We all know that the word ‘mind’ is commonly understood as the human consciousness that originates in the brain and is “manifested especially in thought, perception, feeling, will, memory or imagination.” However, when we say ‘mindset’ we usually mean a mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of the situations.
Still psychologists have a different view to the word ‘mindset’. A world renowned Professor of Psychology at the famous Standford University has come up with explanations about ‘mindset’ after decades of research on ‘achievements and success. According to this professor, mindset is nothing but ‘beliefs about oneself and his most basic qualities, depending on thinking and outlook of that person and at the same time, influencing his thinking and outlook.’ She added that a person with a positive thinking and outlook has a positive attitude and mentality, hence a positive mindset. Every sane person, she stated, has a mindset of his or her own, reflecting the character and identity of that person and sometimes, it’s so established and deep-rooted as to continue accepting prior behavior and choice until and unless a powerful incentive is created. In Myanmar, this kind of situation is normally referred to as ‘entrenched’ or ‘creased’ mindset or just ‘fixed’ mindset.
Somewhere I’ve come across a worthy quote:
“Once mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it. It’s our minds that create this world”.
This rings true for everyone particularly those who are looking for happiness in life because happiness has to do with your mind, not with the outside circumstances.
Perhaps that’s why ‘Dale Carnegie’ has encouraged us to keep our mind open to change at all times, to welcome it and court it for it’s only by examining and reexamining our opinions and ideas that we can progress.
In our Business and Management classes back in the old days at the University, Several of our lecturers had ingrained the importance of mindset in our brains. They said to be a brilliant leader, mindset is everything. For today’s youths who will definitely become leaders of tomorrow in no time in the future, these words pose as a reminder, guiding them in striving for their re spective goals and ambitions.
Come to think of it, not only for would-be leaders of tomorrow but also every human being functioning as a normal per son in a community doing life’s routines, day-in and day-out, mindset carries great significance. As the Stanford Professor suggested, we should nurture a positive or growth mindset so that we can breed positive thinking and outlook leading to the right as decisions and actions, changing or adjusting our lives as circumstances call for. At the same time we must, by all means, avoid or leave fixed or entrenched mindset that would certainly deter us from accepting new ideas and concepts just like pessimists who see things through negative lens with a bias for adversity.
With a growth mindset, the nest step would be to establish a learning environment, preferably a lifelong learning culture for oneself as well as for the community we are involved in. Warren Bennis, an American Scholar and Organizational consultant once said: “Success in Management requires learning as fast as the world is changing”. Actually not management field alone. Every other fields and professions do require a learning environment or learning culture, considering the rapidly changing fast-paced world of today. That way nobody would be left behind or lagging behind.
From what the Report titled “The future of work and skills predicting employment in the U.S. and U.K Economies in 2030” clearly reveals, human cognitive and interpersonal skills will be the most important requirements in future work places, even with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI)and automation.
Worldwide, many writers have been currently focusing on life-long learning as the future of work as the key to constant self-improvement. With what we’ve been witnessing almost in many parts of the globe like Industry 4.0, robotics work and the rise of Al-applied systems, the 21st century looks like to be revolving really fasts, having brought about significant changes in requirements as well as styles of all kinds of work. The resulting consequence, we all have to admit is, the loss of any sight of guarantee as to which skills will be needed in future or which ones will become obsolete and out of date.
All these seem to call for the ability to be a life-long learner that centers around not just learning the latest developments such as digital and AI skills but to have a mindset which allows the brain ‘to be open and receptive at any time and place’. To simply put, it’s true that the urgency to have a life-long learning mindset’ has been greatly compounded, since we need to learn constantly and continuously if we are to “thrive and keep with change”.
In favour for the life-long learning idea, I’d like to share the article that I accidentally found in the Bangkok Post of Sept 10, 2019, written by Chief Capability officer and Managing Director from South East Asia’s lifelong learning center. She stated that lifelong learning can help in the future of work in three ways:
(1) it helps an individual to learn anywhere, anytime.
(2) it increases a person’s adaptability skills.
(3) it increases employability.
In addition, she also stressed the point that lifelong learning mindset has great potential to close most of the skills gaps that might emerge as work evolves in the future. Her concluding remark sounds extremely logical and acceptable: for a life long learning mindset to develop, it requires a personal interest from the learner to “grow at every stage of his or her career.
Scholars say that learning is a never-ending process. It is a lifelong process; we live to learn and learn to live. We learn and grow intellectually as the days go by. We should upgrade and update ourselves through constant learning. They believe all human beings are born with a powerful urge to learn. The sad thing is that anyone can lose this urge any time and when this happens, he or she stops learning whereby stops growing intellectually, resulting in static or no-change at all. However, there remains a lucky catch: we can recapture the powerful urge to learn and go on learning, no matter what our age.
One challenge posing for older people might be their lack of self-confidence and thus reluctance to be receptive and open for new skills. The following old-age brainy quotes, I hope, would undoubtedly be supportive and encouraging.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
Anyone who keeps learning stays young
The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
Henry Ford
“Aging is an inevitable process.
I surely wouldn’t want to grow younger.
The older you become, the more you know.
Your bank account of knowledge is much richer.”
William Holden
“There is a fountain of youth: it’s your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love.
When you learn to tap these sources, you will truly have defeated age.”
Sophia Loren
“Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”.
Mark Twain
So let’s all start breeding and nurturing life-long learning mindset for us, for our family and for our community in no time!
