A Mindset of Transition

Early in my career when working as a choreographer, I had to confront my mindset. I’d never fit the artist stereo-type: an explorer who dabbles and experiments to find new and creative ways of doing things. I was much more execution minded. I adhered to a tight knit plan that I delivered at every rehearsal.  This hyper-commitment to my highly structured process kept me on track, but limited the range and outcomes of my creative work. 

Then one day I found myself stuck. I was starting a new piece of choreography but lacked a concrete vision. Any tight knit plan evaded me. So I committed to a different approach. I promised to show up to the studio with a mindset of discovery. I brought a few vague ideas to rehearsal and allotted time to improvise with the dancers. We worked with a wide-range of possibilities that weren’t fully scripted ahead of time. The process terrified me. It also opened up my artistic range in ways I’d never believed were possible.

Shifting my mindset to one of discovery not only helped me get unstuck, but it showed me a new way of working that led to outcomes I’d never imagined. 

Over the decades, I’ve experienced many parallels between creating new works of art and creating a new life chapter during transition. One guiding principle that has stood out to me time and again is the power of choosing an intentional mindset.

There have been volumes of research published on mindsets in recent years. At the forefront is Dr. Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, where she shares the advantages of working with a growth vs. fixed mindset to expand intellectual, athletic or creative capacity. According to Dweck, by approaching new learning from the mindset that your intellectual capacity can grow and expand, versus a belief that your level of intelligence is fixed, you’re much more likely to embrace challenge, be resilient and remain committed to the learning process.

We now know that mindsets – or sets of beliefs and ways of thinking – influence our behaviors, attitudes and energy levels. This influence, in turn, can profoundly impact the outcomes in our lives. The reverse is true as well. Life experiences – both good and bad – impact our beliefs and ways of thinking.  The critical point here however, is that humans can consciously choose a particular mindset to positively influence a given situation. We are not bound to one way of thinking.

There’s a long menu of mindsets we can adopt during a life transition including patience, boldness, curiosity, resilience, adventure, steadfastness, generosity, scarcity and abundance. How we choose to view a life transition can profoundly affect how we travel on this journey into our next life chapter. 

In the late 1970s, Daniel Kahneman, now a Nobel Prize winning economist, explored how mindsets and perspectives impact decision-making. He discovered that people make different decisions depending on whether they perceive a situation as an opportunity to gain something, or a threat of losing something. And Albert Bandura’s research from the same era shows that a confident mindset is one of the most influential regulators of our behavior. In summary, how we think about our situation and the attitude we bring to it directly impact our choices and actions.

At Retreat Reinvent Recharge, we work with a who/what/how framework to incorporate intentional mindsets during transition. What you choose to pursue in a new life chapter and how you plan to go about it are only parts of the equation. Who you are as a result of the mindset you adopt in the transition process is equally important.

Exploring mindsets isn’t just for individuals going through personal or professional transitions. The same principal is at the heart of organizations’ managing large-scale change. You can read more in the article featured below regarding how organizations are looking to address employees’ mindsets to more effectively implement wide spread organizational change.

So as you contemplate creating your next life chapter, we invite you to consider:

· What mindset will facilitate your growth and development?

· How will approaching your transition from this mindset open new doors and possibility?