A Mindset can be described as a person’s way of thinking and their opinions including their established sets of attitudes.

A Belief is the state of mind in which a person thinks something to be the case with or without evidence to prove it with certainty. Another way of defining belief is a mental representation of an attitude positively oriented towards the likelihood of something being true.

From these descriptions we understand that a belief does not necessary have to have solid proof in order to exist in us, while a mindset is more like a mental frame created by our believes, our traditions and our values, that determines the way we act and interact in our environment. Beliefs develop over time through ideas, thoughts, feelings and meanings that we associate with various events and circumstances.

Dr Carol Dweck writes about two types of mindsets in her book titled Mindset; namely a Fixed and a Growth mindset –  their major characteristics are summarised as follows;

A fixed mindset believes that intelligence is static, therefore ‘that’s the way I am or the way it has always been.’ As a results people with a Fixed mindset may plateau early and achieve less than their full potential.

Someone with a growth mindset believes that intelligence & abilities can be developed, so they put emphasis on learning and, as a result, they tend to reach higher levels of achievement.

Beliefs and mind-sets result in decisions, choices, attitudes, behaviour and lifestyle. They influence ones view of the world, attitudes towards learning, relationships, and life as a whole. There are a number of factors influencing ones mindset. Whatever mindset we have, directly or indirectly comes from our upbringing and past experiences, learning environment, beliefs, social norms and culture. Learning, growth and success depend on beliefs and mind-sets.

The impact of a limiting mindset could include,

• Lack of courage to start anything that one is not sure that they can influence

• Avoidance of challenges, being defensive or give up easily

• Dreading effort and ignoring constructive criticism

• Feeling threatened by the success of others

Through personal development interventions including coaching one can identify the limiting mindset that is held as clients answer the following questions;

• is where you are not where you want to be?

• what is it that is persistently going on in your life that you don’t like?

A great coach will assist in identifying a limiting mindset and its associated beliefs and provide tools to overcome the limitations in a safe and inspiration environment.

Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are probably right!” This perfectly summarises the impact of mindset on what we achieve.