Fixed vs. Growth Mindset: How to Train Your Brain for Success

In this episode of the Gutsy Chick podcast, we’re exploring why mindset training is the missing key to your success. This episode discusses the difference between fixed and growth mindsets, emphasizing the importance of mindset training for people of all ages, not just athletes.  

In this Episode:  

00:00: Understanding Mindset and Its Importance 

06:06: The Process of Mindset Training 

12:00: Implementing Mindset Training in Daily Life 

Watch Gutsy Chick Podcast on YouTube!

Check out more from Amanda:
Website: Body Whisper Healing
Instagram: @Amanda.G.Smith
Facebook: Body Whisper Healing
Pinterest: AmandaGSmithBWH
LinkedIn: Amanda (Ritchie) Smith

Take the Gutsy Chick Quiz to find out how your athletic mindset might be holding you back from healing your chronic health issue: https://gutsychickquiz.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Mindset and Its Importance
• 6:06 The Process of Mindset Training
• 12:00 Implementing Mindset Training in Daily Life

Transcript

0:00

mindset and mindset training isn't just for kids that are athletes. That's what we're talking about on this episode of the Gutsy Chick podcast. Thank you so much for listening and joining in on learning more about mindset, mindset training, and well what I've learned about mindset training. I'm your host Amanda Smith, creator of the Gutsy Chick Quiz, you can check that out at gutsychickquiz.com. I'm also the creator of the Heal to Grow process, which I use with all of my clients in their healing process. You can check that out at bodywhisperhealing.com. What in the world is mindset? Mindset is a person's belief and attitude that influences how they think, feel, and behave. mindset types. We, we've had an awesome, inspiring psychologist talk deeply and, and beautifully and brilliantly about mindset types. Carol Dweck has coined the phrase growth mindset. And there's also the phrase fixed mindset. So when it comes to learning about mindset, and doing mindset trainings, what we're going for is a growth mindset. But let's start with the definition of a fixed mindset so you can kind of see the duality here. A fixed mindset is where people believe their traits are unchangeable. They cannot change their intelligence level, their talent level, their ability to learn. It's unchangeable. And right there, just saying it, I'm going, well, that's a bunch of crap. And hopefully you are too. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence, talents, and abilities can be improved through effort and learning. It's a way of thinking that can help people face challenges, learn from failures, and adapt. And this brings mindset training. So I have seen a ton of mindset training for kids that are athletes. College athletes get mindset training. Professional athletes get mindset training. And in some really... Advanced companies, get mindset training. Mindset training is for everyone. So here's my big audacious tip. If you have a kid who's going into a mindset training, go with them. Attend the mindset training with them, whether that's online, in person as a weekend workshop, go with them. Take. advantage of learning what your kid is learning. If your company offers mindset training, go take the training. But here's the thing about trainings, not all are created equal. Some of the things that we benefit from mindset training, let's go there first. Actually, let's define mindset training first. It's a process that helps people develop a more positive mindset and overcoming limiting beliefs. So the benefits of mindset training improve performance. Who doesn't want that in all walks and wakes of life, increased self-awareness, better relationships, reduced stress. more confidence. This is the most common reason that parents are putting their kids that are athletes into mindset training. More confidence. They embrace challenges. This is the second most prominent reason that parents put their kids into mindset training. They have a problem embracing challenges. Persist through setbacks. See effort as a path to mastery. I love that one. Learn from criticism. Find inspiration in others success. Emphasize process over outcome. Man, if more people could do that. Be open to learning. That's the third reason why some parents put their kids into mindset training when they're athletes because they're having a closed mindset around learning new things. A fixed mindset. Be resilient and adaptable. mindset training has some pretty sweet benefits. And I know when I am offering mindset training for my softball players, my mindset training program is called champions operating system. I specifically created this because parents want their kids to be champions and there's an operating system, a way of thinking that goes with being a champion. Now, when you're an executive or an entrepreneur, you're looking for success in your job or success in your business, respectively. Sometimes this requires us to shift our mindset. If you find that at work, you are constantly going, my gosh, this is awful. my gosh, something needs to change. my gosh. What in the world is happening to my people? Why are they so negative? This is where mindset training swoops in to help out. Now, if you're an entrepreneur, mindset training usually comes in the form of some online coach saying, Hey, I've got this cool online training. Let me help you. with your mindset, let's transform your mind. This is where things can go sideways. Mindset training has a general process that chat GPT lovingly gave me and I cracked up when I saw the steps, but it's