How Mindset shapes our resilience in Work, Life and Health.

A guide to understanding belief, adaptability and the quiet power of psychological renewal.

Why Mindset Still Matters.

You already know mindset matters.  

You’ve read it on posters, heard it in meetings, watched TED Talks, but here’s the quiet truth.. most of us still live under the weight of our older, more rigid beliefs about who we are, what we’re capable of and how much change is possible.

Mindset is not just about being positive or working harder.

It is the deep architecture behind how we see the world and ourselves.  It shapes not only what we attempt, but what we even allow ourselves to perceive as possible.

In the context of resilience it’s the ability to adapt, recover and renew, mindset is not optional.  It is fundamental and yet, changing one’s mindset is not a flip of a switch. 

It is a form of psychological renewal and like any renewal, it requires discomfort, mess and grief for what must be let go.

What is a Mindset, Really?

A mindset is more than a belief, it is a mental model that shapes how we interpret reality.  

Mindsets are the filters through which we notice, categorise and assign meaning to events.  As Piaget observed, our schemas or internal frameworks develop early, then become the lens through which we view the world.

Carol Dweck’s research popularised the distinction between fixed and growth mindsets.  A fixed mindset assumes abilities are innate and unchangeable whereas a growth mindset believes they can be developed through effort, strategy, and feedback[^1]. 

While this distinction is now familiar in popular culture, its power lies not in the labels, but in the way these mindsets shape identity.

We do not merely think our beliefs.  We become them.

Over time, our mindset fuses with our identity. 

To challenge it is to challenge the story we tell about ourselves. 

A person who believes they are “not a creative type” will not simply avoid art.  They may feel threatened when others are, or defensive when asked to try.  Not because they lack ability, but because to try and fail would violate their self-protective script.

Mindsets are not just beliefs about ability, they are beliefs about what can and cannot change.  This is why they so often go unexamined.. they feel like reality itself.

Why Mindsets are Hard to Change and Why They Must.

If changing mindset were easy, motivational posters would have changed the world, but beliefs rarely shift under logic alone. 

They are guarded by emotion and often by ego-defence mechanisms like rationalisation, avoidance, or even projection.

Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance describes the discomfort we feel when confronted with information that contradicts our core beliefs[^2]. 

This dissonance activates our brain’s conflict-monitoring systems, triggering defensiveness and resistance (Harmon-Jones, 2007)[^3].

When that belief is tied to our identity;

“I’m a logical person,” 

“I’m not good with people,” 

“I’m a natural leader”

“I’m good at maths”

“I’m an artist”

“I’m a people person”

the resistance is even stronger. 

We are not just protecting a viewpoint, we are protecting ourselves.

This resistance often shows up as subtle self-sabotage. 

We avoid the gym not because we’re lazy, but because failure would affirm our fixed beliefs about our body.  We don’t ask for feedback at work because we fear it will confirm that we’re not as competent as we hope.

The Anatomy of Belief Renewal.

There is a pattern to mindset change and it often resembles the stages of grief:

1. Denial:  “This can’t be true.”

   
   

2. Defensiveness:  “It might be true, but not for me.”

   
   

3. Resistance:  “I don’t want to change.”

   
   

4. Exploration:  “What if there’s something to learn here?”

   
   

5. Integration:  “This changes how I live.”

   
   

We cycle through these stages repeatedly and like grief, there is often pain, not just for the belief we’re shedding, but for the time we spent clinging to it. 

That time we spent thinking we couldn’t lead, the relationship we never pursued, the skill we avoided learning because “it just wasn’t us.”

This grief is real. 

Yet, it makes space for something else.. gratitude. 

Gratitude that we see it now, that the future is not gone, that there is still time.

Neuroplasticity: The Biology behind Change.

The idea that “old dogs can’t learn new tricks” is neurologically false.

Studies in the past two decades have firmly established the principle of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections. 

These changes are not limited to childhood:

• Draganski et al. (2006) demonstrated that adults who learned to juggle showed increased grey matter in the visual-motor cortex[^4].

  
  

• Lövdén et al. (2010) found that cognitive training in older adults produced structural changes in the hippocampus[^5].

  
  

• Doidge (2007) documented stroke survivors retraining undamaged areas of their brain to take over lost function[^6].

  
  

Crucially, neuroplasticity is “use-dependent.” Or, as my 91yr old grandma says.. “use it, or lose it.”

The brain doesn’t change because you want to believe something new, it changes because you act in accordance with it. 

Beliefs are updated when they are enacted.

Mindset plays a crucial role. Dweck’s work with Job et al. showed that individuals who believe willpower is non-limited, that it replenishes with use, perform better under sustained cognitive effort[^7].

Mindset does not just reflect neuroplasticity. 

It enables it.

Curiosity, Humour and the Freedom to Get it Wrong.

Curiosity is the mindset before the mindset.

