Life Mindset Handbook – I

Mindset is the set of believes that together builds up our perspective for the world around us. They are the elements of our mental construction that perceives the world around us. More simply, they are the goggles through which you see the world. Thus, they govern your reaction to what happens around you and your actions in the first place. That depends if you start by actions or reactions. Being proactive means that you prioritize taking action. Being reactive means that your actions are a response to what happened.

Mindset has two broad categories:

A mindset refers to a person’s established set of attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions that shape how they perceive and respond to the world around them. It is a mental framework that influences how individuals approach situations, make decisions, and navigate challenges. Mindsets play a crucial role in shaping behavior, determining resilience, and influencing personal and professional success. We had seen the skillsets needed for reliability personal in the previous chat: Team’s skillset that foster Reliability. Let’s now see how mindset looks like.

There are several types of mindsets, and they often fall into two main ones based on Dr. Carol Dweck writings.

Growth Mindset:

• Belief: Individuals with a growth mindset believe that their abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work, learning, and resilience. They see challenges as opportunities for growth and are more likely to embrace learning and take on new challenges.
• Impact: This mindset fosters a love of learning, resilience in the face of setbacks, a willingness to take on challenges, and a belief that effort leads to improvement.

Fixed Mindset:

• Belief: Individuals with a fixed mindset tend to believe that their abilities, intelligence, and talents are innate and fixed. They may view challenges as threats and may be resistant to taking risks or trying new things for fear of failure.
• Impact: This mindset can lead to a desire to prove oneself, a fear of making mistakes, and a tendency to avoid challenges that may challenge existing skills.

Effects of Mindset on our Life:

Since our mindset is the mental construction through which we perceive and interact with the world around us, then it directly affects how we live our life. This enforces certain Personality traits that clearly characterize and differentiates humans. Even though some of us fall in the middle between the two worlds and sustain different mindsets in relative to different topics. So they have fixed or constrained mindset in response to certain topics or situations. While, in other situations, they show some freedom to explore new horizons. So let’s list down the general personal traits that governs how those two groups act or react. That an excerpt from CALE Learning Enhancement of Eastern Washington University:

Growth Mindset

• Individuals with a growth mindset believe their most basic abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. Brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilient attitude.
• So, they believe in general that:
  • Self-Perception: Views oneself as a work in progress, capable of continuous improvement.
  • Embrace challenges: Sees challenges as opportunities for learning and improvement.
  • Dealing with Setbacks: Persist in the face of failure, Sees setbacks as part of the learning process and an opportunity to persevere.
  • Wiliness to exert effort: See effort as the path to mastery. Understands that sustained effort is a path to mastery.
  • Feedback and Criticism: Learn from criticism. Why? Views feedback as valuable input for improvement and learning.
  • Success of Others: Find inspiration from the success of others and sees it as a source of learning.
  • Long-Term Goals: These individuals reach high levels of achievement. Focuses on learning and development, understanding that long-term success comes from continuous improvement.

Fixed Mindset

• These individuals believe their basic qualities (i.e. intelligence or talent) are fixed, static, and unable to change.
• So, they believe in general that:
  • Self-Perception: Tends to define oneself based on inherent traits.
  • Avoid challenges: May avoid challenges to maintain a sense of competence.
  • Dealing with Setbacks: Give up easily, Takes setbacks personally and may be discouraged by failure.
  • Wiliness to exert effort: May perceive effort as fruitless if it doesn’t lead to immediate success.
  • Feedback and Criticism: Ignore useful criticism and feedback. Why? May be defensive in response to criticism, seeing it as a judgment of their abilities.
  • Success of Others: Feel threatened by the success of others
  • Long-Term Goals: These individuals will achieve less than their full potential. May focus on proving intelligence or talent, often with a desire for immediate success.

Importance of Mindset in Life:

• Resilience: A growth mindset enhances resilience by fostering a positive response to challenges and setbacks.
• Learning and Development: A growth mindset promotes a love for learning and continuous improvement.
• Relationships: Mindsets can influence how individuals approach relationships, collaboration, and teamwork.
• Personal Fulfillment: A growth mindset is often associated with a greater sense of personal fulfillment and satisfaction.

It’s important to note that individuals may have a combination of fixed and growth mindsets in different areas of their lives. More importantly, traits of Growth mindset and Fixed mindset might complement each other to unlock our full potential. Developing a growth mindset to become dominating is a continuous process that involves self-awareness, intentional effort, and a willingness to embrace challenges and learning opportunities.

What changes our mindset?

Our mindsets are influenced by a complex interplay of various factors. Hence causing our mindsets to evolve over time based on experiences, beliefs, and external influences. Here are some of the factors that may influence our mindsets:

Upbringing and Early Experiences:

This mainly comes from Family Environment and Early Educational Experiences. The beliefs and attitudes instilled during childhood by family members significantly shape one’s initial mindset. Also, our school environments, teaching styles, and interactions with peers can contribute to the formation of mindset. The emphasis on grades and testing can contribute to either a fixed or growth mindset depending on the educational approach.

Those two sources, family and education, entrench cultural values and society expectations in our mindset. Cultural values and norms play a role in shaping it through influencing attitudes toward success, failure, and personal development. Societal expectations and standards can impact how individuals perceive success, failure, and the pursuit of goals. Moreover we receive rewards and punishments based on our compliance or defying cultural values and society expectations

What Voluntarily impacts our mindsets?

This mainly comes from the Role Models and Influential Figures that the close society or the bigger online worldly community introduce to us and we chose to follow. Even if the behavior and mindset of parents or caregivers serve as powerful models for mindset development, we clearly know their effect and can change it later on. However whom we select as Mentors and Inspirational Figures can silently influence our mindset by demonstrating certain attitudes and behaviors that we voluntarily chose to reproduce.

This can be clear in the media portrayals of success, failure, and personal development can shape perceptions and contribute to mindset. Moreover, Cultural narratives and stories conveyed through various media can influence mindset by reinforcing certain values and beliefs.

Our close circle

The close circle around us has a higher and more profound effect on our mindset. This circle includes our school mates, friends, coworkers and relatives. Interactions with friends and peers can impact mindset, as we may adopt attitudes and beliefs prevalent in these close circles. Not only that but the expectations and standards set by peers can influence how one approaches challenges and achievements.

We build our life experiences mainly from the interactions with our close circle. This includes facing and overcoming challenges that can foster resilience and a growth-oriented mindset or vice versa. Also personal successes and failures and how they are conceived by our inner circle contribute to mindset development, shaping attitudes toward achievement and setbacks.

The main factors in our close circle that shapes our mindset as a small community are the Economic factors and the Philosophical and Spiritual Beliefs. Economic circumstances and stability can influence mindset, as financial security may impact one’s approach to risk and achievement. Philosophical and spiritual beliefs about the nature of life, purpose, and personal growth also heavily shape our mindset.

At last but not least comes the Critical Life Events that may cause Traumatic experiences can profoundly impact mindset, either by fostering resilience or influencing a more fixed perspective.

In summary,

Our mindsets are shaped by a combination of external influences, personal experiences, and individual characteristics. While early experiences play a foundational role, ongoing interactions, educational experiences, and intentional efforts to cultivate a growth-oriented perspective can contribute to the development and evolution of one’s mindset.
This result in a combination of fixed and growth mindsets in different areas of our lives. Mindset is the set of believes that together builds up our perspective for the world around us. They are the elements of our mental construction that perceives the world around us. More simply, they are the goggles through which you see the world. Thus, they govern your reaction to what happens around you
Developing a growth mindset is a continuous process that involves self-awareness, intentional effort, and a willingness to embrace challenges and learning