Mindset: Making It Work for You
“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by discomforts.”
~Arnold Bennett
While I tend to shy away from absolutes, this quote might be the exception. The discomforts may vary in intensity, but they are present to some degree even when we are the ones initiating the change. This certainly holds true for most of us when it comes to making healthy changes. Most of us know that eating healthy, getting regular exercise, managing stress and sleeping well are beneficial to our health and well being, yet the vast majority of us often find it really challenging to start, and often unbearable to continue, said changes. So why, when we know the benefits of the things mentioned, can we not push through the discomforts? Mindset. Mindset not only matters, it can be the first step to change and a requirement for longevity.
The Oxford Languages defines mindset as “the established set of attitudes held by someone”. I think it’s also worth noting the definition of established: “having been in existence for a long time and therefore recognized and generally accepted”. Based on this we can conclude that mindset is developed over time. The good news, mindset can be changed. The challenge lies in unlearning one mindset and adopting a new one. Just like the changes mentioned above, it takes time, patience and effort. You may have heard the terms ‘fixed’ and ‘growth mindset’. Carol Dweck, an American psychologist, professor and author, offers this on mindset.
“In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail—or if
you're not the best—it's all been wasted. The growth mindset allows
people to value what they're doing regardless of the outcome.”
Let that last sentence really sink in. When’s the last time you focused more on the effort than the outcome?
For many of us the fixed mindset may be all we have known. From the time we were children, the focus has been on the outcome. Whether it was academics, learning new skills, athletics, career…how we gauged success was the outcome. Our efforts may have been acknowledged along the way, but we were graded on the outcome. Much like our strengths, a fixed mindset can serve us well, until it doesn’t. When it comes to making changes around our health, the fixed mindset can be a detriment to our efforts.
Weight loss is a hot button for a lot of us so I’ll use it as an example. We set a goal of losing x number of pounds and often give ourselves a timeline to do so. Next we go in search of the perfect plan to reach said goal.
Now that everything is in place, the pressure is on us to execute the plan and achieve the goal. We often enter with the fixed mindset that we must execute the chosen plan perfectly and anything less is a failure. This might actually lend to adhering to said plan for a period of time and seeing weight loss. Seems like a good thing right?The fixed mindset starts to work against us when the birthday party comes up, the wedding, the graduation, the dinner out with friends, the stressful day at work, vacation, the weekend—things otherwise known as life—causes us to deviate. Our brain registers failure and this often opens the gate to “I’ll get back on track tomorrow or next week”, “I can’t do this, it’s too hard” or perhaps the most daunting, “I’ll never lose weight”.
If you’ve had any or all of these thoughts run through your head and are tired of going down this path (let’s be honest, most of us have been down it more than once), consider adopting a growth mindset before you begin. A growth mindset allows us to accept missteps and keep going. When whatever life event makes it hard to “stick to the plan” we shift from thinking this is too hard and I can’t do it, to this is hard and I’m working on it. I’ve found one of the most helpful questions I can ask myself when things go astray (and when they go well too for that matter) is What did I learn? There is so much value in this question and it can help us not beat ourselves up. If you feel like you’ve tried every plan out there or been “dieting” most of your life, you’ve unknowingly been conducting research. What have you learned from your past attempts? I encourage you to take this knowledge and a growth mindset on your next endeavor.