Defining Fundamental Mindset Terms

Metacognition is the practice of being aware of one’s own thinking. It involves evaluating one’s own thinking process such as heuristics, expectations, internal narratives, and is a necessary skill in learning to adapt those beliefs. This concept needs to be explicitly taught. The term comes from the root word meta, meaning “beyond”, or “on top of” and cognitio, meaning, "to comprehend" or "to know". Metacognition can take many forms, such as reflecting on one’s ways of thinking and knowing when and how to use particular strategies for problem-solving. "Changing your thinking starts with understanding your thinking." - J.R. Covey

Fear is the expectation of a negative outcome. It is not inherently positive or negative and should not be associated with any shame or judgement. If used properly as an indicator of expectations fear can be leveraged as a powerful force for change. The responses that we give to fear, which are learned responses, can be either helpful or maladaptive and can be justified or unjustified. However, it is important to differentiate the fear itself from the reactions that we have to the feeling. Fear is a cognitive process and when justified can be lifesaving. If you are being attacked by a mugger, you want adrenaline to dump into your bloodstream to fight them off. You do not want that level of a response because your boss called you into an unplanned meeting. It will impact how you show up and how you interpret events.

Heuristics in psychology are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that simplify decision-making and problem-solving. Heuristics often speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution, but they can also lead to cognitive biases. They are necessary at times when snap decisions are required however, because of the influence that they have on choices they must also be scrutinized for their validity and value. If a belief falls short in either validity ("Is this expectation accurate?") or value ("Is this expectation helpful?") it needs to be replaced with an expectation which can stand up to the validity and value benchmarks. Periodic revisiting of these heuristics is a healthy process as contexts can change the validity and/or value of a specific belief. What was true and helpful yesterday may be false or ineffective tomorrow.

Pragmatism is the prioritizing of ideas, processes, or systems based on the successful production of a desired outcome. If it works, it works and if it doesn't, it doesn't. When the evaluation of ideas is not based on the quality of the outcome then the final product suffers. The saying, "It is the thought that counts," does not apply to anything beyond gift giving. Management styles, objectives, legislation, and even thought lives are too important to be determined by intentions. Good intentions are in no way statistically associated to positive outcomes. Some of the worst outcomes are the result of the unintended consequences of good intentions. Do what works!

Narratives are stories that we all default to when attempting to make sense of our life experiences. Each of us produce narratives about ourselves, others and the future based on personal experiences, observations, and the experiences of trusted sources. For example, inferiority or inadequacy are common themes adopted by many in their childhood which carries over into adulthood. When people maintain an underlying belief that they will likely fail they can expect that from themselves even in situations where they are clearly adequate from the perspective of those around them. These narratives develop and adapt very slowly over time. If not addressed intentionally and many narratives will never change without direct personal efforts to rewrite them. "I'm not good enough," "they are taking advantage of me," and "things never work out for me," are just a few among a very long list of broken narratives that shape the way we view ourselves, others and the future which can be highly destructive.

The Pygmalion effect is a repeatedly observed psychological phenomenon in which expectations of high performance, result in improved production in a given area and expectations of low performance tend to lead to lesser outcomes. In an early study at the beginning of the school year children were randomly assigned either "High potential" or "Low potential" status with their teacher. This influenced the way they were treated by the teacher and all students improved through the year but those that the teacher expected to excel did at a higher rate than those assumed to have a lower potential. Believing in people, actually changes them.

Learned helplessness describes a mental state and phenomenon in which individuals choose to not attempt to use any available options to control a situation after repeated exposure to negative stimuli. Messaging and experiences can teach an individual that their actions are ineffective and/or potentially risky, thus trying to change a situation is pointless. Learned helplessness can result in increased feelings of stress and depression. It has been known and talked about since the late 1960s through experiments conducted on classical conditioning. Victims of this mindset typically require direct and intentional narrative work to counteract the effects of their maladaptive thought-patterns.

Classical conditioning occurs when an individual is "conditioned" to expect a certain result from a situation because of repeated exposure to a situation resulting in the same outcome. Frequently, these cause-and-effect associations in life are unintentional, and circumstantial. However, these expectations can be intentionally adapted to create new and even positive associations for individuals who have been previously trained to expect negative outcomes. These expectations are the exact type of narratives addressed by the work of Fearproof.

Also called instrumental conditioning, it is a learning process where the addition or removal of either positive (reward) or negative (punishment) come as a result of voluntary behaviors. Behaviors can be encouraged by increasing rewards or decreasing punishments. Conversely, behaviors can be discouraged by increasing punishments or decreasing rewards. Originally the "Law of Effect" theorized that behaviors arose as a result of whether their consequences are pleasant or unpleasant. With the power of intentionally crafting narratives to self-determine the positive nature of an experience individuals can manipulate this phenomenon to their own benefit.

Imposter syndrome, also known as "perceived fraudulence," describes an individual's sense of self-doubt based on believing themselves to be less competent or deserving than others perceive them. This feeling can persist following educational or occupational success. It can be hard for individuals to recognize their own accomplishments and acknowledge that they have earned positions, raises, or titles. The impostor syndrome can affect anyone. However, high-achieving individuals are more prone to it based on increased opportunities to succumb to it. Sufferers of imposter syndrome describe feelings such as needing to: hide their shortcomings and failures, prove their worth for roles they don't deserve, and an uneasiness or guilt due to the incorrectly perceived fraudulent nature of their achievements. Many people experience symptoms for periods of time, such as following a promotion, but for others, the experience can be more persistent or even last a lifetime.

What can you expect?

“Managing My Mindsets” is here to invite you to take an honest look at the way you perceive the world around you and how preconceived notions cause you to interpret your experiences. The human mind is a finite resource, and those objects of our attention are selected by us either intentionally or unintentionally.

For many people learning to take authority of and responsibility for their thought-life is a revolutionary concept. Unfortunately, modern self-awareness has become an act of validation seeking more than a process of intentional development and refinement.

Here at the Managing My Mindsets newsletter our aim is to make it easy to understand what the scientific literature says about how our thoughts frame our reality and what we can do about it.

Whether you’re a student, a professional, or simply someone interested in personal development, “Managing My Mindsets” is for you!

Issues will frequently be divided into multi-part series and include titles such as, "Stop Looking Forward to What Holds You Back," "Mediocre Mindsets," "Adding an 'Un'," and "Defining Success."

Defining Fundamental Mindset Terms

What can you expect?

Share your thoughts

DON'T MISS OUT!
previous Managing My Mindsets articles AVAILABLE HERE

Defining Fundamental Mindset Terms

What can you expect?

Share your thoughts

DON'T MISS OUT! previous Managing My Mindsets articles AVAILABLE HERE

DON'T MISS OUT!
previous Managing My Mindsets articles AVAILABLE HERE