How Do You Get Unstuck From a Fixed Mindset Way of Thinking?

Notice it.

It’s difficult to make a change in any area of life if we aren’t aware that there’s a problem. For the most part, our mindset — a combination of attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs — is something we accept and rarely challenge. Why? Because we’ve had it for years and it’s served a purpose: to keep us feeling safe in our comfort zone where things don’t have to change much.

The problem escalates when we experience some sort of obstacle or setback and our fixed mindset shows up in its full glory. We may fail to meet the requirements for admission to a university, get an F in an exam, have difficulty adapting to a new job, or receive criticism for our work. When that happens, we tend to repeat certain phrases over and over because we’ve heard them from others in the past or repeated them to ourselves in similar situations. For example:

I was a straight A student in high school so of course I should excel in college.

I flunked the exam because math is just not my thing.

It’s better to give up than suffer the embarassment of failing.

Nobody in our family ever graduated from university.

I am too scared to do this.