Shifting Perspectives: The Impact of Growth Mindset on Success

Prepare to redefine your boundaries! This episode is a deep-dive into the world of growth mindset, its power, and how it can be your secret weapon in business and life. I, Jacob K Mead, share my personal journey - the triumphs and trials in shaping my mindset, the lessons learned, and the evolution from a fixed to a growth mindset. This isn't just about business; it's about empowering every aspect of your life with the right mindset.

Do you feel the pull of transformation? If so, join us at the Mindset Matters event in West Des Moines, Iowa on December 14th. It's more than just a talk; it's an experience designed to inspire and equip you with the tools to harness the power of a growth mindset. Don't worry if you can't make it; my social media channels are packed with insights and updates to keep you on the cutting edge of mindset mastery. Let's walk this path together and unlock new dimensions of success!

Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead, and this is the Buy Time podcast, where we discuss everything there is to know about buying back your time. Be sure to like and follow and share with somebody who needs to buy back their time. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome back to another episode of the Buy Time podcast. I'm your host, jacob K Mead, and I am excited that you're here today, because I'm going to talk about a very important topic that means a lot to me, and that is the power of your mindset. Mindset can help you accomplish a lot in your life, but it can also be your biggest enemy if you're not careful. I'm going to talk about some challenges that I've had to overcome with my mindset and how overcoming those challenges have gotten me to a better place. So let's go ahead and first talk a little bit about mindset and why it's so important, especially in the entrepreneurship and business owners. Finding a strong mindset is so important because you're going to face those challenges, you're going to face those obstacles and you're going to question yourself, you're going to doubt yourself. You're going to wonder am I cut out for this? Will I make it? What happens if I fail? Now it's funny to think back on it, because I've asked myself those questions so many times and I can't believe that I would. Because I had the right mindset. I knew that I could do it. I knew I wanted to do it, but I kept doubting in a way that what happens if I don't? What if I fail and I don't make it? Would I lose all this money? Would I lose all this investment that I'm investing my time in? I would lose that.

Speaker 1: 1:40

The one of the biggest things for me was having a support partner. My wife was amazing at this. She would always come up to me and she would say listen, doesn't matter if you fail, because there's no such thing as failure and she goes. If you learn something from it, if you've had fun and you've enjoyed it and you've learned something from it, you didn't fail. It's funny because I actually was the one that originally brought this up to her when she did a business adventure and she ended up stepping aside from her business adventure to raise our kid. We had one kid at the time and so she stepped outside of photography when she was getting ready to close her photography studio. She actually had a physical photography studio. We were closing it up and we both got pretty emotional because we put a lot of time in this, we put a lot of investment into it. I remember she actually came to me and she said I feel like I failed, I feel like I didn't make it. I looked at her and I said well, why are you feeling that way? She goes because I'm closing the doors, I'm not continuing, I'm moving on. I told her. I said it doesn't matter that you're moving on. You're moving on to raise our kid, which is the best thing in the entire world. It doesn't matter that you're moving on, it doesn't mean that you failed. You learned so much from this adventure. You gained so much knowledge from this adventure. You gained great relationships from this adventure. You gained great network from this adventure. All of that is worth something. You didn't fail. We were profitable at times and other times not with the photography industry, as it is a challenging industry, but I reminded her that she never failed and that raising her kid, her next step or next journey in life, was extremely important.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Now let's talk about mindset, on the differences between having a fixed mindset and then having a growth mindset. I'm actually one to have a growth mindset. I can't stand, really, the people out there that do have that fixed mindset. It's really hard for me to sometimes have conversations with them because they don't want to take ownership on things or they always want to place blame. But having a growth mindset is where you want to be, especially if you are in the business industry and you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, chances are you have that growth mindset.

Speaker 1: 3:58

What are the ways that you can figure out the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset? First, you're going to look at it and say a fixed mindset is going to be someone that looks and wants to place blame on someone else. They typically will worry about how they appear to others. They will always want to be proving themselves. They won't want to fail because they'll say well, what if I fail? What would this person think? Someone with a growth mindset? They're going to be more worried about what they learn. What did I learn from this? Is there a lesson to be taken away from this? If I fail which we know, failure is really just learning but if I fail, what's something that I can take from this? What's an accomplishment that I can take from it? What was it like? Big differences between someone that has a fixed mindset and then someone that has a growth mindset. I'll give you an example.

Speaker 1: 4:54

So when my employees, when they would come to me with a situation and they would explain it to me, the first thing I would do is I would say okay, what can I do better to support you and what is something that I can do to help in this situation? Now, what's ironic about it is, a lot of the times it's something that I Could just place the blame and say well, I mean, that person's not doing their job. They need to be doing a better job. Or well, just deal with it, suck it up. We all have issues and we just need to get over with. Get get over it. But I want to know is there something that I can be doing differently to help my employees? Is there something that I can be doing differently to actually help them succeed? Because, as a leader, that's my job and I also want to get better at my job. In order for me to do that, I need to know what I need to do to help them.

Speaker 1: 5:48

So let's look at a fixed mindset, fixed mindset at work. Let's use some examples. Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smarter, dumb? Will I speak, accepted or rejected. Well, I feel like a winner. Well, I feel like a loser. So those are all fixed mindsets. And then there's people out there with the growth mindset and I love the growth mindset, because growth mindset is. What did I learn from this? How does this made me a better person? Was I able to accomplish something great from this opportunity? Did I try my hardest? Could I have tried harder? They will look at the opportunity and what they did. They will look at ways for it's a better them to help them grow, to help them continue to get better in life, and that's what you want to continue to do. So think about a scenario in your life that might have been going bad.

