004: Manifesting Your Dreams With a Growth Mindset

Episode Notes:
A growth mindset is to success what compound interest is to Warren Buffet. The simplicity and power of this tool has the potential to transform your life. Studies on neuroscience and history’s most successful individuals have demonstrated the ability for a growth mindset to help people cultivate massive success.

In this episode, you’ll learn about what it means to have a growth mindset, how to use neuroplasticity and the dopaminergic reward system to your advantage, and an amazingly simple tool to transform your life.

Topics:
[1:59] Neuroplasticity: The restructuring of the brain’s structure and function by thinking
[4:33] Dopamine’s role in the Growth Mindset
[5:42] Dopamine is not about the happiness of the reward
[7:52] Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade
[10:33] Process over results: Tracking incremental growth
[12:50] The Probability Assessment

Thank you all for joining me on this journey to lifelong health, happiness, and higher performance. And remember, always be grateful, love yourself, and serve others.

Teaser
In this episode… What drove Michael Jordan, Kobe, and Dwayne Wade to becoming NBA champions and hall of famers was fundamentally their growth mindset – believing they could always improve, and their dopaminergic reward system…

Episode Intro
Learn II Perform: Practical lessons so that you can immediately learn to optimize your health, happiness, and performance.?

Gratitude
Today’s gratitude shoutout goes to longtime coach and mentor, Jeff Battah. I’ll elude to him again later in the episode, but I really am grateful for everything he has done for me. My hockey, academic, and professional career would have never happened without his help, and beyond that, he taught me the concept of Growth Mindset before I had ever heard the term. I’ll share more later in the episode, but a big thank you to Batts for everything over the years.

Topic Introduction
Alright, let’s start. A growth mindset is to success what compound interest is to Warren Buffet [1]. That sounds nice and all, but what exactly is a Growth mindset?

Carol Dweck, a world-renowned Stanford Psychologist brought this concept to life after years of research into the psychology of success in her fantastic book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success [2]. She identifies two primary mindsets that largely govern human behavior: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. In a nutshell, the fixed mindset follows the logic that all of your qualities – including intelligence, personality, and physical skills – are predetermined and set in stone. The Growth mindset, on the other hand, is the fundamental belief that you can develop your basic qualities through application and experience.

So What’s The Bottom Line
Your mindset may be your most important tool for cultivating success and optimizing your health, happiness, and performance, as evidenced by:

1. Neuroplasticity
2. The Dopaminergic Reward System
3. Various case Studies and metaphors

Now, it should go without saying, but let’s be clear that having a growth mindset doesn’t mean you can will anything into existence. What it means is that we are always capable of improving at anything and everything

1. Neuroplasticity
Since mindset is reliant on conscious thought, it’s important to understand the role of Neuroplasticity. Research on neuroplasticity isn’t a brand new concept, with a 2001 paper concluding that as synaptic connections in the brain are created and repeated, the Pre-frontal cortex has “ongoing plasticity that is adaptive to the demands of new tasks” [3]. A modern understanding of neuroplasticity from Canadian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, is that neuroplasticity is the ability for the brain to “change its structure and function through thought and activity” [4]. Basically, the brain is malleable. This means that your capacity for thoughts, memory, motor skills, and other cognitive tasks can all be altered through activation.

It is widely accepted that children are the best learners, and it would make sense because their brains are developing at a rapid rate. For this reason, it is common for many older adults to believe that their brains are no longer capable of growth. However, this has been proven wrong in numerous studies. In fact, not only can plasticity occur throughout entire lifespans, it is suggested that sensory neurons can be adjusted and even reversed at later stages in life [5]. Increasingly, evidence shows that adult brains are capable of learning, improving memory, and even recovering from brain damage through the activation of synaptic plasticity, albeit at a reduced rate from childhood [4, 5, 6].

A great way to increase brain activity is through playing an instrument, because of the complex integration of multisensory and audiovisual information [7]. Here’s an exciting study for you – adults aged 60-84 were given daily piano lessons for four months and in comparison to the control group, they were observed to have improved executive function, inhibitory control, motor ability, visual scanning, positive mood states, and decreased depression [8]. Essentially, every aspect of their mental health improved.

