Mindset in Everyday Life
Our greatest battles are that with our own minds. - Jameson Fran
In the last blog, I introduced the topic of mindset. We defined mindset, as stated by Teddy Mitrosillis, “as how you view and process the world around you.” I went on tho explain that we are unaware of our mindset the majority of the time.
I hope you took time to think about how you think and process the world around you. If you did not, take a couple of minutes before you proceed to think about how you process the world around you.
Let’s tackle how our mindset impacts our everyday life.
When I think about how I process the world around me, I realize I often do this on autopilot. Over the years I developed habits and routines that helped me respond to the world around me. Automated responses are a good thing. Research shows the brain consumes 20% of our energy, so automated processes helps conserve our energy.
Unfortunately, these automated processes, i.e. our mindset, can be detrimental when it keeps us from living our fullest potential. The response you give is the mindset you have. If you are negative, you have a negative mindset. If you feel unprepared, you have an unprepared mindset.
Here are some automated responses you and I have to the events around us:
I can’t
I shouldn’t
I am not smart enough
I cannot change my life
I’m a failureā€ØI’m inadequate
These responses are examples of what is called a fixed mindset. A future blog post will cover this topic in detail, but the point is that responses like this keep you from living your fullest potential by self-limitation.
Think for a moment the last time you said some of these phrases without even realizing you said them.
Let’s look at another automated response that often takes place. You are at work and a co-worker comes up to talk to you. You do not like your co-worker. Is there a specific event that causes you to dislike this person? Or, if you stop to think, do you just dislike your co-worker because of what others have said. You have established a mindset about your co-worker that impacts how you view them and how you interact with them.
Our mindsets are like filters. Information is coming from the world and we automatically filter our responses through our mindsets. Negative or positive. Hopeful or hopeless. Scared or bold. These are all examples of mindsets that we use to filter our responses to the world.
Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Find time to be alone and get out a piece of paper. Think about the last time you had a strong emotional response to something that happened. It could be an argument with a child or significant other. It could be a disagreement with a coworker. It could even be the person who cut you off in traffic. Do you have the event in your mind? Okay, think about what caused the emotion. Where did it come from? Why did you respond the way that you did? Take time to think about your response and try to get to the root of what is causing your response. When you get to that root, you have found your mindset in that situation.
Next time we will discuss types of mindsets. This is key to understand so that we can begin changing our mindset.
