[Visual: Blue introduction screen with white business.govt.nz logo. The word “presents” in smaller, thinner lettering is beneath the logo. These words disappear and are replaced with white text “Brave in business e-learning series”.]

 

[Visual: Screen changes to a waist-up shot of Kim Tay, sitting in an office space. White text saying “Kim Tay” sits on the bottom left of the screen, which disappears after 5 seconds. A white business.govt.nz logo sits on the bottom right of the screen and remains there for the duration of the video]

 

KIM: In our previous video, ‘Overcoming the negativity bias with mental flexibility’, we talked about the ‘CAN’ method.

 

Another way to increase mental flexibility is to adopt a growth mindset. A mindset is the attitude that determines how you react and respond in situations.

 

[Visual: A blue screen with the white lettering “Unlocking potential with the growth mindset with Ged Robinson The Wellbeing Works” in the centre.]

 

[Visual: The screen changes to a waist-up shot of Ged Robinson in a different workspace. White lettering saying “Ged Robinson” sits in the bottom left and disappears after 5 seconds. White business.govt.nz logo continues to sit in the bottom right.]

 

GED: If you believe you can improve at anything you set out to do, even if you struggle at times, this is a growth mindset.

 

And it’s hugely beneficial. Research shows adopting a growth mindset lowers stress, increases resilience and adaptability, overall wellbeing and success – including financial success.

 

The opposite of a growth mindset is a fixed mindset – you believe that your abilities are what they are and won’t change.

 

You can have a growth about some things and a fixed mindset about other things.

 

You might have a growth mindset towards marketing – you learn about it, seek to improve by trying new things. But you might have a fixed mindset about business development, you believe networking and sales skills are not your thing, they don’t come naturally so you avoid going to industry events and making cold calls.

 

[Visual: White lettering saying “Growth Mindset” on the left-hand side of Ged.]

 

[Visual: White lettering beneath “Growth Mindset” header saying “See effort as useful” appears after a few moments.]

 

A growth mindset benefits us in four ways. The first benefit is effort. With a growth mindset, we see effort as something useful that helps us master what we need to do instead of thinking ‘what’s the point, I’m no good at this’.

 

[Visual: White lettering beneath “Growth Mindset” header saying “Embrace challenges” replaces the previous “See effort as useful”.]

 

Second, a growth mindset helps us see challenges positively. With a growth mindset we’re more likely to embrace challenges rather than avoid them, and don’t we don’t give up.

 

[Visual: White lettering beneath “Growth mindset” header saying “Learn from feedback” replaces the previous “Growth mindset”.]

 

Third, we see feedback as something helpful, as crucial to helping us improve. We don’t get defensive.

 

[Visual: White lettering beneath “Growth Mindset” header saying “Embrace challenges” replaces the previous “Learn from feedback”. All words disappear all together after 10 seconds]

 

Finally, a growth mindset means we don’t feel threatened by someone else’s success. When we see people succeeding better than us, we look for lessons and inspiration. We don’t feel threatened. For example, we look at other businesses and go, “What are they doing? How can I learn from what they are doing well and grow?”

 

Let’s focus on challenges, because that's what we face as small businesses.

[Visual: Background blurs to a semi opaque light blue as a blue circle appears in centre screen with white text “Comfort zone”. The blue circle moves to top centre of screen inside a larger, medium blue circle with white lettering “Fear zone”.]

 

When we are inside our comfort zone, we feel safe and in control. But when we step outside our comfort zone, we enter the fear zone. We can decide how we react in the fear zone. You might have experienced this when you started your business.

 

[Visual: Return to profile shot of Ged in office space.]

 

Often, we worry about failure. What if something doesn't work? What if I can't do it?

 

[Visual: Return to blue opaque background with Comfort zone circle inside the Fear zone circle. The Fear zone circle then disappears before returning again when Ged says “pushing through that fear zone.]

 

Finding excuses drags us out of our fear zone and back into our comfort zone. But we only grow and get better by pushing through that fear zone.

 

[Visual: Then a larger, light blue circle appears behind the other two circles with white lettering saying “Learning zone”. After six second a lighter blue, larger circle appears behind the other three circles with dark blue lettering saying “Growth zone”.]

 

Then we hit the learning zone. This is where we acquire new skills. We grow our comfort zone. We deal with problems and challenges and we grow and get better.

 

[Visual: Return to profile shot of Ged.]

 

Think back to when you started that small business, and how much you felt outside your comfort zone early on. As you adapted and learned new skills and pushed through that fear zone, you grew as a person and as a business.

 

If we want to succeed, we must push through our fear zone.

 

[Visual: Light blue, semi opaque background. Swiping graphics between dark blue circle with lettering “Comfort zone”, to a brain graphic sparkling. White lettering cycles under the brain. First “Making mistakes”, then “Learning”, then “Correcting". “Correcting” then disappears after Ged speaks the word. Zoom in on brain graphic with white line darting around the brain. Graphic zooms back out.]

 

When we go outside our comfort zone, our brain lights up and starts wiring and firing. It's the process of making mistakes, learning, and correcting, but we have to go outside our comfort zone for that to happen. When it does, our brain builds connections that get smoother and quicker.

 

Over time, as our brain learns the skill we’re working on, we become better and better.

 

[Visual: Return to waist-up shot of Ged.]

 

Now I want to give you an example of what the process looks like with juggling.

 

[Visual: Shot of Ged juggling three apples in the workplace in slow motion. As he speaks we see Ged add in tricks to his juggling, including taking a bite of one apple before the visuals change again.]

 

I learnt to juggle when I was 18. I’d juggle a little bit over and over until I got that drill. And then I’d try the next drill. And then I’d try the next drill. Over time I started to improve but I still kept failing because I was in the learning zone. All that time, my brain was building connections until I could juggle three apples and eat one at the same time.

 

[Visual: Return to waist-up shot of Ged in workspace.]

 

So you can see over time, whatever skill you're having to learn, adopting new technology, analysing financial statements, writing contracts, whatever it might be, the more we go outside our comfort zone and we work on those challenges and obstacles, the more we can achieve what we want to do.

 

[Visual: White lettering saying “yet.” appears in bold on the left-hand side of Ged. After a second the full quote “I’m not good at this…yet.” appears, to finish the inclusion of that word on the screen. These words fade out after 5 seconds.]

 

A quick hack for helping us to push through that fear zone is to use one simple word, “yet”. I’m no good at this “yet”. It reminds us that with effort and a willingness to learn, we can get to where we want to go. It encourages us to see failure as a steppingstone to growth.

 

Having a growth mindset and the right mental attitude will determine how you react and respond in situations. Challenge yourself and see where you can go.

 

[Visual: Blue outro screen with white business.govt.nz logo. Business.govt.nz logo dissapears and is replaced with Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Hīkana Whakatutuki logo on the left-hand side and the Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa, New Zealand Government logo on the right-hand side.]

 

[Video ends]