FIXED Mindset vs. GROWTH Mindset - Mike Rashid

Peace, y'all. My name is Michael Rashid King, and this is a special edition of After School. I'm a former professional boxer, an entrepreneur in the wellness space, and the host of the Civil Mind Savage Body podcast. It's a podcast in which we explore topics that expands consciousness, increases health, and share ideas from the world's top thought leaders. I often tell people that they all have a superpower, and that superpower is called perspective. If your perspective has dexterity while navigating this ocean called life, you will flow, you will smile, and everything that you encounter will build you up to the superman or superwoman that you have the capacity to be. Today's episode is growth mindset and the power of perspective and forgiveness. Now, I wanna talk to you guys about growth mindset because it's very important. A growth mindset is an attribute of people who are self-made, okay? There is an opposing side to that called a fixed mindset. People with a fixed mindset have a more negative perspective on life and on people's position in life and their position in life. People with a fixed mindset thinks that people are born the way they are, and that's it. They couldn't be more wrong. I wanna tell you about what a growth mindset is and those who have those characteristics. We embrace problems as opportunities. These are opportunities to learn and to become more wealthy with wisdom. Life is always an exciting journey. See, we know that abilities can be developed with practice. We know that there are endless opportunities to figure out new things and to grow. We are not afraid to try new things. We encourage children to develop any new skill that they're interested in because it teaches them how to learn. We listen to feedback. We love challenges. We know that effort is part of the journey that's called life. We motivate our friends and peers. We solve problems. We know that nurture is more important than nature. And what I mean by that is this. Your environment is not a limiting factor to your development. It should be an enhancement to your development. And I say that because when your beginnings are not ideal, you develop a stronger work capacity and drive than someone who's had an easy road. You're not easily rattled. People can't throw you off course. You're more sturdy and more resilient. You're hard to kill. Shit, damn near impossible because you've defeated the odds. You use everything at your disposal to your advantage. What some people discard as junk, you can use that as treasure. That's what makes your mind so beautiful. If you have less, when you get to the level of people who have more and then you pass them, your story is just way more glorious. We also do not do excuses. **** that. I'm gonna tell you a story about myself. So around 12 years ago, I was a fugitive and I was homeless. I lost everything that I had. Now, I ended up in that position because of no one else. It was because of me. It was my decisions, my inactions that put me in a huge deficit, right? So I never cried or complained to anybody because I had to own my ---- like a man. Now, during that time that I was down and out, I did a lot of inner work. I meditated. And back then I didn't know I was meditating, but I was praying all the time. That's a form of meditation. I fasted and I wasn't even consciously fasting. I wasn't trying to fast, but there were many days that I had no money to feed myself. And my logic was, well, **** it. I've never been a thief, but I said, if I'm gonna steal, it'll be because I need to, to eat. But I could not bring myself to do it. For one, I just think it's disgusting to take something that's not yours. But for two, remember, I'm a fugitive. So typically people that's on the run, they get caught pretty fast by doing other crimes to survive. So I thought how salacious and scandalous and lame would it be for me to have this huge case over my head and I'm on the run and I get caught in the grocery store stealing grapes. And then they got me. So that prevented me from stealing. So in that sense, I went many days without eating anything. So even though I wasn't fasting or meditating consciously, I still was fasting and meditating. And that did a lot of healing for myself. Now, I also worked humbling jobs to get myself back on my feet. Listen, I felt that energy of hopelessness. I felt that energy of depression. I also felt that energy of anger and of fear. I said I felt it, but I did not accept it. I rejected it. Every time that I breathe, I can feel those negative emotions, but I'd redirect it and inhale it as fuel. So my problems became motivating factors. Because think about the alternative. Let's say that I did allow these problems to set a negative course for my life. I'd be another loser saying, if this didn't happen, I'd be rich. I'd be blaming other people for my shortcomings, but I'll never do that. Listen, you never blame anyone but yourself for your shortcomings. Own it like a man, but fix your shortcomings. Don't just sit in it. Whatever areas you have deficiencies on, work on readying them up. Make yourself hater-proof. That takes a lot of inner work. You need a legit amount of self-awareness, and you need a legit amount of interpersonal intelligence. You need to know who you are. Identify why you're in the very position that you're in, then identify if that's where you want to be or not, then identify where you want to be, then put a plan together on how to get there. Once you figure that out, there's something that I need you to do before you start your journey. You need to take inventory on everybody in your life and honestly look at your relationship with all of them. And if you've ever done anything to hurt any of them, you want to write them a letter. To each one of them, write their own letter and apologize. Don't type it out, write it. There's something very therapeutic about this process. Once you've done that, seal it up, put it away, it's just for you. Just keep it. Then I want you to talk to that person in person if that's possible and give them a sincere apology. Ask them for forgiveness and hug it out. If they're not ready to forgive you, that's okay. They're just not ready. But as long as your apology is sincere, your conscious will be clean and cleared out. Now, back on the topic of a growth mindset. According to neuroscience, the brain grows the more that you train it. Nurture, like I said before, is more important than nature. These are all things that are backed by science, y'all. Intelligence or skill can be developed with effort. Your brain, my brain, our brains are not fixed. They're very malleable. They're like plastic. There's a term called neuroplasticity that it basically breaks down how, who we are is the sum total of decisions and habits that we make all the time. Now, when you have qualities or attributes that are not ideal they always say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. That's old wisdom that is not valid. We can always change who we are. We can always change how we respond to things but you have to identify what's wrong and what you do that's not proper, how you respond that's not okay and fix it. It's hard, it's difficult but the more you do it, the easier it become. You develop more neurons and neural pathways to continue to do what you wanna do the right way. It becomes a lot easier, but you have to start at some point, okay? There are a lot of people who become stuck in their ways. It's by decision, it's not by default, all right? So if you guys really embody some of the things that I'm giving you, like in the morning routines with the meditation, especially the fasting, things like that, it makes it easier for you to identify your flaws and shortcomings and you're so centered in your truth, you have to fix it. It'd be weird for you to identify shortcomings in yourself and not fix it. All right, let me bring it back a little bit. Problems are opportunities for us to become stronger, wiser and obtain a more robust perspective of all things. Perspective is a superpower. It's the way an individual perceives the world. Your experiences, your values and your current state of mind has everything to do with your perspective. When you have a growth mindset, your perspective on what others perceive as a problem, it's a bit different. What they see as a problem, you see as an opportunity. A problem to those who don't have a growth mindset is an impediment. It's a reason for them to have a bad day. It's a reason for them to be in a bad mood. Now, let me talk about some of the characteristics and traits of one with a fixed mindset. Now remember, fixed mindset is what we avoid. Now, one with a fixed mindset is one that avoids problems out of fear. They believe intelligence and talent are fixed traits and those traits are the sole reason why people are successful. Now, I'll give you some bullet points on fixed mindset. They're afraid of failing. They avoid feedback. If they do get feedback, they take it personal. They take the easy road out. They stop practicing when things get stuck and they hate or they're afraid of their friend's success. Never be that person. Also, what I want you to do is stop casting bad spells on yourself, all right? Cast good spells on yourself. Negative self-talk stops today. Only positive self-talk. I have a mantra. I live by this. Only good things happen to me. There's nothing in my life that you could look at that you could say, that was bad, that was bad. No, every situation in my life, I've figured out a way to make it benefit me, for me to learn from, for me to find an opportunity out of it, a reason for me to grow, right? That's what I want y'all to embody. So say it with me. Only good things happen to me, all right? I love y'all. Peace.