Ep. 108: Mindset vs. Ability: Where to Put Your Focus for Success
EPISODE 108
Mindset vs. Ability: Where to Put Your Focus for Success
About the Episode:
Is mindset more important than natural ability for achieving success? This idea is what I’m chatting about in today’s episode of The Purpose & Profit Club™ Podcast using examples from the Olympics and Neflix’s SPRINT documentary – specifically Noah Lyles’ belief in his inevitable success. Even more, I argue that mindset, rather than just pure athletic ability, is what drives success. I back this up with scientific studies showing how our beliefs and perceptions can actually influence our physical outcomes. When you listen in, you’ll learn the importance of claiming your goals publicly, reframing negative thoughts, and approaching your work with a growth mindset. By the end of the episode, I hope that you will feel encouraged to adopt strategies like journaling, meditation, and joining my coaching program to develop a "mindset ninja" approach to unlock the true potential of you and your nonprofit organization.
Topics:
Lessons from 100M gold medalist, Noah Lyles on drawing your line in the sand, clicking into your mindset, and owning your inevitable success
Playing with the idea of your nonprofit setting an expansive stretch goal and dicing out the fears that come with this in order to overcome them
How your beliefs influence your reality and parsing out the difference between natural physical ability and being able to adopt a ninja mindset
After understanding the power of mindset, learning how to apply this to your specific goals for your nonprofit or as a nonprofit executive
Choosing fundraising that is filled with ease rather than believing the age old narrative that it has to be hard
Remembering that “failure” is not a personal attack on your character and learning lessons that you can take from each campaign
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
"Claim the thing you want and don't claim it silently. Claim it publicly."
“When you see your goals as linear, I find it will get you to success faster, and it will freeze you up when it doesn't go as planned.”
“So before you send another email campaign, start another online fundraiser, create another direct mail appeal, I would check your mindset, and I would check where you are, on your own ability.”
“Your beliefs about the nature of activities can influence your health and actual impact on your well-being."
“If you're with me that your mindset is, in fact, informing the words that you write in an email or appeal, the phone call that you make to a funder, how you show up, then that's something that you want to calibrate to work for you.”
“Start owning the impact you want to make for your cause and watch your support increase, watch your enjoyment and satisfaction increase because the two go hand in hand.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 00:00
Today, we're talking about mindset versus ability. Now, at the time of recording this, we are in to the Olympics. So if you've been watching the Olympics, you are with me on the hype and the excitement around everyone's really heroes story who's winning, and everyone who's really just been working on this for most of their adult life. Or for some people who have been working on this as a child, I mean, there are teenagers in the Olympics. It's wild. Okay, so before the Olympics started, I, or maybe right at the beginning, I don't know, I watched this documentary called Sprint, and it's on Netflix. Highly recommend it. I think it's just a few episodes, and it really just is a look at the training and the lead up for the track runners, like 100 meter, like sprint runners, right for the US team, Jamaican team, I think they just focus on those two teams, and it goes like deep into their personal stories. And so I'm watching this, and one of the coaches, and they like, they're interviewing coaches. They're interviewing past medal winners. And at some point in Episode, maybe one or two, one of, I believe it was one of the coaches, but it might have been a former Olympian that said 90% of success is mindset 90% like 90% of winning is the mindset piece. Now, I was watching this with a friend, and at this point it like sparked a debate, and so we're pausing it, and my friend is basically like, Nah, uh, I don't buy it. Like there is so much natural born ability baked into their success. Like what we're looking at here is so much ability and mindset is icing on the cake, right? My mindset pushes you over the edge. And I was like, totally disagree. And so we're at this kind of crossroads, both kind of, you know, friendly arguing our own point. And I'm like, Listen, this is what a former Olympian said, like, they are probably onto something. And as we continue the documentary, documentary, this idea of mindset really, really keeps coming up, and at some point, I don't know if my friends belief was totally shifted, but I would say the door is now open. They're like, Oh, this is interesting. So I want to dig into that concept today, and how it is affecting your nonprofit, its growth, how it's affecting your day to day, enjoyment or dissatisfaction, right, of what you're doing. Okay, so I will give you a couple of examples of this and some actual science back studies to back it up that will blow your mind. So in the documentary one sprinter. His name is Noah Lyle, and he is you must Google him. By now, you already probably know about him. He's got a big personality. He has a big personality. He's come onto the scene, and he's really making a name for himself. He's the kind of guy who's going to take it to Twitter. He's going to say something bold, not necessarily, like, like, controversial