I’m a big fan of the theory of evolution.
I believe that we are here today because we’ve evolved into what we are and we’re continuously evolving as we go on, as has everything else in the planet.
You can see it around you if you look.
Just that, through your life you can see how things evolve, people evolve, just over the course of a life-time.
And that’s what I want to talk about.
The fixed and growth mindset
Fixed mindset is that you believe that you’re – what you’re born with is exactly what you’re left with for the rest of your life.
You know, you’ve got a certain amount of natural abilities and abilities to learn skills, but that, that can’t grow – that you’re fixed with that – that’s your lot and there’s a cut-off point to what you can do.
Now, I’m of the opposite one.
I believe in very positive sort of outlook on people.
I believe that people have got a growth – that they can grow – their born with certain abilities but there just a base-line abilities, everything else that you can add on to it.
You can learn almost anything that you want to do in life and you can do that very gradually.
It’s called the growth mindset.
The mindset version of it – is basically really what you think about yourself.
So if you think you’ve got a fixed mindset then you’re basically not going to try and go outside of what you know.
And it’s basically people want to stay inside their own comfort zones.
I think that’s the thing anyway.
With a growth mindset you believe that anything is possible for yourself.
You can change your mindset
It is only a mindset.
You can change to believe in that – you can achieve anything.
You can change into believing that any skill is there for the taking.
That you can learn any skill.
I mean a skill is only done gradually.
It’s done bit by bit.
You build on the knowledge you’ve got from before and you add to it bit by bit.
You spread your horizons, you’re always learning something new.
As far as evolution goes, I believe that this is… We’re on our own personal evolution.
We can evolve as individuals just by setting out to learn and to never stop learning, to always be open to listening to new theories to new ways of looking at things – new perspectives.
And it’s the same with quitting drinking alcohol.
I think that that’s an evolutionary process – a personal evolutionary process – not to do with evolution as such, in the wider sense.
In that – Day One is very difficult – you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re like a fish out of water.
You’re used to doing things in a certain way and all of a sudden you take this large chunk out of your routine.
Your behaviours and your habits all have to change and your life all has to change in order to house this new belief in yourself.
You’ve got to build this new belief in yourself.
Day Two comes along and it’s a bit easier, and it gets a bit easier after Week One, Week Two, blah de blah – you know?
The more you get into it the more you change.
And if you’re open to it, you can really build a much better life for yourself than before.
I’m always open to learning new things.
I try and read as much as I can.
I probably watch a bit too much TV.
I think, my brain in particular just won’t go past a certain amount of sort of reading and stuff.
It sort of shuts down so then I have to blank out.
Maybe that’s just – I think am on a , not a comfort zone – but I’m in sort of a bubble.
I need to burst out of the bubble and I think I’m capable of a lot more.
So that’s really it for today.
Just a short video just to sort of look at things from a different perspective again.
I hope you got something out of that video.
“In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself”
Take Care.
Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!
“I need to burst out of the bubble and I think I’m capable of a lot more.”
Great perspective and insight. If for no other reason, try not ingesting alcohol for a while and attempt to restore your natural capabilities. Perhaps, like me, you will realize how much you have been missing by using the “crutch” of alcohol. While there is little about Donald Trump that I admire or agree with, he does believe in himself and obviously achieved a goal that very few thought he could obtain. He does not drink any alcohol.
Cheers, Peter
Totally agree with the growth mind set. Totally agree with setting goals and even ambitious ones.
I am of the view set your goal as far as you can see and then when you get there you will be able to further, make sure your goals link to your current situation. The link is very important or you can run the risk of building castles in the sky.
Yesterday I felt a bit depressed, first time since I knew I was 100% cured of my alcohol addiction. I was surprised that the black dog (my depression) appeared. I thought cheeky fucker.
I had to lie down, stop what I was doing. Remember the tricks/methods I had learned over the last 6 months. note: I never at any stage even remotely thought I want alcohol. I took comfort in that, I could see real growth, nothing not even my black dog made me want a drink.
I felt proper shit for probably about 8 hrs, I used the idea of triggers to review my situation, I could see there had been a lot of triggers in a short space of time, I was still slightly surprised by the black dogs appearance. I didn’t judge my thoughts, just watched them like you would a train coming and going out of a station.
The depression has completely gone this morning, it left me motivated to sketch out some plans for the next 3 months. Yes the black dog appeared, but it went very quickly and I am aware of the triggers, they won’t catch me next time. The old me would have drank alcohol and the depression would have lasted for days or even weeks. (I shudder to think how I would feel this morning)
Not being able to work properly yesterday has left me in a tight spot today and there will be consequences, but I don’t feel down, I feel I can deal with it. I have truly grown and its probably mostly down to not drinking alcohol combined with the things I have learned during that process. If anyone feels sorry for me, please don’t. My goals are very realistic, lots of fun and I am mostly happy since being alcohol free.