“It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are.” – Roy E. Disney
Whenever you start doing something new, you have to learn new ways of doing things, and along the way you will encounter difficulties, failures, and disappointments. Remember the first time you learned how to ride a bicycle? You had difficulty coordinating your hands, legs, and eyes to control your bicycle. I’m sure you had hit trees, walls, or fences, and fell on the ground just like me. After a few more tries, armed with motivation and persistence you’re finally on the road enjoying the ride.
In life you will always meet challenges, oppositions, issues and problems. But when you believe that you can do whatever you set out to do, you will be able to break barriers and scale heights easier than people who think they can’t. Your perspective and response to challenges differentiate you from whiners, complainers, and losers.
When you start to live your life purpose, you will need to make corrections and changes in your thinking and behavior. And the first step to making a change usually starts in your mind, specifically your mindset.
“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” – Joyce Meyer
What is Mindset?
The dictionary definition of mindset tells us that it is a fixed mental attitude, disposition or mood that predetermines a person’s response and interpretation of a particular situation.
The word mindset came from the two words “mind” and “set” which implies the formation of the way we think based on our previous experiences. It affects how we think, feel and do. It impacts the way we make sense of the world, ourselves, and our situations. You need a completely different way of thinking, one that is critical, progressive, and positive.
When you possess a positive mindset you don’t set limits to possibilities in face of opposition, challenges, lack, and uncertainty. You do not dwell on problems but rather focus on solutions and improvements. You believe that God created abundance in the Universe, and it is available to you, you just have to seek it and find it. Once you visualize the possibilities, having a positive mindset energizes you to take action to realize your dreams. It challenges you to persist in times of difficulties. And it powers you up until and beyond your dream achievement.
Your mental toughness though will be tested as you try to achieve your dreams. This is the time where opposition is greatest, and frustration sets in. You will be disappointed from time to time.
Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset
In the book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” the Stanford University professor, Carol Dweck, postulates two types of mindset, the ‘fixed mindset’ and the ‘growth mindset.’
In the fixed mindset, intelligence and talent are static and set at birth. This is the mindset that drives the inherited life purpose.
In the growth mindset, intelligence and talent can be developed. So, simply, this concept tells you that if you want to develop yourself in any area of your life, you have to acquire
growth mindset. This is the mindset that will drive your divine life purpose.
To have a growth mindset is to constantly develop your abilities (intelligence, skills, and attitude) and your character (endurance, perseverance, patience, gratitude) and to proactively respond to outside forces.
Figure 1: Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset
Importance of Having a Growth Mindset
Intelligence alone, or IQ, does not assure success in life. You may know someone in school who consistently get excellent grades but isn’t successful later in life. Or, someone who didn’t do well academically in school but is now flourishing pretty well in business or professional career.
Even talent alone will not guarantee continuing success, especially in this rapidly evolving world. Someone who started well in her career may get stuck in her job later. To prepare you for any goals achievement you have to develop your growth mindset, because success requires a different way of being, thinking, and doing. Don’t expect a favorable result if you are still stuck in your fixed mindset.
Neuroplasticity
Brain science supports the notion that we can still unlearn old ways and learn new ways. Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of our brain to continuously reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. This ability never stops and is retained throughout our life. It helps us adjust our activities in response to new situations or to changes in our environment.
Bear in mind that neuroplasticity is neutral. As we are growing up, our brain is continuously creating neural connections in response to the environment we’re in. The things we were taught and the things that we experienced, they create our perception of reality. Our perception may be wrong, but we believe them. So, if we grew up believing the negative self-limiting beliefs about us, work, money, prosperity, relationship, etc., we develop imposed values that become the basis for our attitude, ultimately manifesting in our behavior and action.
This article is an excerpt from my book, "Living Your Epic Life," available in e-book and print versions at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Living-Your-Epic-Life-Discover-ebook/dp/B073LQHBPF/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1536825124&sr=8-2&keywords=edgar+bella+agustin
