[00:00:00] All right, welcome back to Not Another Mindset Show. I am excited to talk about something today, and that is the double edged sword effect of a growth mindset. I’m excited to talk about this because I think in general, which I’m not arguing against, in general a growth mindset is seen to be this immensely positive thing, no matter what.

That we should always be seeking a growth mindset that’s always the, the best route to take. Which again, I’m not arguing against that. But just like with anything good, there’s always going to be a little bit of, of a con. And I really want to make it very clear that I’m not saying you should not have a growth mindset, but I am saying that there are [00:01:00] some aspects of having a growth mindset that are pretty much never talked about unless you’re actually familiar with the literature on growth mindset.

And just to kind of set the stage in case you haven’t listened to previous episodes, growth mindset. is really a science. There is a science to mindset in general. It’s not just a, like, woo woo, believe in yourself type of thing. Not that I have anything against woo woo, love me some woo woo, but there is a science to this stuff.

And when we have spent time researching mindset, and I can say we very directly because I’ve actually done research in the mindset field, I am, I am a mindset researcher. Can I still call myself a mindset researcher? researcher. I’m not actually actively doing mindset research. I don’t know. But we’re, we’re gonna go, we’re gonna go with it.

You can literally Google my last name Orvitus Mindsets into Google, put it into Google Scholar, and you will [00:02:00] find some of that research that I’m talking about. And we’re actually going to talk about some of it today. But I digress. The double edged sword effect is essentially this idea that once someone starts to recognize their ability to change, they start to cultivate.

This growth mindset, there is this sort of flip side of the coin of the sword, right, that they also can start to feel feelings of shame or guilt for where they are currently at. Because they now have this, this realization, this amazing realization that they potentially have more control than they were previously giving themselves credit for.

And they can alter the direction of their, of their future inside whatever domain we’re speaking to. Obviously, a lot of what I speak about is health and fitness behaviors, nutrition, exercise, weight loss, that sort of realm. [00:03:00] So, someone who Starts to cultivate a growth mindset about their ability to lose weight.

We’ll use that example. The double edged sword effect here is that, the other side of the coin of the sword, is that they now start to think to themselves, Oh my god. If, if this means I have the ability to change, I have the ability to lose weight and keep it off and it’s, I can be responsible for that. I have control over this.

This is amazing, but oh my God, that means I’m fully responsible for currently being overweight, for currently being unhappy with where I’m at as far as my fitness level. body composition, whatever. And again, that can bring about some negative feelings, guilt, shame, et cetera, which then maybe can lead to body dissatisfaction, which then can spiral into a lot of other negative things, right?

So it could be a very negative case of like, dominoes, right? So. What do we do with this? What do we [00:04:00] do with the fact that helping someone cultivate a growth mindset is going to make them more likely to be successful, but also, in the meantime, can make them feel worse about themselves? And this especially becomes an issue when we are oversimplifying growth mindset.

So kind of a parallel conversation that I want to have here before we dive into, like, what do we do about this thing, is that Effort beliefs are really important to pay attention to, and when I’m talking, what do I mean when I say effort beliefs? And I mean this idea that if you just try harder, then you’re going to be successful.

And that is what I see growth mindset oversimplified to all of the time. Like, just put in more effort, and you will surely see all of the success you would like to see. And I think we all know that it is. [00:05:00] More complex than that. There’s there’s more going on when it comes to cultivating your growth mindset to being successful than, um, just putting more effort forth.

But the problem is that the people who fall prey to believing that if something is hard. Then you’re, you’re likely lacking potential, you’re lacking natural ability because it’s, it’s, it’s likely easier for other people and it may actually, you may have true evidence that it is easier for someone else than it is for you, but if you believe that like putting effort forward is what’s required and is pretty much solely what’s required to cultivate a growth mindset and therefore be successful, then If you’re trying hard, you’re putting all this effort in, and you’re still running into obstacles, setbacks, what have you, then you’re clearly just lacking, right?

Because if all it takes, if all it takes is try harder, [00:06:00] put more effort in, have a growth mindset, see success, but you’re doing all of those things and still not seeing the results that you’re looking for, then it must just be a you problem. It must just be your lack of talent, your lack of natural ability, your potential.

And that, my friends, is a fixed mindset way of looking at things. But unfortunately, that’s a lot of people’s default interpretation. And then when things get hard, they’re much more likely to quit because now it’s like, okay, well, I put in the effort. I tried hard. It’s still not working. So this just not must not be for me.

