During this episode of the Coaching Through Stories podcast, host Eric Bean coaches us on how to overcome self-imposed limitations using a story from Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Learn about how to push through plateaus, set goals that drive you, and how to be emotionally agile to overcome your perceived limitations.
Episode Highlights:
Today's story is taken from Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. This story deals with Thor and Loki. They visit the land of the giants and lose every impossible challenge they are presented. However, their efforts still create massive changes that demonstrate their power, although they don't see these consequences at first. Takeaway #1: Big, audacious goals can have a tremendous impact on our performance even if we fall short of achieving our goal. Takeaway #2: Knowing our strengths and weaknesses is critical to true self-awareness. Takeaway #3: If we only focus on results, we might miss indicators of improvement and growth. If you think of a big goal but then you stop yourself before you even start, that's an indicator of a psychological barrier you've imposed on yourself. Shooting for goals beyond our reach allows us to test where our limits are and push beyond them. This will help us rethink the process by which we attain goals which can lead to leaps in innovation. Jim Collins talks about "big, hairy, audacious goals" in his book Good to Great. Roger Bannister's effort to run a four-minute mile is an example of a BHAG. We have to understand that when we're looking at psychological barriers most of it exists only in our mind. Stretch goals are tools to get us past our barriers. Dr. Susan David discusses how the human mind is a meaning-making machine that creates narratives. What is the core belief that is the source of your negative self-talk? What are the false beliefs that are driving your behavior and decision making? Dr. David says that we can get unhooked from our false beliefs by living our values. Dr. David also encourages us to try mental contrasting. This technique requires visualizing challenges in your way when overcoming a psychological barrier. Locke and Latham found that subjects with difficult to reach goals failed to reach their goals more often than those with easier goals. However, those with more difficult goals consistently performed at a higher level. Get comfortable with failure because it's an indicator that we're pushing ourselves. Setting difficult goals enhances task interest. Where are there opportunities for you to create a stretch goal? How can you leverage your values and mental contrasting to support you in the process of reaching those stretch goals? How many of us know what we're really, really good at? How well do you know yourself? What is your understanding of how others experience and think of you? There's a prevailing belief that the only way to get better is to focus on our weaknesses. But it turns out, that's not always the most effective feedback for growth and development and for learning. We must look beyond outcomes and results. Looking beyond wins and losses provides you the opportunity to uncover developmental gains, find teachable moments, and move past the pain of losing. A growth mindset leads to a desire for mastery. People with a growth mindset persist in facing challenges. If you're not failing, you haven't challenged yourself enough. What are times or situations where you largely employ a growth mindset? How about a fixed mindset? Take stock of moments when you'll be challenged. Envision yourself in those situations and imagine how you might adopt a growth mindset in that moment. While there are limits to what our bodies can do, we often put self-imposed limits on ourselves usually based on false beliefs. Overcoming limits can lead to a huge breakthrough in your performance.
3 Key Points:
Tweetable Quotes:
“We have to understand that when we're looking at psychological barriers or any barrier of any kind, most of it exists only in our mind.” – Eric Bean “The problem isn't so much that we make assumptions. The problem is when we treat assumptions as if they were data.” – Eric Bean “There's a prevailing belief that the only way to get better is to focus on our weaknesses. But it turns out, that's not always the most effective feedback for growth and development and for learning." – Eric Bean “If you haven't failed this week, you haven't pushed yourself this week.” – Eric Bean “Pushing past our psychological limits means overcoming our default ways of thinking...and having the psychological strength to see a new path.” – Eric Bean
Resources Mentioned:
Norse Mythology (book) Good to Great (book) Measure What Matters (book) Emotional Agility (book) Insight (book)