Ever catch yourself saying, "I can't do this," or, "I'm just not good enough"? Maybe you scrap a project halfway because you think you’re not "naturally" talented. These are typical signs of a fixed mindset—a belief that your abilities and intelligence are carved in stone. This limiting mindset keeps you stuck in your comfort zone, robbing you of growth and success.

What is a Fixed Mindset?

A fixed mindset is the belief that our abilities, intelligence, and talents are fixed traits that cannot change. People with a fixed mindset tend to avoid challenges, give up easily, and feel threatened by others' success. In contrast, a growth mindset is the belief that our abilities can be developed through focused effort.

Recognizing Fixed Mindset Behaviors

• In the Workplace:

  • Avoiding tasks that require new skills

  • Believing you’re not cut out for certain roles

  • Feeling resentful of colleagues who excel easily

• In Personal Relationships:

  • Avoiding difficult conversations because you believe you can't improve your communication skills

  • Feeling resentful of your partner’s desire to change

  Self-Reflection: Take a moment to reflect: Do you find yourself avoiding challenges, justifying not following through on your commitments, or feeling envious of others' achievements? These might be signs of a fixed mindset.

The Impact of a Fixed Mindset

A fixed mindset can lead to feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and frustration. It creates a constant pressure to prove oneself and a fear of making mistakes. Professionally, it can prevent you from taking on new opportunities and growing in your career. Personally, it can hinder your relationships and self-esteem.

Shifting to a Growth Mindset

Awareness:

The first step to changing any behavior is realizing you want to change the behavior. Become aware of your thoughts and feelings. By recognizing when you’re exhibiting fixed mindset behaviors, you can start to make a conscious effort toward a growth mindset.

Practical Tips:

• Challenge Your Inner Critic: When you hear that voice telling you that you can’t do something, challenge it. You wouldn’t let someone talk to your bestie all crazy, so why do it to yourself? Tell yourself, “You’re trippin’, that’s a lie.”

• Embrace Mistakes as Learning Opportunities: Instead of viewing mistakes as failures, see them as opportunities to learn and grow. You are already ahead of the version of you who didn’t try at all. If you made a mistake, you’ve learned what doesn’t work and now you know what not to do. Some people know what not to do and still do it… think about that.

• Celebrate Others’ Success: Instead of feeling threatened by others' achievements, celebrate them. I love seeing folks #winning. It’s evidence of the many possibilities out there.

IRL

The sneaky ways of the mind are unending. As simple as a daily chore, I used to use cleaning as a form of self-sabotage to start my YouTube channel. Things never looked right or good enough, and I would spend hours trying to decorate or rearrange furniture to create the perfect setup. I’d work on it for so long, I’d be too tired to film anything. All because I was super uncomfortable doing video. I was distracting myself from doing the thing that I knew would take me out of my comfort zone.

Get In Action

How are you getting in your own way? Is there anything that you do on a regular basis that’s just really comfortable? Start there! Prime yourself to push past self-sabotage by doing something different, something that might get you a little nervous. Don’t do anything dangerous, but for example, if you normally just go to game night with the ladies, try hosting the game night at your place or co-host with a friend. That’s what I did.

Conclusion

A fixed mindset can hold you back in many areas of your life, but recognizing and shifting these behaviors can lead to one level-up after another. Remember, growth is a journey. Embrace challenges, learn from criticism, and find inspiration in others' success. You wrote the code for your self-sabotage, now you can crack it.

It’s really all in your head… if you just think about it.