By Charles Barnard
Would you rather decrease anxiety or increase self-esteem?
That was a question posed by a nurse in a private Facebook group I am part of. My response came as a reply to the nurse who had made a comment to another member. The context of the reply was about anxiety and the physical symptoms of anxiety. The nurse explained the biological aspects of the anxiety symptoms. I was responding to that reply and then answered her general question.
It is true that physical symptoms of anxiety are common and are related to a chemical imbalance which is why medication works. If the physical symptoms are not constant then the underlying premise is the chemical imbalance is not constant which I believe is true for the vast majority of anxiety sufferers. It is true for all the ones I have known or worked with.
That does beg a question doesn’t it? What caused the chemical imbalance especially given that science tells us thoughts do create chemicals in the body? If the anxiety is beginning with our thinking, training ourselves to think differently would be the answer, would it not? And, I think that leads back to your question.
Generally speaking I would work on self-esteem. Our Growth Mindset Training Academy personal breakthrough training uses techniques to begin to train thinking patterns that will help people build the habits that help control emotions and create the attitude (beliefs) necessary for thriving in a world that often can seem like it is spinning out of control – it tackles self-image head on. For many of the teens I have worked with over nearly 30 years in public schools and private coaching, anxiety is a problem of thinking in general and self-esteem in particular more than any other factor, which does imply there are other factors.
Most college courses and professional development work is centered around providing knowledge or teaching a skill – teaching, not developing the skill. Seeking knowledge or to acquire a new skill is a very good thing. In the book of Proverbs, we read, “A wise person is hungry for knowledge.” Yet, without mindset training, you really won’t have all you require to become the best you can be. Ultimately, you need to train your mindset, do you not?
Our objective in our complete Growth Mindset Training Academy curriculum is to build four essential habits. The habits are exercise, healthy eating, proper breathing, and meditative and or reflective practices. Whether you are trying to decrease anxiety (or any other negative emotion that may be impacting your life) or increase self-esteem (or any positive emotion or belief system – attitude) those four habits are essential.
There have been clinical studies done that show each of those habits individually have had positive impact on a number of clinically diagnosed mental health issues. That is not to say medication or therapy would not be needed. I would argue though, that any good therapy should be about helping establish those habits for a client as part of the intervention.
People invest thousands of dollars on acquiring knowledge, which as I said before is desirable and I will add admirable. I believe that should be a lifelong pursuit. I will also argue that before spending thousands of dollars on college courses or other professional development workshops and seminars, you should consider training your mindset. In my humble opinion, it will have the greatest return on your investment.
A common college option for many people to acquire knowledge is to take courses offered by their state university system, which is tax subsidized. In other words, lots of people who will never take a class are essentially giving you a partial scholarship. The cost of those courses is not necessarily the value of those courses. The value is ultimately decided by the individual. My argument would be the value of mindset training is greater than the value of most graduate level courses. The cost of 10 (a one year full time load) graduate level courses at our local university is $12,600. The value of those ten courses is debatable and as already mentioned dependent on the individual. Let me relate that to a brief story.
For a number of years I played in a church softball league. On my team was a middle aged gentleman who when I first met him was working on his degree through the local university. He persisted and after several years finally graduated with a degree in economics. It was a very admirable accomplishment and one he was rightfully proud of. The cost was roughly $48,000 in today’s dollars.
Over the next two years though he still remained essentially unemployed landing one low paying temporary job after another. In the end, he never fully broke his dependence on social services despite the state essentially picking up the entire cost of his education. Why? This man had the mindset of defeatism. While he was able to persevere and finally get his degree, the degree itself only provide knowledge, but did nothing to help this man develop what he needed most – the mindset of a champion. He truly needed to have developed the habits, emotions, and attitude necessary to fully participate in our economy. What was the value of his degree? What would have been the value of retraining his mindset?
Ultimately, there are two very important weapons at everyone’s disposal who want to train those four necessary habits. They are discovering or creating your why and establishing accountability structures. The gentleman I mentioned had both of those in place to finish and get his degree. It would have been far more beneficial to him, his family, and society if those were in place and the focus was on training his mindset.
Anyone I have ever worked with who has established habits of success had at least one if not both of those factors in use. Often the success we have in developing habits with our students at school is the accountability we provide. The greatest challenge we face is getting those habits transferred from school to home. Far too often there is no accountability at home and there is not a big enough why so those learning habits we focused on do not get formed at home. If someone truly wants to master their growth mindset and control their emotions and attitude, they need to establish those four habits which requires a big enough why and or accountability, both of which begin the individual.
Please, take a look at our Growth Mindset Training Academy complete training curriculum for your family or business.
