Podcast

Episode 429: The Perfectionist’s Guide To Creating A Growth Mindset

There’s one thing that every perfectionist entrepreneur must learn if they want to succeed in business: how to create a growth mindset. This is the secret to being able to get out of your own way and take consistent action to your goals without burning out. And in this episode I’m doing a deep dive into what the growth mindset is, common misconceptions about the growth mindset as well as the practical steps to create a growth mindset.

This is the episode on perfectionism and the growth mindset that I wish existed when I was struggling to build my business to six figures and wondering why I felt so scared to put myself out there. If you are finding that overthinking, procrastination, burnout and fear of judgement are making it hard to build your business – this episode is for you. Tune in today.

Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode429.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • Why I thought I had a growth mindset when I didn’t
  • Why creating a growth mindset is the secret to becoming a productive perfectionist
  • What to expect when it comes to getting into a growth mindset
  • The principles of getting into a growth mindset
  • The exact process I developed to make it easy to get into a growth mindset
  • My favourite tools for getting into a growth mindset
  • 5 signs you’re in a growth mindset

Featured In The Episode:

Work With Me:
My program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) teaches you my proven process for becoming a productive perfectionist. It’s a 12-month program so you have all of the tools, coaching and support you need to show up consistently and achieve your 12 month business goal. Enrollment for our January 2024 cohort is happening from 8-12 December. To find out more about the program and be the first to know when the doors open, join the waitlist today: samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.

Listen To The Episode

Listen to the episode on the player above, click here to download the episode and take it with you or listen anywhere you normally listen to podcasts – just find Episode 429 of The Perfectionism Project Podcast!

Subscribe To The Perfectionism Project Podcast

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Hi and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionist Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business. You can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.

Sam Laura Brown

I built my business from $0 in revenue to 1.9 million by learning how to get into a growth mindset. And that’s really because the growth mindset is the antidote to perfectionism. And it was perfectionism that was making me get in my own way in my business, and stopping it from growing. If you’re familiar with my story, you will know that when I started my business, I didn’t even realize that I was a perfectionist, I didn’t think I was perfect enough to be a perfectionist. For so many perfectionists. It’s only when they start doing something they’re really passionate about. And there are no rules to follow or external deadlines, that perfectionism starts to be a massive problem. That was definitely the case for me. So once I learned about the growth mindset, I had a new way of thinking about how to overcome perfectionism. But I didn’t actually have a practical process to follow. So that’s what I developed.

So first of all, in this episode, I’m going to be helping you understand what the growth mindset is, because there’s a lot of misconceptions about it, and what I’ve learned from Carol Dweck on that topic, and then I’m going to be sharing with you my exact process for creating a growth mindset. This is called the perfectionist getting shit done process. And it’s going to turn you into a productive perfectionist. So you can take consistent action towards your goals and actually achieve them. And this is a process that I created through years of trial and error, and coaching hundreds of clients on perfectionism and the growth mindset. And it’s this process that me and my clients use inside my program, perfectionist getting shit done.

And today, I’m going to be sharing it with you so that you can start using it to get out of your own way in your business. I’m also going to be sharing why you actually need to set unrealistic goals as a perfectionist and my 80-20 rule for follow through as well. And then by the end of the episode, you’ll be able to start using this process to be more productive. And if you want support with applying this process, as well as all the best tools and resources to help then know that that’s what you’ll get inside my program. And our next cohort actually start in January 2024. And enrollment is just a few weeks away. It’s happening from the eighth to the 12th of December, so you can find out more about it at Samlaurabrown.com/pgsd. So let’s get into the episode and what the growth mindset actually is.

So if you’re not familiar already with Carol Dweck, Dr. Carol Dweck, she is the author of the book Mindset. And she is a scientist and researcher. And she has done extensive research into how our brains work. When it comes to tackling challenges. Being in new situations, she did a lot of studies around students in particular, but she is the person who coined this term growth mindset that you might have already heard before. The other term that goes along with it is the fixed mindset. And so when we think about perfectionism, perfectionists have a fixed mindset. And what we want to do is work towards getting into the growth mindset.

So the growth mindset, that doesn’t mean that you love personal development books. So that might be the case. But that’s not a sign that you were in the growth mindset, neither is it a sign that you are positive and optimistic, or that you are someone who is open minded. What the growth mindset is about is that you believe that your talents, your abilities, your intelligence, can be improved upon, with effort with practice, with showing up with trying with failing, and that that belief is demonstrated through your action. So you are resilient, you are persistent, you are courageous, you are resourceful. You are someone who is showing up consistently, you’re not burning out. And most importantly, when you are in the growth mindset, you actually enjoy the process.

