Throughout history, there are countless stories of people who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve success.
What is it that caused these people to persist where others gave up?
Why were they able to stay focused and motivated despite all the setbacks? Why did they so steadfastly believe that it was possible when everyone around them told them it wasn’t going to work out?
What caused these people to beat the odds? Was it luck or circumstances? Perhaps, it was something much more fundamental. Something internal that caused them to “think” differently.
Perhaps, it was the mindset that they possessed that mattered most.
Over the last two decades, researchers in psychological science have found that human beings operate under two distinctly different mindsets. The first is a fixed or limited mindset. The second is a growth or unlimited mindset.
Through extensive research, scientists have found that the electrical activity in the brain and the portions of the brain that are activated are markedly different depending upon which of these two mindsets a person is operating under.
In a study conducted at Michigan State University, test subjects with limited mindsets and those with unlimited mindsets were given a challenging problem to solve.
With sensors attached to measure electrical activity in the brain, the people who had an unlimited mindset showed significantly more electrical activity within broader areas of the brain. This indicates that they are more engaged, leveraging more significant portions of their mind, past experiences, and creative abilities to solve the problem.
Conversely, test subjects with a limited mindset showed significantly less electrical activity. They activated few portions of the mind and thus leveraged less of their capabilities to solve the problem.
The research shows that our mindset physiologically changes the way we leverage our brains. However, you don’t have to have electrodes attached to a person’s skull to see the difference between a limited mindset and an unlimited mindset. You can readily see the difference in their behaviours on a day-in-day-out basis.
Just look around you, look at your team members, and think of that one person or group of people within the business who are always coming up with excuses of why things can’t be done differently.
Why change is not possible, or transition to a new product, service, or system makes no sense.
Yip, you got it, fixed mindset, or low motivational intelligence.
The great news is this; unlimited mindset or High MQ isn’t born to some and not to others. On the day we were born, we were all gifted with an unlimited mindset and high MQ. If you have any doubt of this fact, just think of a toddler.
What are the most difficult things a child will learn before the age of two? Most would agree, walking and talking. Arguably two of the most complex skills we will develop in our lifetime.
So, let’s take walking: Most of us have been around a child as they are learning to walk. Invariably the process always looks about the same. One day, this child is crawling across the floor.
They look up at all the adults around them, and a thought crosses their minds. “Hmm, all these adults are walking and here I am crawling across the floor. This crawling stuff is a little hard on the knees; maybe there is something to this walking thing.”
So they make their way over to a table or a chair, they prop themselves up on their wobbly legs, and as soon as they take their hands off that table or chair, down they fall.
So once again, they prop themselves up, and once again, they fall.
Over and over, they will go through this process, falling forward, backward, sideways, hundreds of times. Until eventually, they learn. They learn about the centre of gravity, about balance, and slowly but surely, they put one foot in front of the other, and they begin to walk.
In a study published in the Journal for Psychological Science, researchers at New York University found that the average toddler will fall 17 times an hour as they are learning to walk. Over and over again, hour after hour, falling hundreds, if not thousands of times, to perfect this intricate skillset.
The amazing thing is, never once will this toddler say to themselves, “Maybe Mum and Dad are supposed to walk, but I am meant to crawl.”
Look at how that child moves; they are fearless, determined, goal-directed, motivated, inquisitive, and eager to learn.
These are the hallmarks of an unlimited mindset.
They don’t quit. They don’t give up. They don’t doubt themselves or their capabilities. They relentlessly practice until, eventually, they walk.
You see, as a one-year-old child, we all possessed the unlimited mindset necessary to succeed.
If you doubt that, ask yourself this: How often do you crawl anymore?
Yet how many adults would be willing to fall down seventeen times an hour if that was what was required to learn something?
Very few.
Recapturing that unlimited mindset is the absolute key to building a better business; it’s the key to your team to think BIGGER, Be BETTER and Achieve MORE than we ever thought possible.
It is the key to accomplishing what we desire most in life.
Regardless of setbacks, obstacles, and unlimited mindset and gaining high levels of Motivational Intelligence assures our success.
The Power Within Training has helped individuals and organisations develop the unlimited mindset and Motivational Intelligence (MQ) necessary to succeed. To date, leaders from some of the most successful companies globally have leveraged Motivational Intelligence’s proprietary development process to create the growth mindset that matters.
We specialise in leveraging the growth mindset and performance psychology of motivational intelligence (MQ), the same motivation used by some of the most successful and iconic companies worldwide.
If you’re looking to be a more innovative and influential leader able to elevate the success of your business and your team, this is the proper conversation for you.
I look forward to having it with you.
James Fleming
The Power Within Training
The Motivational Intelligence Company
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