mindset
The habits of our mind affect everything we do.
We need to adjust how we think.
BEGINNER’S MINDSET
“You can’t learn what you think you already know.” - Epictetus
Practice Shoshin, an attitude of openness, and lack of preconceptions and assumptions.
CURIOSITY
Study broadly.
Ask questions. Questions are curiosity in action.
There’s life in the questioning.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity... Never lose a holy curiosity." - Einstein
GRATITUDE
Gratitude is a lubricant for the brain.
It’s hard to unleash creativity when living in fear, shame or stress.
BE INTENTIONAL
“Few people think about it or are aware of it, but there is nothing made by human beings that does not involve a design decision somewhere.” - Bill Moggridge, cofounder of IDEO
DON’T MAKE IT HARD
What can you do with what you have?
START EARLY AND SMALL
Small efforts done regularly compound over time.
Commit to the next small step.
EVERYONE’S TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT
We each have different personalities, experiences and knowledge bases to draw from.
Stop looking at yourself as deficient or flawed.
Your quirks aren’t bugs. They’re features.
You have a unique lens and framework you bring with you.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY: FEAR AND THE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD
When trying to be excellent at anything, our biggest obstacle is ourselves.
Fear gets in the way and blocks creativity and imagination.
Fear may keep you safe, but it’s also holding you back.
Fear is a creativity killer.
What’s your relationship to fear?
Does fear run the show?
Are you paralyzed with inaction?
Deconstruct your fear.
What are you afraid of and why?
FEAR OF FAILURE
If you fear failure, you won’t succeed.
FEAR OF IMPERFECTION
Fear likes to disguise itself as perfectionism.
Make peace with imperfection.
Less perfect is more human.
And done is better than perfect.
Practice Wabi Sabi, a Japanese aesthetic philosophy that seeks beauty in imperfection.
FEAR OF JUDGMENT, EMBARRASSMENT & WHAT OTHERS THINK
Are you afraid of looking the fool?
Bad ideas are valuable.
They trigger better ideas.
It takes bad ideas to have good ideas.
“...totally wrong guesses is, with most persons, the only way to hit upon right ones.” - William Whewell
“This ability to express ideas and impulses without strangulation and without fear of ridicule turned out to be an essential part of creativeness.” - Abraham Maslow
SELF DOUBT & BROKEN RECORDS
We’ve all experienced insecurity and imposter syndrome.
Turn off the internal audio tracks that say “Who am I to…?”
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” - William Shakespeare
FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
The unknown’s siren song calls you to play it safe.
To keep the status quo.
To only act on the sure bet.
That’s not how life works.
CERTAINTY IS A MYTH
Learn to be tolerant of ambiguity.
If you’re not comfortable with the gray, it will limit your potential.
There are no guaranteed outcomes.
Move…
from Black and White to Grey Thinking
from Fixed to Growth Mindset
from Order Taker to Exploring New Frontiers
COMFORT ZONES KILL
There’s no growth in the comfort zone.
There’s no comfort in the growth zone.
No tension? No change.
No struggle? No story.
Every great story involves struggle.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” - Frederich Douglass
“...we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” - Romans 5:3-4
Do you view life as a struggle or as an unfolding adventure?
YOU WON’T GROW UNLESS YOU FACE YOUR FEARS
The more uncomfortable the activity, the more likely it will lead to growth.
We overestimate the risk of trying something new and underestimate the risk of standing still.
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” - Abraham Maslow
“Your job in life is to overcome yourself every day.” - James Victore
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” - Kurt Vonnegut
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” - Joseph Campbell
FEAR AS A TOOL FOR GROWTH
Fear shows you your boundaries and how to expand them.
Fear points you in the direction of growth.
One of humanity’s greatest gifts is the ability to learn and grow from failure.
Are you caught up in regrets from the past?
Or scaring yourself with an imagined future?
No goodness or beauty comes out of regret of the past or anxiety of the future.
A survival mindset is motivated by fear.
A thriving mindset is motivated by purpose and potential.
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” - Soren Kierkegaard
NO EXCUSES
Steven Pressfield, in The War of Art, shows us all the ways resistance keeps us from doing our work.
Overplanning.
Procrastination (disguised as endless research).
Always needing more ideas.
Always preparing, but never doing.
EMBRACE DISAPPOINTMENT
When your idea is made physical and incarnate in the world, you will likely feel disappointment. There will be a discrepancy between your conception/ideal vision and the objective results.
“To achieve this was of course impossible, because what is essentially abstract can never be made concrete without altering its essence.” - James Lord
“Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.” - Isaac Bashevis Singer
REJECT CYNICISM
Cynicism says things will never change.
What a lousy way to look at the world.
See possibilities, not limitations.