Fruit of the Spirit for April: Faithfulness
Faithfulness can be described as loyalty and commitment. A faithful Christian is someone who stands firm on the promises of God and steps forward in faith. They remain committed in times of suffering. Faithfulness in action is expressed through one who is committed to becoming who God has called them to be and committed to growing in Christ. In the upcoming blogs for this month, we will be focusing on faithfulness, particularly 1) What keeps us from keeping the commitments to ourselves and 2) steps that can help us be more faithful to our growth in the Lord.
Faithful to Growing
In the past week as I looked around, I saw that flowers started blooming on trees. Spring often reminds people of new life. In the Old Testament, the new year would start somewhere between March and April which coincided with the spring season. Additionally, this is the time Christians celebrate the death of Christ and His resurrection that brings new life.
When you look at your life, are you blooming like the flowers? Often times we put our emotional, spiritual, and mental well being on the back burner while attending to everyone and everything else. The Bible talks about renewing our minds in the word of God (Romans 12:2). But what causes us to keep from blooming?
Fixed vs Growth Mindset
One of those things that keep us from growing can be a fixed mindset. Fixed and growth mindsets are terms developed by Carol Dweck, that describe ways of thinking. A fixed mindset is a way of thinking that can cause you to limit yourself and not reach your full potential. It’s when you believe that your abilities, intelligence and talents are what they are and can’t be improved, no matter how much effort you put in. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is believing that your abilities, intelligence and talent can be improved with effort. And, you are up for the challenges as they arise.
Causes for Fixed and Growth Mindsets
There are several factors that may cause one to have a fixed or a growth mindset. Like many other ways of thinking and being, these mindsets and/or beliefs are typically formed early in life. They can stem from what we have been, or haven’t been told. Often times those early voices become our own. For instance,
Being told repeatedly that you were not good enough at something
Feeling like you were valued only when you achieved/performed well
Examples of a fixed mindset:
I’ll never be able to do this
I give up
This is too hard
I failed and will always fail at this
These statements and ways of thinking can lead to self-fulfilling prophesies. They can leave you feeling disappointed and frustrated in yourself, negatively impacting your self esteem. Also, they can keep you from trying new things and reaching your full potential.
For instance, in establishing my own counseling practice, I quickly realized how having a fixed mindset was holding me back from growing. As someone who is very introverted, I struggle with marketing myself. The fixed mindset voices in my head repeatedly told me, “You’re just not good at putting yourself out there to establish trust in your community. Maybe you should just go back to your 9-5 corporate job.” I have to constantly speak to myself to tell myself that I can get better at marketing with practice, with learning, and with failure. It’s a struggle, but even though, as I write this blog post, I am marketing myself.
So how can I break free from a fixed mindset?
Here are 3 ways to begin to change this negative pattern of thinking.
Awareness. As with anything we are trying to change some thing in our lives, awareness is the first step. Do you find yourself repeatedly telling yourself that you can’t do some thing or that it’s too hard? Do you find that you give up easily when you’re faced with challenges? Those may be some indicators that you have a fixed mindset that is keeping you from growing.
Speak to yourself. I find that speaking to myself alone is half the battle however, it does help. As a Christian, you may find that using Scripture verses to challenge negative thoughts may be helpful. For a free resource in how to turn a fixed mindset statement to a growth mindset statement, using the Scriptures click here.
Implement and commit to your plan. Now that you are aware of the statements that you tell yourself that keep you in a fixed mindset, and have the tools to overcome that, take the next step to commit to taking a few minutes every day to evaluate whether or not, you were operating in a fixed mindset, and speak to yourself with the truth of God. No matter how much information you obtain and how much you read, the change is in the doing and being consistent. In other words, be committed to doing something different that can help you to change the patterns sabotaging your growth.
For a free resource to help you combat a fixed mindset using Scriptures, click here.
Keep in mind that all of us have a mix of fixed and growth mindsets. The goal isn’t to eliminate all fixed mindsets. Rather, it is to recognize the ones that keep you stuck in self-defeating patterns and to change them to help you grow and reach your full potential and God-given purpose.
Reference
Farnam Street: Carol Dweck: A Summary of Growth and Fixed Mindset
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