
Your Fixed Mindset Is Holding You Back!
Your Fixed Mindset will have you believing that your success or failure is the result of your traits … traits that you were born with and can do nothing about.
If that’s your reality what do you do?
You AVOID!!
- You avoid singing because someone said you can’t sing
- You avoid anything creative because … you can’t …draw…paint…act…fill in the blank ______
- You avoid people because you “aren’t good with people”
- You can’t cook, garden, or do anything technical .. just because something went wrong in the past?
- You aren’t good at study so you don’t
- …The list goes on and on
The End Result?
You seriously reduce your ability to meet your needs, live the life you want and be your best self.
A Growth Mindset vs a Fixed Mindset
- A Fixed Mindset sees challenges as evidence of shortcomings or failures. You give up or avoid trying altogether so you can’t fail or be judged
- A Fixed Mindset is outcomes-driven and sees failure as wasted effort.
Whereas a Growth Mindset…. sees challenges, problems and failures as opportunities, feedback, or at worst temporary setbacks.
Obliterate your Fixed Mindset and develop your Growth Mindset to steer your life in the directions you want and MOST IMPORTANTLY … stay the course and appreciate the journey.
The First Step!!
Download our Needs Profile to understand your unique needs. Then come straight back to understand how to use them in developing your Growth Mindset.
Choice Theory Supports a Growth Mindset
Choice Theory helps you understand how your Fixed Mindset developed and how to move into a Growth Mindset using the five basic needs:
- Survival
- Love and belonging,
- Fun,
- Power
- Freedom
Survival Needs
A high need for survival means you will not want to take risks or make mistakes. You will follow paths that are easy, familiar and less risky.
To move towards growth
- Invest time in back-up plans and a safety net
- Research your decisions carefully
- Get feedback from others who you respect
Fun Needs
SURE ... your need for fun is about amusement ... but it is also about learning. A love of learning for learning sake goes hand in hand with a Growth Mindset. It's important you give yourself, your loved ones and particularly your children the space and the encouragement to learn without criticism and judgement. Fear of failure and mistakes destroys a love of learning.
Young children are allowed to experience the wonder of learning and have fun doing it. As you progress towards adulthood learning becomes results driven. All the joy is sucked out of learning and mistakes are avoided at all costs.
To move towards growth
- Create your own schedule as much as you can and change it up to keep it fun
- Allow yourself the freedom to learn
- Believe there is always time for the things you love
- Find the fun factor in everything you do
Freedom Needs
- Allow yourself the freedom to do things your way
- Allow yourself some space for freedom however you can within your life
- Shore up your boundaries against people and situations who try to control you
Love and Belonging Needs
A Fixed Mindset can impact the social and emotional areas of your life.
- "I'm not a team player"
- "I'm no good in social situations"
- "People always end up hurting me"
These are all chosen thoughts that get in the way of your L & B needs. Anyone can learn how to work and play well with others.
If you score high in L & B developing a Growth Mindset around the way you interact with others is important.
Power Needs
A high need for Power can get in the way and overtake everything else. In Choice Theory your need for Power is your need for internal power through acknowledgement, achievement, influence and doing things of worth.
You tend to do things that you can excel at, avoiding things that challenge you too much. You give up when the going gets tough and fear looking like a fool. If you couple this with a high need for survival, you have powerful ingredients to create a Fixed Mindset, but it doesn’t have to be that way!
Use your thoughts and those around you to invest in getting good rather than simply looking good. Continually remind yourself it's safe to do this.
Obliterate your Fixed Mindset
A Fixed Mindset can be changed because it is just a belief or series of beliefs that you've developed over time ... due to judgements and comparisons made by yourself and others.
Choice theory is an excellent lens through which to view a Fixed Mindset and turn it around. In order to overcome a Fixed Mindset the most important needs to unpack are your need for Power and Survival.
Being aware of your Needs Profile and the behaviours you are using to meet those needs is the key to turning a Fixed Mindset around. You can’t change the needs you were born with ...but you can change the behaviours you learned to meet and protect those needs.
A Fixed Mindset works a little in meeting your needs, but a Growth Mindset will open up all sorts of possibilities and pathways for meeting your needs ... and will ensure you have the greatest possibility for success and happiness.
Thanks for reading 😊
As always if you have any questions, comments or feedback we would love to hear from you in the comments below. Your comments help others by your sharing and they also help this post to rank in Google where people can find it amongst all the online noise. So if this is something you think is valuable please take the time to leave a comment below before you go.
Thanks again
Deb🌻