necessarily, but he's going to, like, draw his line in the sand, on and offline. And even when he walks into a crowd, he shoulders out big, big personality. Okay, like, you know when he's walking out to the field, even if you didn't know him by by name, you'd be like, Oh, I think that's the one Christine is talking about. Because he's, like, hyped up, and he comes out, and this is following the Olympic trials. Okay, so he comes out and he's like, I'm getting gold medal. Like, it's happening. I'm beating you. I'm beating you. I'm beating this guy. He like, draws his line so firmly in the sand, and he does it again and again. So there's multiple trials, like, as they advance into ultimately, ultimately, going to the Olympics. And then once the Olympics are on, you can see there's also like, finals, right? And so again, he brings this energy. Not only does he have it from an emotional standpoint, from a from a body language standpoint, but then he's actually saying it like, I'm gonna beat I'm gonna beat you. I will win gold medal. And so my friend is like, for him to be showboating that much, he better like, he better do the damn thing. He better show up. He better perform. And I was like, All right, we gotta pause it in talking. And so I was like, Okay, why? Like, why does it matter so much like to you? And he was like, Well, if you're going to go out there and peacock and you're going to go out there and be like, I'm the best, I'm the fastest there ever was. I'm a record breaker, I'm a gold medalist, then you better perform. And I was like, but that's him clicking in, like, literally clicking into his mindset so he can align with the thing he is working towards, which, by the way, is the thing the other nine contestants are working towards too. They literally want that too. The only difference from him is he's like, owning it and outwardly saying it in a way that we're not used to, right? He's saying it so loudly. He's definitely got that, like main character energy in that, in that essence. Right? And so he's like, Well, he better perform. And I'm like, Okay, why? Like, why? What happens if he gets third place? What happens if he rolls an ankle? What happens? And he's like, and I was like, really think about that? Like, why does it matter if he comes out there and says, I'm the world's fastest runner and I'm gonna beat this gold, I'm gonna get the gold, and I'm gonna win. And then he were not to and he was like, Well, I was like, is it embarrassing? Is it like, humiliating? And he was like, Yeah, that would be embarrassing. That would be humiliating. And so for me, it was this interesting play of like, how your beliefs trickle in everywhere, including watching a documentary about sprinters. And for me, what I see for Noah is that he's putting this out there into the universe, which is very, very smart. We have statistics to back that up. Claim the thing you want and don't claim it silently. Claim it publicly, right? That takes a lot of guts, that takes a lot of courage, because what if I don't, what if I fail? What if I get third place? What if I get last place? Right? But that's the thing, is, if he's willing to give himself a soft kind place to land, then nothing. It doesn't matter. So another way to say it, like layman's terms, is if he had gotten last place, gotten third place, not run his best, he's not done. Clearly, this guy is in it for the long haul. He's going to this Olympics. I'm sure he's going to continue going and trying out for the following Olympics, right? Like he's not done. And when you see your life, when you see your goals as like linear in that way, versus like a door slamming, if you do or don't get it right then and there, I find it will get you to success faster, and it will freeze you up when it doesn't go as planned, right? So if he does get third, he's like, well, crap, I better run harder next time I get better. Figure out how to get faster off the starting blocks. It just becomes like math, right? But that mindset, y'all that mindset is everything which, spoiler alert, at the time of recording this, he did win gold, which is so fun. It's so fun to watch somebody who is willing to courageously say, I want this again. So do all of the other people running. I'm gonna get this. This is mine to get, and for him to get it like, I just think it's so fun. And I also know if he hadn't placed, if he had gotten silver, he would have been like, all right, where do I need to tighten up? Where do I need to work on this? What can I do to make that point four second change that will get me to where I want to be. It's that mindset thing, that willingness to shoot your shot, that willingness to peacock. How could you do that? As I was preparing for this and writing my notes, I thought about like, this idea of like, what if your nonprofit said to your constituents, your subscribers, like, we're going to do a million dollars in funding this year. What if you said that by December 31 we will have brought in a million dollars in funding. Now let's say that was an expansive stretch goal for you. Why wouldn't you say that? Why wouldn't you say that? Is probably the fear of what? If we don't then I'm going to look like a dot, dot, dot loser. I will look like a failure. I will disappoint people. But the truth is, you will also inspire people if you finish that sentence right, he goes on to say, I'm going to jump back to Noah here. He goes on to say, how does a kid with asthma, with dyslexia, with ADHD, win the gold? They'll know. But here I am. I found it fascinating that he has asthma, having had have I have one child with asthma. I think I find that that inspiring and reassuring and exciting, and it's