Is your mindset holding you back?

Our beliefs about ourselves are more powerful than we know. They can become the engine that propels our flight towards growth and experience or they can become the brakes that stop us in our tracks before we have even chanced a risk. Our beliefs shape motivation and energy; they make the case for expansion or they cement the way to collapse.

This is something we have long known: the stories we tell about ourselves profoundly affect the way we live.

Psychologist Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, hones in on a particular dichotomy in our beliefs about ourselves. She is interested in the difference between what is called a “fixed mindset” and what she terms a “growth mindset”.

A fixed mindset is one that tells us we are a static pool of energy and capability. We have only so much intelligence, creativity, skill. We are limited by the immutable truth of these fixed qualities. This is all life holds for us. A fixed mindset produces the urge to prove ourselves and unleashes the tyranny of the relentless need for approval.

Growth mindset, on the other hand, tells us we can change and grow through effort and experience. With a growth mindset we believe our innate skills, talents and abilities can be developed and improved with determination. We believe in a self that is a work in progress, capable of cultivating new capacities and forever journeying towards more.

A growth mindset encourages passion and learning and propels us towards taking the risks which may lead to expansion. With a growth mindset, if we fail, we maintain a sense of our place within possibility.

We must create space to hear the voice speaking inside — the voice that knows our dreams and visions.

To cultivate a growth mindset we must create space to hear the voice speaking inside — the voice that knows our dreams and visions. This inner voice, which we can slowly uncover through mindful attention, knows the freedom of imperfection, the value of failure, the truth that the journey matters more than the destination.

Mindfulness can train the capacity to be awake, present and openhearted. It can help us to know that what we feel, and even what we believe, are not facts. Mindfulness shakes our grip on the judgments and beliefs that limit us.

A growth mindset is trained by mindfulness. We bring awareness to what we are directly experiencing in the body, in the moment. We tap into a fuller aliveness, a more dynamic and flexible flow of life energy. The energy that tells us yes, we can.