You’re not in this mindset of oh, well, it was a waste of effort. If I spent all this time working on something that didn’t pan out, for example, when you were in the growth mindset, you’re really seeing every step that you take, as helping to develop you as a person helping to develop your skill set, and helping you to learn and grow. So when we’re in this growth mindset, we really live in accordance with that saying that it’s better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all. And actually, when you were in a growth mindset, you were really able to work long hours if you want to, because you are working from a really clean fuel, so to speak, you’re not working to try and prove yourself, or because you feel like you’re inadequate.

Instead, you are actually working towards your goal, because you enjoy learning, you enjoy challenges, you enjoy trying, you enjoy failing. So you can work long hours, because you’re not going to burn out from that energy. And also, when you really are in that growth mindset, you are, of course going to take care of yourself, get the rest you need. Because that is part of being able to learn and grow, you really recognize that yes, your brain is going to need some time off to really be able to learn and grow at the highest level.

So let’s contrast that with the fixed mindset. So the fixed mindset. And that key word here is Fixed. Fixed Mindset is the belief that your talents, your intelligence, your skills are fixed, that they can’t be changed, maybe you can increase your intelligence a little bit. But say for example, your IQ, that’s going to be pretty much the same no matter what you do. And so when we are in this fixed mindset, we feel that effort is a sign of inadequacy. So you might find that when you’re in the fixed mindset, you are withholding effort. So you are doing things like procrastinating or you are avoiding putting in a full effort by doing things like overthinking and over preparing, that actually take you out of showing up to the fullest.

So in this mindset as well, not only do we believe that effort is a sign that you are lacking natural talent, natural intelligence, natural abilities, we are really coming from this place, that everything feels like a test. Everything feels like a test of whether or not we’re good enough, smart enough, talented enough. And therefore, everything is very stressful. There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of rushing, when we are in that fixed mindset. We are really approaching our work in this kind of be all end all mentality that we need things to work right away, because that feeling of inadequacy is so all consuming that we are trying desperately to escape it and we think okay, it doesn’t matter if I’m working way longer hours, because I just need to be successful.

And if I can be successful, then I’ll finally treat myself better because I deserve it. I will finally actually be able to relax. And we end up in this fixed mindset as you might have already realized as a successful person as a high achiever that that time never comes. Because as soon as you were getting close to any of your goals, you’re already on to the next one. And so we end up on this hamster wheel just trying to prove ourselves all the time we get exhausted, we burn out. We think about the five signs of perfectionism that overthinking procrastination, burnouts, all or nothing thinking and fear of judgment. Those are really present. When we are in that fixed mindset.

Something important to know about the fixed mindset. And the growth mindset is that the way that you structure your days, your activities, the way that you think about what you’re doing, can trigger you to be more growth minded, or more fixed minded or perfectionistic, about a task. So I’ll talk a bit later on about productivity methods like to do lists and just touch on why they don’t work for perfectionist, and its to do with this. But when it comes to understanding this, it’s just knowing that you are going to be in some times more growth minded than others. But you can actually set things up and put yourself in environment and use tools that help you to be more growth minded.

And when Carol was doing studies about the growth mindset, and really understanding how we operate, she just found that just simple sentences, that you would say to a child before having them do a puzzle would either have them be so engaged with the process of wanting to learn and grow. For example, if you are giving them a puzzle, and you are saying this is meant to be challenging, this is going to be hard for you, but you’re going to learn a lot from this, they would find it so much more engaging than if you said, Hey, this is a test of how smart you are. And so when it comes to business, we want to make sure we’re setting things up and using productivity tools that put us in that growth mindset that say, Hey, this is going to be challenging, you’re learning new things here. But you’re going to learn a lot. And that’s okay, that you’re finding it hard and keep on going.

We want to set ourselves up to have that frame of mind, because we’re going to be able to be more courageous, more resilient, more persistent, than if we are without even realizing it, setting things up, that we are having ourselves tested all the time and judging ourselves all the time. How smart am I? How intelligent am I and we are wanting ourselves to do things quickly, to prove to ourselves that we’re good enough, we want to do them without much preparation, or we go into this situation of over preparing, because it feels like well, if we are over prepared, then we will actually be able to handle a situation that we feel completely inadequate to handle.

So we want to be able to have the ability to put ourselves in that growth mindset. While we are in the process of creating a growth mindset as our way of thinking. So if you think about it with your thoughts, there are the thoughts that you’re having every day. So there might be moments where you find yourself thinking one way, and you redirect it to thinking in another way you can redirect your brain. And we want to do that that is where self coaching is really helpful, that you can do once you have a greater level of self awareness. But there’s also your thoughts that you’re just thinking on autopilot. It’s kind of like the sea that you’re swimming in. If you think about yourself be the fish, like you don’t even realize you’re having these thoughts.

