Friday, March 26, 2010

How Each of Us Uses the Tools That Life Provides

The uniqueness of each individual can be seen very early in a baby's life.  Yes, he's got lots in common with all other human beings, but no one can settle on a decision whether his individual differences are based on the way his body looks, what he inherited from his family, or how great the contribution is from experience and education.

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Some learned minds consider intelligence to be a fixed thing that we are born with and yet, we have seen the development in increased attention, in memory, in judgment and in our ability to unfold more intelligence than we were at our births. We have seen minds - starting with our own - become developed through training, experience and that unseen force called personal effort. We have seen some individuals exceed all that was expected of them.

Is there one way that is more accurate than any other in considering individual differences?  Business people have a settled sense about the contribution of genetics or environment when it comes to how productive their employees are, and about how to improve this performance.

Your philosophy about all this has a profound impact on your success. Your "I can't" concepts can lock you into your current spot and  you can move beyond that spot by changing to an "I can" concept.  You might surprise yourself.

If you have a set series of beliefs captioned "This Is How I AM" and you also hold the belief "This Is How's It's Always Going To Be", you have what is referred to as a fixed mindset.  You think: "This Is All I Can Accomplish." This mindset is limiting.

There is another way of being called the growth mindset.  The growth mindset can see opportunities; it knows about capabilities; it isn't afraid of being "caught out" deficient. The growth mindset thinks: I can change and grow through application and experience. Having a growth mindset works really well to foster more success in business, vs. having a fixed mindset.

It's not possible to see your own end point from here or how far you'll get along the progress time line, but if you believe "I can develop into much more" you'll move far along that line. These tips will help you achieve a growth mindset and then experience more success:

- Look for friends who will encourage you to stretch, to grow in areas formerly not even thought of.

- Decide that you will consciously work to go beyond where your achievements are right now.

- Promise yourself that you will persevere through thick and thin.

Even when my Big Dream looked impossible, I continued to search for ways to make it come true for me.  Having a group of friends that you can lean into will help you stay fresh, keep up with technology, use the concepts that others used to become successful.  I looked for folks ahead of me on the path so that I could augment improvements to help me get to my next bigger vision.  I found my perfect levels of rest, exercise, nutrition to support my own dreams.  I became aware of my own mindset when it came to improvement and that's what I'm sharing with you because it seems to have worked for me.  I'd love to think that these suggestions to absorb how wonderful you and your individual differences are and put these ideas to work to celebrate those differences.

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