Speaker 1: 6:50

I use weather a lot because us Iowans, we like to complain about the weather and so it doesn't matter. It's either too hot out, too cold, too windy, too rainy. We need the rain. It's always something about the weather, and something I do is it will be the coldest day in the winter, like negative 13 degrees, maybe a windshield, negative 30 is. I will walk outside, stand there for a couple minutes, just look around, take a couple deep breaths and I will say what I'm thankful for at that time. I know we just got done with Thanksgiving, but that's what I'll do, as I take a day that might have some extreme weather and I'll go outside and might be super cold or super hot and I'll say what I'm thankful for in the weather elements. And it's made me realize that I can be appreciative for the weather changes and that, yes, it may be a temporary Discomfort but it doesn't last forever. So is this something I do? I just feel, like so many people complain about the weather, that it's important to actually recognize, recognize it and know that, hey, this is going to happen, it's going to be there and that's okay.

Speaker 1: 8:03

So what's the reason, your life, that you can look at and say, hey, I've been looking at this from a fixed mindset. Have you been blaming some, someone for something and you're like you know what? Maybe I can learn from this, maybe there's a lesson that I can take from this. Have you been pushing off a task because you just feel like you're going to fail and you don't want to be considered a failure? Trust me, I've been there and I I don't. I don't want to admit it, but I have. I've been to the point where I didn't want to do something because I didn't want to feel like a failure. But then I had to overcome that and I overcame it by talking with people and Understanding that, listen, I'm never going to fail. Even if I try this and it doesn't work out, I will never fail. I will never fail. I will never fail. I will never fail. I will never fail. I will never fail Because I at least tried it.

Speaker 1: 8:49

Like, look at Some of the fixed mindset voices. Here are some examples. Are you sure you can do it? Maybe you don't have the talent. What if you fail? You'll be a failure. People will laugh at you for thinking you had talent. People laugh at you. If you don't make it, what will people think? This is everything to do with a fixed mindset, but these are voices we all hear in our head. What happens if you hit a set, a setback? Let's look at that for a fixed mindset. What will happen if you had a setback right? This wouldn't have never happened if I didn't try, if I didn't start. You see, I told you it wasn't worth me trying. It's not too late to back out, make excuses, or what if you're faced with criticism? It's not my fault, it's someone else's. Who do they think they are, I'll put them in their place. Or you hear others say I'm really disappointed in you. I thought you were capable, but now I see that you're not. These are all voices that we feel like will play out in our head and those are fixed mindset voices, but simple changes and simple adjustments to that. So what? If you fail, you'll be a failure. Two the most successful people I know had failures along the way.

Speaker 1: 10:08

You can answer some of these fixed mindsets with responses yourself. So if I have a negative thought that comes in my mind, let's say, for instance, what happens if you don't make this happen in business you'll lose $2,000. I say I won't lose $2,000. I would have spent $2,000 to learn what not to do in the future. That's a way that I've shifted my mindset and I've done it with marketing a lot. That's why I use $2,000. It was a $2,000 marketing mistake but I learned from it and I said I spent $2,000 to learn what not to do.

Speaker 1: 10:43

You can change. If you don't try, you can protect yourself and keep your dignity to. If I don't try, I will automatically fail. And what dignity is there in that? It's important to adjust the way that you're thinking. You're going to get those negative thoughts.

Speaker 1: 11:03

There's people out there that say, oh, you should ignore those negative thoughts. I don't ignore them personally. I don't try and push them away. I answer them with legitimate answers Like well, what if you fail? Well, if I fail, then I will try again, I'll get back up. I answer them and that's one thing that you can keep doing.

Speaker 1: 11:24

This would have been a snap. If you've really had talent. You could have easily done this if you were meant for it. Right, change that mindset. Well, the best way for me to develop talent is to get out of my comfort zone and practice new things, and by doing that I'm learning, I'm growing and I'm continuing to improve. So, answering your own negative mindset with positivity and actually answering those questions, that can help a lot. It's helped me. It continues to help me along the way. Those are all things you want to do. We'll do one more. This is one that I actually haven't really struggled with because I take ownership with, but I have seen other people struggle with it, and that's it's not my fault. It was someone else's fault. I didn't take responsibility. And so you should be asking yourself if I don't take responsibility, it can't be fixed. Let me listen how painful it is and learn whatever I can, because if you can change something in yourself to be a better person, that's what you want to do.

Speaker 1: 12:38

While we're on the topic of mindset matters, I want to invite any one of our listeners to an event that we have coming up in West Des Moines.

Speaker 1: 12:46

I will call the Mindset Matters event. I will actually be a speaker there and I'll be speaking more on the topic of mindset matters and how you can leverage it to really attract what you're looking for in life and using your mindset to grow and continue to be a better business owner, a better father. Whatever you're looking to do in life you can use your mindset to get better at. I want to invite you to this event Mindset Matters event West Des Moines, iowa, on December 14th. If you're interested in going, feel free to send me a DM at jacobkmeet, on all the socials. I love to personally get you a ticket and get you there. You can really learn more about mindset and why it's so important. I hope you really enjoyed today's episode and please make sure to share it with your friends, family someone that needs to hear the message, as always, until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. My name is Jacob K Mead, and until next time.