These are just your autopilot thoughts that feel like the truth. And over time, we’re going to change those sorts of things to neuroplasticity. And the fact that we can change our brains and change the neural pathways that are in our brain that makes some thoughts easier than others, we can actually change to being more growth minded. But there’s those two layers that we want to be thinking about. And knowing that it’s not enough to just have intellectual awareness about the growth mindset. And just be changing those thoughts one at a time, though, that is very helpful. But the better way to do it is to be doing that. And at the same time, have a system in place, have a process that you’re following, it helps you be productive, and helps you actually create those growth minded thoughts and have them become just who you are just part of your way of being.

And before we move on to talking about how to actually create a growth mindset, I just want to mention something that will help you be more growth minded about creating a growth mindset. And that is, just because you know about this doesn’t mean you need to be able to create a growth mindset overnight. And this is the way I like to think about it that helps me to be more growth minded and get into a growth mindset. So there’s a spectrum with the fixed mindset and the growth mindset is an all or nothing thing. You’re either in one or the other. At any given moment. You’re some point along that spectrum.

So sometimes you might be more growth minded. Other times you might be more fixed minded. And when it comes to all the different areas of your life, you are probably going to have a different place on that spectrum. So for example, with business or with school or anything that really feels like a test of your intelligence, you might be much more fixed minded and have those perfectionist tendencies come up. But maybe you have a hobby, or maybe it’s with relationships, where you feel as though it’s actually easy to put effort in, you don’t feel like putting effort in means that it’s not working, say with relationships, for example, that you feel like putting effort into a relationship is actually part of caring for and tending to that relationship.

Even though when it comes to business, you feel like you should just be able to do everything the first time, perfectly right away without it taking much time at all. So just know that you can also look at other areas of your life where you are more growth minded than you are in business. And take lessons from that I’ve done this with fitness. Initially, I was not in a growth mindset about fitness, I was very all or nothing. But initially when I came across the growth mindset years ago, I started using my fitness journey, as a way to practice being growth minded, because it felt easier to do it with fitness and with business. And so I was able to do that through setting goals in a different way and approaching it differently. And then once I did that, I could see what worked for me when it came to getting into a growth mindset and fitness, and apply those principles to business.

So just know you can take hints and clues from other areas of your life to help you be more growth minded in your business as well. So let’s talk about how to get into a growth mindset. So the general advice out there about how to create a growth mindset is mainly centered around process praise. And this is very important. Process praise is praising the process. So when we’re in that fixed mindset, we are very focused on the result, we just want the result, we feel like if we put an effort to something and no result comes from it, that it’s a waste of efforts. Because we just want the result, we just want the results so we can feel smart, so we can feel good enough, and not keep feeling all of this shame if we remember about perfectionism. Perfectionism is a strategy to avoid shame, judgment and blame.

So when we are in this fixed mindset, we are really only praising ourselves when we achieve the result. And even then you’re probably familiar with this, the celebration is pretty brief, because you’ve already moved on to the next thing. And we’re really in this all or nothing mindset with it to that, unless we achieved our goal perfectly in the exact timeframe. Without any hiccups along the way, then that’s worth celebrating. But if there were any bumps in the road, if it took longer, if it was harder than we thought it would be, then that’s not worth celebrating. And once we get there, we’re in this mindset of like, well, yeah, I should have been able to do that. So it’s kind of just feels like things clicking into place, rather than that you’re actually growing because again, with this fixed mindset, we believe that our intelligence, our talents, our skills are fixed. So it’s all just one big test of whether or not we’re good enough.

So we achieve the goal. And we’re like, yeah, I should have because I’m smart. So why would I celebrate that? When we’re in the growth mindset, we are really celebrating the learning and growing. And so a tool to help with this, that Carol talks about is process praise, praising the effort, the courage, the resilience, the persistence, and doing this all along the journey and being on the lookout for signs that you are learning and growing. And not just thinking like have I hit my financial goal yet, for example, when it comes to business, if I have great if I haven’t, then I’m behind. And I haven’t learned anything whatsoever. And I’m basically going backwards.

So we want to be praising the process. And just a quick tangent here about hard work, that we want to be praising ourselves for putting effort in. But if you’re a perfectionist, and you love working and you have a tendency for overworking and procrasti-working, you don’t like resting, then we don’t want to be getting confused here, that we’re praising ourselves for working hard. We don’t want to reinforce this idea, this misconception that we already have that to be deserving of success. We need to work hard, and we’ve only earned it if we’ve worked hard because that belief has overcomplicating things has overthinking things that could otherwise be simple and easy. But it feels so uncomfortable and unsafe for it to be simple and easy. Because then we haven’t actually worked hard and we hear all the time how much you need to work hard to be able to be successful.

For a perfectionist for someone who’s in the fixed mindset. The hardest thing often the hardest work is keeping it simple. Keeping it uncomplicated, executing, putting it out in the world and getting that feedback. That’s the hard work. That’s the kind of work hard work we want to be doing. We don’t want to just be busy and creating these overcomplicated solutions, spending all this time over preparing, and just exhausting ourselves so that we can feel deserving. So we’re not praising hard work, unless you really have it defined clearly in your head, what we want to be talking about with hardwork, as I just mentioned, we just want to be praising for me, I like praising courage, being bold, being intentional, being thoughtful, and just showing up and putting yourself out there.

