There’s two types of mindsets. There’s the coaster’s mindset, and these are people who are suffering from victim-hood. These are people who say, “Well, I tried to get fit. I tried to build a great company. I tried to build a great team. I tried to be a great salesperson, or I tried to be a great coder. I tried to have a great financial life. I tried to have lifestyle freedom. But I’m not the kind of person who can do that. I guess I’m just not hardwired intellectually to get that mission done.” There’s a second type of mindset that the leaders all have, and Carol Dueck calls it the growth mindset. And quite simply, that’s a mindset or a mentality where it’s, “You know what? I don’t know how to do it, but if I learn how to do it, I can grow and I can be great at it.” And that’s the mentality behind all mastery, because every master started as a beginner. Every pro was once an amateur. The journey to mastery is a process, and there is a beginning point and a middle point, and actually, there’s never an endpoint. So I want you to really think about the growth mindset, which is, “I don’t know how to do it, but I’m going to learn how to do it.”And as you know, one of my favorite brain tattoos is, “All change is hard at first.” If it wasn’t hard at first, it wouldn’t be real change. It wouldn’t be worth the gift of your time and attention. So all change, it’s hard at first, and then it’s messy in the middle, and it’s beautiful at the end. You know that the space shuttle uses more fuel in the first 60 seconds after liftoff than it uses during its entire circumference around the earth. Why? Because it must overcome escape velocity. It must overcome the gravitational forces of Earth, pulling it down. And so for you, when you commit to any new idea, because you want growth and you want advancement, you want to amplify your gifts and your talents, you must let go of the way you were for the sake of who you want to be. And so you must overcome escape velocity, and your gravitational forces of your old habits.
