Have you ever wondered why some people seem to not only survive but thrive during challenging times while others seem to drown in despair ?
I believe that it all comes down to mindset.
More specifically to having a GROWTH MINDSET.
Mindset is a belief that orients the way that we handle situations. In her book Mindset, Stanford University researcher and author Carole Dweck, differentiates between a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset.
In a fixed mindset people believe that their abilities and capabilities are set in stone.
In a growth mindset people believe that their abilities and intelligence can be developed through hard work, dedication and perseverance. People approach challenging situations in a positive way with an ‘’I love a challenge’’ or ‘’I’m looking forward to learning from this’’ mentality.
This view creates a love for long life learning, resilience and grit which are key qualities if you want to succeed in any aspect of your life. In fact, according to Carole Dweck, a growth mindset is a characteristic of most successful people and teaching a growth mindset is key to productivity and motivation.
Why is a growth mindset such a big deal ? It allows us to unleash our full potential. It allows us to become UNSTOPPABLE.
Whether it’s building a new skill, learning a new language or breaking a bad habit, having a growth mindset will give you the belief that ANYTHING – any major goal – is possible if you put your mind to it.
And how can we develop a growth mindset ?
One of the strategies to develop a growth mindset is to continually seek challenges in order to learn and grow from them.
Let’s apply these principles to the current COVID-19 crisis we are living under.
In these times, we are constantly being tested and some of us are living in a flight or flight mode for long periods of time. We are not only bombarded by anxiety and fear from news outlets but some may have suffered personal tragedies, hardships and setbacks like losing a family member to the virus, losing their jobs and their businesses. Some of us are trying to survive and adapt to the overwhelm and the ‘’new normal’’ of working from home while taking care of our kids 24/7 . There is also the feeling of isolation which may bring with it mental health issues like depression and burnout.
These are no doubt challenging times. But what if we adopted a growth mindset to see these setbacks and hardships as opportunities? Ask yourself how can I grow from this situation ? Will I need to pivot in my business ? Should I learn new skills in order to reinvent myself ? Can I adopt more efficient time management tools to help me cope with working from home and taking care of the kids full-time ?
In these unprecedented times, adopting a growth mindset is key to weathering the storm with confidence and to coming out of this situation mentally stronger and more resilient.
So I challenge you: instead of feeling stuck and hopeless, embrace the suck! Ask yourself what can I learn from this ? How can I grow from this ?
By Claudia Taboada
Copyright 2020, Claudia Taboada
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claudia Taboada has a B. Sc. in Biochemistry and LL.B. in Common Law from the University of Ottawa. She is a former labor and employment attorney, a self-care advocate, the author of the women’s empowerment memoir ”Burnout to Unstoppable”, a motivational speaker, a women’s empowerment and mental performance coach and the founder and CEO of Unlock the Unstoppable You. Claudia’s most precious and important role is that of being a devoted mom to her two sons Nico and Alex. Nico is on the severe end of the autism spectrum and it’s his grit and perseverance that inspire Claudia every single day. In her spare time, Claudia loves to get active by walking, running, cycling, practicing Yoga and Pilates. Claudia is an accomplished endurance athlete who has completed 23 marathons (including the six Abbott World Marathon Majors) and last year completed Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant.
The seed for Claudia’s passion was planted when seventeen years ago, she decided to abandon her law career to care full time for Nico, who had been newly diagnosed with classic autism. Claudia became her son’s teacher, therapist, advocate, specialist, early intervention program manager… In all of this whirlwind, she lost her identity. She was burned out, overwhelmed, depressed, and living life on autopilot. One day, Nico was given a service dog, Sicas, who became Claudia’s life savior. She started taking Sicas out for walks. These walks turned into two-minute runs then one-km runs around the block, etc. Running became Claudia’s passion and her primary self-care tool.
Slowly but surely, this helped Claudia get her physical, emotional, and mental health back and more. She decided then that she wanted to learn everything about the different self-care tools available and the strategies that she could implement in her daily life to become stress resilient and ward off burnouts, all while parenting her severely autistic son Nico with grace. Claudia then reinvented herself as an endurance athlete, Yoga enthusiast, and passionate wellness and self-care advocate with an interest in personal development, self-actualization, stress resilience, and mindset, among others.
As a women’s empowerment and mental performance coach, Claudia’s mission and passion is to empower burned out and overwhelmed moms to rediscover their identity, get their spark back and become UNSTOPPABLE.
Recent Comments