One of the most profound books I’ve come across is Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In it she describes the two mindsets. One being the fixed mindset and the other the growth mindset.

What if you can cultivate your skills, talents and even your intelligence to increase?

In my own life I’ve personally discovered that I’ve been able to change my potential simply through my beliefs. I once thought that I couldn’t speak in public due to my stuttering. That’s completely changed. I once had a fear of public speaking and now it’s my greatest pleasure. Put me in front of an audience, big or small, and I thrive.

The only thing that changed in my life was my perception of myself. Once I learned to challenge my past assumptions, so did my potential change as well. It’s not how you start out in life that counts, it’s what you do in-between to make consistent improvements throughout your life that truly means anything.

You may have been the straight “A” student back in high school and yet, never went beyond that later in life. The “C” student kept challenging his or herself to surpass the “A” student. Those that reach their peak during their early years seem never to get past that. Remember the sitcom Married With Children? Al Bundy was at his peak in high school as a football player. He never progressed later because he rested on his laurels. Growth only occurs when we are constantly challenging every aspect of our life. Growth happens when we fail and get back up, learning from what happened and moving forward.

The top people in society are also the top learners. They learn towards their goals and dreams. If they don’t know something, they find some way of learning how to do it. They read a lot. Bill Gates has a library of courses from The Great Courses. Jim Rohn once stated, “Successful people have libraries. The rest have big screen TVs.” That is a reason I surround myself with books in my library. I also have videos and audio learning. I take and teach courses on Udemy and other platforms. You can say I’m a lifelong learner.

You can increase you potential simply by believing you can. I can still remember the days when teachers would put the so-called dumb student on a stool, sit him by the corner with a dunce cap. Those teachers sure were ignorant and ignorance is not bliss.

We know more now regarding our brains based on the latest studies in neuroscience. Our brains, including our personality, intelligence and otherwise, is not “set in stone.” To the contrary, our brains continue to grow and adapt throughout our life. Only if it is being challenged by new information and that includes the feedback from making mistakes.

Challenging your beliefs and challenging yourself also builds resilience.

Another thing I’ve learned is not to rest on what I’ve learned in the past. One area is that of marketing. Many businesses still are stuck in a certain mindset on how to market. Today, growth hackers are taking the marketing world by storm by applying engineering principles (via coding) to test what works and what doesn’t work. Heck, I’ve done that with life hacking too.

Change is constant. Adapt to succeed.

You’re not stuck in your past (or even your present). You may not be where you think you should be right now. So what. If you believe powerfully enough, the best of you is yet to come.

Cheers,

Bob Choat, “Transformational Master Black Belt”
Growth Hacker
Life Hacker
America’s #1 Mind-Body Transformation Expert and author of Mind Your Own Fitness