While your environment may have conditioned you to see the world through dirt-covered lenses, it shouldn’t surprise you that those who see the world through rose-tinted lenses tend to be happier.
Your mindset is derived from many different aspects of your life and your perspective.
It is the lens through which you see the world.
So, how to shift your mindset? I’m so glad you asked because the results can be magical!
Quick Access
Pathways
Changing your mindset can be pretty challenging – even from a scientific point of view.
You have to work on literally changing the pathways in your brain.
It’s called neuroplasticity and it’s pretty amazing that your brain can change like that.
Our brains have more of the plasticity when we’re young, so as we get older change requires more effort.
Think of your mind as a dense forest.
The thoughts that you think as well as the habits and things you do on a regular or daily basis create paths in this thick forest.
It is easier to continue along the same path that you see stretching out in front of you.
Of course it’s a lot more difficult to strike out on your own and make another path.
You’ll have to hack through the leafy overgrowth, climb over fallen tree trunks and step into puddles.
Going through this path once, or twice, isn’t enough to keep it clear though.
You have to keep going down the other path again and again.
Like forging a path in a forest, your brain has to make those neural connections repeatedly.
Similarly to starting a habit, you want to try to do it every day if your goal is to shift your mindset.
It’s always harder to follow the path less taken and yet it is usually much more rewarding.
Fixed Mindset
A fixed mindset believes that we are all born with limits to our abilities.
That your intelligence is limited by an invisible factor determined at our birth.
That people are either born athletes, born artists, born musicians or they aren’t.
A fixed mindset says I can’t keep any plants alive, not even a cactus. I just don’t have a green thumb and nothing will change that.
A fixed mindset is not the right mindset to have if you care about your personal growth.
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset believes in the power of practice.
While some people are born with a predisposition for certain things, through practice and perseverance you can become just as – if not more so- talented.
Hard work can bridge the gap between those born with natural talent and those not.
A growth mindset says I’ve never really had a green thumb with plants, but I’m learning how to take better care of them and hope to keep one alive soon.
If you have a growth mindset then you know that you, like everyone, have the capability to change.
To change your thoughts, change your actions and to shift your mindset.
The Power of Yet
Now that you know the difference let me explain how to shift your mindset.
In my opinion, the easiest way to start is to add one word: yet.
I haven’t been able to keep any plants alive yet, but I’m learning.
You haven’t mastered any recipes yet, but practice makes progress.
I think most people can relate to learning to tie your shoes as a kid.
It’s effortless and thoughtless to us now, but when we were children our clumsy chubby fingers struggled with it. It was difficult, but I’m pretty sure that none of us thought
I’m just not good at tying my shoes, I don’t think this is for me. Only velcro from now on!
No, we kept at it until we got better.
What if we applied that philosophy to everything in our lives? Just how much could we achieve?
Be a Beginner
Though it is true that some of us are born with more natural talent than others, it doesn’t really account for all that much.
The kid who was good at drawing in elementary school kept working on it and that’s why they are a great artist in college.
Same with the kid who didn’t give up on guitar or any other number of things.
Even Julia child was not born holding a wooden spoon, knowing how to make recipes. She learned.
It’s easy to look at someone else’s work and be like wow I’ll never be that good, they were just born with all the talent and ability and I wasn’t.
But when you do that you really devalue all of the time and effort they put into their skills.
No one is great on accident.
Just because you can’t see all of the hard work behind a finished project, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Be brave enough to be bad at something new.
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
We tend to find what we are looking for.
Shift your mindset to one of positivity and you will see more positive things.
Likewise, if you linger in a negative mindset you will find more negative things.
So try to choose to see the good, even when it’s hard – ESPECIALLY when it’s hard.
Looking for the good.
Remember that you too can change.
Believe that you can and you’re already halfway there.
I believe that you can become your best self.
If you believe that you can become your best self then you can become your best self.
Likewise, if you believe that you will fail then you probably will fail.
Your mind is a truly powerful thing, which is why there is so much magic in shifting your mindset.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right,” – Henry Ford
Be a Wildflower
Who you were does not define who you are or who you will be.
I think we are often too quick to apply labels to things, including ourselves.
We are allowed to change our minds, change our diets and change our styles.
Try not to put too much of your personal identity into any one basket.
“Like wildflowers; You must allow yourself to grow in all the places people thought you never would.”
I feel like one of the silver linings of all of the lock-downs due to the pandemic was that people remembered that they can still learn and we had the extra time to do it.
People who had never sewn, knitted or crocheted picked up a new skill and hobby.
People who had never cooked before baked their own bread, people who were unhealthy started workout programs and challenges.
Even people who didn’t think they were creative started painting, writing and creating.
You get the point.
My own experience
I think we’ve all struggled with a fixed mindset at some point in time and I am no exception.
For years I thought I’m just not domestic that’s not me.
I didn’t make any attempts to learn any recipes, or how to cook at all.
The extent of my abilities was baking cookies, preheating the oven and boiling water.
I truly thought that’s just how I am. Not even realizing that what I had was a fixed mindset.
It’s funny to think about how wrong I was now.
cheesy taco pasta | banana bread muffins | chicken teriyaki
It didn’t happen over night, it took me many years.
I started with some easy baked chicken recipes.
Then I got an Instant Pot mini as a Christmas gift and learned how to cook with that.
The more I learned, the more I enjoyed it and the better I got.
Funny how that works, right?
In Conclusion
That’s how to shift your mindset!
It’s a lot of work, but all growth is.
I hope this helped you both understand what a growth mindset is and inspired you to try to have one.
If you can think of anything that I missed, please let me know in a comment below!
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