And this is really, really important to, for those of you that are health and fitness coaches, you’re working with people to be very cautious of these. mindsets around effort, and listen for when your clients may say something like, I feel like I’m just putting [00:07:00] so much more effort forth. I’ve never tried harder.

And I’m still not as successful as I would like to be because that is a very, very, very slippery slope to a fixed mindset. And they’re likely going to start seeing themselves as the issue. Like it’s, it’s just something that is within them that is not good enough, it has nothing to do with like anything else.

It’s just it’s a them problem, right? And that is something you need to be able to work with them on, work with them on their mindset around these effort beliefs. So like something to ask yourself if you aren’t a coach and you’re just working on something, be it health fitness or otherwise, is Really, what do you believe about effort?

So when I’m saying all of this stuff, like, what really, really comes up for you? Were you nodding along thinking like, yeah, Casey, that makes a lot of sense, but maybe your actual beliefs are just that you try [00:08:00] harder, you just put more effort forth and you’ll be successful. And if it becomes too hard and you’re noticing that like no matter what you try doesn’t seem to work, I’m sure you’ve heard that before, you’ve said it yourself before, that that just falls on it just not being a thing for you to do.

You’re just not the type of person to see success in that area. And if you’re a coach, like please, please, please just pay attention to the messages that you’re putting out there about effort. I have heard one too many coaches make comments about how Their clients just need to try harder. That if their clients would just put more effort forth that they would be successful.

Just follow the plan and try harder. And that is such a bad, truly bad, there’s no way around this, a bad outlook to have and also a bad message to be sending to your clients, whether you’re doing so directly or indirectly. And so to kind of bring this back around to the double edged sword effect, we, uh, Really should be [00:09:00] helping clients as coaches or working towards this ourselves to really truly believe in our abilities to change without feeling bad for where we’re currently at or for without making our clients feel bad.

For where they’re currently at, because this, this self blame, this it’s my fault for where I currently am, can lead to things like poor body image, like I said, and then we know, like, if you’re feeling poorly about your body, body dissatisfaction, like, that just has a lot of negative downstream effects for other things.

So we want to be very wary here about Effort beliefs and how we are portraying what is required to be successful from a growth mindset perspective and also how we are portraying your ability to change and that it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you can change that [00:10:00] you need to feel badly for where you currently are, it’s just it’s honestly moving towards more of a like a belief that is more neutral of you.

Wow, this is so amazing. I, I now believe that I can change. I, I see how this is in my control and that’s so cool, which means, yeah, I’m kind of responsible for my, my current state, the current state of things where I’m currently at the things that I want to change. I am the reason. that they need changing.

But that’s just information. That’s just information that I now have. The more important thing is that I’m aware of my ability to improve, to develop, to, to make this change. And in order to do that, there is something called Compensatory messaging, all of these fancy research terms, man, there’s there’s so many of them to the point where a lot of times when I’m speaking to clients or even in the health mindset coaching certification, which is my program for health and fitness coaches to [00:11:00] learn all of this stuff I’m using different it.

Terminology in different language because just like why these researchers come up with the most random names for things and it’s almost just like they’re trying to create names that sound more jargon heavy and like fancy that they need to be. But anyway, we don’t need to talk about that right now, but OK, compensatory messaging is what we are.

The messages that we’re trying to get across of you can change But don’t feel bad for where you currently are, because again, this is something, the double edged sword effect of a growth mindset, it is something that we do know exists, that people who start to believe that they can change, they have control over their ability to make changes, start to feel negatively about their current situation because they know that they are now responsible for that, just like they are responsible for their change in, in the future.

So, this compensatory messaging, how do we go about doing this as, as health and fitness coaches, as educators, as parents to our [00:12:00] children? We want to be cultivating a growth mindset in, in our kids, in our patients, in our clients, in the people around us, in ourselves, but we also don’t want to make them feel bad or make ourselves feel bad for our current situation either.

So, I I have some notes here. I’m gonna run through, I actually had to, had to reread this article that I actually contributed to, which is funny, but, um, this article was published, published in 2019, and Crystal Hoyt, shout out to Crystal if she’s listening to this, um, was the, the main author on this study, and I contributed, contribute to it.

Why is that word so hard for me today? Contributed to it. Lots of T’s going on here, um, When the research was being conducted, and this was essentially a study that looked at how compensatory messaging, again, this idea that, hey, we’re gonna put out this message that [00:13:00] you can change and I’m going to help you cultivate the belief in yourself that you can, while also offsetting this self blame that could come up for your current situation.

