Are You In Alignment?
Choose Your Thoughts like You Choose Your Words
If you have examined how choosing your thoughts makes an impact on your growth and potential, you can also take a look at another area in your life… your words.
There are two components of whether or not someone has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. The choice of thoughts and the choice of words.
Growing up, you may have been told that you were not as good as someone else in a certain academic subject, sport, or talent. This has been your belief for all of your life. After all, you may have been told this over and over again. You may have heard people in your environment say that you were not as good as someone else in a certain area, or that they were better than you.
On the other hand, you may have been told that you were perfect or exceptional in a certain subject or area and never really thought to question those parameters. You may think that the bar was set, you reached the goals and that your job is done. You may have started out exceptional in a certain area, but this is part of growing up with a fixed mindset.
Then there are the stories you create as you grow up; you may have judged yourself as someone who is not as good as somebody else simply because a statement was made on one occasion. You held onto that belief with no prompting from someone else, yet you continued to carry it into adulthood. There is no need for blame in either of these situations and as an adult, you are free to re-create your life as you desire.
Choosing Your Words for Yourself
When a friend comes to you feeling unaccomplished or less than, you more than likely are an encourager – someone who takes their feelings into consideration and lifts them up. Why not do that for yourself as well? Change your thoughts, change your mind and watch how you talk to yourself as well.
When it comes to yourself, do you beat yourself up, criticize yourself and not give yourself the same break you would give your own friend? Choose kinder words for communicating with yourself and be aware of too much negative self-talk.
A growth mindset allows you to tell yourself that you did not do as well as you had hoped and also encourages you to remember that you can and will do better and achieve more. All this without the negative self-talk that comes along with it.
Choosing Your Worlds for Others
In the same manner you would want to speak to yourself with kindness and encouragement in order to foster your potential and development, take that opportunity to foster and encourage the development of another.
Instead of making excuses for them, hold them accountable, encourage them to see where they can do better and offer them the possibility of achieving more and doing greater things with their life and with their minds.
When you choose your words carefully, whether to yourself or to others, you make a difference which can then result in making a change.
I encourage you to take some time and consider an area of your life where you have had a fixed mindset and determine one action to move you closer to a growth mindset. I’d love to hear your story.
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