like, oh, that's so cool. Like, it's so aspirational. What if you did say that to your subscribers, we're gonna do a million dollars in funding. And it's not just the million, right? It's what's possible with the million. The difference here is, you may be saying, okay, yes, and I've done that, but did you do it as much as he did? Like, he goes out every day, and he goes out on Instagram, on Twitter, on wherever he hangs out, and he's like, you know, gold, the gold's fine. Like, how often are you claiming that? How often are you going to say we're going to be the largest diaper bank on the East Coast? We are going to be the biggest blah, blah, blah in the community. We serve the largest food bank, right? And it isn't again, about being the biggest or the best, but the most impactful. So however you would say that, how often are you saying that? How willing are you to claim that? Right? Because people will want to see you win. People want to see you win. And when you say things like that, you start to grow the people who become ambassadors, social street teamers, right to want to actually go. How can we help? I like what you're saying. What you're saying is totally different than the other diaper bank, the other food bank. How do I get with you? How can I help? Okay, so now we're going to dig into i. Some of the data I have to back this up. Okay, so there was this study, and it was called the milkshake versus protein shake experiment, okay, and so it was in 2011 so fairly recently, and so I'll read you this study here, and this is really the mind versus body connection here. Okay, in 2011 there was a study, and participants were given a 380 calorie milkshake. Now they were split up into two groups, okay? Now one group was told that this was a sensible 104 40 calorie shake, that it was nutritious and sensible and good for you. The other group was told this was an indulgent 620 calorie shake. Okay? So one sort of gave it the good and the other group said this is going to be indulgent and bad, right? And here's what they found, okay, before and after drinking the shake, researchers measured participants levels of ghrelin. That ghrelin, if you're familiar with diabetes, you know about this. So basically as a hormone in the gut that signals hunger, okay? And so the participants who thought they were drinking the indulgent shake had a steeper decline in ghrelin levels, while those who thought they were drinking the sensible shake had flatter response. Okay. This suggests that the body can respond differently to the same food depending on how it's perceived. What same food? All it was, was the positioning and packaging, and it informed how literally your physiology responds. Okay, I'm gonna give you one more. Remember what we're talking about here, mindset versus ability. Which matters more? Okay? So this was a study in 2006 called understanding the context and consequences of a weight loss intervention in housekeepers. Okay, so what they did here is they basically had two groups of housekeepers, and they said, let me go through these two groups and see how their beliefs affected their actual health and fitness. Okay? So they were divided in two groups. One group was informed that housekeeping was a form of exercise and it could help them meet their physical activity levels and improve their overall health. So they're basically saying, you know, your job is actually improving your health, right? This is a great exercise. The other group was just not given any information. So they weren't giving negative information, just none. Both continued their work as usual. Okay, so they recorded them for several weeks, so the group that was informed about the health benefits of their work showed significant improvements in their health markers, okay, a reduction in body fat, increased physical fitness and improved their weight comparable to their baseline measurements, they lost weight. What the group that didn't receive any information about the benefits had no significant changes. Okay, so this research shows how our beliefs about the nature of activities can influence their health and actual impact on their well being. Think about that. So that tells me, I believe that certain people have a baseline of, like, you're maybe a fast runner you always have been, yeah, or maybe you've got a baseline of since we're talking about athletics, flexibility, whatever, physical fitness, in some way, I believe that, yes, that there's that there is a natural ability baked into these sprinters, but I believe there are a lot of people who have that natural ability, and the people that we see competing at the highest level, that is a mindset game. That is a mindset game that is not about them, simply just having the strongest legs, the strongest stride, that is about how they talk to themselves. A few weeks back, we had an episode that used this idea of another Olympians journal, where she was like writing in advance her future self. Today I will win the medal. Today I will win the trials. This is my race to win, right? That's it. They are ninjas at mindset, and that, what I think is really fascinating is because we miss it. I think the the average person misses it. We miss that they are ninjas at mindset, because we're too busy going, Oh my God. Look at their flips. Look at their twirls. Look at how they're catapulting them in the air like we're looking at the athleticism, which makes sense. However they are ninjas at mindset, that's what keeps them going. Simone Biles is a beautiful example of this. This is somebody who, the last Olympics dropped out. Was like, my mindset is not right. I am getting lost in the air. It is not safe for me to compete, pulled out, reached