In addition to playing an instrument, numerous studies have shown that meditation – an active shift in conscious thought – produces a noticeable change in white matter in the brain, even in short term studies [9, 10, 11]. Again, another activity that improves mental health. But now for something even more fascinating. There is research that shows that negative age-related stereotypes, in other words, simply thinking that older people are less coherent and competent, was directly linked with increased rate of brain degradation [12, 13]. This is crazy to me. Simply thinking that older people are less functional can result in accelerated brain atrophy. What you believe becomes your reality…

This is where the power of mindset comes in – thoughts have the ability to manifest physical changes in our brains. But as Doidge cautions, this goes both ways. A negative mindset can cultivate destructive, limiting behaviors just as effectively as a growth mindset can cultivate positive, limitless behaviors. 

2. The Dopaminergic Reward System
This section gets a little deeper into the neuroscience but bear with me as I geek out a bit.

So despite the evidence of neuroplasticity that we just covered, it is easy to be skeptical about the true value of a growth mindset. So now, I want to talk about everyone’s favorite neurotransmitter – dopamine. Known as a feel good chemical due to its relationship with pleasure and addiction, dopamine is actually multi-faceted, but for our purposes, we can consider the fact that it plays an important role in signaling the brain’s reward system [14].

Dr. Andrew Huberman, head of Huberman Lab in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University, has long discussed the power of dopamine in relation to working towards goals, which I was exposed to on an episode of Ed Mylett’s podcast [15]. He summarized that dopamine is released from the pursuit of an achievement or reward, more so than after achieving the reward. Therefore, we are capable of deriving an addictive pleasure to the process of growth. The addictive nature of the process approach to achievement utilizes neuroplasticity to rewire brain circuits. To sum up, this means that a growth mindset can become addicting, further empowering you to rewire your brain, create new habits, and develop skills far beyond your current capabilities. This creates a positive feedback loop.

In Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, Stanford neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky called upon studies on monkeys that evaluated the dopaminergic system in the context of reward [16, 17]. The results are astounding. In the study, a light would come on in a monkey’s room to indicate that the reward trial was beginning. Through training, they would learn to pull a lever ten times and as a result, would be rewarded with a raison. Over time, this process became engrained in the monkeys’ brains, so when the light came on, they knew that if they pulled the lever, they would be rewarded.

What is most fascinating, is that the study found that the highest levels of dopamine were secreted when the light first came on, even higher than after receiving the reward. Sapolsky summarizes this by saying “Once reward contingencies are learned, dopamine is less about reward than about its anticipation” [16]. To take this a step further, it was discovered that anticipatory dopamine will be highest when the uncertainty of receiving a reward is the greatest. In other words, pursuing highly challenging goals without certainty of success actually provides a higher level of pleasure.

Does this mean that Climbing Mt. Everest will provide more of a rush than the satisfaction of climbing three flights of stairs to the rooftop of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in downtown Nashville? Not necessarily, because it might depend on how thirsty you are and whether or not you like country music. However, Sapolsky’s key takeaway is that “Dopamine is not about the happiness of reward. It’s about the happiness in the pursuit of reward that has a decent chance of occurring” [16].

In the context of a growth mindset, this means it is possible to condition yourself to loving the process of growth by leveraging dopamine. Rather than fixating on outcomes, you can develop a genuine love for learning, developing, and growing, all of which enable you to completely transform your life.

3. Case studies and metaphors
Enough with the science, let’s see it in action. In honor of Carol Dweck, I’d like to mention that her book, Mindset, is full of examples far beyond what we will cover [2]. In a few of her own studies, she has clearly demonstrated that students that believe or are taught the growth mindset – aka those who believe they can learn and improve their intelligence – consistently show higher achievement and trends of performance [18-20]. This has been observed repeatedly.

But now for my favorite example.

Tim Grover, the famed trainer of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade, among many other star players, discussed the keys to obtaining greatness in his book Relentless – one of my all-time favorite books [21]. He makes it clear that to be successful, you don’t have to love the process – the workouts, early mornings, late nights, etc. – but you have to be addicted to the results. Although not stated directly, this addiction to the results is probably just an addiction to the anticipation of the results. What drove Michael Jordan, Kobe, and Dwayne Wade to becoming NBA champions and hall of famers was fundamentally their growth mindset – believing they could always improve, and their dopaminergic reward system; they were addicted to the anticipation of reward rooted in the process.