So we’re essentially in this in these messages for A quick synopsis, trying to encourage people to realize that, like, hey, you’re just not there yet, where you are right now, it really doesn’t matter. But what matters more is that, you know, you can change in the future. And where you’re currently at is not something necessarily bad, either.

It’s just, it’s just where you are. So that’s kind of like the messages that we’re trying to get across. So when trying to cultivate a growth mindset, you really should be including this compensatory messaging. Otherwise The people that you’re doing cultivating the growth mindset in may end up with some some negative thoughts and therefore like potentially negative behaviors, etc.

Okay, so back to this study. The goal of the study was to see how compensatory messaging affects things like eating disorder [00:14:00] risk, unhealthy weight control behaviors and body shame. So we’re kind of coming back to that the body shame and also some of these other like negative. Thought processes that are related so there was five over 500 people that were included in this study and They were randomly assigned so Essentially chosen out of a hat, if, for lack of a better explanation, and half of them were to read a psychology today type article.

So I’m sure most of you are familiar with psychology today, essentially, often what they’re trying to do is take research that is available and distill it down into something that https: otter. ai Easily digestible, not jargon heavy. And in this article, the topic was, Weights can be managed with a lot of effort and the right strategies.

Note how we talked about effort beliefs before. That the title of this article, and obviously everything within it, was [00:15:00] not just about effort, but also about different strategies, resources, things of that nature, but with the ultimate idea that you can. change your body weight and it can be managed. This article included the compensatory messaging about how weight can change, but also how important it is to not blame yourself or others for being overweight, for being in a position where you want to lose weight in the first place.

Okay? So that was half of the over 500 people were given that article to read. The other half The, what we’ll call the, the fixed mindset condition, whereas the other one was a growth mindset condition. They read an article called, lasting weight loss is impossible. Researchers say that diets don’t. And this, this really hits home for me and it hit home for me when I was participating in the, the research.

I guess I wasn’t participating. I was again, contributing to the research because I see this [00:16:00] stuff. All of the time on social media about how diets don’t work and it really irks me because it is a fixed, it’s a fixed mindset message. Ultimately, it’s, this is not going to work, period, point blank, the end.

So this article for the fixed mind condition people, fixed mindset condition people rather, it took actual quotes from a real published article that closely mirrors any messages that are currently out there available about diets not working in the long run. So we’ve all heard this before, right? There is.

Legitimate research that showcases how people who lose weight aren’t able to keep it off very well, and oftentimes they actually gain more weight than where they were at the starting point. So that’s what this second article, this second group of people were subjected to. So we have these two conditions, a growth mindset condition, they read an article about how weight can be changed.

[00:17:00] Successfully, and the other half of the group, the fixed mindset condition people, read an article about how lasting weight loss is impossible and diets don’t work, alright? So that’s setting the stage for this study. So first and foremost, and this is kind of what you’ll see a lot in any research. Related to shifting someone’s mindset is the first thing that needs to happen is whether it’s something called a manipulation check.

So whether or not the manipulation, the experimental manipulation actually worked. So in this case, we want to know, okay, before we go any further into this and start to see, like, how someone’s mindset. affects other things. We need to make sure that did we actually successfully manipulate these people, these 500 people, their, their mindsets by simply reading an article, which is crazy.

I know, like, can you really just sit down and read an article and suddenly your mindset is shifted in a different direction? The answer is, I was going to say unfortunately, yes, [00:18:00] but it’s, that’s kind of like a pessimistic outlook. Fortunately, yes, we can quite easily shift someone’s perspective, their mindset about something by reading an article.

I say unfortunately because I think, again, about all of the diets don’t work type of messages out there or just how readily available messages from Millions and millions of people are available these days on social media and things of that nature, and just how potentially someone scrolling social media and reading messages from other people, and it’s usually just those people’s beliefs, their opinions, right, but that could be shifting the person who’s reading it, shifting their mindset.

It’s crazy. So, anyway, I digress. It’s a scary world out there. But, um, okay, so checking that manipulation, did reading these articles actually shift these people’s mindset? And yes, the people in each condition showed increasing [00:19:00] beliefs in either a growth or fixed mindset direction about weight based on the article that they read.

