Developing a Growth Mindset

Welcome to the Charged Life. This is Brendan Burchall. How do you develop a growth mindset? You know, a lot of people have what's called a fixed mindset, which is where they just don't believe they can grow. They don't believe they can get better. They believe that, you know, nature or their personality or their certain level of talent was kind of God given and they cannot bust through that. They're just. They are who they are, and things will always be the way they are, and life can't really be that much improved, and they can't get that much better at things. A fixed mindset. Now, the growth mindset has been very popularized by Carol Dweck, who wrote a phenomenal book called Mindset, which is a book if you haven't read, you definitely should have on your shelf. Great book to read. So how do you develop a greater growth mindset? I'm asked that a lot of times. This isn't from her book. Let her work speak for itself. My perspective of how to develop a growth mindset begins with the fundamental number one rule in life, and that is believe in your ability to figure things out. I think that is the ultimate belief in life, that, you know what? I believe that I can figure out how things work, and I believe that I can get better. That fundamental structure in our mind that says, I believe in those two things, that I can figure things out and I can get better, enables us for lifelong improvement and growth. But without them, good luck. Because if you take on a task that you don't know how to do, you say, well, I don't know how to do that, so I quit. If you want to be like somebody who you spot, you see as a role model, but you don't believe in yourself, you say, I'm not like that, so you quit. So without belief as the underlying element of your own mindset, there's no ability to grow. There's no ability to go anywhere. You have to look at this next stage of your life and say, I believe I can figure it out. If you have a great dream and you don't have any clue how to figure it out, you still go, I believe I can figure it out. Which allows you to get up and get to work on Monday and start working towards it. If you don't believe you can figure it out, you don't have any what psychologists called experience, expectancy, or even agency. And so you won't begin the journey. But once you believe that you can figure it out and you can do it, then you'll begin. So always believe in your ability to figure things out. The second thing to develop a greater growth mindset is question your assumptions. See, we all assume we are who we are. People say to me, well, Brendan, you're sharing with me that I should go out and share my advice or wisdom with the world. But you know, who am I to do that? And that's an assumption, isn't it? Who am I? As if you're not good enough, as if you're not capable enough. That what you're only capable of what you've learned today. I tell people all the time, don't let your current knowledge, skills and ability box in or narrow down your vision for your future. Because today, what you're capable of today has little to do with what you're capable of or possibly able to achieve in the future. Today is not a good predictor for tomorrow or the next year or ten years from now. Because think how different you are probably today than you were 10 years ago. How many more things you've learned, how kinder of a person you've become, how more empathetic you have become, how much more just, you know, solid and sure you might be. And if that's not the case for you, imagine a time in your life when you were stronger. Look, we all change, we all can develop, we can all grow. But we need to question the assumptions that limit us. Those ideas that say, oh, well, I'm not capable of that. Question those things that say, well, I'm an introvert so I can never share my dreams. Question those ideas that say, well, I can't be an entrepreneur or I can't get promoted. Whatever is coming in your mind, that's negative, you need to question that because that's what's preventing you from having a growth mindset. I would say number three, hugely important one for developing a long term growth mindset is to develop your own life curriculum. That is, you should have a set of books and tapes or CDs or audio digital programs or whatever you want to call it. You should be going to seminars. Don't wait for college to give you the curriculum of life. Don't wait for somebody to hand you a report you're supposed to read. Sit down, think, what am I passionate about? What's my dream? And then architect a curriculum to make that dream possible. See, I didn't used to know how to do all the things I know how to do today. I didn't know how to do video. I was scared to speak in public. I didn't have Any concept of how do you sell something online? I didn't know how to write a book. All the things that I do today that generate eight figures per year, I had no idea how to do any of them. None of them. Not a single one of them. But instead of saying, well, I don't know how to do that, and stopped, I developed my own curriculum. I said, well, I guess I'm going to have to learn videography. I guess I'm going to have to learn adult learning theory so I can teach. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to publicly speak. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to persuade people. I'm going to learn how to build a website, start a business, all these things. I bought books on it, I went to seminars on it. And in pursuing my own passions and dreams with curriculums that I created for myself, my mindset became more open because I realized how much there was to learn. I realized that I could learn it. I realized that I could do it. And if you're not completing curriculum you've designed in life, then you're just reacting. But once you start designing your own curriculum, what you want to learn, where you want to go, as you design that and implement that, you get stronger. As you get stronger, you're more open to new ideas because you realize that the world's always changing and that you're capable of handling things, that other people's perspectives are okay, because your perspectives change over time, too. And suddenly you find yourself as a more open person that helps you have an open mindset to change, to growth. I hope that serves. The last piece I'd like to share is that, you know, as you're really seeking to grow, you're going to have a lot of discouragement. You're going to have a lot of times when you fail, when things suck, when things aren't going the way that you really wanted to. And all I can share is this. During those times, honor the struggle. If you study any of my work in the last decade, you've seen this as a continual part of everything I believe about a healthy mindset, about a healthy way and approach to life. And that's honor the struggle when you're struggling and it's difficult and it's, you know, just so challenging. Don't hate that process. Don't say, this sucks. I quit. Just go, you know what? This is part of the learning journey for me. It's difficult right now, but I honor it because this difficulty is going to strengthen me. This difficulty I will use later on as a tool to be more empathetic to others. This difficulty will help me serve somebody in the future. This difficulty is forging a stronger character within myself to keep going, honor the struggle. See people who really have a growth mindset, despite what psychologists often will use that phrase now as so popular, the reality is the key differentiator with those who maintain a growth mindset. From my studies in high performance studies, from what I've learned is very simple. It's that when they get knocked down, they maintain resilience. When they struggle, their habit is to honor that, say, okay, this is part of the process. And they've honored the struggle so much in their life that every time a new struggle comes up, they they're not fighting it, they're not running away, they're not upset, they're like, okay, new challenge to deal with. Here we go. Got it. New challenge to deal with. Here we go. Got it. New challenge. In other words, they are now able to almost maintain a calm amidst the chaos because when they see hardship, they don't freak out. They go, got it. I can handle it. I believe in my ability to figure these things out. I'll create a curriculum so I can learn through these things. I'm going to honor the struggle as part of the process for me to grow as an individual and as a leader. Because they maintain all that, they develop what we call a long term growth mindset. Because they do all of those things, they get to experience what we call the charge life. Foreign hey, it's Brendan again. Did you notice something in today's episode? Yep. No ads, no sponsors. Just a positive message to improve your day. How do I do it? How is it that you listen to all those other podcasts and they have minutes and minutes worth of lame ads for underwear or other websites they're promoting? Hey, I don't judge them, but I choose to focus on you in this podcast. And personally, when I listen to other shows, I just skip those long winded sponsor pitches. Anyway, I can only do this because you share my podcast with so many other people and enough folks end up looking me up online and buying my books or taking my online courses that I can self fund this entire effort. And you know how hard it is to do all this and that's why I appreciate you guys so much. I heard that you even helped me break a record too. The longest running top 10 self help show without a single sponsor or product pitch or ad. So if you like this podcast ad free and sponsor free, do me a favor. Tell a friend today. You know, you should listen to the Charged Life, Brendon Burchard's podcast. Just help spread the word, share why you like my show, or tell people to go to podcast.brendon.com it would sure help and I'd appreciate it. And I'm sure our community would too. I look forward to talking with you again soon, my friend. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly, and make your difference today.