Shifting Your Mindset and Sticking to Your Habits

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been researching the topics of mindset and habits.  Working with organisations we often have discussions around ‘changing mindsets’ when it comes to introducing change.  This often centres around the ethics of organisations trying to change the mindset of their people.  Rather than thinking about changing mindsets the approach we take is identifying habits, analysing the triggers, behaviour and rewards and shifting these rather than mindset.

However, when it comes to your personal development,  you may wish to look at how your mindset may be holding you back or contributing to your lack of fulfillment and flow. In this article I am going to explore both mindset and habits and how they both can support and hold you back.

What do we mean by mindset?

Your mindset is the combination of several things. 

• Cognitive processes (thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-solving). 
• Your attitudes. 
• Your beliefs. 
• Expectations you have about future outcomes. 

Research has shown that mindsets play an important role in determining life's outcomes. By understanding (self awareness), adapting (objective observation) and shifting your mindset, you can improve your health, decrease your stress levels and become more resilient to  life's challenges.

The work of Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford, coined the phrase ‘growth or fixed’ mindset after her research.  She built on the theory of neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to continue to form new connections into adulthood, after it has been damaged or when it is stimulated by new experiences. This supports the idea that you can adopt a growth mindset at any time of life. 

What is a fixed mindset?

People with a fixed mindset believe talent, intelligence, and other qualities are innate and unchangeable. 

A fixed mindset assumes that the following qualities are “fixed” and can’t be changed in a meaningful way.

• Your character. 
• Your intelligence. 
• Your creative ability. 

A fixed mindset is all about preserving what you already have.  A fixed mindset contributes to limiting beliefs.

What is a growth mindset?

People with a growth mindset believe effort and practice over time make a meaningful difference.; a growth mindset empowers beliefs. Your mindset impacts your relationships, learning, and overall well-being and success. It helps you achieve your full potential or holds you back from reaching it. 

Studies looking at the relationship between mindset and learning have found that your mindset with respect to intelligence is related to your habits and beliefs. Individuals who believe that intelligence can be increased through effort (growth mindset) were more likely to value the learning benefits of self-testing, to restudy, and to be intrinsically motivated to learn, compared to individuals who believe that intelligence is fixed.*

Habits

Habits are a core part of our daily lives.  From waking up and grabbing our phones before we jump out of bed,  to cleaning your teeth before getting into bed at night.  All of these activities are habits.  The very nature of a habit means that most of the time we are not conscious that we are performing certain activities - some of which are not supporting us.

Three of the main writers and researchers around habits are Professor B J Fogg (Stanford), Charles Duhigg and James Clear.   In essence there are 4 parts to a habit; 

1. Trigger/cue
2. Craving
3. Response 
4. Reward

If you have identified a habit which is not serving you well - this could be smoking or eating too many sugary snacks, then understanding what the trigger or cue for the habit is the first part of the process to changing it.  It may be that every morning you get out of bed and make a coffee, and whilst waiting for the kettle to boil you go and grab your cigarettes.  So the trigger for smoking is putting the kettle on and so this is where you start if you want to change the habit. What could you do instead of picking up a cigarette? Where could you put the cigarettes to make it harder to access them? Who can you ask to support you? What reward could you put in place?

So how can you change your unhelpful habits?  

James Clear talks about 4 things that come into play:

1. Make it obvious - schedule a regular time and keep track of your progress
2. Make it attractive - make it fun by including it in something else you enjoy or get someone to hold you accountable
3. Make it easy - break it down into small steps and create an environment which makes it easier to achieve (re-organising your bedroom or office) 
4. Make it satisfying - make sure you reward yourself frequently when you achieve the small steps. 

If you are looking to shift your mindset or need help with creating a new habit, then contact me to find out about how I can help or follow me here on LinkedIn to read more of my articles and posts.

Charlotte Mawle is the Founder of Charlotte Mawle Coaching and Mentoring, delivering personal transformation programs and Founder and Co-director of Change Optimised, specialists in organisational change and transformation.