Does Your Mindset Need Spring Cleaning?
Spring is almost here, The Weather is Warming, Is Your Open Mind Still Hibernating?
It strikes me as we roll into spring that this may be the perfect time to challenge ourselves to have just a bit broader outlook on the world. We all tend to reinforce our own preconceptions, to only look for news and ideas that are already in line with what we believe, and we resist engaging with others who think differently than we do. Why?
The next time you feel this happening to you (because it does happen to all of us) try to pause for a moment and ask yourself why you would not want to engage with different opinions. Is it that you feel you already have every fact you will ever need and can learn nothing from the other bright minds around you? Surely not.
We live in a time when real information is attacked as fake and distorted, while clearly false news is being held up as reality. No wonder few people know what to believe. Isn’t this though, the exact reason why we should be speaking to each other more? If we cannot trust government and media sources to deliver the truth then why not go back to square one and start speaking to each other? No agendas, no judgment, no hostility.
That I believe is the problem more than anything, the hostility. What causes this reaction in people to attack others whom they have philosophical disagreements with? It must transcend pride and go straight to fear. People are actually afraid of what is coming and what will impact their lives, feeling they have no power over the changes, and no voice in the discussion. That my friends is exactly where we go wrong, where we lose the path. You will never have a voice in the broader discussion if you attack instead of listen. If we step back to respect, things may change considerably.
It all starts in your mindset:
Look at some on the phrasing on the right side. “I don’t like to be challenged” “When I am frustrated, I give up” “I stick to what I know” and “Feedback and criticism are personal”
Clearly this person has a fixed mindset, and without any data to back me up, I would say that far too many of us fall into this category. Right or left, regardless of issue, we approach almost nothing with an open mind.
We are taught to believe from an early age in “American Exceptionalism”. That America is the Greatest Country on the planet. I would like to believe this also but just our mere existence does not make it so. Our grandmothers and grandfathers, and theirs before them, worked hard to give us prosperity. They earned every ounce of it, and yet we now speak of it as predetermined, a fact that does not and will never change. That is an insult to the generations that have come before us. The ones who got us here. Worse yet, anyone who even dares to ask “Are we still the greatest country? Or, “How do we measure that?” is branded as non patriotic. They are accused of not loving America. Exactly the wrong approach.
If you were a world famous chef and won the James Beard or another award proclaiming you as the greatest in the world, would you then stop trying to get better? Would you say, “I am the greatest” and never try to learn, or advance? Would you never pick up a new recipe? Would you never visit another Chef to see how they run their kitchen? If you loved your art you would.
Would you walk around saying all other chefs were inferior to you? I would hope not. I don’t believe you would. Yet this is exactly what we as a society do.
Having a growth mindset means always asking how you can get better. If you knew, you would have done it already, so you must speak to people. Listen to different opinions. Challenge the status quo.
We must start to listen, to specifically seek out differing opinions and learn from them. We must make the commitment that just because someone thinks differently than we do does not mean a personal attack, so there for we will not attack them.
Above all, if we listen more and speak less, if we lead with our hearts and not our egos, if we start to understand that we, as a society, can always be better, then we will change to a growth mindset.
It starts with you. Are you Growing or Fixed? Maybe we could talk about it.
Cheers,
GK
