Is your mindset holding you back from change?

Only 18 years into the 21st Century and already phrases like, ‘the world is challenging’ or ‘life is complicated’ have become platitudes. Yes, people have probably held these opinions for millennia, but in the last few decades the complexity of modern living has become considerably more visceral and easy to recognize. Things are literally changing at an exponential rate – another platitude – but acknowledging that is not going to change very much. What is most relevant in an age of runaway change is not the change itself, but how we choose to respond to it. And I use the word ‘choose’ intentionally. Every day I speak to people who feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the world’s – and their own personal – challenges: people who seem one Monday away from throwing their hands in the air and cashing out to live in a hut on a mountain top. But I also meet people who seem to be leaning into all of this chaos and disorder as if it somehow feeds them. What’s different about them? Is it their genetics, their personal history, their spirituality or their work? Of course, it is partially every one of these factors and more, but what underlies them all is a mindset.