carol dweck

I’m not an athlete, I told myself. I was the last chosen for teams pretty much every time. And more often than not, admittedly, I dropped the ball or didn’t run fast enough. So I lived up to the low expectations of being a teammate.

That kept me believing that I was not an athlete. And so, I never tried to be athletic.

Years later, when I was recovering from being sick, I decided I needed to get into shape. I was motivated by a scuba class when I realized how out of shape I was. I dragged myself into the weight room, so I wouldn’t embarrass myself in class. I took to the pool for the same reason.

And I slowly got into shape. Which led to a friend asking if I wanted to adventure race. Why not? I might as well, I reasoned. Then, I trained and completed a trail marathon. And ran quite a few 5k’s. Not an athlete, though.

Then, at a conference, someone told me she wanted to write a book, but she “wasn’t a writer.” I asked what she was doing. She wrote every single day. And she had lots of pieces put together for her future book. But, she “wasn’t a writer.”

I noted to her that writers do one thing. They write. She was writing, ergo she was a writer!

Then I went for a run. And thought about that discussion. Runners are athletes. Runners run. I was running. Ergo, I was a runner… and maybe an athlete?

My mindset had tripped me up. I had myself in a fixed mindset. And to get to a better place, I needed to shift to a growth mindset.

In this episode of the Thriveology Podcast, I discuss Dr. Carol Dweck’s concept of growth and fixed mindsets from her book, Mindset. A fixed mindset keeps us stuck. But a growth mindset always gives room for growth and change.

Listen in to discover where your mindset is stuck… and how to shift it to growth.

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In the last podcast, I suggested giving up a Fear Life, and moving to a Fierce Life. That was not a life devoid of fear, but one that chose a path in spite of fear. It is the courageous life, lived with clarity and purpose, and with intensity.

Sometimes, how we think about ourselves, our personal beliefs, hold us back. We get caught up in “I’m not. . .” and “I can’t. . . .”

When I started running, I never knew when I could start calling myself a “runner.” When I decided to run? After my first run? After my first race? After running for a week, a month, a year?

Sometimes, it is the difference between process and product. For example, the “product” that many people want are 6-pack abs. They forget about the process of daily healthy choices. They get stuck on the end result, not the path to get there.

This is true with living a fierce life. That life is built one choice, one step, one day, at a time.

To be honest, when I was preparing for the last few podcasts, I found myself saying, “I don’t live a fierce life — I’m not fierce.” I let my old belief system establish whether I am that person or not. Do I always live fiercely? No. But can I choose to live MORE fiercely? Absolutely!

And a fierce life is built one choice, one decision, one action at a time. Slowly, you become FIERCE.

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Is Your Mind Set?

Beliefs, Behavior, and a Fierce Life