Good Day Everyone!! This is Jill. I am onto another book, "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol Dweck, a book referenced by the authors of the book, "Switch: How To Change Things When Change is Hard" by Chip Heath. In "Mindset", Carol discusses the subject matter of . . . . yes, you guessed it . . . . mindsets. Specifically the "fixed mindset" and the "growth mindset". At this point you should stop and ask yourself this question: "Self, which one are you?" Take a guess, read on and then see if you assessed your"self" correctly. Caution: if you are having a tough time even deciding and think the question is pointless, then you most certainly are of a "fixed mindset", and the good news is, this can change. A "growth mindset" can be learned.
In the arena of Network Marketing, it would appear that only certain folks can succeed. Although, this is not true, I will agree it is harder for some folks than others to succeed in Network Marketing and this is no appearance, this is fact. But WHY? Well, I like simple answers to ALL questions, because as complicated as we humans are, at the end of the day, we want simple. So lets get started. Out of Carol Dweck's book mindset she has researched and writes the following:
"......the belief that cherished qualities can be developed creates a passion for learning. Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.
A visual: A View From The Two Mindsets: Fixed vs Growth: To give you a better sense of how the two mindsets work, imagine - as vividly as you can - that you are a young adult having a really bad day: One day, you go to a class that is really important to you and that you like a lot. The professor returns the midterm papers to the class. You got a C+. You're very disappointed. That evening on the way back to your home, you find that you've gotten a parking ticket. Being really frustrated, you call your best friend to share your experience but are sort of brushed off.
Now, do you have the visual? What would you think? What would you feel? What would you do? When I asked people with the Fixed Mindset, this is what they said: 'I'd feel like a reject.' 'I'm a total failure.' 'I'm an idiot.' 'I'm a loser.' 'I'd feel worthless and dumb - every one's better than me.' 'I'm slime.' In other words, they'd see what happened as a direct measure of their competence and worth. This is what they'd think about their lives: 'My life is pitiful.' 'I have no life.' 'Somebody upstairs doesn't like me.' 'The world is out to get me.' 'Someone is out to destroy me.' 'Nobody loves me, everybody hates me.' 'Life is unfair and all efforts are useless.' 'Life stinks. I'm stupid.' 'Nothing good ever happens to me.' 'I'm the most unlucky person on this earth.'
Excuse me, was there death and destruction, or just a grade, a parking ticket, and a bad phone call? Are these just people with low self-esteem? Or card-carrying pessimists? No. When they aren't coping with failure, they feel just as worthy and optimistic - and bright and attractive - as people with the growth mindset. So, how would a fixed mindset person cope? 'I wouldn't bother to put so much time and effort into doing well in anything.' 'I won't put myself in a position to be measured by anyone again.' 'Do Nothing.' 'Stay in bed.' 'Get drunk.' 'Eat.' 'Yell at someone if I get a chance to.' 'Eat chocolate.' 'Listen to music and pout.' 'Go into my closet and sit there.' 'Pick a fight with somebody.' 'Cry.' 'Break something.' 'What is there to do?'
What is there to do!?? You know, when I wrote this scene, I intentionally made the grade a C+, not an F. It was a midterm rather than a final. It was a parking ticket, not a car wreck. They were "sort of brushed off," not rejected outright. Nothing catastrophic or irreversible happened. Yet from this raw material the fixed mindset created the feeling of utter failure and paralysis.
Then I gave people with the Growth Mindset, the same scene, and here's what they said. They'd think: 'I need to try harder in class, be more careful when parking the car, and wonder if my friend had a bad day.' 'The C+ tells me that I have to work in class, but I have the rest of the semester to pull up my grade.' There were many more like this, and you get the idea. Now, how would the growth mindset cope? . . . . Directly: 'I'd start thinking about studying harder or differently for my next test in that class.' 'I'd pay the ticket and I'd work things out with my best friend the next time we speak.' 'I'd look at what was wrong on my exam, resolve to do better, pay my parking ticket, and call my friend to tell her I was upset the day before.' 'I'd speak to the teacher, be more careful where I parked, and find out what's bothering my friend.'
You don't have to have one mindset or the other to be upset. Both would be upset. Who wouldn't be? Things like a poor grade or a rebuff from a friend or loved one - these are not fun events. No one is smacking their lips with relish. Yet those people with the growth mindset were not labeling themselves (or others) and throwing up their hands. Even though they felt distressed, they were ready to take the risks, confront the challenges, and keep working at them. We have lots of sayings that stress the importance of risk and the power of persistence, such as: ' Nothing ventured, nothing gained' and 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again' or 'Rome wasn't built in a day.' What is truly amazing is that people with the fixed mindset would not agree. For them, it's: 'If at first you don't succeed, you probably don't have the ability.' 'If Rome wasn't built in a day, maybe it wasn't meant to be.' In other words, risk and effort are two things that might reveal your inadequacies and show that you were not up to the task. It is startling to see the degree to which people with fixed mindsets do not believe in effort. People's ideas about risk and effort grow out of their more basic mindset. It's not just that some people happen to recognize the value of challenging themselves and the importance of effort . . . . this comes from the growth mindset.
As you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another - how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road, called the Aha! experience."
To bring Carol Dweck's mindset talk to a point, ask yourself, "Self, do you have a fixed mindset towards your MonaVie business or do you have a growth mindset towards your MonaVie business?" How are you coping when the person you invited to the tasting doesn't show up or someone gets off of auto ship, or your brother or sister hold back support and have verbally assaulted your MonaVie business? Are you behaving as if it is the end of the world and these kinds of businesses just don't work . . . . a fixed mindset? Or are you behaving as if you can learn better approaches, you can do more, you can pour more juice, and your brother's or sister's are just ice cold glasses of water . . . . a growth mindset? A fixed mindset will hold you hostage in minimal results in your job, your relationships, your economy, and anything new you might want to endeavor in. A growth mindset actually allows you to estimate your performance and abilities with amazing accuracy, because you are oriented toward learning you believe you can develop yourself and so you're open to accurate information about your current abilities . . . . . even if it's unflattering.
Gang. . . . there are reasons why some succeed well at Network Marketing and some don't. Yes, you have to have a big enough reason why, coupled with discipline, AND you have to have a GROWTH MINDSET!! If you are of the fixed mindset, the path to becoming one of a growth mindset is as short as you make it. Risk and effort are self revealing . . . whatever is revealed, grow thru it and Don't Quit!! Make it easy and simple: pick one thing you have a fixed mindset about and put into play a growth mindset about that one thing and from there change towards a growth mindset is certain. Ask an honest friend to help if need be. Want a different behavior or result? Then a change in the path has to occur. The success of your MonaVie business starts and stops with your mindset. Think about it.
Jill
per "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol Dweck
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