Before we can shift what we believe, we must be willing to ask.. What if I’m wrong?  

That question is a portal to growth, but it can be terrifying.

Richard Feynman famously said: “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”

That is the essence of resilient mindset: “strong beliefs, loosely held.” (also Feynman/clever chap isn’t he.)

Humour helps.  It disarms defensiveness and allows self-reflection without shame.  

The psychologist Albert Ellis had clients do “shame-attacking” exercises, like asking for bizarre things in public, to help them let go of rigid self-images. 

His logic? If  we can laugh at our fear, it loses its grip.  

If you’ve ever heard someone say, “I didn’t know that,” you can be fairly assured they are embracing a growth mindset. 

Growth mindset requires this kind of emotional flexibility. 

It is not about pretending failure doesn’t hurt. It is about not letting it define us or crucially, preventing us from growing.

Mindset and the Four Domains of Resilience.

Mindset influences every domain of resilience biological, psychological, social and spiritual.

Biological:

• Stress mindset (Crum et al, 2013): Those who view “stress as enhancing,” show better cardiovascular and cognitive performance[^8].

  
  

• Willpower mindset (Job et al, 2010): Belief in replenishable willpower leads to greater persistence under stress.

  
  

Psychological:

• Growth mindset predicts higher perseverance, reduced avoidance and better coping after failure[^1].

  
  

• Optimistic explanatory styles (Seligman): People who attribute setbacks to temporary causes recover more effectively[^9].

  
  

Social:

• Scarcity mindset breeds competition and distrust.

  
  

• Abundance mindset fosters collaboration and trust.

  
  

• Relationship beliefs (Knee et al., 2003): Those who believe relationships evolve through effort report better conflict resolution and satisfaction[^10].

  
  
  
  

Spiritual:

• Mindsets shape meaning-making. Fixed beliefs interpret suffering as failure; growth beliefs interpret it as fertile ground.

  
  

• Grief for outdated beliefs, followed by gratitude for the opportunity to see anew, can be quietly sacred.

  
  

How Mindset Shapes Work, Love, Learning and Wellbeing.

At Work:

Satya Nadella’s transformation of Microsoft focused on replacing a “know-it-all” culture with a “learn-it-all” one[^11].  Psychological safety, experimentation and feedback became valued traits. 

Performance followed.

In Relationships:

Couples with a growth relationship mindset (Knee et al.) are more forgiving and adaptive[^10].  They frame conflict as a challenge to grow through, not evidence of incompatibility.

In Learning:

Dweck and Yeager’s work with students showed that teaching growth mindset improved academic outcomes, particularly for students facing structural disadvantage[^1].

In Mental Health:

Beliefs shape how we interpret distress. 

Growth-oriented reappraisal ( “this is hard right now”) improves regulation and decreases depressive rumination (Beck et al, 1979)[^12].

Tools for Developing a Resilient Mindset:

1. Use “Not Yet”

   “I can’t do this” → “I can’t do this yet.”

   
   

2. Notice dissonance without reacting

   Ask: What belief of mine is being challenged right now?

   
   

3. Practise opposite action

   Fear failure? Try, briefly, anyway.  Avoid feedback? Seek one small comment.

   
   

4. Reframe stress

   “This pressure means I care. My body is mobilising.”

   
   

5. Laugh at your rigidity

   Humour disarms shame. Tell someone what you’re stuck on and laugh.

   
   

6. Reflect on belief grief

   Write: What have I outgrown? What do I now choose instead?

   
   

7. Ask better questions

   Instead of “Why can’t I do this?” try: “What’s one small way I could start?”

   
   

Conclusion: The Quiet Work of Becoming.

Mindset isn’t just a motivational idea.  It’s a mechanism of identity and one of the few we can consciously shape.

Letting go of an old belief can feel like a death, but if we honour that grief, we create space for renewal.  For possibility, for a future not dictated by the past.

You are not too old. 

It is not too late. 

The work is quiet, but it is yours.

How you see the road ahead will shape what it becomes.

References

[^1]: Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

[^2]: Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

[^3]: Harmon-Jones, E. (2007). Cognitive dissonance theory: A review of evidence and theory. Psychological Science.

[^4]: Draganski, B., et al. (2006). Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature.

[^5]: Lövdén, M., et al. (2010). Experience-dependent plasticity of white-matter microstructure. Nature Neuroscience.

[^6]: Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself.

[^7]: Job, V., Dweck, C.S., Walton, G.M. (2010). Ego depletion — is it all in your head? Psychological Science.

[^8]: Crum, A.J., Salovey, P., Achor, S. (2013). Rethinking stress: The role of mindsets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

[^9]: Seligman, M.E.P. (1998). Learned Optimism.

[^10]: Knee, C.R., et al. (2003). Implicit theories of relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

[^11]: Nadella, S. (2017). Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul.

[^12]: Beck, A.T. (1979). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders.