Mindset or stuck mind?
Accessing a high quality mindset:
A mindset can be regarded as a set of principles and values that we invoke when we face challenges. A high quality mindset is built on principles encourage curiosity and exploration. It often values collaboration over competition and abundance over scarcity. It allows us to access the best skills and capabilities that we have to deal more successfully with challenges that we face.
Whatever mindset we employ sets the principles and values that drive behaviour. Imagine how a scarcity mindset and an abundance focused mindset encourage different behaviours in the same circumstance.
Your mindset is often driven by your deep seated beliefs about who you are and the way you think the world works. Are you good enough? Should things be fair? What are you allowed to have or achieve?
We hear a lot about having a ‘success’ mindset – or even an ‘abundance mindset’ – as being critical to succeeding and living a fulfilling life. No one wants to have a ‘failure’ or ‘scarcity’ mindset, so why is it so hard to attain – and maintain – a high quality mindset?
Maintaining a high quality mindset is not the norm. It requires a different way of thinking and a different level of ‘EQ’ than simply approaching the problem you face with a stuck mind.
The ‘stuck mind’ problem:
Most of the time, people approach challenges with a ‘stuck mind’ rather than a valuable ‘mindset’. This is human nature, and relies on the natural heuristics and biases we naturally use to move ahead in our lives.
A stuck mind is really just a group of unconscious, habitual tools that are used to solve problems. These often are created at some point in our past that were helpful then, but lead to a ‘go to’ response that does not work in all the situations it is generalised to and that we face now. These are simple, unconscious behaviours that do not invoke principles or beliefs, just automated actions.
Consider someone who deals with feeling anxious by staying at home. Or a parent who yells to get the kids to behave. Or someone who smokes a joint to calm themselves down. When these become the habitual ‘set mind’ response, we define people as having agoraphobia, anger issues and a drug dependency.
There may have been value in the initial or one-off solution to a problem, but now as these responses become habits, they start to generate problems of their own.
Because we face into novel circumstances all of the time, a ‘set mind’ and unconscious heuristics and biases become limiting frames for moving ahead – and more often keep people stuck. However, having the capability to move beyond this way of thinking and invoking a ‘mindset’ of high value principles and values can allow novel situations and complex problems to be faced as the best versions of ourselves.
Where do you find yourself stuck in old habits or patterns of behaviour?
Where do you notice yourself acting, and then regretting it?
Unleashing your best mindset requires some important steps:
- Expand your self awareness: Understand your values and drivers.
- Know what are your unwanted habitual responses – and when you use them Manage yourself to choose higher order values and principles at such times. Engage in meta cognition (think about your thinking) and encourage a strong sense of self compassion and self worth.
- Be realistic and understand what you can control in the situation. Don’t over-play or under-play your personal agency.
- Be curious and reflective of what occurs and how you respond.
What if you had the choice to shift from ‘stuck mind’ to mindset?
What if you had the choice of what principles and values you wanted as the basis for acting – like higher quality ones?
Are you operating with a stuck mind and struggling to adopt a powerful mindset? It is a very common and highly frustrating approach to living your best life. I can help you break through – contact me to find out how.