Assess Yourself to Grow
This past Saturday I did something out of the ordinary for me.
It was spurred by something I’ve learned about myself: I’ve got some work to do when it comes to developing a growth mindset.
Namely, I have a habit of shying away from competition when I don’t look good.
I enjoy races.
But, admittedly, I only show up to races when I know I’ll do well.
A number of weeks ago, I didn’t know this about myself.
I always thought I was being strategic.
Come to find out, though, when it comes to competition, I felt a bit threatened by others when I wasn’t in tip-top shape.
I like personal development and I love helping others with personal development. To make change, though—to grow—it’s crucial to develop self-awareness.
In fact, self-confidence can stem from increasing our self-awareness.
A few weeks ago, while preparing for a session on growth mindset, I came across the work of James Anderson. When thinking and talking about mindset, there’s a tendency to exist in the black and white: we either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
This is inaccurate.
Anderson’s work helps expand on the seminal work by Carol Dweck by shining a light on the continuum that exists between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
And, maybe more accurately put, the continua—our worldview, how we view challenges, what we do when faced with obstacles, the effort we put in, how we deal with feedback, our perceptions of others’ success, how we handle mistakes, and what we do with help—that contribute to our mindset.
Using Anderson’s work, I assessed myself and discovered something about myself: I have a mix of a fixed and a growth mindset when it comes to competition and the success of others.
I enjoy personal success so I will engage in competition and comparison when these make me look good.
In other words, rather than seeing competition as a way to push myself to improve, I’ve shied away from competition when not primed to compete—out of fear of highlighting my perceived deficits when others are watching.
This was eye-opening to me—and also exciting.
When it comes to mindset, I could do better.
Self-awareness leads to self-confidence.
So, I signed up for the Square Lake Half Ironman in Stillwater, MN as a welcome back to Minnesota and, more importantly, as a way to move myself along the growth mindset continuum.
Even though I wasn’t in great shape, this past Saturday I did something out of the ordinary for me and it was an absolute blast.
And, it was really hard—physically and mentally.
There were highs.
There were lows.
And there was a lot of self-talk: this is just where I’m at right now.
This past Saturday, for over 5 hours of competition, I was inspired by the fitness that others had, I enjoyed the challenge that was in front of me, and I watched us all push ourselves to improve.
A month ago, I never would have done this—I would have justified why it made no sense for me to show up at Square Lake Park.
But, by assessing myself, I created self-awareness.
And, in doing so, I discovered there was a lot of room for growth. There are things that I can start doing to inch myself closer to approaching life with a growth mindset.
This is just where I’m at right now.
That thought gives me a lot of self-confidence and I never would have discovered it had I not taken the time to create self-awareness
Self-awareness leads to self-confidence.
And, with self-confidence, we can step into a growth mindset.
Assess Yourself and Grow
So, here’s this week’s action step:
Being deeply honest with yourself, take this assessment. It’s just for you so ask yourself the hard questions when you’re trying to determine where you fall on each continuum.
After completing the assessment, identify the one continuum where you assessed farthest to the left.
Ask yourself: What’s one thing I can start doing—take action—over the next two weeks to move myself one step to the right on this continuum.
Take action—and watch yourself grow!
Create awareness!