The Mindset You Should Always Have

Story Time

I play in a football team with around 20 other people, and obviously we have fun, we joke, we get angry and so on. The point is, you meet a lot of people, now among those people you'll find different characters, every type you can imagine,

And I used to play with this guy, he was quite intelligent and you could have a decent conversation with him, sometimes we'd have a laugh or poke fun at each other, we got along well with each other.

But one thing which held him back a lot is the fact that he'd always have to have the last say, in his mind he was never wrong,

If the coach says something to him he'd talk back, if he makes a mistake he blames the others, if he's on his own and he makes a mistake he blames the turf or the ball or the wind or that a leaf fell on his head at exactly the wrong moment so it made him lose his balance (might have made the last one up),

And I'm thinking like 'Bro some people just want to help you, no need to get defensive'

But yeah, he legitimately though that he was never wrong,

And that was his greatest crutch, he was held in shackles by that way of thinking cause in the time that I knew him he never learned anything.

We find so many people like the one I described above and it's a shame cause if only they knew how to DEAL with making mistakes they wouldn't be so scared to admit they made one.

But anyway, the problem my ex-teammate had was that he thought he already knew everything or he had a fragile ego to admit he made a mistake, but let's just discuss the former (first one).

The thing is that doesn't make sense, cause no one knows everything it's as simple as that literally NO ONE.

If you have a bucket full of water you cannot fill it more cause it will overflow and no more will get in,

It's just like putting an imaginary ceiling on yourself, you cannot go higher if you're being blocked by it,

Imagine trying to climb a ladder in a room with a ceiling, it's not gonna happen mate.

He had the problem of having a CLOSED MINDSET.

But What is a Closed Mindset?

A closed mindset, also called a fixed mindset simply means that you are not willing to learn,

(And if you're not willing to learn than forget learning anything by accident, things don't work that way)

Some people are this way cause they think they are gods amongst men, others cause they are ashamed to admit they're not perfect and others cause they're too arrogant to admit that someone else might know something that they don't.

These people will stagnate.

So how can we be different? Can we be the opposite of these people?

Yes we can.

How?

It's called a BEGINNER'S MINDSET (or growth mindset).

But what is the beginner's mindset??

Well, I want you to imagine a master and a beginner, to help your visualization I like to think that there is a master sensei giving a karate lesson to a young kid.

Imagine that young kid, do you thing he'll tell the sensei he's wrong? NO WAY.

That kid is gonna listen carefully trying to do what the sensei is saying and replicate his moves.

We could learn a lot by being like kids,

Kids are what we call inquisitive (eager to learn), they shut up, observe things and actually learn.

We should be like sponges, always looking for moisture (learning in this case), always looking to be filled with new knowledge.

Basically, learn AS MUCH as you can, look for opportunities to learn everywhere and in everything,

I thought I couldn't learn anything from my ex-teammate but now here I am writing about Growth mindset vs fixed mindset.

He thought me in a very obvious way the difference between the two and how to notice someone with his way of thinking.

Life has countless lessons it wants to teach us but we need to be willing to receive them, otherwise they'll just go over your head and you'll miss what you could have gotten from the experience.

If you're not willing to learn anything than you certainly will NOT

So What About You?

Well, you might have a growth or a fixed mindset but I highly doubt that you would be reading this if you have a fixed one, and if you are I respect your desire to change.

Since you're already interested in this type of content then it probably means that you have a growth mindset so for that I congratulate you. You might not need what you just read just for yourself, you might use it to identify other people with that defect, or maybe try help someone close to you which unfortunately has this crutch.

You might be like, 'Wait why am I trying to convince that guy? He doesn't even think he can learn anything, he's not going to change his opinion so what's the point of wasting my energy with him'.

And through the realization that some people ant to learn and others don't you'll start to notice them quicker and realize who it is you should be helping.