by Charles Barnard
You cannot separate mindset from morality. Your mindset is how your brain organizes information. It is intricately connected to your beliefs and values – your morés. Your morals or your ethics will guide your behavior and attitude because they are a component of your mindset and to a certain extent your identity. It is not possible to be void of a moral compass. The real question is whether that moral compass aligns to the morals of the culture you live in. We also need to at least think about and discuss the elephant in the room – if man is the ultimate determiner of right and wrong how can one culture tell another culture that what they are doing is morally wrong. If man is not the ultimate determiner of right and wrong who is?
As a mindset mentor, I have two primary objectives. First is to bring to conscious awareness the unconscious limitations people have placed on themselves and the unresolved negative emotions they are still holding onto so I can then show them how to eliminate those self-created barriers that work to prevent you from reaching your full potential. Second, I seek to help the person understand what are the essential beliefs, character traits, values, and strategies that have been shown to be universal in their acceptance and adoption by people who have achieved great things in their life while simultaneously experiencing joy, longevity, and respect if not admiration even while encountering the storms life throws at them. The process cannot help but deal with morality.
Let me explain. Our foundational mindset training course is entitled Leading with Heart: Harnessing the Transformative Traits of Love in Leadership. There are thirteen-character traits we guide our clients through over multiple weeks. The thinking about and acting on these traits in that time frame creates a habit of thinking about love while beginning the process of establishing or strengthening each trait as part of their character. The thirteen traits are patience, kindness, not being envious, not being boastful or proud, not dishonoring others, not being easily angered, not being self-seeking, not keeping a record of wrongs, rejoicing in truth, being protective, being trustful and trustworthy, being hopeful, and being perseverant.
It is true that those character traits are described in the bible and have a strong Christian connection. Because they have strong Christian ties does that mean those traits are not universally excepted traits of people who tend to be strong leaders, live life joyfully, live long, and have the respect or admiration of others? A simple thought experiment should prove the point. Just imagine two people, one with those traits and one with the opposite traits. Who would you be more drawn to and prefer to follow or associate with? This answer overwhelmingly from people from multiple cultures and backgrounds is the person who has those traits of love. The actions those traits spur represent a moral code. Which is morally acceptable, being kind or being unkind? Dishonoring others or not dishonoring others? Being slow to anger or easily angered? It would be hard for anyone to make an argument that we should not help people develop a mindset based on love, wouldn’t it.
The next two trainings in our 48-week training program are Mindsets of Faith and Faithfulness. Faithfulness is about developing eight more-character traits associated with being faithful. Like those traits in the foundational course, they are not moral traits but the actions that come from having those character traits would then constitute your moral code. Like those character traits from the foundational course, it would be difficult for someone to argue those traits are not traits you would want to see in someone who demonstrates faithfulness. Beyond those character traits faithfulness is also about being trustworthy. Someone you can put your faith in. The training on faith has a bit different objective.
The faith training does encompass your ability to trust which is an important aspect of having faith. Most of that course however is about understanding the eight major world views that cover about 98% of the world’s population. The intent is to help you understand your own beliefs or worldview and for you to discover how congruent you are in those beliefs. The other intent is for you to understand other worldviews so you can better articulate your own and it helps you become a much more understanding of other people and where they are coming from. It empowers you. A significant part of that training is the 40-day challenge where you are investigating how the eight major world views – atheism (naturalism), agnosticism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism – answer four fundamental questions that we do answer, at least unconsciously. What are human origins? What is the purpose of life? Who determines right and wrong? What happens when I die? Each worldview answers those questions with truth claims that shape how their adherents react to the world. We will want to at the very least be congruent in these deeply embedded and higher-level beliefs and secondly a little more aware of what drives others. That is the purpose of our 40-day challenge.
In our two- or four-year complete mindset training curriculum, we look at relationships, learning and the mind, the body, healing, and health, the human spirit, and our mindset around wealth or money. Every one of those training courses entails establishing certain beliefs around those topics and eliminating beliefs that are not conducive to living optimally in each of those areas. It is inescapable to have moral implications with those beliefs. Again, the beliefs are associated with what has been shown to be most effective throughout history and with modern psychological studies and brain research. In short, mindset training by its very nature entails teachings that will shape how you determine what are right and wrong actions. It cannot be any other way.
You cannot educate people without imposing a moral code on those being educated. There are rules and guidelines that must be followed and are established by organizations, communities, or governments that dictate how things will be done and are thus the moral code guiding education. Some of the greatest conflicts happening in this country today are conflicting views on what the morals are we should be operating under. Make no mistake, our morals are being shaped by government, media and popular culture, educational institutions, and of course family. It is arguable that the family has long been supplanted as the primary shaper of morals and our mindset in favor of the media and popular culture and educational institutions, which may or may not be government run. As free-thinking individuals, we need to understand that and choose to become masters of our mindset so we can become masters of our life.
