Research shows us that when it comes to behavior change, we have been using a formula that is completely backwards:
When we focus on performance or results, we are looking at the end point that flows out of various behaviors, which flow out of (or are influenced by) a person’s mindset.
We need to address mindset first, in order for new behaviors to emerge, which then lead to different results. Not the other way around.
This is because a ‘mindset’ is an established configuration of neural activity.
It is a reinforcing feedback loop within the brain-body that then influences what is perceived and predicted.
If mindset is not addressed, a person will remain stuck in past-oriented behaviors, micro-movements and associated neurochemical setpoints.
This is why mindset or paradigm shifts are one of the most powerful leverage points for creating changes in behavior.
And this why I often view mindset as a ‘Meta Field’ from which everything else emerges.
What researchers have found over many years of research is that mindsets - for example, a learner's beliefs about themselves and about whether effort pays off.. shape the behaviors that drive performance.
Their mindset (belief) layer is a foundational force that drives performance.
Mindset influences behavior, which then fuels performance. Not the other way around. So focusing on performance first and not addressing mindset is missing a key that influences all of it.
When you work at the level of how someone perceives things like failure, effort, setbacks, and mistakes, you're working at the level that organizes everything else.
Awareness is a step that converts an automatic pattern into something you can choose to keep, question, or change.
The more we learn about mindset, the more intentional we can become about the predictions running underneath our behaviours..
and whether they're building the reality we actually want, or just predicting and then driving us towards behaviors that lead to repeating experiences and outcomes we don’t really want.
Wishing you empowering moments of mindset-awareness...
Stefanie
And on that note…
I’m offering the Paradigm Plug-n-play kit (companion guide) FREE until this Friday when you enroll in the Mindset Science Teaching framework (mini-course plus multiple mindset tools, slide presentations and pdf mini books).
This course flows from over 16 years (! i’m ageing myself here!) of teaching the ‘neuro-mechanics’ of mindset. What I share in this course comes from getting almost two decades of feedback from what resonates with people in terms of how they can have more agency over their life and wellbeing.
It also flows from feedback about what really helps a person tune into the idea of mindset and learning in general.. People who often really don’t’ want to hear motivational ‘fluff’ or cheerleading. They want concrete science. Mechanisms. (aka - my favorite way to teach 🙂
Some of the modules include:
- Module 1 - what you’re really ‘after’ when you talk about mindset
- Module 2 - mindset as the highest leverage point to change (systems thinking)
- Module 3 - ‘you get what you expect’ - The predictive machine- how our mindsets actually formed in the brain
Use coupon code PARADIGM100 to get the Paradigm Shift Plug-n-Play Kit for 100% off
Go behind the scenes of the exact framework I use to create the moments people email me about years later—the ideas, workshops, and conversations that empowered how people saw themselves - so they could update their patterns and experience more of what they truly wanted.
Plug-and-play worksheets for creating your own 'this-changed-how-I-see-things' content, workshops and client sessions.
Inside, you get:
- The Paradigm Shift Sequence: the exact structure I use to help people update old beliefs without triggering resistance.
- The Paradigm Builder Worksheets: plug-and-play templates for creating your own transformational content, workshops, coaching sessions, and presentations.
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If you previously purchased the Mindset Science course and would like the Paradigm Shift Kit as a gift, please email: hello@mindsetneuroscience.com and put PARADIGM KIT in the subject line and we’ll get you access. (Expires this Friday, August 28th and midnight!)
Research and further reading
Meadows, D. H. (1999). Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. · Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in Systems.
Farrington, C. A., et al. (2012). Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners. UChicago Consortium on School Research.
Dehaene, S., & Naccache, L. (2001). Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness. Cognition, 79(1–2), 1–37. · Dehaene, S. (2014). Consciousness and the Brain.
Barrett, L. F., & Simmons, W. K. (2015). Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(7), 419–429. · Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(3), 181–204. · Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138.
Mangels, J. A., Butterfield, B., Lamb, J., Good, C., & Dweck, C. S. (2006). Why do beliefs about intelligence influence learning success? A social cognitive neuroscience model. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1(2), 75–86. · Moser, J. S., Schroder, H. S., Heeter, C., Moran, T. P., & Lee, Y.-H. (2011). Mind your errors… Psychological Science, 22(12), 1484–1489.