And really praising yourself as well. When things aren’t working, like training your brain, I know it’s really challenging, but training your brain to look for the things that you’re learning the things that you’ve figured out, and being able to start telling yourself this different story. Sometimes over the years, I’ve had clients say like, I literally don’t know how to praise myself, like that just feels weird. But you do know how to shame yourself, you do know how to beat yourself up, you do know how to talk to yourself. So don’t pretend that you don’t know how to talk to yourself, you do. We’re just talking about changing the conversation. And having a much nicer conversation going on in our brains, you do know how to do it. You know how to be that way with other people. And it’s just been that way with yourself as well.

So another thing Carol talks about learning from failures and mistakes, taking lessons rather than giving up reframing setbacks and seeing them as opportunities to learn rather than assign, you’re not intelligent. It’s these things that I think a lot of us intellectually know, for myself hearing about process praise was really powerful as a tool. But I also found it challenging to really integrate that into my life, as someone who finds it challenging to celebrate like that, you know, I’m really still developing my mindset around to be celebratory. And to notice those things along the way, that I’m not naturally doing that at this point in my journey as a perfectionist entrepreneur. So I wanted to have systems and processes and tools in place to help me have that process praise going on, but also be doing those things that will help set up the way that I’m thinking. So it’s easy to be in a growth mindset.

So that when it comes to my goals, and when it comes to my week, that I am not feeling like okay, this is one big test of if I’m smart, and therefore lovable. Instead, it’s okay, this is going to be challenging, it’s meant to be challenging. I’m not even going to follow through with all these plans, because I know things will come up because I’m learning how to follow through. And also I’m a human being. And that’s actually realistic take into account the fact that I’m not a robot and things that will come up that I haven’t expected that I might overthink at times that I might procrastinate at times. So I’m able to approach my week not expecting perfection, and that I need to get an A plus, or I’m completely unlovable. And I know we don’t think it in those words. But if you are feeling pressured or stressed, if you find it really hard to switch off, that’s what’s going on underneath.

And what I have really found so beneficial is just setting things up in a way for myself, having a few tools that allow me to be more growth minded the same way that Carol was able to say to the students, hey, this is going to be really hard, you’re going to learn a lot, it’s meant to be hard. So just keep going. So I want to share with you my process for getting into a growth mindset and becoming a productive perfectionist. This is a process that I myself have used to grow my business from $0. Initially, for the first three years it was $0, to now 1.9 million in total revenue. And also 1000 plus, of my perfectionist entrepreneur clients have used this process too. So this is a look at the process that you can start using right away, to become a productive perfectionist and get yourself into a growth mindset. It’s doing that conscious and unconscious work for you to help you have a better experience of building a business and to help you be more successful as well.

So first of all, what you need to do is set a 12 month goal that challenges you. And then each week, as you’re working towards your goal, you need to plan your week in a way that gets your perfectionist mindset on your side, then you need to just follow through with your plans 80% of the time, and rest without guilt. That’s what you’re going to be focusing on. And that is going to put you in a growth mindset and have you creating momentum towards your goal. taking those steps if you feel like you know what you need to do, but you’re just not doing it. And you’re in that fixed mindset and just the pressure of feeling like everything is a test of whether or not you’re good enough and you should already know all of this by now and why haven’t you done it sooner, then having this approach to your year to your quarters to your week is going to be so beneficial and just really allow you to get into that growth mindset.

So first of all, let’s talk briefly about setting a 12 month goal that challenges you. So when we’re in a growth mindset, we enjoy challenges. So part of getting yourself into a growth mindset is giving yourself a challenge that you would be able to enjoy. Initially, when you set your growth goal when you set a goal that is challenging, but not too challenging is just above what you believe is possible for yourself. When it comes to revenue in 12 months, that is going to trigger your fixed mindset a little bit. And we want to do that we want you to have those perfectionist thoughts come up so that we can work on them. So initially, is not going to feel enjoyable, you might be putting some pressure on yourself, but by having a goal that challenges you.

And that brings up that thinking. And it also gives you something to engage with in a different way. And like I was saying, with Carol, talking to the students saying, Hey, this is going to be challenging. That’s the point that’s part of it and having that be something that helps us actually engage with and achieve more that we can say that about our goal, hey, this is meant to be challenging, and so approach it as such. We’re not then expecting that it’d be no obstacles, no setbacks, no hurdles. When we said what people talk about as smart goals or realistic goals. That is really in so many ways just enforcing that fixed mindset thinking of what you are capable of is fixed.