a ton of criticism. Most people that hear that level of criticism would go pack it up, never to be seen or heard from again. That is not what she did. She took a break, a long break, and slowly started training again when she was ready, and now she's had, I think, the best Olympics of her life. It's been amazing to watch, but you'll watch the camera cut to. Her in advance of her routine, and she's not the only one. They are in the zone. These, these Olympians are they have their eyes closed. They're either meditating. You actually see them talk to themselves. There's the pommel horse guy. You watch him, and he's just pacing, doing his routine in his eyes, or you see him with headphones on, just completely Zen in this huge arena of people, they are mindset ninjas. Okay, so, how can we apply that to you? How can we apply that to your goals? You? So the first piece is, are you willing to meet me halfway on this? Are you willing to see that it's not just some people are natural born fundraisers. Some people are natural born leaders. Some people are natural born super communicators, right? What if just people are people, and some people have just had more practice on it? Or what if people are people, and some people have just more of an optimistic mindset about it? What if the person who's just a natural born, great fundraiser really just has the mindset that they're like, I'm gonna go raise some money a day. This meeting's gonna go well, this person wants to be a yes. What if that's true? What would you do then? What would you do then? So before you send another email campaign, start another online fundraiser, create another direct mail appeal. I would check your mindset, and I would check where you on your are, on your own ability, like, where do I think that I'm lacking? Where do I think that, you know, I could use, I could use a little boost here. And there are tactically, some things you could do. You can do what that Olympian did, and you can journal, and you can actually write from your future self, what do you want to happen? What do you want to happen? What is the outcome of this appeal, email, campaign, fundraiser, what's the best case scenario? Write that out. Don't keep it to yourself, though. And that takes courage, just like no no Lyles, like it takes courage to write that out and then tell someone, right? We're doing half a million this year. We're doing 1.5 million this year. This fundraiser is going to be a biggest fundraiser we've ever done that takes guts, but that is the guts worth having, right? I Yeah, and if you're with me that your mindset is, in fact, informing the words that you write in an email or appeal, the phone call that you make to a funder, how you show up, right? Then that's something that you want to like, calibrate to work for you, right? It's almost like this idea of your beliefs, your mindset, being like cologne, yeah, and bad cologne you can smell from a mile away, right? Good cologne you can smell from a mile away, right? So it's like, how do you want to have your cologne on? How do you want to smell? What does that look like? And when you notice you got that bad cologne on, how do you want to shift in and put on something that smells and feels better, right? And for me, it's just identifying. Sometimes it's like, let me get all the bad ideas out first. So if I'm in a loop in a negative space, I literally will write them out. Sometimes I'll write them out in the notes of my phone. Sometimes I'll write them out by hand just to get, like, let me get all the junk out, right? So if we're thinking about these Olympians, it may be, I'm not I'm not fast today, my you know, my shins hurt. It could be I don't have it anymore. What if so and so beats me, right? That would be their brain dump right now, yours may be, I feel like I've tried it all. I'm not sure what else I can do, right? That sort of resignation feeling, or that feeling like there's not enough time. So I get all those out first, okay? And then I write out what else is also true. What else is also true here, or else, or I'll go to bat and say, How is this not true? That can be a really good prompt. How is it not true that I've asked everyone, how is it not true that the belief that no one else wants to help, or no one else wants to give, and really start to drill down and show yourself the people who do show up, the people who respond to emails, the last three people who have made a donation, the three ambassadors who boosted up your cause on your last online fundraiser. Really think about them, those board members who you can always count on. How can they help? That can be really, really helpful just to do that shift and reframe when you're in that space, and then you can go to the future place with. Is what I would do, especially leading into your end of like, all right, it's December 31 what outcome has happened? And let yourself dream. Let yourself have fun with it. Let yourself not be so damn realistic. Like, let yourself say what happened. We got the donor match. It was even more than I asked for. We secured five new prospects that I was able to take, you know, turn into donors and have donor conversations with. We got five new sponsors, right? So and So referred us, gave me a warm intro. I you know, like, what? Where it's like action line, what happened, tactically, what happened? Or maybe it's even, maybe it's even impact focus, like, the new program was fun, fully funded, able to hire a new staffer, something like that. Like, what is that piece look like that you're trying to create and write that out, and write that out and practice it often, or reference it back. You can keep it in the notes of your phone. Okay, so ask