Mindset Shifts that Change
Your Life Experience S. 1 E. 13
Your mindset contains beliefs can both help you and hurt you. Listen to this episode to learn how mindset shifts can help you exchange negative beliefs for ones that will serve you in better ways.
Show Notes
Episode Summary:
We all have beliefs that determine not only what we think, but influence the choices we make, and ultimately, how we live our lives. We all have limiting beliefs that are holding us back. Have you identified the limiting beliefs that are holding you back? In today’s episode, we’re talking about mindset shifts that can improve how you experience your life.
In this episode:
Your mindset is a series of beliefs that influence your behaviors and habits. Your beliefs can set you up for success, happiness and personal fulfillment. Your limiting mindset beliefs can also keep you down, causing struggles and challenging you in limiting ways.
The good thing about limiting mindset beliefs is that they don’t have to derail you; once you are aware of them, you can change them.
Growth Mindset
Most teachers are familiar with Carol Dweck’s growth mindset philosophy.
Those with a fixed mindset believe that our talents and intelligence are born in. They believe that success comes from innate talent.
The growth mindset belief is that your basic qualities are things you can change and grow with effort.
People with a growth mindset are not afraid to examine their performance and abilities and pay attention to information that can stretch them.
Many teachers promote growth mindset with their students. You’ve probably read about and used strategies for helping students understand their mindset and cultivating a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset.
We are going to flip the script today and talk about how teachers can change and develop their own mindset.
Neuroplasticity
We know that our brains can develop and grow throughout our lives.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change, adapt, and rewire itself.
When we learn, or do something differently, our brains have the ability to make new connections. New neurons create pathways, not unlike the path that you would create by repeatedly walking through a forest. The brain will also eliminate neural pathways that we are not using, which speeds up processing time and allows us to access connections more quickly.
The more you practice or apply or review a skill, the stronger the pathways are. This is why teachers activate background knowledge before a lesson or why they ask questions to help students make connections from something new to something they already know.
What are some mindset beliefs that might be limiting you?
Perfectionism
- Perfectionists often over think things. They wait to act until everything is perfect, which often means projects are delayed. Perfectionism leads to procrastination, which leads to paralysis.
- At the heart, perfectionism is often fear of failure. Fear of failure is a fixed mindset belief. The mindset belief is, “If I don’t do this perfectly, I will be a failure.” This stops people from from trying new things. Waiting for things to be perfect is a great way to stop yourself from doing anything, thus avoiding possible failure.
How can we shift this mindset?
- A mindset shift is to adopt the idea that failure does not condemn or define you, failure offers you an opportunity to learn. Failure just means that you have not developed the skills yet. This growth mindset offers you the opportunity to try again and again, making small incremental changes to improve each time.
- If you are in the game, you are going to fail sometimes. It means you are trying. No one expects every basketball player to make 100% of the shots. You should not expect yourself to be perfect 100% of the time either.
Imposter Syndrome
We’ve heard from many teachers at workshops that they often feel like they are imposters, that they are not good enough.
- Imposter syndrome is the belief that says, “I am not good enough.” If you have imposter syndrome, you may believe that you are not ready, that you don’t know enough, and that somehow you got yourself into a job or position that you don’t deserve.
- People with imposter syndrome look around and see everyone else as more competent than they are, which proves to them that they are not deserving. Any success you have found must be just a fluke.
- Imposter syndrome is fairly common, not only among new teachers, but among all teachers.
- Teachers spend their days largely alone with students, isolated from the trials and struggles of their colleagues. They know their own struggles, but often don’t see the struggles of others.
- Social media also feeds into imposter syndrome. People often post their highlights but less often their struggles. It is easy to compare yourself to others on social media and come up lacking. Comparison is often the thief of joy.
What are some mindset shifts for imposter syndrome?
- Understand that whatever you are feeling, you are likely not alone.
- Talk to other teachers about your struggles.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Share the successes, but also the failures. This is growth mindset in action.
