Creating an Advanced Mindset (Part 2)

Mindset of Growth

After you have given yourself the opportunity to create an advanced mindset, it is time to further develop that mindset. You began by understanding that difficulty and challenge can still be exciting and fun. Then you started to treat effort as a behavior that helps you progress forward with your performance (measuring and observing changes over time). Now it is time to separate the judgment of whether you can or cannot do something with the concept of choosing to invest in the mechanisms of progress that enable you to do something.

Reprogram Judgments

If in judging my abilities my thoughts track value on the paradigm of what I can/cannot do or what I am good/not good at, I will associate that message to what I am as opposed to what I can become. That is, “I am not good”, “I cannot do _____.” Going back to what we learned in part 1, I can enjoy and be excited about something I find difficult. I can change my message to myself and associate the value of effort with behavior, and feel like I’m making progress, rather than with skill, and maybe feeling like I fall short. My new message may be along the lines of “I’m not good at this yet but the effort I am applying and the time I am investing is a good representation of how much I value the endeavor. I am proud of myself for setting my mind to advancing and bettering myself.”

Trust the Process

This step, just as the development of advanced mindset itself, will take time and effort. Judgment will invariably challenge you and sometimes make you feel as though you are not doing it right. The more you practice separating the judgment and focusing on the behavior, the greater the gains towards becoming your better self. Along the same lines comes the perception of change — notable progress forward as you continue changing yourself. It is important to identify this potential for changes and progress. Without a mindset that accepts that things will change over time you become fixed on your current status and may, again, avoid challenge. To further your advanced mindset, a clear understanding of development over time is required.