(@silvermoongoddess)

If you asked me if I had a “growth mindset” a few months ago I would say “yes!!!!” instantly.  I believe in infinite growth.  I known our thoughts change things.  I have transformed life with my intention. I mean, look at the Rice Experiment and how that turned out (if you haven’t seen it- it’s here) and how vibrantly that proved that we are creating our universe every single day.   I share this endlessly, I study the science, I use the tools, I have seen lives transform everywhere.  My own life has changed to something like a dream.

I am all about growth!

I believe you are unlimited in potential and I have seen my belief manifest as true in breakthrough after breakthrough of clients, readers, friends, family…everywhere.

One day, though, things changed for me. They went deeper.

I was looking for a way to get more done with more ease, to take lots of added steps off of the processes of life so I could do much more and… in one sonic boom, I started to see that the key to getting a mountain of things done that were in front of me- a bigger and more exciting pile than ever-  was nothing more than a change of mindset.

Oh, I know, you likely knew this.  I did, too, I thought!

But what I learned about mindset – and how much I could grow right now- surprised me and changed my life.  It’s also changing my sense of excitement and feelings of potential and adventure that are ahead…and I’m thrilled to share it!

As I often do, I called a best friend who is a coach of champion athletes when this realization was dawning on me.

“I need a mindset change!”

“Yep.”

“You knew this?”

“Yeah.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?!”

He laughed.  Apparently the lessons come when we’re ready.

He explained that there’s nothing of skill that some athletes lack.  And there are athletes with incredible technique and practice.  But, without a powerful mindset- a flexible and calm and grounded attitude that was calm when it mattered most- it didn’t matter that much.  Great skill can get outpaced by a great mindset.  I knew this… but he made it even more clear by saying the following few words:

“You need to challenge yourself more in order to grow.”

Enter the work of Dr. Carol Dweck. Stanford professor and best-selling author.

In her work on mindset, she explores what she calles a Fixed mindset vs. a Growth mindset.

Here is more as summarrized in BrainPickings:

“A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.”

I also ran across a video that was life changing.  I haven’t stopped researching and shifting my awawreness since I found this video.

Yet. Yet is the key to all things to do with growth.

It hasn’t happened…yet. I don’t know how to do it… yet. But… I will!

This is one of my new personal mantras: YET!

I recognized something in Dr. Dwecks work that was surprising- I was raised with a fixed mindset.

Maybe you were, too?

I never CONSCIOUSLY wanted to believe this as I believe in the infinite potential of all people to do anything and everything— but SUBSCONSCIOUSLY this is what was drilled into my mind.It’s a sense that there is a set amount of intelligence, talent, etc, than others and that we have to continually prove our worth because it is limited and we may fall in estimation if we don’t prove ourselves.

So, I was – somewhat unbenounced to me- walking around with a fixed mindset, more afraid to challenge myself in some ways that I could admit, more afraid if I stopped proving myself I would lose my place in the world in some odd way.  I was less apt to try when I was intitially not good at something.  I was not good in situations where I wouldn’t shine, and so I avoided them more and more and it seeemed innocuous but I knew it was… limiting over time in a mysterious way.  And… I never fully could articulate it until I read a lot of this very deep research on mindset and had it click!

I will tell you— I have never had a fixed mindset about you. I know you are unlimited. I’ve always known that. I know you can do anything and everything.

For me- I knew it but now I know it deeper.  I am finding so much ease and power and thrill in more of my own growth.  More connection.  More experimentation.  More practice of the things I’m not good at that I am ready to be good at.  More openness.

I went to Mindsetworks.com and did an assesment to learn that while I believe consciously in the fact that we all have infinite potential and I intuitively share a growth mindset in all that I do… I have lots of room to grow in my own growth mindset!

“…For example, maybe there are one or more areas where you think you don’t have as much ability that you tend to avoid. Or you may work hard to do well, but feel a lot of stress about the prospect of failure.

Chances are that you probably have a lot more potential than you are using!”

This is thrilling!!!

I’ve started doing a few things that are opening the doors to more action and creativity and… growth!!! They might inspire you to flex more of your own mindset magic and start growing more, too, in your own best ways!?

Practicing things I am not good at, often and with focus, knowing I’m just not good at them… YET! I even have a power drill (!)to learn how to use to DIY much more in the season ahead!

Taking on challenges rather than sticking to the things I know… which in some ways is epic because I am always learning, but learning more of what comes easy. 

Saying the word “yet” and believing it!!!

Daring to take more and more risks that I never took before… and even if they don’t work, it’s fine… I am doing them. 

Looking at a to-do list as a chance every day to have a breakthrough! 

And there are so many more personal ideas I imagine you can add to the list.  In fun ways.  In ways that light you up.  In ways that have you on the edge of your own brakthroughs every day!

It’s such a thrill to share this, and the science and the examples are spectacular.  If you want to learn more, Carol Dweck’s now classic book on the subject, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, is a powerful place to start.

Or, you can learn from your own life— and all you can do know that maybe you just haven’t done quite yet!

xoxo

Dana

P.S.: There’s a REALLY BIG something NEW that’s coming very soon!

It’s a new Feng Shui Camp coming soon to organize your life to create breakthroughs: The Breakthrough Camp!

It’s Feng Shui to align your energy and your home so that you can manifest more of what you want on a higher level with greater ease!

To kick things off, the FREE Feng Shui video series to set up your home for a breakthrough is happening NOW!  Sign up HERE!

 

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Welcome to Creating Genius!
I spent the last year creating this e-guide to balancing and unblocking life by pulling together the best of a decade of space-changing and life-shifting feng shui! It’s 50 days and 50 ways to use feng shui to shift your space and your routines to move from “stuck” to creatively inspired and alive.

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Gather up your magic & make gorgeous dreams come true!

xoxo Dana