Are you leaving room for growth?
I used to believe that I was not someone who was made for endurance - physically and psychologically.
I said things like,
“I’m a sprinter, not a long distance runner.”
Or
“I’m good at starting things, but not seeing them through.”
Or
“I just quit when things get tough.”
Well, I just ran my first ultra-freaking-marathon, so I guess I can't say that about myself anymore!
But the thing is, I wouldn’t have even attempted to train for this ultramarathon if I had continued to believe that it just wasn't something I could ever do. If I continued to believe that endurance was something that you either have or don't, rather than something you could develop and train.
In other words, in order to actually sign up and train for the event, I had to adopt a growth mindset around my endurance capabilities.
A growth mindset means we see things - capacities, abilities, personality traits - as things that can be changed or improved with sustained effort.
A fixed mindset means we see things instead as set or unable to change.
You probably don’t have a fixed or growth mindset about everything in your life; most of us will have growth mindsets about some things, and fixed mindsets about others.
Can you identify an aspect of yourself or your life that you don't believe can be changed?
This can sounds like:
I am just a bad sleeper.
I’ll never be able to make time for exercise.
I’ve just never been good at managing my time.
I am just an anxious person.
I’ve never been good with people.
I have a bad back/knee/shoulder etc.
I’m not a resilient person.
If, hypothetically, you could change that thing...
What would that look like?
What would you need to do?