The Different Stages of Mindset

Our mindset is everything.

How and what we think about everything matters.

It’s not enough to say that mindset creates our lives (although it does), it’s more accurate to say that mindset is our lives.

To help understand mindset I want to share an idea I had the other day. I want to share a progression of different ways of being in life, to name different stages of attitude and approach.

I would ask that you consider which stage you’re in in different areas of your life. And to ask if the time you’re spending there is serving you.

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Resistance

When we’re in resistance we wish things were different. We keep doing things that don’t work, or we do nothing. We, for any number of reasons, would rather be (seemingly) static and feel safe.

In extreme cases, we subvert or rebel, trying to make trouble or create a disturbance (but this is really just a cry for help and/or attention).

(Acceptance/) Resignation

When we’re resigned to something, whether it’s our life in general or some situation specifically, it’s much like Resistance, but it’s passive. Much like anger is active depression and sadness or melancholy is passive depression, Resignation is a different face of Resistance.

We wish things were different, but we do nothing about it.

Responsibility

When we take Responsibility for our lives we recognize – without guilt, self-shame, blaming or martyrdom – that what we have and don’t have is up to us. We recognize that any goal or accomplishment takes hard work. And it often takes a long time.

When we’re responsible we do the work.

Creation

We’re creating when we working in service of what matters, to us and others, and it doesn’t necessarily feel like work. It is work to be sure, it doesn’t feel that way (at least most of the time).

Transcendence

We transcend when we’re creating and we don’t even know it. When our mindset is so optimized and aligned with responsibility and creation that we just do amazing stuff because it’s who we are and the being that we’ve become.

It’s a version of unconscious competence.