So if you are trying to achieve something that is feeling unrealistic, you won’t be able to do it and will therefore disappoint yourself. Because fundamentally, you can’t change, you can’t grow and I do not stand for that. I do not believe in that. And we want to have that goal not be crazy high so that you off into this fairytale thinking. But when people say for perfectionist, you need to make sure you don’t have any unrealistic goals. It only just reinforces this fixed mindset. And I like to talk about the perfectionism handbrake, it turns your perfectionism handbrake on. So we want to have a 12 month goal that challenges you, if you’re an entrepreneur, I recommend that goal is around revenue, rather than something like followers, then you want to have your three steps that you follow every week.

So first of all, you’re going to be planning your week in a way that gets your perfectionist mindset on your side. So we don’t want to be triggering your perfectionism when it comes to your productivity method that you’re using. So inside my program, perfectionist getting shit done, we use power planning. I’ve talked about that here on the podcast as well starting in Episode 415, about how to do that. But you want to actually be planning in a way and setting up your week in a way that is going to have you not having your perfectionist mindset working against you.

And very popular methods like to do lists and time blocking who using paper planners, they will turn your perfectionism handbrake on without you even realizing it, I know that you love to do lists, I love to do lists over vectors, we love to do lists, we love that feeling of ticking things off. But we write so many damn things on that to do list, that it doesn’t actually serve the purpose of being a productivity tool, it makes us unproductive. So you want to have a productivity tool that helps you actually get your perfectionist mindset on your side.

If you are setting yourself up at the beginning of every week with a test to see if you’re good enough. And if I’m good enough, I should be able to do these 30 things so quickly. So easily. I shouldn’t need to eat, I shouldn’t need to sleep, maybe if you’re using a calendar, it’s just overscheduled, you’re constantly having to squeeze things in, we want to be planning your week in a way that actually works for your perfectionist mindset. And when you were doing that as well, we’re not going to have a calendar that really, you know, all or nothing, and you’re going to fall off the wagon after a couple of days. But also, it’s going to be filled with busy work, because what happens is because we want to be working hard and like earning our success, but it also feels so vulnerable to be doing the things that we really need to do, we end up doing so much busy work.

And so when we do write things like that long to do lists, we end up ticking off things that don’t even matter. And so you want to make sure when you are planning part of planning properly as a perfectionist is that you are actually planning the tasks planning the needle movers that are going to move your business forward, you aren’t just being productive at things that don’t matter, because that isn’t really productivity. And that ultimately doesn’t feel satisfying, because you will be busy. And then you’ll get to the end of the week, you’d be like I don’t even know what I did this week. And then you’ll be doing that for months and years, you’d be like I’ve been working this whole time, why am I not further along.

And that creates his whole shames route in and of itself that is caused by not planning properly as a perfectionist. So then the second step throughout the week, now that we have a plan that is actually going to get you to that goal. So your plan during the week are going to be realistic, your bigger goal is a little bit unrealistic. But your weekly plans are realistic. So then you need to follow through with your plans 80% of the time, we don’t want to aim for 100%, probably three, it’s going to trigger your own it mindset, your fixed mindset, your perfectionist thinking, you will be falling off that wagon. So instead, what we’re going to do is want to aim for 80% follow through. And we can know that because you have planned properly, because you have actually planned the things that matter.

You haven’t got all busy work in there, that even if you follow through with 80%, you are going to be creating significant momentum towards your goals and getting to your goals like what I have found is that like, I overthink, I procrastinate, I still do a lot of those things. I have made a lot of progress. Yes, but I still do a lot of those things. And I’ve been able to achieve so much so much more that I when I started my business so that I could ever achieve. It hasn’t come from perfect to follow through. It hasn’t even really come from 80% follow through though lately. That’s what I’m able to do after developing this. But a lot of times, like once you just start planning properly as a perfectionist, you really don’t need to be following through 100% and I know that can be challenging. Like we’re like, oh well. There’s no point doing things if we’re not doing them well. But 80% Like that has you doing things well because when we’re in that all or nothing mindset and you’re posting perfectly on social media for a week And then you got us for a month. That’s not doing it well.

And so we want to actually just be consistent, we want to be taking consistent action. If you listen to any business expert, they’re going to be telling you to take consistent action towards your goal. To do that without burning out. Ideally, we want to be able to create sustainable success. And 80% follow through having that as a guideline for yourself, really helps with that really support you with that, and also helps you to create the self image of a productive person. This is something that we talk about quite a bit in my program, which is your self image, your identity, the story you tell about yourself to yourself, This is what determines what feels normal for you, what things you can do without having to use willpower and motivation.

So if right now you feel like when you’re showing up consistently, maybe around week three, you’re like, I wonder how long this will last, you just haven’t got your self image in alignment with being a productive person. So that is part of the work that you need to do to become a productive perfectionist that I hope you do in my program. But know that when you have 80% follow through as a standard for yourself, it is so much easier to celebrate yourself to see your progress. And you are going to really be creating this snowball effect that you will be getting more and more consistent showing up more and more courageously putting yourself out there. And the more you do that, you are going to be having those positive feedback loops.