generally true. Hopefully it's not as limited in scope as what chat GPT shared with me, but here's what chat GPT said about mindset training process. First, identify the limiting belief such as a fear, self-criticism or resentment. Second, Write down a new positive mindset. Not as easy as that sentence. Not even close. Step three, recognize when negative thoughts arise. Also not very easy. This is where, this is where most of the training should be diving into. Step four, journal about your experiences. I wholeheartedly believe in journaling, not necessarily limited to just your experiences, but Thank you, chat GPT for simplifying things. And then step five, repeat the process until the new mindset feels natural, until it becomes a belief. That's what it really should say. If you got to listen to the episode with Leslie Chen on the neuroscience of belief, you will understand how the brain works and how the brain will sabotage you. The mind, I should say, not the brain, but the mind sabotages you when it comes to making change, but having stuck beliefs, beliefs that contradict what you're trying to go for. And in that episode, we were specifically tackling weight loss because that's who Leslie Chen works with as a neuroscientist. She is helping people change their belief around weight loss. Many, many people struggle with weight loss because their beliefs have gotten so fixed. because they haven't seen success in the past and just unwinding those little tidbits to help somebody lose weight is huge. So repeat the process until the new mindset feels natural, meaning believable. Okay, there are a ton of tools that should be used when it comes to mindset training. And ultimately these tools are lifelong skills that we should go off and be using all of the time. Chad GPT in the process mentioned one, journal. One. I wholeheartedly believe that journaling is a tool that you should be using to help with your mindset. But there are many, many more. And this is where shifting your belief needs tools. So here are some tools that the trainings that you're looking at for either yourself, your kids, your company should have. Number one, visualization. Visualization. If you look at the gurus or the most athletic people on our planet or anybody who has had huge success. in the workplace, in their company, in life, general statement. Visualization was at the top of their list of tools. Learning visualization is another story though. I have come across clients who don't have the ability to visualize. They cannot picture in their mind's eye. And that blew me away. I was just like, wait, what? That's a thing? Some people are not capable of seeing in their mind's eye a thing, but they might be capable of feeling it. They might be capable of hearing it. They might be capable of tapping into it in a different way. So visualization, teach it, learn it, practice it. Journaling is number two on my list. What to journal, when to journal, why to journal, those are all key things to understand. I wholeheartedly love journaling at night and in the morning because dream time happened in between those two things and intention going to sleep and then fruitfulness through the night, waking up and being able to journal all of that down, waking up with amazing thoughts. beautiful way to journal, but there are a ton of different ways to journal when you're going for mindset shifting. All right. And then in no particular order, here are a bunch of other things that may or may not be in the training, but are definitely beneficial to helping with mindset shift, moving or seated meditation. So if you're working with athletes, they already have a moving practice, teach them to sit. If you're working with people who sit in a desk all day long because they are a, you know, employee or a business owner, get them to start doing moving. meditation, growth mindset. already heard Carol, let me get her name right. Carol Jweck came up with the phrase growth mindset. Just learning the definition of that is enough, but really diving deeper into growth mindset in a training is huge because it's about definitions. The way we use words, especially in the lovely English language where we only have one One word that is hot and in Spanish there are five words that mean hot because they are referred to different things. Our lovely language. Affirmations with I am statements. Quality over quantity practices. Quality over quantity that needs to be taught. Non-negotiable self-care should be a part of mindset training. Non-negotiable self-care looks like nutrition, sleep, and just the basic needs that our body needs on a day-to-day basis. I said needs a lot in that sense. The Pareto Principle, and it might not be presented as the Pareto Principle, it might be introduced as 80-20. 20 % of your effort produces 80 % of the results. That is something that everybody should understand in my humble opinion. And then lead with gratitude, having a gratitude practice. My gratitude practices every morning I wake up and say, thank you for another day. And every night I go to bed saying, thank you for another day. That's my gratitude practice. takes two seconds. Inviting gratitude in to a mindset training helps to shift beliefs. If you are looking into different types of mindset trainings or you've never even thought about mindset trainings and now I've got you thinking about it. I have a whole list of amazing humans that provide mindset training for athletes, for executives, for career driven people. Reach out if you would like that list. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Gutsy Chick podcast.