Mindsets - Perceptions

mindsets outline our perceptions

mindset = established sets of attitudes held by someone

American Psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset illustrates how accomplishment in school, work, sports, arts, and almost every area of human endeavour can be intensely influenced by how we contemplate our own talents and abilities.

mindset is an assemblage of thoughts and beliefs that shape my habits. My habits affect how I think, what I feel, and what I do since they are related to mindset, it helps me to understand attitude and beliefs.

She goes on to add there exists two types of mindsets – a) growth mindset, b) fixed mindsets that shape our lives 

The fixed mindset is entrenched in the credence that an individual’s personal qualities are engraved in stone, at birth, we are granted a certain amount of intellect, morals, talent, etc. and that there is nothing we can do to grow it more.

The growth mindset “is imprinted on the belief that our rudimentary qualities are things that we foster through our hard work, our strategies, and the resulting benefit from others. Even though individuals may differ in their initial talents and abilities, interests or personalities — everyone can change and grow through application and understanding.”

To narrate an example a man was passing some herd of elephants, confused he paused and observed the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was apparent that the elephants can, any time, break away from their shackles but for some purpose, they did not.

His eyes fell on a trainer nearby and inquired why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. The trainer responded, “when they were smaller and much lesser in size, we used the same sized rope to leash them, at that age it was adequate to hold them, but as they were bred, they are conditioned to believe that they cannot break away. They believe the rope can keep them immobile, so they at no time try to break free.”

The man astounded thought these animals can time break free from their bonds anytime but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Each one of us can relate to this fable and the sense of having botched at something over all our developmental years. 

Alike the elephants, many of us go through life holding on to a belief that I cannot do something as I have already failed at it. Over time, I begin to think that I am incapable of doing specific things and start accepting that as the reality and bound myself to a very narrowed world. 

Internally I start contemplating I did try that earlier but since it didn’t work out for me, there is no point in trying it again and wasting my energy and time, I want to look good and don’t want to appear as a fool!’, giving rise to shrinking of my capabilities as I look for an external cocoon to find solace within.  

Can I start looking this as a process of elimination i.e. when I start looking at failures as stepping stones to success I start responding positively with a sense of satisfaction that I tried and failed which makes my next step easier or when I acknowledge that I failed, I only use it to my advantage and make sure the mistake never happens again

To quote another example is Shamu the Killer Whale albeit on a positive side. How did they get a killer whale to jump 25 ft’ out of the water over a rope and dive the headfirst back into the water? 

This procedure is broken in a few steps. The 1st step is to start with the rope below the surface of the water, just high enough from the bottom for the whale to swim under it if the whale swims beneath the rope, the trainer overlooks it, however, each time the whale swims above the rope, the trainer positively reinforces it and the whale gets to indulge fish.

The whale later starts to think there is an interesting analogy between the rope and the food.” So, the whale swims over the rope more often, gradually the trainers keep raising the rope, and lo because of its conditioning od mind the whale does its viola act.

Remember the legendary Michael Jordan’s testament in Nike’s commercial on failure "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've missed over and over and over again in my life.

So, don’t bound yourself to a small world, stop limiting yourself to a life that is constrained, break free of your mental restrictions, and enlarge out into this wonderful empire that we live in.

Practise makes it perfect

Recently Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on took to Twitter to urge people to not wait for the novel coronavirus enforced lockdown to end before honing their skills.

"Once, Lord Indra got upset with Farmers, he announced there will be no rain for 12 years & you won’t be able to produce crops. Farmers begged for clemency from Lord Indra , who then said , Rain will be possible only if Lord Shiva plays his Damru..." began Swamy.

In a series of tweets, the Rajya Sabha MP narrated what happened next. Lord Indra secretly requested Lord Shiva to not agree with the farmers' plea. When they arrived to plead their case, Shiva said that he would play the damru after 12 years. The disappointed farmers decided to wait for 12 years.

"But one Farmer regularly was digging, treating and putting manure in the soil & sowing the seeds even with no crop emerging. Other Farmers were making fun of that Farmer," writes Swamy.

After three years of the same, the other farmers asked him why he was wasting so much time and energy despite knowing that there would be no rain for quite some time.

As Swamy narrates, the farmer said that while he was aware of this, he was "practicing" to ensure that he didn't "forget the process of growing crops and working in the field". He adds that this farmer intended to "produce the crop the moment there is rain".

His comments piqued the interest of Goddess Parvati who told Shiva that there was a possibility that even he could forget how to play the damru.

"The innocent Lord Shiva in his anxiety just tried to play the Damru, to check if he could….and hearing the sound of Damru immediately there was rain and the farmer who was regularly working in the field got his crop emerged immediately while others were disappointed,"

It did not matter whether the lockdown was lifted after two weeks, two months or even two years.

"Don’t wait for rain , that is the lock down to be lifted and then start something… focus on our skills today, upskill yourself so that you are ready to meet the challenges

The Still Flight

4 monks decided to meditate silently without uttering a word for two weeks. On the 1st night, the candle began to flicker and then goes out.

The 1st monk - "Oh, no! The candle has gone out."

The 2nd monk - "I thought we had an agreement not to speak?"

The 3rd monk an in irritated tone - "Why must you two break the silence?"

The 4th monk smiled with pride and said , "Ha! I'm the only one who didn't speak."

*Reflections*

"Individually each of the 4 the monks spoke for different reason, each of which is a shared stumbling block to inner journey, meditation, distraction, judgement anger and pride.

The 1st monk became anxious by one element of the world - the candle- losing sight of the rest and forgot what was more important.

The 2nd monk was more concerned about rules than the meditation itself. He was quick to criticise / judge others without noticing the he himself is guilty.

The 3rd monk let his own anger at the first two to affect him . The singular eruption of anger ruined his energy.

And the 4th monk was lost in his ego because of pride. He was convinced that he was superior to others, proving his ignorance, had he simply maintained his silence, he would've been successful in his endeavour.

But if he had continued likelihood the other 3 would've possibly continued to argue and not even observed his stillness.

I know many people who are like the 4th monk; their motto: If I'm doing something good and no one is watching (or no one notices), I might as well not be doing it at all. They believed that the reward is not in the determination, but in the acknowledgement.

It is clear from reading the story that none of the 4 monks are spiritually ready to perform the difficult. Unfocused and easily distracted by their surroundings. I see the moral of the story is 'to plan thoroughly and be solidly ready before embarking on an action. Focus your mind repetitively in reaching your purpose, and the objective will be reached, however difficult.

What would you have done if you were the 5th monk?