So we know that their mindset significantly shifted towards growth or fixed about body weight changes based on the article that they read. So first and foremost, we know that it worked. That part worked, right? So then when we are looking into what I was mentioning before, eating disorder, um, risk factors, unhealthy weight control behaviors, body shame, the results of this study, looking at people who have more of a growth mindset belief about.

weight loss and those that have more of a fixed mindset belief compared to those in the fixed mindset condition or the diets don’t work condition. The people in the growth mindset group showed a significant decrease in eating disorder risk, significant decrease in unhealthy weight control behavior. So doing [00:20:00] things to control their weight in an unhealthy manner that went down.

And also, a decrease in body shame. And I think that this is just extremely powerful. Because, especially when we’re talking about this double edged sword effect of a growth mindset. And how when you start to believe in your ability to change, that could create some feelings of shame for where you’re currently at.

That in this study, when compensatory messaging and trying to help people feel less shame, less blame, as they cultivate a growth mindset, that was included in here, we see, actually, a beautiful fall. Wash of that, of that negative possibility of the double-edged sword effect with body shame actually decreasing in the growth mindset group.

So really what all of this is saying is, number one, having a fixed mindset about your ability to lose weight is not gonna do you any favors. in [00:21:00] decreasing your eating disorder risk, your unhealthy weight control behaviors, or your body shame. In fact, having a growth mindset about your ability to lose weight, actually believing that that’s something that you can do, is going to help all of those factors.

And if you do so with this compensatory messaging included that you don’t need to feel badly, you don’t need to blame yourself for your current situation, you’re just not there yet, that keyword yet is so important, including that in the growth mindset messaging, actually makes a lot of these things better.

Less body shame, less unhealthy weight control behaviors, less eating disorder risk. Beautiful. Amazing. We love it. So, obviously, maybe not super obvious, so I’m gonna, I’m gonna draw the connection for you. If you’re someone looking to change your body composition, or honestly work towards any goal in your life, be very wary of your belief system.

Around whether or not number one growth versus fixed [00:22:00] mindset if you actually believe you can change this thing in the first place And then if you really truly do believe that make sure that you’re doing something to mitigate Feeling badly for your current position and if you’re a coach, please listen stop Whatever you’re doing if you’re multitasking come back to me if you are a coach It is so important that when you are helping Your clients cultivate a growth mindset, a belief in their ability to make these changes, that you are being very cautious, you are paying attention to the language that you are using and the language that they are using, and ensuring that they are not feeling shameful, not feeling guilty, not feeling badly for their current state.

And that is so important when it comes to actually continuing on and being successful into the future. Now, I want to switch gears a little bit. We’re still talking about this same idea, but towards business. [00:23:00] Because we’re talking about all the things on this podcast. So, if you’re not a business owner, I would, I would still listen, I would still pay attention, especially if maybe you are like in the future, I’d like to start a side hustle, something like that, um, but for my business owners out there, because I know there’s a lot of you who are in the health and fitness coaching space and owning a business in that area.

Um, we see a lot of messages about how anyone can start a business and be successful. And much of these messages are about just grinding it out, right? Just put more effort forward, work your 16 hour days. Just like the more you try, the more likely you are to succeed. So we’re kind of coming back to these effort beliefs again, and how this can actually be it.

detrimental from a mindset perspective because of how many people are out there that are trying so hard, putting so much effort in, [00:24:00] and they’re not seeing the level of success that they would like to see. They’re probably also seeing Other people, especially, I see, I hear this so much in the coaching world, so many other coaches sign 10 clients a week and like, what are they doing?

I’m trying so hard. I’m putting so much effort forth just like they are, but I’m not successful like they are. So it must be a me thing. This must fall on me. If we’re both putting in the same amount of effort and I’m not seeing success and those people are, like, I must just not be meant to be a coach. I must not be meant to be an entrepreneur.

So we really need to be careful here when it comes to our effort beliefs because it’s not so much about just trying harder. It’s about, shh, effort is obviously required, guys, so I don’t want that to be A point of this episode either that, oh, it just doesn’t matter how much I try, like, obviously it matters.

It is just, it is, it is necessary, but not [00:25:00] sufficient for success. And also a growth mindset is not defined by try harder equals more success. Okay, like that’s really what I’m trying to get at here. But this is a really big focus for me when I’m working with business owners in my mentorship program. So I always have a handful of one on one business owners that I’m working with.

Obviously we’re talking about their mindset inside their business, which is where a lot of this conversation is coming from. Um, we’re talking about their, their client’s mindsets, obviously talking about business systems and marketing and strategy and all that fun stuff, which we’re going to continue to talk about on this podcast too, which I’m very excited about, but this is a big focus for me.

