CLARITY: Being in touch with my Self. What stands in the way?

Psychologist Carol Dweck states in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, “For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”

Dweck’s research revealed that one of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality.

A fixed mindset assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we cannot change in any meaningful way. Striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled.

A growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.

Out of either mindset, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.

According to Dweck, “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone [the fixed mindset] creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over . . . . [The] growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts — everyone can change and grow through application and experience.”

So which view have you adapted for yourself? How has it affected the life you live? 

Read the full article here - http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/ 

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“Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you.” ~ Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace

I love lists. They bring me comfort and organize my life. I start the New Year with my Wish List which I review periodically and update.  This gives me a sense of what I want and where I will go.

I also have a list for the day which gives me direction and satisfaction that I have done a good job. Of course, there are other lists for endless tasks that need to be completed at home. Some that I created are plastered all over my wall in bright post-it colors.

I was taking stock of the various lists that I developed through life and realized that I have a private unwritten list. It is my internal inventory of fears, mistakes, pain, anger, internal shame, forgotten dreams, insecurity, self-esteem problems, etc. 

This is a powerful list because it stands in the way of my clarity.  It tells me I am not good enough.  In the face of a venture that excites my Soul, the list takes on a life of its own and tries to convince me to stop.  If I remain clear I know when to silence these voices and move on.

This list has not gone away.  It is still in me even though some items have lost their voice.  Instead, I have developed a friendship with fear and we have come to an understanding about its role in heightening my awareness before I take action.  

Forgotten dreams moved out permanently when my visions became so vivid and colorful I could no longer ignore them.  Pain is still there and so is lack of self-esteem. We touch base more infrequently as time passes. 

We are good.