- Do not forget to own your achievements. Claim your experiences and growth. Recognize and celebrate your progress. Pat yourself on the back for the things you do well.
- Even the very best in their field get imposter syndrome. For example, Jodie Foster said, “When I won the Oscar, I thought it was a fluke. I thought everybody would find out, and they’d take it back. They’d come to my house, knocking on the door. ‘Excuse me, we meant to give that to someone else. That was going to Meryl Streep.”
- Then take this quote from Meryl Streep, “ You think, ‘Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?”
Overwhelmed
When we use overwhelmed as a mindset belief, we are talking about being overwhelmed as a state of mind, as a personal characteristic or as the way you live your life.
- Being overwhelmed is a temporary state that we all feel from time to time. Life is busy and we all have a lot of things to do.
- Sometimes overwhelm goes from being a temporary state to being a personal identity. “I am overwhelmed right now,” is different from “I am overwhelmed” as a perpetual life truth.
- Do you regularly describe yourself as overwhelmed? Do you feel it every day? Has overwhelm overshadowed joy or happiness in your life? The demands of teaching are many, and the expectations for teachers are high. It is easy to succumb to overwhelm.
- If so, you may have adopted “I am overwhelmed” as a mindset. Your mind believes your regular state is overwhelmed, and it becomes true. Your negative thoughts become your default way of thinking.You find what you look for.
What is a mindset shift for “ I am overwhelmed”?
- Recognize that you are temporarily overwhelmed. “ This too shall pass.”
- Get clear about which things are the most important. Overwhelm is often due to a lack of clarity. You have so much to do you don’t know where to start and you end up not doing anything.
- Be reasonable about what you can accomplish each day. Having a list of fifty tasks to do each day is not only unrealistic, it will immediately set you up for failure. Know what your top three tasks are and strive to complete those. Anything else is a bonus!
- Don’t make things harder than they have to be. Can you find a way to make it easy? Lugging home 25 student journals to read in the evening is a huge task. Reading five journals a day is easy.
These are just a few examples of mindset beliefs. There are plenty more where those came from. We have mindset beliefs about our abilities, about money, and about who we think we are. We have beliefs about what is “realistic” and what is “possible” and what is “impossible. “
You can shift your mindset.
To begin to shift mindset issues that aren’t serving you in a positive way:
- Consider the cause of your beliefs. Where do they come from? Are they connected to things your parents said or experiences you’ve had?
- Consider the stories you are telling yourself. Are they really true? Listen to your own self talk.
- Decide that you are finished with this belief.
- Challenge your beliefs by taking small steps or doing some small action that moves you away from your limiting belief.
- When you are finding yourself overwhelmed or needing a mindset shift consider a staircase. You don’t instantly go from the bottom to the top. You focus on one step at a time. You spend your time looking forward and up, not stopping mid staircase or looking back. Shifting your mindset can be considered in a similar way.
- Example: If your mindset belief is that you are not good at speaking in front others, plan to speak up at a team meeting or faculty meeting. Write down your ideas ahead of time and practice if you need to. Then try it out. Notice what happens. You’ve lived through the experience. No one threw rotten tomatoes at you. What kind of reaction did you get?
- You can’t change everything overnight, and trying to do so will likely derail you. However, you can pick one mindset issue and take one step. You will gradually shift your mindset.
Recap: Our mindset beliefs influence our lives for better or for worse. We can shift those beliefs. The science of neuroplasticity demonstrates that we can add new pathways in our brains, and that with disuse old pathways will gradually fade out and even disappear- synaptic pruning in action. In order to start to shift your mindset, notice your beliefs, examine them, and then take small steps that will prove that whatever it is you believe is not really true.
Quote:
“I’m not interested in your limiting beliefs; I’m interested in what makes you limitless.”
Brendon Burchard
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Related episdoes and posts:
3 Limiting Mindset Beliefs that Will Hold You Back
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