So instead of you know posting perfectly for a week, no one is commenting. No one see. I mean, you that gets so disheartening, so you just goes instead, after time as you keep going, Okay? In week one, nothing’s happening. But in week five, those comments are coming in, those likes are coming in, you’re getting the DM, like everything’s starting to happen. And that positive reinforcement that comes from following through 80% of the time helps you stay motivated to keep going as well. So then the third step is needs to be happening is non negotiable, you don’t want to hear it, but it is resting without guilt. taking time away from your business.

I just want you to know that taking time away from your business does not mean that you’re gonna go backwards, that it’s going to just fall apart. You are able, especially when you’re following this process, and you’re becoming more growth minded, you’re being a productive perfectionist, you were actually able to take time away from your business, knowing that things are happening that needs to be happening because you have systems and processes and all of that kind of thing. But also just understanding, we go back to like thinking about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. When you really are in that growth mindset and to be able to get into a growth mindset. You see rest as important. And you see rest as a productivity tool in and of itself.

So for me when I first realized how important taking time away from the business is, and maybe like me and your apparent I have three under three. So I get it that like time away from your business isn’t necessarily restful. But here, we’re just talking about time away from your business, where you’re not like, oh, I need to do a little bit of work on this and squeeze this in here, you have work time, and then you have time off your business. And when you’re taking that time off, you are not feeling guilty about it. Sometimes you might have some feelings going on initially, because it’s gonna take a minute to rewire your brain. But ultimately, what we’re working towards is being able to have that relationship with your business, where you are constantly fretting about it and worrying about it.

And so for myself, to have myself actually start taking time away from my business, I needed to see it as a productivity tool. Yes, there are so many other benefits to rest. In terms of our health in terms of our relationships. There are so many other benefits. But for my perfectionist brain, once I started to see rest as a productivity tool, it helps me to actually take time away even though I felt behind, even though I felt like I didn’t have enough time as it was to get shit done. Once I started taking time away from my business, I had so much more clarity, so many more inspired ideas instead of feeling like I was on this treadmill all the time. And so therefore I couldn’t sprint, I couldn’t go on incline I just had to like work at this really steady pace. And if I needed a break, I couldn’t get off the treadmill, I just slow down a little and the equivalent of like scrolling here or like getting working on this graphic.

Instead, when you are able to have that clean rest, as we call it in my program. When you are able to take clean rest and have time away from your business. It really helps you to be courageous, because instead of feeling like you need to do an endless amount of work, and your reward for doing something courageous is that you have to do another courageous thing and like your nervous system doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want to do that. And so you need to create emotional safety for yourself and part of that is having for your brain and knowing that yes, you might be doing a scary thing right now. Maybe you’re going live If maybe you’re hitting reply in an email that you are setting with your prices, or whatever it is, that after that a break is coming, you don’t have to be courageous forever.

And so if you find yourself constantly putting off non urgent tasks, and delaying things around selling, or like, you want to create an email list, freebie resume pushing that off again and again and again, you need some rest, you need some time away from your business, especially if you don’t feel like you can afford to have that time away. That is a sign that you need to take that time away from your business. And so the amount of clean rest you have is going to depend on what stage of your business you’re at, is going to depend on what season of life you are in. If you are going through a transition period in your personal life, maybe you are having kids, maybe you are moving, maybe you have a health issue going on. Or maybe you’re really in a period where like, this is my time to really just be focused on the business.

If you’re growth minded, like it doesn’t matter how much rest you get in terms of hours, though, we can talk about there being certain minimums. But ultimately, you get to have that flexibility and freedom. But we want to make sure that you have your work time and your rest time. And if you’re someone who feels like I just I prefer to rest once everything is done, because rest feels better than like I actually can enjoy my time off. The reason everything’s never done is because you’re not resting, there’s so many benefits to just having that constraint around your time. If you love working to a deadline, this is really helpful as well for you. So those are the steps that is the actual process to get into a growth mindset both consciously and be doing that subconscious work as well.

We have set a 12 month goal that challenges you. In my program, we use the growth goal, we help you set that we help you work towards that we help you achieve that. My program PGSD is a 12 month program to help you get all the way there using that process that I’ve talked about. And then it’s those three steps. So plan your week in a way that gets your perfectionist mindset on your side in perfectinist getting shit done. We use power planning, follow through with your plans 80% of the time, rest without guilt, and then repeat.

So I just want to mention as well, a few things that will help you to get yourself in growth minded environment. So these are a few things that we do inside my program. But also just like any investments that you’re making, like the New Year’s coming up soon, any investments, you’re making anything, any environments, even if it’s just friendship groups and things that you are thinking of putting yourself in, we want to be in environments that support us being in a growth mindset. And don’t trigger our perfectionist mindset and have us in this compare and despair, or feeling like we have to do everything perfectly to measure up or being in like a coaching container, for example, a coaching program where you feel like you can only update your coach when things are going really well. Or if you’ve applied everything that they’ve said.

