Hey there! This is TOP episode 167. Fixed Mindset
My name’s Ola and I am an online English teacher. I believe you can eliminate your language blockade. The secret word here is consistency. There are other secret words too. That is why I record this podcast’s episodes, and each comes with a little worksheet, a one-pager to help you digest and test what you’ve practised here. You can speak English with more confidence, slay that fear and enjoy free communication.
Visit my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Visit my shop at teacherola.com and enjoy your journey to fluency! Happy learning!
Hello and welcome to another episode. Thank you for joining me. Today I’d like us all to reflect a bit on our mindsets. Please listen carefully, and do the shadowing if you wish (if you don’t know what the heck is that please tune in to episode 25 it’s all about the shadowing technique to boost your speaking). Listen and think about how much of a fixed mindset you have. Even if you perceive yourself as an open-minded person, calm down I’m not here to offend you, but we all fall somewhere on the spectrum.
Nobody has a 100% fixed mindset but most definitely you have at least a fraction of such an approach. Your job is to get to know yourself. Are you afraid of making mistakes? Do you believe that some of us have a talent for languages? Do you think that childhood is the best or even the only period for learning English? Stay with me and let’s learn more about fixed mindset.
Before we dive deeper into a fixed mindset. Let me tell you this, My Speak English with tv series course is open now. The programme is focused on one skill only, speaking. Go to powiedzcos.pl and join the free challenge.
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What is a fixed mindset? In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits.
They believe intelligence and talent are static since they are innate. They don’t change, they don’t evolve and hence trying to improve them is a plain waste of time and energy. If you don’t have a talent for languages well, clearly it’s not your superpower and you will never possess it.
If you have a fixed mindset you believe that failure is bad for you. If you fail you are a failure. People will mock you, laugh at you, and look down on you and in fact, they will be right. That’s what you think when you have a fixed mindset. So what is your coping mechanism for fear of failure?
Well, that’s easy! You simply avoid them. You stay in your cosy and nice comfort zone. You can never go wrong being here and you are protected. You protect yourself from criticism in that comfort zone.
What it does is it keeps you hiding out all your flaws. You are afraid of vulnerability. Vulnerability, the fact of being exposed sounds weak to you. It’s a shame, a weakness, certainly not power. Well, by the way, I’d like to recommend, and I bet it’s not the first time on this show, I’d like to recommend watching a TED speech by Brene Brown titled: ‘The Power of Vulnerability. The link is in the show notes at teacherola.com/167. She is a specialist so listen to her and learn how being vulnerable makes you strong and makes you human. It makes you credible. Coming back to a fixed mindset.
Needless to say, you avoid challenges as they seem way too risky. If you run a risk of being laughed at, you’ll have to deal with the consequences and that is unbearable. Additionally, failure is permanent. As a result, you chose easy tasks. Easy, repetitive tasks. Tasks which don’t require much effort.
Performing them for an extended period of time you become an expert in your field but you never grow. But that’s ok for you since you don’t even believe growth is possible.
What do you do if you face an obstacle? You give up. You turn around and do something different because that task is clearly impossible for you to be done. You strive for measurable goals. Things you can easily tick off your to-do list.
If you have a fixed mindset you perceive feedback as unimportant, you kind of ignore it because you do what you know you can do very well and nobody is to tell you what to improve. You are an expert. But it can look quite different. It might happen that your fixed mindset makes you view feedback as a personal attack. Not as constructive guidance but rather as a personal malicious attack. That is even worse.
What happens if people around you succeed? It’s tough for people with a fixed mindset because it feels like it might harm them. Your work, your business, your goals, everything is at risk.
It threatens you to see the success of others as if the amount of success was limited on this planet and your share of success has been taken by your competition.
Does any of what I’ve said today sound familiar? Do you have a fixed mindset? In what aspects? In one of the upcoming episodes, we’ll chat about a growth mindset so I hope you’re looking forward. Please let me know how you feel about having a fixed mindset. How can it impact your career? Your life? Share your thoughts in the comment section, email me or dm me, you can record yourself and send it to me. I’m waiting for your opinions.
Now, let’s practice, let’s grow. Listen and repeat:
They believe intelligence and talent are static since they are innate.
If you don’t have a talent for languages well, clearly it’s not your superpower and you will never possess it.
So what is your coping mechanism for fear of failure?
You can never go wrong being here and you are protected.
Needless to say, you avoid challenges as they seem way too risky.
If you run a risk of being laughed at, you’ll have to deal with the consequences and that is unbearable.
As a result, you chose easy tasks.
What do you do if you face an obstacle?
Things you can easily tick off your to-do list.
It might happen that your fixed mindset makes you view feedback as a personal attack.
Great! Now, go to your inbox and get the worksheet to test yourself. Translate the sentences into English. Each episode is a practical and free class.
If you aren’t a member of TOPeople download the worksheet from teacherola.com/167.
If you find this episode useful, tell your friends about my podcast. Thank you so much for doing so! Please rate this podcast wherever you listen, be it Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcast or YouTube. Thank you! I’ll see you next Wednesday! Happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud! Bye!