This past week my aunt posted a photo of the living room where they had set up a Ping Pong table that they will be using for Thanksgiving dinner.
I remember sitting around that Ping Pong table for Thanksgiving with all the family as a little kid.
After dinner, we would clear the table and have a Ping Pong tournament before watching a Charlie Brown show on TV.
When I saw the recent photo, I noticed something was different. Where there used to be shag carpet, there was now a hardwood floor.
There’s been a change. Things are different. Things have not stayed the same. They have evolved.
This reminded me of an audio book I listened to – also this past week. It was a recap of a book I had previously read called Mindset by Carol Dweck.
In her book she discusses the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Essentially a fixed mindset says that things will always be the same and a growth mindset says things can change.
Evidently, my aunt’s floor indicates she has a growth mindset.
This idea of a growth mindset can be handy during a week like this with Thanksgiving on the horizon.
Because some people may not be looking forward to it.
Maybe it’s travel, or spending time with relatives you’d rather not, or Black Friday or some other stressor.
The good news is, most of our stress is self-inflicted, and we can do something about that.
You see, our subconscious mind will take information based on experiences – whether they be ours or somebody else’s – and go to work painting a picture – creating a screenplay – of what our future week could look like. And, if you’re like me, those expectations may not be entirely positive. We will probably tell ourselves, subconsciously, that things will be just like they’ve been in the past. We will then likely have an emotional reaction to this – before it even happens!
But that will only happen if we have a fixed mindset.
If we have a growth mindset, however, we can take charge of our experiences this Thanksgiving. We can rewrite the script.
That’s an empowering place to come from.
Even if you have nothing but positive memories, and therefore great expectations for Thanksgiving this year, I wonder if you can take the growth mindset challenge and see how you can take your experience this year to a whole new level. Maybe that involves helping others to have a growth mindset as well.
I want to invite you to join me in having a conscious growth mindset Thanksgiving this year – one where we’re in the moment creating the experiences we’d like to have.
Happy Thanksgiving!