Mindset: One of the Few Things We Have Control Over

With the speed of advancement in technology and artificial intelligence all around us and in our everyday lives, have you ever looked around and wondered, what do you have control over these days?

As I witness the intentional manipulation and destruction of the human mind and psyche with the literal war for controlling the various narratives out there, I can’t help but hope people wake up and realize their true power. The human mind is a powerful tool and can be our greatest resource if we know how to leverage it properly and guard it from false narratives.

This reality reminds me of the work of Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, one of the bestselling self-help books of all time. Hill’s work focused on the concept that fervid expectations are essential to improving one’s life.

Napoleon Hill’s most famous quote from Think and Grow Rich is: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Hill’s other famous quotes include:

• On desire: “The starting point of all achievement is desire.”

• On failure: “Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

• On action: “Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’.”

• On persistence: “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”

The Power of Mindset

While Hill himself never boils his work and philosophy for success down to “Mindset,” this comes up all the time in my executive and leadership coaching conversations. I remind leaders every day that their “mindset” is critical to their exhibiting emotional intelligence, reducing stress, and achieving their personal and professional goals.

We all see life through our own unique lens, and we are all wired to be attentive and inattentive to various things. For example, some see the glass as half full while others see the glass as half empty. Some see problems while others see opportunities.

Your mindset is the assumptions and expectations you hold about yourself, your life, and the situations around you. Research shows that mindsets play a significant role in determining life’s outcomes. By understanding, adapting, and shifting your mindset, you can improve your health, decrease your stress, and become more resilient to life’s challenges.

Mindset Definition – (noun) a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.

Types of Mindset

As I researched the topic of mindset, I found there are many types of mindsets. Here are some examples.

Core Mindsets

• Growth Mindset: Believing that your talents, intelligence, and abilities can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and feedback.

• Fixed Mindset: Believing that your qualities and intelligence are static, unchangeable traits you are simply born with.

• Abundance Mindset: The view that there are plenty of resources, opportunities, and successes available for everyone, rather than a limited supply.

• Scarcity Mindset: The fear-based belief that resources are limited, leading to worry about loss and competition.

Action-Oriented Mindsets

• Positive Mindset: An optimistic approach that focuses on solutions, gratitude, and finding value in difficult situations.

• Entrepreneurial Mindset: A focus on spotting problems and treating them as chances to innovate, create solutions, and take calculated risks.

• Learner (or Mastery) Mindset: The drive to practice and improve for the joy of learning itself, rather than just chasing a specific result.

• Confident Mindset: Trust in your own skills, self-awareness of your weaknesses, and openness to change.

The Impact of Mindset

Having a certain mindset influences both your World View and your Self View. These viewpoints shape who we are and impact our sense of reality. Mindsets can impact your outcomes by determining the way you think, feel, and respond to various situations.

A 2007 study revealed that increased awareness of physical activity resulted in health benefits like weight loss and decreased blood pressure.

In the world of medicine, there’s a well-known phenomenon called the placebo effect. If someone believes they are going to derive certain benefits from taking a certain medication, they often do. In reality, regardless of the disease or condition, about 30-40% of people can have a significant improvement in their symptoms even when taking a placebo (sugar pill), if they believe the medicine will be helpful.

Additionally, when a physician emphasizes the potential side effects of a certain medicine, and the patient believes they will develop these symptoms, even if given a placebo, these patients can develop the adverse side effects, just based on what their mind expects.

One last example of how powerful the human mind and our mindset can be is from a young woman I’ve coached for several years. I knew in our first couple of coaching situations she had a “limited” mindset about her career. She never envisioned rising above a mid-level manager in her organization. I told her early on that she had the talent and potential to be the CEO of that organization one day. She laughed it off as a nice compliment but never believed it about herself. I continued to tell her that so that she finally believed in a new reality about herself. She told me in a coaching session recently that she originally thought I was crazy for telling her she had the potential to be the CEO. Now, she is in the running for that very role.

It is my sincere belief that mindset matters. I encourage you to practice focusing on changing your mindset and defeating your negative thoughts in various life and professional situations.

A famous saying, derived from the movie “Field of Dreams” is, “if you build it, they will come.” I encourage focus on changing your mindset to believe that you are the master of your reality. If you believe it to be true, you might be able to make it a reality.