And now you’re ready to apply the next thing, like really having yourself be an environment that recognizes that of course, there’s gonna be ups and downs along the way, that that’s normal that celebrates sharing those things, and not in this like self pity kind of way or being like Woe is me. But like, yes, there are real emotions that come up like the disappointment like you need to actually sit with that and feel that, but you need to have somewhere safe to turn, that’s also going to help you just get into a growth mindset and support you. And have you been more resilient, more persistent, more courageous without you even having to be working with that, just because of the environment you’re in, you’re able to be more growth minded.

You’re able to be productive, and you’re able to take consistent action towards your business goals and achieve them. So a few things that we do inside PGSD, we support you to learn by doing and experimenting. So this is something you’re gonna want to look out for. You don’t want to put yourself especially as a perfectionist who probably likes procrasti-learning, you don’t want to put yourself in environments where it’s just about consuming more information and getting more knowledge. And that being put on a pedestal. Instead, you want to be in an environment where you are learning by doing and where there might be some new things that you need to learn. But ultimately, they help you implement. They help you show up. They help you look at the work that you’ve done, and determine what’s working, what’s not working, what to do differently. If you want to be putting yourself in an environment that helps you do the work that helps you show up.

So in PGSD, for example, like, as you probably know, if you’ve listened to this podcast for any amount of time, I have a lot of things that I could say I love chatting. And what we do in PGSD is we make sure that the information that you’re getting in there, the lessons are so concise, so that it’s not time consuming. Like we know you already feel so short on time. We don’t want to be taking time away from you in your business. So we have everything be so concise and just exactly what you need so that we can support you in using the tools in your growth goal. Using your power planning your persistence log, using everything to show up to get shit done.

So you want to be an environment that really support you with that, and that isn’t expecting like, Okay, well, I told you what to do, you should just be able to do it or that didn’t work. Why didn’t that work? That’s weird. Like, of course, the first time you do anything is going to be challenging. There’s going to be a learning curve, for example, with Power planning, and we talk about making the three month commitment, just as a way to frame ourselves to frame that experience, to have it be in a growth mindset so that when we are doing Power planning, it’s the second week and we’re still figuring things out, or is the sixth week and we’re still learning the process, that we aren’t thinking something’s gone wrong. Oh, no, this is a three month thing that I’m focusing on here.

So okay, this is probably normal, like, we want to have things set up that help us to be growth minded. Instead of okay, well, I told you what to do, why aren’t you doing it perfectly. And it’s been the second day, you should know by now. So we don’t want to have that reflecting, you want to be in an environment where reflection is really encouraged. And that is done in this really supportive way where you’re looking at both what is working, and what isn’t working. So we don’t want to be looking at just like, here’s all the things that worked and yey, that’s amazing. And that is important for perfectionist because we tend not to celebrate. And so you do need to be in a community that you are celebrated is going to help you be able to do that we do a lot of that in PGSD.

We want to be looking at what’s working. But we also don’t want to just gloss over what didn’t work because our perfectionist brains, we can really romanticize things or catastrophize things that all or nothing mindset. And so a lot of times when things aren’t working, we don’t want to look too close, in case we find out the problem is us. And so we tend to just say, Oh, it’s because you know, and this is how this is why we procrastinate so much. A lot of times, it’s like, well, I didn’t even try my hardest. I didn’t even post consistently on Instagram anyway. And if I did, it probably would have worked. But we want to actually be showing up fully. And then we do a debrief where reflecting we’re saying, Okay, what’s really going on here? Where can I improve in this really objective, curious, self compassionate way.

So reflecting that’s really important. As part of our plan, you’re going to have a weekly review, we do a quarterly review, we also do an annual review. And actually, if you’re going to join our January cohort of perfectionist getting shit done, you will be able to join us for our annual review that’s happening in December. So definitely, if you are going to be in that genuine cohort, make sure you are there for that because you get access as soon as you sign up, which will be in December. So the persistence like we have in the PGSD forum, is a tool that really helps. And when it comes to what you want to look for when you’re getting into a community, it’s having some way that you can share the ups and downs, we’re in the fixed mindset. And we’re thinking we’re only lovable if we’re doing things, right. We’re not making mistakes, we look smart and intelligent, that we’re only probably going to be sharing when things are going well.

And we’re not going to be sharing when we’re getting in our own way. And this is why you might tend to be a lurker when it comes to certain communities because you don’t feel like you have good enough results to share. Or that you can’t ask a question, because maybe that was somewhere else and you missed it. And so that’s you not being perfect and not doing things right. So instead, we want to have a way for you, whatever community whatever environment you’re in. To help you actually share the ups and downs in PGSD. We have the persistence log in the PGSD forum that really helps with this, it helps you practice sharing, when things are going well and when they aren’t, so that your nervous system can really start to understand that you aren’t only lovable, when everything is going seamlessly.