Because. When I’m working with entrepreneurs and I’m helping them scale their businesses and be more successful and feel better when they’re doing it. This comes up a lot. It’s, I’ve just, I tried so hard and it still didn’t work. And this belief, again, that just trying harder is going to automatically lead to success is, is so not helpful.

Because [00:26:00] otherwise, anytime it gets hard or as it continues to get harder, or obstacles present to you that you don’t even know how to get around, or you have these, these massive setbacks, then you’re just going to want to give up. You’re just going to want to quit because like clearly trying hard isn’t working.

And that’s the best I got going for me, which isn’t true. There’s so many more aspects to success. It’s, it’s being resourceful. It’s hiring someone to help you. Oh my God. I am so thankful that I hired a business coach, a good, a good high quality business coach, coach that you can trust. Okay. So like be cautious with what’s out there.

Um, but I made that very large. Business investment into myself and into my growth right off the bat because that helped me so much and it allowed me to not just sit here and be like, I’m just going to try harder. I’m just going to keep trying. Just going to try all of these different things and try, try, try, try, try and no, like I needed strategy.

I needed support. I needed mindset [00:27:00] support. I needed to work around things and have it. Yeah, just more of the correct strategies. But anyway, I’m not I don’t need to get into my my upbringing in my business. But I’m very cautious when I’m mentoring business owners at this point to make sure that I am using this compensatory messaging that we’ve been talking about, because I don’t I don’t want the people that I’m working with to feel like they’re capable of success, which is exactly what’s going to happen if you work with me, because we’re going to be doing a lot of mindset work and you probably won’t even realize when I’m doing it.

But that’s the goal, right? And that’s what I’m teaching to coaches to teach their clients is to help cultivate a growth mindset, right? That’s what we’re doing all of the time. But I don’t want the coaches, the entrepreneurs that I’m working with, to feel blame or feel ashamed for where they’re currently at.

either. And that’s, again, what can happen when you start to cultivate a growth mindset. So this needs to be a focus all of the time. It’s constantly, and I, I know some of you might be listening to this [00:28:00] going, okay, Casey, give me some more like tangible examples. Like, what does this sound like? What does this compensatory messaging sound like?

How do I go about working with my clients, with my patients, whatever, and help them cultivate a growth mindset without them feeling badly for where they’re currently at? What does this actually sound like? And it is so much just, like, embedded in the language and embedded into everything that you’re saying, so it can sound like, I’m trying to think of, like, a good phrase for an example, like, anytime you’re, let’s say, just encouraging a client that it.

And showing them like, hey, look at how far you’ve come, look at the progress that you’ve made, and helping them recognize the progress that they’ve made, not necessarily you saying like, good job, you’ve been doing great, like being able to showcase it for them, and then maybe asking their thoughts around that, like, well, what comes up for you when we see that You’ve lost X amount of weight, or your behaviors have become so much easier for you.

Hitting your [00:29:00] protein goal isn’t, it’s like, is like second nature for you at this point, like, what comes up for you when you want them to be like, yeah, I’ve definitely, I’ve made progress, and that’s like a very clear, like, objective. That’s very clear objective evidence that I have made progress and that can start to cultivate a growth mindset, right?

So just a little tiny snippet of, of what that can look like, but then we also want to share with them. However, I know that there’s more that you want to accomplish. I know that there’s more progress that you want to see, and I’ve heard you talk about it being kind of slow and wishing it was going faster, but I really, really want to make it clear that where you’re currently at.

It’s just where you’re currently at. It’s nothing more than that. We don’t need to feel badly for where you currently are. In fact, you’ve continued to make progress. So like by this time in the next three months, six months, a year from now, you’re going to continue to look back and be proud of the progress that you have made.

So it’s all just kind of part of the journey and your current situation is nothing to feel badly about. So that is kind of what I’m talking about. That was [00:30:00] In some way, shape, or form, an example of compensatory messaging and how we want to be helping cultivate a growth mindset without making our clients, patients, mentees feel badly for their, for their current situation.

It is a beautiful thing, the growth mindset. Feel like you are responsible for your future and for your success and to know that you have control over those things. But there is, in fact, the double edged sword effect of that level of responsibility also meaning that you are responsible for your current situation, that situation that you want to change.

So, As coaches, as business owners, as doctors, nurses, mental health counselors, anyone who’s listening to this that is helping other people make changes to their behaviors, please keep this in mind as you go forward and you [00:31:00] are helping all the people that you are impacting cultivate a growth mindset and be successful in whatever goal pursuit that they have.