You didn't learn to walk by getting it right.
You fell. Over and over. And your brain treated every fall as data... fuel for the next attempt.
In many ways, you were born with a growth mindset.
Then your brain kept doing what brains do: gathering data.
Because you were around a small set of people during critical years of brain development, you were likely surrounded by similar behaviors and emotional responses over and over again.
The words that surrounded you were data your brain used to create cause-effect models.
That is the basis of what a mindset is.
A set of beliefs that are essentially cause-effect models of how the world operates and why things are the way they are.
Think about the last time something didn't go the way you hoped.
You posted, emailed or texted something that mattered to you... and it got a different response than you hoped (or didn't get one at all).
You launched something, pitched something, put yourself out there... and heard crickets, complaints, or confusion.
What did your brain predict next? That you'd adjust, learn, and try a new angle? Or that those less-than-hoped-for responses proved something about you?
Those predictions didn't come from nowhere.
Because you were around a small set of people during critical years of brain development, you were likely surrounded by similar behaviors and emotional responses over and over again.
The words, reactions and micro-signals that surrounded you were data your brain used to create cause-effect models.
When it comes to building brain networks, it's survival-of-the-busiest.
The patterns you feed are the patterns that grow.
Three ways to feed the ones that serve you:
1. Notice micro-progress.
In yourself, and in the people around you who are modeling what it looks like to persevere, adapt, build and create... despite anything that has happened in the past. Every time you register a small step forward, you strengthen the firing patterns that make the next step more likely.
2. Treat disappointments as information for iteration.
This includes rejection, silence, and responses you were hoping would go differently. That post that went quiet? Information for iteration. When something feels awkward or unfamiliar, that's a sign you're activating new electrochemical activity... venturing into new neural territory. Mistakes are raw material. They carry the exact information your brain-body system needs to adjust and try again.
3. Curate the voices that feed your brain's internal working models.
Monitor the words and examples you expose yourself to each day. Find the voices, spoken and written, that help you see your own perceived failures and less-than-hoped-for outcomes in a new light.
This week, catch one moment of micro-progress you would normally overlook.
That noticing is itself a firing pattern.
Not only for your own sake... there may be someone out there who needs your voice in the face of whatever they're going through.
Wishing you fumbles and falls that become fuel,
Stefanie
Every awkward first attempt is a new network being born.
If you want to help yourself and others experience that shift... to see setbacks as new neural territory instead of proof-of-not-being-good-enough...
The Mindset Science Teaching Framework course walks you through the science and how to teach it.
We also go into the specifics about:
- what happens when things don't go as planned (the brain-body cascades and systems that get triggered),
- and how we can use the Power of Mindset to help us bounce back, and keep our systems online for deeper learning and growth.
This is our chance to update histories and past voices that we didn't choose (and help others do the same).
