Building Strong Mindsets and Habits
“There is more in us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps, for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less” — Kurt Hahn
Keys to Personal Growth and Learning
Here are our main keys to personal growth and learning:
- Read 30 minutes a day something that helps you improve/learn.
- Send handwritten cards, or at least non-email messages, to share your appreciation with people (e.g., for meeting/talking with you, doing a great job on a task/project, etc.).
- Schedule time for things that bring you joy and fulfillment (e.g., hanging out with family/friends, learning a new hobby, etc.).
- Create a learning plan of skills/knowledge you aim to develop and figure out how to get there (e.g., working with mentors/coaches, practicing a skill, etc.).
- Choose one new habit at a time to help push your growth.
Mindsets of Personal Growth and Learning
Overview
Personal development looks different for all of us. So, what we will focus on in this guide is giving you some options to consider for your own change agent life and what works for you.
Focus on Continuous Improvement
Learning a little bit each day, week by week. Make time to learn from those around you (e.g., asking for feedback, writing up your own lessons, etc.) and finding new learning opportunities. Also, avoid putting pressure on yourself to rush to your goals. It is OK to take months or years to develop your skills.
Choose One New Habit at a Time
One of the best ways to improve is to focus on building good habits.For example, if you make a habit of reading 30 minutes each day before watching TV, then slowly over time, you will grab a book without even thinking about it.
You Need to Be Interested For the Habit to Stick
In general, you need to have an interest and passion to learn and incorporate good habits for them to stick. For example, if you think it is a good idea to exercise every day, but do not feel passionate about it, you are not likely to succeed. So, focus on the areas of your life where you can fully focus and engage in your interests.
Remember Your Locus of Control
Our systems and institutions shape our lives. There is only so much within our locus of control (i.e.,the amount of control you have over your own life). Remember also, our personal stress can often be rooted in systemic injustice.
Develop a Growth Mindset
Carol Dweck, in the book Mindset, notes the following difference in mindsets:
- A fixed mindset is the idea that your personal skills and abilities are set. This creates pressure to prove yourself over and over, since if you did not demonstrate excellence, then you must be deficient.
- A growth mindset is the belief that you can learn and improve with time (e.g., skills, mindsets, personal character, etc.).
Dweck goes on to note that we need to believe that others can adopt a growth mindset, even if they previously had a fixed mindset.
Develop Learned Optimism
Angela Duckworth in Grit notes, “an old Japanese saying: Fall seven, rise eight …the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better.”
Mental Effort and Decision-Making Are Exhaustible Resources
Recent studies have shown that the more mental work and decisions you make throughout the day (e.g., which email should I respond to, what task should I work on, my program’s long-term goals, etc.), the harder it is to make future ones.
Find ways to have your most important effort and decisions earlier in the day. Or even better, find ways to reduce the number of decisions you have to make (e.g., if you pre-plan your day’s actions, you will not have to decide anything, you can just get to work).
Ask Yourself Questions Instead of Just Positive/Negative Self-Talk
Daniel Pink in To Sell Is Human cites a study in which researchers gave participants puzzles to solve. Those who “asked themselves whether they would solve the puzzles,” did 50% better than those who “told themselves that they would solve the puzzles.” Think of political campaigns that focus on saying, “We will win,” instead of the better option of asking, “How can we win?” By asking ourselves questions, we force ourselves to try and figure out answers and solutions.
Do Everything With a Purpose
It is important to have a purpose with everything you do and commit to it. Whether it is spending time with family or making a high-quality effort on a project, we need a clear vision and direction for our efforts.
Become Comfortable With Failure
Remember failure should ideally lead to improvement and growth. Failure does not have to mean it was not worth it or you should not have tried, it just means you get an opportunity to learn. In fact, you should proactively seek out opportunities that are at the edge or just beyond your current skill level, so you are forced to learn.
Practices and Habits
Constantly Ship Ideas/Projects
Seth Godin writes in Linchpin about the idea of “shipping” which is the practice of publicly getting your ideas, message, item to others. He talks about how some of the most creative and artistic people were also the most prolific in terms of producing materials. Most of their material we do not know about, but they were able to produce those “masterpieces” because they constantly “shipped.”
