Suck At Beginner’s Mindset? Me Too! Try This

 

Instead of talking about the things she is good at, April Shprintz takes a different route for this episode. Tune in as she explores one thing she is always struggling with: beginner’s mindset. April shares three tips she is currently implementing to make this easier for her – and these could help you out as well.

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Suck At Beginner’s Mindset? Me Too! Try This

I am so glad you’re here. Normally, when we have these little chats, I’m talking about things that I’m good at. I’m helping you get even better at them because I’ve been practicing mindset for a long time. This is possibly a first for us, or maybe it’s the first in a while. I am going to talk about something mindset-wise that is my worst skill that I am always struggling to be better at. I’m hoping that the things that I’m implementing in my life will help you too.

 

In real-time, you and I are going to learn this together, and that thing is the beginner’s mindset. If you’re not familiar with the beginner’s mindset, it is being in that place where you’re open, you’re curious, and you’re willing to learn. You are looking at life the way a toddler looks at trying to walk across the room instead of the way that I look at life, which is, “I just want to do things I’m good at. If I start something new, I want to show aptitude for it super quickly and I want to get good and fast.” By the way, that’s the worst attitude that you can have when you’re learning something new. Not only is it less fun for you but it short changes you from the experience. I realized in starting something new in my business over the past few weeks that here I am again struggling with a beginner’s mindset.

Wanting to get good fast is perhaps the worst attitude to have when learning something new. Click To Tweet

Here are three things that I’m implementing to make this easier for me that I know will help you too because they’re already making a difference. The first one is to focus on doing a little but doing it often, so doing a little every day. Instead of doing something big once a week or taking a lesson once a week, find a way to do a little bit of it every single day. There are a few reasons that this helps. 1) It will help take you from consciously incompetent to consciously confident more quickly because you’re practicing it more often.

2) This is a better way for us to learn. We don’t get brain overload and this way, learning a new skill, even though it’s incredibly energy intensive and it’s easy for us to get burned out, it can be something that we can do a little bit at a time and ease our way into it. It also helps us overcome that resistance that we have when we’re learning something new. By we, I mean me. I have resistance to new things because sometimes new challenges and the focus that they require can frustrate me. Doing it every day helps in multiple ways.

Second tip. Share the experience with others. This is a great way to embrace where you are with learning something new to feel like you’re part of something. Maybe you’re doing something new that some of your colleagues, friends, family, or someone is doing with you. It helps you to not shoulder that burden alone. It can boost your morale and even help you by cheering on other people. That can uplift you with it when you’re frustrated as well.

 

The great thing about this is sometimes when you share your experience with others, then they give you some game-changing advice. This is what happened to me and this is where tip number three comes from. I am going to be 100% candid here. I was complaining about how I was a bad beginner and talking about where I was struggling. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who said, “It’s the best. Being a beginner is that point where we see the biggest gains during our entire development.” I just jaw-dropped and thought that is the best reframe I have ever heard on the beginner’s mindset. This is going to help so much. I’d never heard it that way and I’d never looked at it like that.

 

I live for mindset. I live for “You get what you focus on” and yet, I was focusing on, “I hate when I’m not the best at something. I hate when I’m working to get the best on something.” You don’t want to focus on that. Instead, focus on the fact that you’re making the biggest gains that you’re ever going to make on this new thing. That mic-dropping comment came from a friend of mine Tony Nash. He’s a good person to say this. He was the first person to complete an Ultra which is 66 miles. It had never been done before.

I know a lot of Ultra athletes. That’s a cool thing, but it’s way cooler when you consider that he wasn’t an endurance athlete. He just learned and did it, and did a great job at it. That’s somebody I’m willing to take a beginner’s mindset advice from. If you want other advice from him, he hosts a great podcast. He and other high performers share a lot of tips. It’s called the Got Your Six Podcast.

Those three things will make a huge difference for you in a beginner’s mindset. It has already been helping me. While you start to do this work, I am going to be doing the work right along with you. If you want to share any part of your journey with me, feel free to go to WinningMindsetMasteryPodcast.com. All the way down at the bottom of the page, there’s an Ask April section. You can verbally ask me a question. It goes directly to me and it’s private and I will answer you personally. My answer may be, “I’m not there yet, but I’m so proud of you.” Here’s to your success.

 

Important Links

• Tony Nash – Instagram
• Got Your Six Podcast