Do What You Want

C H A P T E R 4

Two kinds

of mindset:

resourceful and

limiting

S

o you know about mindset and mechanics. We’ll look in

more depth at mechanics in Part Three, where you will

find a toolkit full to bursting with tips, strategies and ‘ways to

do things’.

In Part Two we’re concentrating on the old grey matter. It is

a very simple idea that your thinking affects how you behave.

But a hugely powerful one. If you are aware of how your

thinking is affecting your actions, suddenly you have choice

and that opens up all sorts of opportunities for you. The

main one is the chance to edit your thinking so you can gain

more effective behaviours and hence better results.

So let’s start with a little bit of simple psychology. Our brain is

a clever old organ – good job too as it’s in charge of running

things around here. Throughout our life it keeps track of our

experiences and, to make things simpler, it codes things so

PART TWO MINDSETS34

that we can respond quickly to the same situation the next

time it occurs. That code becomes a belief.

The most dramatic example of this would be a phobia.

These develop when we experience what we perceive to be

a life-threatening situation. Often they aren’t, but because

most phobias have their roots in childhood experiences the

perception is what matters. The brain codes that experience

and creates a mindset that leads to the belief that if that ever

happens again we will feel completely terrified and avoid the

situation altogether.

These little bits of code are ingrained into our brains about

almost every part of our lives. They inform how we relate to

other people, how we perform regular tasks and how we

respond to everything, from pleasure to pain. Each time a

situation is repeated the code gets reinforced and becomes

a mindset which is then installed in our day-to-day operating

system as a shortcut to how we behave.

It works in much the same way as the operating system on

our phones or computers. And isn’t it frustrating when that

goes wrong! Our gadgets and apps stop working properly,

because, of course, everything is dependent upon its fast

and effective performance.

The analogy holds good for us: if you don’t think you are

worthy of that senior position that will hold you back and

hamper the work you are putting into your CV and interview

preparation. A poor operating system leads to poor results

for us humans as well as our little electronic devices.

CHAPTER 4 TWO KINDS OF MINDSET: RESOURCEFUL AND LIMITING 35

Can we pursue the analogy? I mean by that, can we ‘upgrade’

our operating system to the latest version? Yes!

There are two kinds of mindsets. There are those that help

you, e.g. ‘If I come across as mature enough, there is no

reason why I will not seem the perfect person to be given

more responsibility in the team.’ These we will call resourceful

or positive. The former is a better word. And then there

are mindsets that hold you back, e.g. ‘Because I am new I

cannot contribute to the planning meeting.’ These we will call

limiting or negative. Again, the former is a better word.

Remember how useful that analogy with the operating

system was? We can take it a stage further: poor code leads

to a poor operating system on a mobile or a PC. Exactly

the same can be said for our brains. Poor code? Yes – the

words we use, the sentences we speak and the paragraphs

we write all constitute the code that creates our personal

operating system.

Here are some further examples of resourceful mindsets:

1 If I put the work in, I can get a new job.

2 By doing more research, I am bound to find a company

that is still looking for tele-sales operatives.

3 I need to create a great story around my MBA to show

that I am more than just another unemployed MBA

graduate.

4 I’m not going to let the prejudices against women in

finance block my career path.