Toss out old habits – it will change your life!

Toss out old habits – it will change your life! April 12, 2021

Are you holding onto limiting ways of thinking, being right or relationships that drain you? It’s time to rethink them and put your bias under a microscope. The pandemic has been difficult and devastating for many; yet there’s always a gift in the chaos. With disruptive change, the opportunity for you to make rapid and bold moves becomes easier. You can better re-examine your thought process to assess what works for you and what doesn’t.

Are you holding onto limiting ways of thinking, being right or relationships that drain you?

In his timely and insightful book, Think Again, organizational psychologist, Adam Grant writes about the importance of using the “scientific method” in weighing out your decisions and choices. He advocates using the “power of knowing what you don’t know” and developing “confident humility.” Confident humility is the sweet spot between confidence in yourself and staying open to learning new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. Are you so busy supporting past views, trying to convince others, or branding yourself that you have stopped examining what you really stand for and believe?

Confident humility is the sweet spot between confidence in yourself and staying open to learning new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.

In her research and book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dr. Carol Dweck outlines the distinctions between having a fixed mindset where you see the amount of intelligence and talent you have as a fixed amount that doesn’t change over time and a growth mindset where you adopt a self-development way of thinking and learning and see competency as something you can build. In a past blog, I discuss the importance of developing a growth mindset vs. staying closed on your ability to lead. Embracing a growth mindset sets the stage for rethinking.

To exercise your thinking, write down your assumptions about life and work pre-pandemic. Ask yourself: “What evidence do I have to continue embracing this way of thinking and viewing things?” Do the same post-pandemic. Has anything changed?