yourself, How can I use this data? How can I use this the study, these studies, like, where am I telling myself that something is a milkshake, but it's actually a protein shake, right? Where can I show myself? This is a protein shake. This is good for me. This is work worth doing, right? Where can I show myself that that ability got me in the door. Ability got me here, but the rest is really my thoughts and how I'm thinking. This is a lot of the work we do. Y'all in the club, in the purpose and profit club by group coaching program. At the time this episode is being released, doors are open so you can click the link in the show notes and learn more about it. But I want to just give you the secret is you have in the club the templates, the tools, the video lessons, the training, the skill building, and that is so much of what you need. Ability rise, right? But the rest, the piece that keeps you from feeling burnout, the piece that keeps you from feeling overwhelmed, the piece that really helps you write in an email, I'm thinking of a client right now. She's like, I wrote 10 emails, and it took a few hours. The whole campaign's done, she hit that level of flow from this place, from a positive or a growth mindset, from the place of, it's done, it's working. I know people want to help our cause. I'm writing to the people that want to help our cause. And when you're in that space, it pours out of you, versus like that grind, right? Versus that, that feeling of just like, oh, so heavy. It's so hard. Everybody knows how to fundraise from the It's so heavy, it's so hard, everybody knows how to tell a story from that place. Okay, what if we tell a story from it doesn't need to be heavy or hard. How can I make this easier? How can I make this lighter? How can I make this more aspirational? How can I come from the place of it's working, right? And I'm claiming it, and what comes out there, and I would argue too, the calls you would make, the text messages you would send, the people you would ask for help. When you're in that growth on mindset space, that's the ticket. Like, that's where you start to see that snowball effect, that ripple effect, where you're like, people are looking at you going, how'd you do it? How did you guys grow so much? Gosh, I'm seeing y'all everywhere. Y'all are on my feed. So and so. Just told me about you. You guys are everywhere. Yeah, because like attracts like people are drawn to that like people again. They want to be part of that winning team. They want to be part of your victory lap. They want to be a part of that change. So let them, but you have to ask often, and you have to ask from a place that sounds bold and compelling and exciting, not that sounds from Have to should we're Yeah, You with me? Okay? You Okay, so, if you're with me, and you're starting to see that 90% of it really is mindset, and the rest of it is that ability and that repetition, right, that idea of like, and we go and we go and we go right then think about how you can start to incorporate more of that mindset piece in every single day of your life. You can start with meditation. You can start with journaling. You can literally start by just telling people your goals. And yeah, it's gonna feel a little like, Am I really doing this? What if I don't but take that first step, start really shoulders back, owning what it is you're after that impact you want to make for your cause, and watch your support increase, and watch your enjoyment, your satisfaction of what you're doing, increase, like the two go hand in hand. The next piece is just really thinking about too, how am I going to give myself a soft place to land, right if it doesn't go how I want it to be? And just pull from watch a documentary, maybe somebody in there will inspire you, or another person will inspire you. And you can say, how would they have handled it if they didn't go, if they didn't get where they were going. So for example, if any of these Olympians didn't reach their goal, right, what are they going to do? What are they going to do? How are they going to talk to themselves? And for me, what I've learned from them is they're like, What do I need to tweak? Okay, what do I need to tweak? And it just becomes this more like, it's not a personal attack on their character. They're not bad for it. It's not the end all be all that they didn't, you know, get the gold. It's like, what do I need to tweak? It's that feeling upset, right? I feel upset that I didn't get where I wanted to be. And we go, and I'm one step further, because now I know how to run that race. Now I know how to run the race in the rain. Now I know how to do a fundraiser in an election year. Now I know how to have a donor meeting where the person's a total grump, right? Because I have that under my belt. So how can you even use those examples where you're like, yeah, that didn't go how I wanted it to be, go and go. Well, now I know what I know from that situation, and now I'm one step closer to where I actually want to be okay. When you view the whole thing as just the journey and not the destination, there is no there. I find it makes it so much better, so so much better where I'm like, Yeah, I get to my goals, but the whole point is here, now, day to day. How do I find enjoyment in this? How do I find connection and collaboration in this version? And how do I want to talk to myself through it? So if you would like help with the mindset piece and the strategy piece, you need to join the Club. That's the work we do. You can go to splendid courses.com, forward slash waitlist to hop on the waitlist for the club. All right, y'all go watch some Olympics. Go cheer them on. They're amazing. I'll see you next time you.