When I think about greatness, this is what I think about. Understanding that greatness is a process and finding ways to become addicted to the process. To achieve results, you must constantly improve. Therefore, you must be hyper-focused on incremental progress, doing the work every day. There are three metaphors that help keep me focused on the immediate task at hand.

The first is Chinese Bamboo, as made famous by motivational speaker Les Brown – the link to his incredible speech is included in the show notes [22]. He notes that the Chinese Bamboo tree takes five years to grow and must be watered and fertilized every single day. Yet it never sprouts out of the ground until the fifth year. Five years of consistent, deliberate work, and yet there is nothing to show for it. But finally, when it breaks through the ground, it grows 90 feet in five weeks.

The second is all about compound interest. Think of Warren Buffet or if you are a math person, an exponential growth chart. By making small but consistent investments, those incremental changes can amass into enormous growth. Jordan Peterson, the famous Canadian psychologist, talks about how doing just one thing every day to improve your life can change your life in just a few years [23]. With each action, your baseline gets a little higher. He says, “Do that for three years, and your life will be entirely different.” There is magic in compound interest.

Finally, I like to think about a long journey. Maybe you’re hiking up a mountain or climbing the Eiffel Tower. The idea is simple: Imagine how amazing it will be when you get to finish – the view from the top overlooking the valleys or streets of Paris. Imagine how great you will feel for accomplishing that task. Keep that in the back of your mind. Right now, you have three options: 1) Take a step forward, 2) Stay where you are, or 3) Take a step back. But remember, even though you may not be at the end, with each step forward, you are closer, and your view is a bit better. Enjoy every step in the journey as you slowly admire and appreciate and become addicted your growth.

Personal Experience
At this time, I’d like to share my experiences with implementing a growth mindset. Ever since I was young, my longtime goalie coach and mentor, Jeff Battah, always preached the following: “Process over results.” My life was rooted in the idea of “Process over results.” Process, process, process. I relentlessly focused on learning, practicing, and growing, with the dream of playing pro hockey as a dangling carrot in the distance.

But it was more than just hockey, it translated across my life – school, work, everything. My focus was always on “What can I do today to get a little bit better?” And that was it. Often it was very small: drink more water, go to bed earlier, take five minutes to stretch, go over my notes one more time. It was driven around small, incremental improvements in efficiency and optimization.

Currently, I created a Habit Tracker Board, in which I document the progress made on my most important daily habits and long-term goals. For each task, I will assess whether I improved on that day or not. Anything in which I improved, even the tiniest of progress, receives a green mark, indicating growth towards my goal. Any time I did not make progress towards my goals, I mark it as red. This gives me a visual overview of my daily progress towards accomplishing my goals. For example, one of my current long-term goals is to learn French. Let’s say I didn’t have a chance to practice French at all during the day, no problem, but that’s marked as red. However, if I am able to watch a video, listen to a podcast, or run through a quick lesson, even if it’s only ten minutes, I mark that as green – because it is incremental progress that compounds.

I find this offers two benefits. First, it always keeps me accountable by keeping my goals visible and encouraging me to make an effort every day. Secondly, it generates a reward system. The simple act of writing in a green mark signals a dopamine rush, as I feel rewarded by the accomplishment of progress. In essence, I am attempting to train myself to become addicted to the dopamine response associated with the pursuit of a goal, not the actual achievement itself. In addition, for an entirely green week, I will reward myself with something simple to keep me motivated. Maybe that is an extra cheat meal or permission to take a break from working to relax and watch some Netflix. Something simple to help achieve balance.

So What Can You Do
To recap what we’ve learned, a growth mindset is capable of transforming your life by utilizing neuroplasticity and the dopaminergic reward system. It is a common mindset of history’s highest achievers, and is something you can begin to implement today, if you haven’t already.

This leads me to the most important advice I can give anyone to achieve your most desired dreams. It’s called the Probability Assessment and it was taught to me by Diego Giurleo, the founder of Lumina Fund Management, LLC in New York City [24]. And I apologize Diego if I said your name wrong, because I am not exactly sure how to say it. I was fortunate to connect with him when I was living in New York and his kindness and willingness to take a few hours out of his day to meet with me and offer his advice is something I am eternally grateful for.

