How to Know You are Elevating Yourself (i.e., Along Your Being Side)

When we invest in our personal or professional growth, we typically develop along one of two dimensions of ourselves: our Doing Side or our Being Side. Our Doing Side encompasses our knowledge, skills, capabilities, and behaviors — essentially, what we do and how effectively we do it. It’s the part of us that can be […]
What is a Gritty Mindset? And How Do You Develop One?

Angela Duckworth popularized the term, “Grit,” in her best-selling book: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In this book, she presents a compelling case for a couple of powerful main ideas: Grit is a mindset (not an ability) Grit matters more than talent. Naturally, a statement like this leads to two questions: What is […]
What is a Growth Mindset

If you were to ask 100 people if they have a fixed or a growth mindset, how many people would say that they have a “fixed mindset?” Not very many, right?!? Yet, my research echoes Carol Dweck’s research, which suggests that half of all people are fixed-minded. In this article, I want to explain: What […]
Vertical Development is Like Improving Our Eating Skills

Vertical development is about upgrading our internal operating system such that we elevate how we make meaning of our world in more cognitively and emotionally sophisticated ways.
Going From Mind 2.0 to Mind 3.0

Over the next several weeks, I want to share examples of people I have worked or interacted with that are at different stages of their personal vertical development journeys.
The purpose of doing this is to help you:
Better see what vertical development looks and feels like
See the value of focusing on your vertical development
Be inspired, as I have been, by the courage of others who are letting go of who they have been and embracing an elevated version of themselves
Stuck in Mind 2.0

Over the next several weeks, I want to share examples of people I have worked or interacted with that are at different stages of their personal vertical development journeys.
The purpose of doing this is to help you:
Better see what vertical development looks and feels like
See the value of focusing on your vertical development
Be inspired, as I have been, by the courage of others who are letting go of who they have been and embracing an elevated version of themselves
What Does an Elevated Leader Look Like?

Elevated leaders are leaders who operate on a higher plane than most leaders. These leaders are positively transformational. In Good to Great, Jim Collins calls them “Level 5 Leaders.” In Multipliers, Liz Wiseman calls them just that: “Multipliers.” Often, the best leaders we can think of fall into this category. Historically, it is people Abraham […]
Do Our Mindsets Change as We Age?

What do you think: Do you think that individuals’ mindsets change by age? If so, what does that relationship look like? Do you think they generally grow more positive or negative as people get older? Questions like this are some of my most frequently asked questions, and I think, most of the time, those asking […]
How to Enhance Our Psychological Flexibility

I have a six-year-old son who is in speech therapy. I listened in to one of his sessions this week, where he worked on his “th” sound. He tends to do an “s” sound when the “th” sound is needed. So, instead of “tooth,” often it comes out as “toose.” The whole point of speech […]
What Causes People to Possess Negative Mindsets?

Last week, I wrote an article about the neuroscience of mindsets, which suggested that our mindsets are long-range neural connections that serve as our brain’s circuit board, connecting our three primary brain regions: basal ganglia (reptilian brain), limbic system (mammalian brain), and neocortex (human brain). See the neon green lines. Ideal Situation In an ideal […]