Also, as well, just being in a community where you can see others going through those ups and downs, too. I used to do one on one coaching at some point in time, I might offer one on one again. But one of my favorite things about having group coaching calls and what I found so powerful for myself personally. And in PGSD, we’ve seen this as the same for our PGSDers just hearing others share their struggles that you’re like, Oh my God, that’s like, I couldn’t even put words to it, as well as that. But that is me, hearing other people articulate things like that. And then being coached on that. So you get that coaching yourself. But you have this extra level of like, you just have this layer of objectivity that you don’t want it to use, you really get the coaching. But just hearing others going through similar things, makes it so much easier when you’re going through the same thing to like, Ah, well, no one else is perfect. And I know we intellectually get that.

But it’s so hard to remember that sometimes it’s so hard to remember what’s going on behind the scenes for other people in their business, especially if you’re in a community like you might be somewhere that you are in a community of other entrepreneurs, but everyone’s really sharing stuff when it’s going well or when they’re complaining. And so you just want to have a place that you can actually hear people genuinely going through those ups and downs and getting coaching and getting celebrated and all of that to help your nervous system just calm the fuck down. On and recognize that nothing has gone wrong, that alone is going to be able to help you be more resilient, be more persistent, be more courageous, because you don’t have these completely unrealistic expectations about what should be going on in your business.

So I just want to wrap up quickly by mentioning a few signs, you’re in a growth mindset, and that you already are in a growth mindset, to some extent, not thinking about this, like you’re either in the fixed mindset and a perfectionist or the growth mindset. You are somewhere along that spectrum. And also, I want to invite you to take the perfectionism quiz. This is a quiz that I created that is going to help you see exactly where on that spectrum you are between the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. So what the quiz is going to do your answer a few questions, it’s really quick and simple. Enter your email, answer those questions, you get a personalized result, that’s going to give you a percentage. And that is how much perfectionism is making you unproductive is making you get in your own way. And that’s going to tell you how much your perfectionism handbrake is on, how much you were in that perfectionist mindset as a percentage, but it’s not going to be 100%.

You are to some degree already in the growth mindset. So let’s talk about a few signs. First of all, experimenting and iterating. And you’re doing this from a place of self trust, not from a place of like this might not work. So I need to test it. But from a place of like, okay, let’s have fun here, let’s experiment, I’m going to try this out and see how it goes. Another sign is that you’re hitting publish, you let your ideas meet reality, rather than constantly fine tuning things behind the scenes. Like you actually put things out in the wild, you might not be doing it as consistently as you want. But you are letting your ideas meet reality, you are asking for help.

So part of being resourceful is using all of your resources, which includes connections, relationships, coaches, mentors, you are getting support, maybe to a team members as well, that you have, you are not just trying to do it alone, like you did in school in school, we were just praise for knowing all the answers ourselves. And it was cheating to get help in business in life, it is not cheating to get help. It is essential, it is fundamental. And so you need to really start to see asking for help as part of being growth minded. And that’s why as well at the PGSD forum, you can ask for help we can get your questions answered.

But you want to be acknowledging like oh, I asked for help here. That is a sign that I’m being growth minded, you’re decisive, you are actually able to make decisions. Even when it’s imperfect knowledge that you have, or you are wanting, you just feel yourself wanting to go down that procarasti-research rabbit hole, you are decisive, you made a decision, you are moving yourself forward, that’s a sign you’re being growth minded, and that you are risk taking. So we want to be risk taking and taking calculated risks. And it’s not really even that it’s a risk is just going to feel risky to us. Because our perfectionist mindset sees anything that might be imperfect and putting that out in the world as a risk.

So I hope this episode has been really helpful to help you understand how to actually get into a growth mindset as a perfectionist. Why that is so important. I will leave a link in the show notes for the perfectionism quiz. So you can take that so you can really understand yourself more. And understand how much perfectionism is making you get in your own way understand how growth minded you are that quiz is going to tell you exactly that for you. It’s going to give you a very personalized result.

And then also I want to invite you to sign up for the PGSD waitlist. If you want to find out more about working with me and other prefectures, entrepreneurs like yourself who are on their way to making their first six figures in their business to use this process to get into a growth mindset to create sustainable success to be able to be a productive perfectionist. So you can go to Samlaurabrown.com/PGSD. To find out more. We are going to be opening enrollment for our January 2024 cohort from the eighth to the 12th of December. So just mark that date down if you are thinking about signing up because we are strict with our enrollment periods. So with that said, I hope you found this episode incredibly helpful and I will talk to you in the next one.



Author: Sam Brown