Do you think you could be good at everything?

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Do you think you could be good at everything?

Or most things?

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Or perhaps some things?

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How you answer that question says a lot about your approach to every part of your life.

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Whether it′s work, relationships, health, sports, new skills or self-awareness … in every area of your life, you either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

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It′s a concept made popular by Carol Dwek and her aptly named book MINDSET (see what she did there?). I encourage you to read it (or watch this summary).

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In the book, Ms Dwek talks about how a fixed mindset is the belief that you are born with certain abilities, and your experiences either confirm your value, or confirm your lack of value. It can be a bit judgemental of performance.

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Fixed mindset says things like: I′m good with numbers. I′ll never manage people well. I deliver great presentations.

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The growth mindset on the other hand is the belief that while innate talent is real and accepted, growth is possible when you put the work in. Growth mindset focuses on learning rather than outcomes. It′s about attitude to the goal, not the goal itself.

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Let′s use an example I′m sure you can relate to and bring this idea to life.

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Meet Fabio

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Fabio has a talent for numbers and data. His manager asks him to deliver some training to the team so that they understand how to use all the fantastic dashboards he has created.

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In scenario one, Fabio is riddled with fear. I′m not good at delivering presentations, he affirms to himself, and thinks back to all the times he′s tried presenting and it hasn′t gone well.

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This fixed mindset version of Fabio prepares the training, delivers it with a lot of nerves and concludes that it′s true: he′s terrible at presentations and his nerves in the session were proof of that.

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Fixed-mindset Fabio continues on with life and avoids presentations whenever possible.

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Now let′s move to scenario two – this time it′s Fabio in growth-mindset mode. With the same instructions from his manager to deliver training, Fabio delivers the training with the same nervous demeanour.

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And when the training is over, Fabio takes some time to reflect on what went well, and what he would do differently next time.

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While growth-mindset Fabio would prefer to excel at giving presentations, he recognises where improvement is needed, and decides to work on that.

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What differences do you notice about the two versions of Fabio? And what does this tell you about how you approach the different parts of your life?

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When you give this some thought, what will become clear ia that you don′t have one mindset approach to all parts of your life, but all parts of your life could benefit from the growth mindset.

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I know that I definitely have a growth mindset when it comes to fitness and learning languages, but my mindset for certain relationships is very fixed. I know where I need to change ??

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How about you?

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As you look ahead into the next few days, what can you apply a growth mindset to?