We are not heading straight onto the Content Coaster just yet as there are a few coasters we need to ride first.

Mindset Coaster, here we come!

What is it?

Recently, I have noticed more articles, videos, and people discussing the idea of mindset and strategies to changing it.

From my experience, I found mindset to be stubborn, complex, and definitely hates change; yet trauma or bad experiences can alter it very quickly. However, to change mindset back or into a state that benefits us, takes a long time and it can be quite a struggle. It LOVES consistency and it becomes comfortable with the lack of challenge.

To put this in perspective, let me recall the times I wanted to lose weight by running because I had seen people be successful at it. I have never been a runner in all my life. I had own my own treadmill, but rarely used it and never for running.

One day, I decided to hop on and just run. I went 5 to 6 miles per hour, which was way too fast for my first time, and I did one minute of it. I would walk the next 5 to 10 minutes to catch my breath, and I tried one more time. However, all the while uttering how much I hated it.

I did it again the next few days and stopped because I started having issues with breathing. Turns out, I ended up being diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. I spent the next year or so, cracking jokes about why I couldn’t exercise. This label and experience is one of the contributing factors that affected my mindset.

I joined a gym and paid for a trainer. She made me run! However, she made me run at a lower speed and built me up gradually. I would run a minute, walk the next, and we continued that pattern for about 20 minutes (could have been 10 minutes, but either way it felt long). She also made me run outside. My stamina grew, but my mind dreaded that part of the experience. Yes, she knew how I felt as I quite honestly expressed my disdain for running every session.

I would see others running at high speeds with such ease and would disgustingly not understand their love for it. Now I see how people may view me when I say I love math.

August first of 2012, I decided to run every day that month. I used my knowledge from my trainer and increased my increments of running a milestone at a time. Yes, a milestone because that is what I felt it to be. At that time, one of my friends who is a “runner” stated that “It is all mental” and “Your body will do what your mind wants it to do.”

I recall one particular day that month that I decided to increase my increment to 20 minutes at 4.5 miles per hour. As I ran, my chest tighten, breath panting, tears flowing, mind frustratingly yelling all kinds of inappropriate words as I also grudgingly restated my friends words. When the time hit 20 minutes, I slowed and walked to cool down.

Once off the treadmill, I literary cried. I couldn’t understand why it HAD to be hard. I continued for the rest of the month, and each day I cried less.

However, I wish I can tell you I’m a runner now, but I am not. Work started, and finding reasons why I couldn’t continue was easier and more comfortable. Now when I look back, I can see what went wrong.

My mindset was still stuck on “I am not a runner,” “It’s hard,” and the biggest hindrance, “I hate it.”

Whether the “obstacle” is mathematics or running or something else, we must first work on changing our mindsets in order to change our behavior. We need to BELIEVE we are or we can. Once this is a work in progress, we then take small steps as we WALK, increase the challenges to a JOG, and finally become the RUNNER.

In the next articles, I will be discussing the power of your mind, journey your math history, and knowledgeable versus smart mentality to name a few. If you want to stay tune, click follow to stay connected.

In the meantime, I want you to reminisce a time in your life where you may have gone through a journey of changing your mindset, but you didn’t realize it. You were either triumphant in changing it or you are still working on it.

Can you recall a time when your mindset shifted or you tried to shift it (experience not related to mathematics)? How was the experience? Tell your story below!

That experience will serve as an example as to how we can apply the same idea to how we feel and think of mathematics.