Godin writes, “Sometimes, shipping feels like a compromise. You set out to make a huge difference, to create art that matters and to do your best work. Then a deadline arrives and you have to cut it short. Is shipping that important? I think it is…” This connects back to the idea of failure and mistakes being important to your growth process.
Write Down Your Thoughts and Ideas
This can be journaling or even just a collection of bullet points. It is important to have an organized place to keep track of your thoughts and ideas over time. This will support you as you set goals, process your thoughts and emotions, and give you a place to track those fleeting thoughts and ideas.
Learn From Those Around You
It is more than just learning from a mentor or coach. You can even seek to learn from someone you are mentoring. Mentors (i.e., those with more experience in your field and focused on sharing their knowledge) are great to provide guidance and offer their wisdom. Coaches are focused on helping you identify solutions to challenges.
Aim For Deliberate Practice to Seek Mastery
Angela Duckworth in Grit writes about how skilled people “[It is] not that experts log more hours of practice. Rather, it’s that experts practice differently. Unlike most of us, experts are logging thousands upon thousands of hours of what Ericsson calls deliberate practice.” They set a stretch goal, something that is clear and specific of where they want to be (i.e., as opposed to just saying “I want to get better”).
Example Practices/Habits to Consider
Here are some practices and habits to consider:
- Read 30 minutes a day something that helps you improve/learn.
- Send handwritten cards, or at least non-email messages, to share your appreciation with people (e.g., for meeting/talking with you, doing a great job on a task/project, etc.).
- Take 15 minutes every day to walk without looking at your phone. Get some non-screen time in your day and clear your thoughts.
- Schedule time for things that bring you joy and fulfillment (e.g., hanging out with family/friends, learning a new hobby, etc.).
- Create a learning plan of skills/knowledge you aim to develop and figure out how to get there (e.g., working with mentors/coaches, practicing a skill, etc.). Figure out your learning TO-DO list.
- Exercise three to four times a week (does not have to be at a gym) + include strength training. Doing exercise has many health and psychological benefits, so take some time to exercise for a little bit each week. Find exercises you can do from home or even at work. In particular, strength training is important to long-term health (e.g., helps address form/function, increases bone density which is important as we age, etc.).
- Push/Encourage yourself to learn a new skill or hone an existing skill. Whether in your work or personal life, developing our skills can be a source of great fulfillment.
- Instead of trying to make lots of changes all at once, make one at a time.
- Write 1 thing a day of something you learned + one thing you are proud of.
- Have No Screen time. Whether some periods throughout the day, an hour before bed, etc. make sure you are letting your mind relax.
- Walk. Let your mind wander, avoid looking at a screen, and just allow yourself to think.
- Set multiple levels of goals. It is crucial to have short, medium, and long-term goals/action items to know if you are making progress towards the long-term.
- Breath. Take some time to focus on your breathing (e.g., box breathing where you breathe in and hold, then breathe out and hold; emptying breath where you breathe in for a few seconds and then breathe out for twice as long, etc.).
How to Build a Habit
Michael Stanier in The Coaching Habit summarizes The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg “To build an effective new habit, you need five essential components: a reason [or a vow], a trigger, a micro-habit, effective practice, and a plan.” Stanier breaks it down like this:
- Make a vow/the reason – Focus less on the outcome, instead focus more on how this will support yourself and especially those around you.
- Identify your “trigger” – Find out specifically what activates the old behavior.
- Define your “micro-habit” – Commit to a small action that you can do in 60 seconds or less. This is something that can be part of breaking down the path to the full habit you want to adopt. It is important to make small changes first.
- Follow three components of “deep practice” – Break the action down into small chunks, practice until you get that small chunk down well, and then celebrate success.
- Pre-plan what happens when you “stumble” – Since we all make mistakes and get out of routines, you must have a plan for “how to get back on track.” So for yourself, figure out what you will do when you get out of the process of your new habit and how to return.