When I first heard the word mindset in my daughter’s elementary classroom, the teacher explained that teaching children how to have a growth mindset makes them open to learning and growing.

Over the years, I had heard the term many times, but it wasn’t something I planned to explore in my own personal development. I’ve had a growth mindset all my adult life, and I didn’t find a need to go down that rabbit hole.

My generation was brought up to be in a growth everything mindset. Always push, learn new things, keep moving, be a better person, strive for excellence and so on. It was part of my being and most of those around me.

My whole adult life I’d already studied many types of personal development, self-growth, healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise, so I didn’t feel I needed yet another guru telling me what and how to think.

The Mindset Movement

Then Mindset exploded in the coaching world. Suddenly, everyone was talking about having a growth mindset, changing your mindset, exploring your limiting beliefs, and I felt the need to follow the herd. As a mission and purpose coach, I work mostly with successful people who had also spent their lives pushing to be better. This could only add to my own tool kit.

Right?

Wait, not so fast.

There is good stuff for sure, to be had in mindset, but it still never quite landed for me.

Visions vs. Reality

Maybe as a boomer (on the edge of 63), I always knew I could better my life, or work harder or save a bit more. That was ingrained in my upbringing and my peers’. But the new ‘improved’ mindset was all about imagining, and attracting (metaphysics 101 anyone?), and doing vision boards to set up your mind and emotions for what you really want.

That works to a point. A visual represents what you want and helps you go after it. Yet I know in reality we might hold ourselves back, and life always brings us along a path we might not expect. Illness, death, birth, marriages, moving and all the big milestones can (and should) move us off a goal driven path.

Small life-turns can be at play as well. A vacation, meeting someone new. A coworker is out sick, and we have to cover for them. The mindset of learning and doing and going for it (whatever ‘it’ might be), takes a back seat to grandchildren, and elderly parents, no matter our mindset.

The “More” Part

Fast forward many years later and I still struggle with mindset. I coach people (mostly women) to step into their missions and callings by writing books, getting on stage, or starting a podcast. Mindset is part of it for sure. You must believe in yourself. You must have a vision of where you want to be, and who you can help, but it’s so much more than mindset.

With age comes wisdom. Being instead of doing. Allowing instead of pushing. Setting intention instead of goals. And moving forward at our own paces and welcoming life’s twists and turns.

To get what we want in life, first we must be appreciative of what we have. Then we must have a vision of where we are going, and instead of mindset, sometimes it’s belief in ourselves that we will get there, eventually. And if you have a book to write, a podcast to share, a speech to record, have faith that the calling is yours, and you already have the wisdom to move forward.

If mindset helps you, then by all means use the trick, but it’s not the only way to enjoy your life.

Ponder This

Having read this article, do you consider yourself a practitioner of “mindset” or do you find yourself focused on “more”? When you close your eyes and envision your dreams and your goals, do you feel you can make them a reality? As a final thought, ask yourself, is it your mindset, your belief, your faith, or your life that stops you from moving toward your vision?

No matter the answers, trust yourself and your inner wisdom. If you are brave, share your thoughts in our Radically Authentic Facebook group.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you been taught to have a growth mindset or is this a relatively new concept to you? Do you think mindset and goal visualization is everything? If you think there’s more to it, what could it be?