Video

What will your next step be in growing your knowledge on this subject and living more with a growth or infinite mindset?

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Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash