In this vlog, Alex introduces a blog post that contrasts two mindsets: the "success seeker," who embodies a growth mindset, embraces challenges, and looks toward the future, versus the "failure avoider," who holds a fixed mindset, dwells on past judgments, and tries to evade failure. Alex outlines the risks of a failure‑avoidance orientation, including never reaching full potential, playing small, persisting with unproductive choices, and accumulating stress and anxiety. She describes a self‑assessment test consisting of about 20 statements that participants rate on a scale to gauge where they fall on the spectrum between the two mindsets. The blog also offers five concrete steps to shift behavior toward a success‑seeking orientation. Alex invites viewers to read the blog, take the test, and apply the tips, while wishing everyone a happy International Women’s Day.
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Hello, my lovelies, it's Alex. Today I wanted to talk to you about this blog that I wrote, um, and it focuses on whether you identify as a failure avoider or as a success seeker. And there's a big difference between the two. Um, basically, when you're a success seeker, you know, you tend to have a growth mindset, you keep your eye towards the future. Um, you love a good challenge. You don't shy away from, you know, from difficulties because you see them as an opportunity to learn, as an opportunity to do something different. Whereas a failure avoider will tend to have that fixed mindset. So, you know, that is all around judgment and whether or not you're again, are you going to be judged for what you've done or what you're doing? The other part is also around, um, keeping your eye really in your rearview mirror. So are you more worried about what's happened in the past than you are about keeping your eye towards the future? There is a very real fear of failure that really drives a lot of the decisions and a lot of the ways that people who tend to have failure-avoiding behaviors really, really follow. So those are kind of some of the, some of the differences. And there are real risks to being, to focusing too much on avoiding failure rather than on seeking success. So the first thing is that you're never really going to reach your full potential, right? Because you're worried about what people are going to think, you're worried about perfectionism, you're worried about doing all of the right things when there is somewhere no right or wrong unless you're talking about values, from a values perspective. You're not going to take those chances that could provide big benefits. We have a tendency, or people have a tendency, to play small when they are in that, you know, failure-avoiding, failure-avoiding mindset. The other thing is you might tend to, or people might tend to, um, focus on something and stick with something too long. So because there's that fear of failure and that fear of judgment, you don't want to appear like you've given up. You don't want to appear like, you know, it's just like you hang in there because you have to be right and you have to make sure that you succeed whatever the cost is. But there comes a point where things become counterproductive and, you know, really aren't aren't serving you. So some of those things really come as a risk of being, um, you know, of avoiding, wanting to avoid failure instead of really seeking that success. And the other thing is, when people focus on avoiding failure, they pile on so much stress and so much anxiety because they're constantly worried about, you know, how is this going to turn out, you know, and is this going to be seen as a failure versus, you know, hey, I'm just trying things out. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, what can I learn and what can I put into play so that in the future, um, I will be able to do better, right? So in the blog, I also have a quick test, uh, kind of a, you know, 20 questions where you can either say yes or no to the, um, or rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, I think, or 1 to 5, um, for each of the statements, where 1 is not at all versus 5, which is most of the time, so that you can gauge kind of where you fall. Because I think— I don't think there's a black and white line. I think there are some times where we feel like we are in a way striving to avoid failure versus really looking to to that success. But understanding where you fall also kind of helps to, um, to figure out, you know, okay, how can I then, how can I then fix it? And then the last part of the blog tells you 5 steps or 5 things that you can do in order to start moving the needle from being a Failure Avoider, if that happens to be where you are, if you tend to espouse more of those behaviors than those of the Success Seeker. And And then, you know, so what are the 5 steps that you can take to get you closer to being, um, to having the behaviors of a success seeker versus the behaviors of a failure avoider? So I kind of just wanted to share that with you today, um, and I'm going to put the link to the, to the blog below. I hope you go check it out. I hope you go test yourself and see where you fall. I'm curious. And, um, you know, don't be discouraged depending on what your test results are. If your test results, um, well, I'll let you take the test and, um, and see where you fall. And hopefully some of the tips that I outline in the blog can also help you to, uh, to continue to grow. And that's it for today, my friends. I just wanted to kind of share that with you, and I hope you have a great rest of the day, a fantastic rest of the week on this International Women's Day. I hope you celebrated and you were celebrated. And I will talk to you soon. Take care. Ciao.