Read Part 1 – Why Mindset Actually Does Matter
I’m currently getting certified in ‘Health Mindset Coaching’, a curriculum written and taught by a PhD in behavioral science Dr. Kasey Joe. This is a series of posts about what I’m learning and how you can use the science of behavior change to help make positive changes in your life and career.
In Part 1 of this series, I talked about what mindset is and some examples of beliefs that influence your mindset and behavior.
In this post, I’m going to talk about when and how those thoughts impact your mindset around changing and what you can do to help.
Do your beliefs tell you that you can change?
One of the most basic ways that thoughts can impact our ability to change is by telling us we can’t change. This is called a ‘fixed mindset’.
My fixed mindset around math
When I was in elementary school I had a strong belief that I was bad at math. It didn’t help that I had atleast one elementary school teacher who was vocal about how she was bad at math.
I got lucky in that my dad was a math teacher at the time. When I went home, he worked through each math problem with me until I fully understood it. I remember describing those as “the longest homework assignments I’d ever done”.
By spending the time with me, my dad provided me a tremendous gift. He taught me that I was not inherently bad at math, I just needed to spend more time to learn it.
I went from:
- “I’m bad at math” – a fixed mindset that made me less likely to put in the effort to do well on my assignments and improve.
- “I can learn math, it just takes work” – a growth mindset that got me through my hard math classes in college (I have a math degree now).
Other examples of fixed mindset beliefs
These are all phrases I’ve heard from my career coaching clients:
“I’ll never catch up to my coworkers” – I’ve heard similar sentiments to this from several clients who transitioned into tech later in their career via a bootcamp or other method and feel like they’re ‘behind’.
“I’ll never get promoted”
“Everyone in the room is smarter than me”
“If I make a mistake, I’ll get fired”
“I’ll never succeed in tech”
What do these phrases have in common?
All the above phrases assume that something can’t change. The person has decided that the situation is permanent and in doing that has given up some of their power to change the situation. You can almost hear the phrase “so there is no point in trying” at the end.
By the way, if you have some of these beliefs, please know that this is not me judging you for them – I have several of them still myself. My goal is to make you aware of them so you can decide if they’re still working for you.
| Belief | Assumption |
| I’m bad at math | Working harder will not help me succeed in math, since I’m inherently bad at it. With this mindset, even if I got an A I would likely still think I was bad at math and attribute the A to luck or a good tutor rather than to myself. |
| I’ll never catch up to my coworkers | No amount of hard work or effort will help me catch up to my coworkers. This also assumes that they’re already ‘behind’ their coworkers, which may or may not be based on fact. This mindset (and several below) will make the person less likely to recognize their successes and growth, since their mindset says that that growth can’t happen. |
| I’ll never get promoted | No amount of hard work, effort, communication, or job shift will get me a promotion. |
| If I make a mistake I’ll get fired | I am a low performer who will get fired eventually. (In my experience, this belief frequently does not have factual evidence behind it – it’s just a fear manifesting itself into a fixed mindset belief). This mindset says that any successes are temporary and failure is inevitable. It doesn’t give the person space to consider the idea that they might be good enough at their job for it to be stable. |
| I’ll never succeed in tech | No amount of hard work or effort will allow me to succeed in tech. |
Growth Mindset – Beliefs that tell you you can change
Just as I went from the fixed mindset of “I’m bad at math” to the growth mindset of “I can learn math, it just takes time and effort”, these fixed mindsets can be changed over time.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself when these thoughts come up:
- Devil’s Advocate – What are some arguments against this belief?
- Historical Evidence – What’s an example in the past when this belief was inaccurate?
- Make Evidence – What is a baby step you can take to prove yourself wrong?
- Let’s Try Anyway – Assuming for a moment that the assumption is incorrect, what step would you take to make this happen?
- What Is The Obstacle – What is preventing you from believing you can grow in that area? Is there something you can do to change that?
- Is This Helping Me – Is this belief useful for me? Or is it holding me back? Some beliefs, even if they’re true, are not useful in the moment. For example, I fully believe that sexism exists and that it negatively impacts me at work. However, having that belief at the ‘drivers wheel’ of my life mostly just makes me depressed. So I choose to let other beliefs that are more positive lead me.
| Belief | Questions to ask yourself |
| I’m bad at math | What scores have you gotten on tests recently? Do they imply that you’re bad at math? |
| I’ll never catch up to my coworkers | What’s preventing you from ‘catching up’ to your coworkers? Is it something you can control? What is the definition of ‘catching up’? What would you have to do to feel like you’d ‘caught up’? |
| I’ll never get promoted | What’s preventing you from getting promoted? What is one step you can take to understand the situation better and figure out a step you can take to change it? |
| If I make a mistake I’ll get fired | What evidence do you have, both in the past and present, that this is accurate? Is this belief helping you succeed at work – regardless of how true it is? Is there a different belief that would help you more? |
| I’ll never succeed in tech | Is this belief helping you succeed? What is preventing you from feeling like you’re succeeding at tech? Is there something you can control here? This is when a lot of people end up seeking out career coaching. If you don’t know how to get where you want to be, there are people out there who can help you figure it out. |
Homework
What is a belief you hold that is stressing you out or holding you back?
Try the above exercise – come up with a question from the different categories to help yourself examine and reframe the belief.
If you have any insights, I’d love to hear them! Email me at womenintechcoach@gmail.com.
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Wishing you a fulfilling career,
Rachel
