A mindset of harmony is important in that it determines whether we achieve harmony in our lives or not. We can only rise to the level of the degree in which our minds are set on harmony, that is a working together of things to achieve a certain goal or end.
“Your mindset matters. It affects everything – from the business and investment decisions you make, to the way you raise your children, to your stress levels and overall well-being.” Peter Diamandis
According to Dr Alia Crum, mindset is defined as a lens or frame of mind which orients an individual to a particular set of associations.
For us to live inspired harmonious lives, we should set our minds on the possibility of harmony. That harmony is attainable and is something we can grow towards. Our mindset should be that we are becoming harmonious day by day – while being aware of it and expecting it – through every experience or circumstance we encounter in life.
Carol Dweck is credited for the idea that people have two kinds of mindset either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Dweck and colleagues conducted research in several schools in the US where they found the effects of a fixed mindset compared to that of a growth mindset. They put school children in two categories and gave them some academic challenges. One group was told before the tasks that they were smart and they were praised for this quality. The other group was told that they were persevering, they were praised for making great effort to solve the tasks they had been given. Overall, the children who were praised for being smart opted for less challenging tasks, while those praised for their effort were willing to take on challenging tasks to increase their learning.
In her book Mindset:The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck indicates that an individual’s attitude about how fixed their abilities and intelligence are can determine the course of much of their life, starting as early as their preschool years. She gave the following comparison of the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.
| Fixed Mindset | Growth Mindset |
| One believes intelligence is static | One believes intelligence can be developed |
| Leads to a desire to look smart therefore a tendency to avoid challenges | Leads to a desire to learn therefore a tendency to embrace challenges |
| Gives up easily when faced with obstacles | Perseveres when faced with obstacles |
| Sees effort as fruitless or proof of lack of talent | Sees effort as the path to mastery |
| May ignore useful negative feedback | Learns from criticism |
| May feel threatened by the success of others | Finds lessons and inspiration from the success of others |
| Success is about proving to yourself and others that you are smart and talented | Success is about learning, stretching yourself and improving |
It is therefore quite beneficial to have the growth mindset, which can lead us to surmount obstacles, learn great things and raise to a higher level than we may have initially contemplated.
A story is told of twin brothers raised by an alcoholic father. A reporter sat on a city sidewalk next to a homeless man, ready to record his story for her article. Resting on the man’s lap was a backpack that contained all the belongings he had in the world.
The reporter opened her notebook and clicked her pen. “How did you end up here?” she asked gently, “How did you become homeless?”
The man quickly revealed that it was all because of his childhood, as he’d grown up with a father who was a raging alcoholic. Each evening his father would guzzle beer after beer, then take his anger out on his twin sons.
Not only would the father use physical violence, but he would use evil words to crush the spirit of his sons. Day after day, year after year.
“After a childhood like that,” said the man, “what chance did I have? Of course I ended up being an alcoholic myself after what I had been through, and only having my father as an example. Over the years of drinking I lost everything and now here I am homeless on this sidewalk.”
The reporter was moved by the homeless man’s story, and she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to his twin brother.
With some work she was able to track him down, but she was in for a shock.
When she met the twin brother her jaw dropped to see that he was living in a large house and had been a successful businessman for many years. He smiled warmly while introducing her to his family and showing her around the house.
When she asked him how come he hadn’t ended up an alcoholic like his father, his answer was clear: “With a childhood like that, there was no way I would ever touch a drop of alcohol or anything like it! Instead I strove to be a better person and make a happy life for myself.”
Individuals may be faced by the same circumstances, however, their mindset determines the outcome of their lives. This was the case for these twin brothers. They had different mindsets or perspectives regarding the experiences their father took them through.
In a TED talk titled Change Your Mindset, Change the game Dr Alia Crum gave four examples of situations where research proved the effect of an individual’s mindset on the outcome of the particular activities they engaged in. These were in medicine, in exercise, in diet and in stress.
- In the medical research example, researchers compared response to pain medication between patients who were given the pain medicine by a doctor as opposed to those who received it from a pre-programmed pump. Those who received it from a doctor, that is they were aware they were getting pain medication, reported feeling less pain compared to those who received the same medication without the awareness they were receiving pain medication.
- In the exercise research example, researchers observed a group of 84 hotel house workers whose work was physically strenuous. They asked them if they exercised regularly and two thirds of the workers said no. So the workers were divided into two groups, one was informed how their kind of work was beneficial akin to exercising the body. The other group was let to keep doing their usual work. When the test results were compared, the workers who were aware of how their work was exercising their bodies and the benefits derived from it, performed better than those who had no awareness. While those who were not aware remained the same, for those with awareness, their body weight reduced, blood pressure reduced and they reported being more satisfied with their job.
- In the diet example, Dr Crum and her colleagues made milkshakes and invited participants to try them in exchange for $75. They hooked the participants to an IV and then took their blood samples to measure ghrelin, the hunger hormone. When one is hungry, ghrelin levels increase and once the person eats, the levels drop.The participants were given the same milk shake in two separate tests, two weeks apart, the only difference was in the labelling. In the first one, the milk shake was described as having low calories, zero fat and no added sugar. In the second, it had 45% fat, 56g sugar, (in short, heavy stuff). In the first test, their ghrelin level dropped a little while in the second test when they thought they were having a heavy milk shake, their ghrelin levels dropped significantly more. Apparently the body’s response is determined by what we think about the food we take in (the mindset).
- In the example about stress, the researchers answered the question do our mindset about stress determine our response? They worked with a group of 300 employees. They divided them into two groups. They showed them two different video messages about stress. One had a positive message about stress”stress is enhancing”, the other the negative effects of stress, “stress is debilitating”. The researchers found that the ones who had watched the positive message video clips, over the course of a few weeks, reported less negative health issues such as back pain, insomnia and they reported higher level engagement and performance at work.
So in essence, the psychological and physiological aspects of our being are affected by our mindset. Whatever our mindset is, it determines the actions we take and our reaction to the circumstances we find ourselves in.
So what is your predominant mindset? Do you have the fixed mindset or the growth mindset?
I admit that I am making efforts to cultivate this growth mindset. I see facets of my life where I have a fixed mindset and the limitations it brings. Dweck says “Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. You could have a predominant growth mindset in an area, but there can still be things that trigger you into a fixed mindset trait.” Some also say that not all fixed mindsets are bad, there may be areas where a fixed mindset is beneficial.
So for us to live an inspired harmonious life, we have to examine our mindsets to ensure that we have one that sees the possibility of harmony in our lives. Without a mindset comprising harmony, we will not achieve an inspired harmonious life. Consider what Carol Dweck wrote that “As you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another—how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.”