Essentially, the probability assessment is intended to help you reflect on your goals, critically evaluate where you are in relation to them, quantify how close you are to achieving them, and then determine an action plan for increasing your odds of successfully achieving them.

To achieve high performance, assess your current situation. Ask yourself the following three questions.

1. What do I want to achieve?
2. What is the realistic probability of success?
3. What can I do today to increase my probability of success?

Once you know what you can do today – and only today – do that. Everything else (past and future) is irrelevant. You do not need to get significantly closer to your goal in one day, but you must get closer every day. Increments of 1% and even 0.1% are enough to achieve massive, long-term goals. Remember the magic of compound interest.

This probability assessment applies to everything in life – it can be your education, career, relationships, health, anything. Apply and repeat this process every single day, and in time, your life will change. And if you are underestimating the power of 1% growth, consider this.

If you don’t make any progress throughout an entire year, you will remain at 100% of your current talent. Written another way, you started at 1 and will end at 1, because 1 to the power of 365 is still 1. However, if you improve just 1% each day, you will be 101% of your previous day’s baseline, equivalent to 1.01. If we apply 365 days of exponential growth, 1.01 to the power of 365 is 37.8. While this mathematical relationship doesn’t translate directly to life, the concept is powerful. Just 1% growth every day from your previous day’s baseline results in an improvement of almost 40 times the original value over the course of a single year. That is mind blowing.

So with that, I encourage you to take out a piece of paper and a pen and answer the three questions in the Probability Assessment.

1. What do I want to achieve?
2. What is the realistic probability of success?
3. What can I do today to increase my probability of success?

Once you have your answer, commit to making progress every single day. Use a habit tracker board if you feel it is helpful, and don’t be afraid to reward yourself for progress. The goal is to become addicted to the process, to learn to love the pursuit of excellence. And with the growth mindset, believing that you can accomplish all your goals and improve in every aspect of your life, you will be unlocking unlimited potential that you may have never known you had.

And if that’s not enough motivation to get you through the grind, I’ll leave you with some lyrics from Drake’s Lose You. He says, “Winnin’ is problematic, People like you more when you workin’ towards somethin’, Not when you have it” [25, 26].

Episode Outro
To discover more, the full transcript of this episode with all citations is available on the website and you can also contact me on social media with any questions or comments. If you found this episode useful or think that it may help someone else, I encourage you to pass it along.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey to lifelong health, happiness, and higher performance. And remember, always be grateful, love yourself, and serve others.

References
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[2] Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.

[3] Miller, E. K., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual review of neuroscience, 24, 167–202. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167

[4] Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science. New York: Viking.

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[8] Seinfeld, S., Figueroa, H., Ortiz-Gil, J., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2013). Effects of music learning and piano practice on cognitive function, mood and quality of life in older adults. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 810. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00810

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[13] Robertson, D. A., King-Kallimanis, B. L., & Kenny, R. A. (2016). Negative perceptions of aging predict longitudinal decline in cognitive function. Psychology and aging, 31(1), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000061

[14] Kiger, P. J. (2018, November 29). How Dopamine Works. HowStuffWorks. https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dopamine.htm

[15] DR. ANDREW HUBERMAN – UNLEASH YOUR BRAIN POWER AND GROWTH MINDSET. (2020). Ed Mylett. Retrieved October 20, 2020, from https://www.edmylett.com/podcast/dr-andrew-huberman-unleash-your-brain-power-and-growth-mindset/

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[21] Grover, T. S. (2014). Relentless: From good to great to unstoppable. New York, NY: Relentless Publishing, LLC.

[22] Goalcast. (2018, July 6). How Bamboo Trees Will Bring Out Your Best Self | Les Brown Motivational Speech | Goalcast [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMWXMMUg5pI

[23] Peterson, J., Doidge, N. & Sciver, E. (2018). 12 rules for life: An antidote to chaos. Toronto: Random House Canada.

[24] About. (2018). Lumina Fund Management LLC. Retrieved October 20, 2020, from http://luminafund.com/?page_id=501

[25] Lose You. (2020). Genius. Retrieved October 20, 2020, from https://genius.com/Drake-lose-you-lyrics

[26] Drake. (2018, May 9). Lose You [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOhknvYJibs