Is MINDSET a Soft Skill?

For years, business publications have been full of hacks, supposed practical solutions to complicated problems.

What's the primary problem? It's that life IS complicated, and hacks are for hatchets. They're short and quick but their focus is entirely short-term. Quick results sold well for quite a while, but the business world has finally seen the pattern. And they're ready for long-term solutions.

Change Requires Durable Skills

The term "soft skills" was coined by the U.S. Army in the 1960s and referred to skills that didn't require the use of heavy machinery. Fortunately, the term has been re-minted and is now called "durable skills." Why? Because they stick around.

Durable skills are social skills like communication, motivation, and leadership, and personal skills like mindset. Yes, mindset is a soft skill, I mean durable skill!

As heavy machinery fades into the background with the decline of the industrial age, durable skills show themselves to be more and more important, especially with the rise of the other machine - AI.

AI For Better or Worse

It's quite natural to fear change and Artificial Intelligence is BIG change! Many jobs are being replaced. But when fear prevents adaptation, the fear can actually cause a self-fulfilling prophecy. Humans ARE being replaced, but not in the areas of durable skills.

Creativity, emotional intelligence, and contextual understanding will continue to be areas where humans outshine artificial intelligence. I believe that the people who think ChatGPT makes a great life coach may find it to be just another hack in a few short years, and they'll wish they'd kept more in touch with the empathic human side.

AI isn't going away, however. And neither is change. This is where Mindset matters! This durable skill isn't just the answer to the effects of change. It's the answer to change itself.

Mindset - The Ultimate Soft Skill

I know, I just called it a soft skill. Have you ever touched a brain? It's soft - at least that's what I hear!

Our thinking habits are determined by our mindset and our state of mind at any given moment. And our mindset determines behavior, habits, and even mood. It also determines whether we accept responsibility for the direction our lives take, and so ultimately whether we feel like we have any sense of control or not.

Now, and in the future Mindset will be one of the largest determinants of our success.

The Elephant in the Room

The elephant in the room is almost always an unspoken obvious. In this case, the elephant is a mindset that is self-defeating. It's a mindset of limitation, of limiting beliefs, and it is exactly the mindset that prevents us from adopting a success mindset. It's a quandary, to be sure. But if you're feeling like you just can't (fill in the blank), you have likely identified the problem. Identifying it turns on the light, even if it's still at the end of a very dark tunnel.

Remove the elephant. You probably think it won't fit through the door. How did it get in the room in the first place?

What if I told you that the elephant is paper thin? It's not three dimensional. It can be folded up, put in your pocket, and then set free in a field somewhere. Sometimes changing your mind is as simple as deciding to change your mind. I bet, if given enough time, you can come up with an example where you changed your mind like turning on a dime!

The Mindset You Need

You might call it a success mindset. I call it the "I'm in charge" mindset! There are key areas to explore within the I'm in charge mindset, but for now, let's start with a few key points to consider.

• You are a gift! You don't have to know yourself. Most of us get through our lives without this, but life is better if you do. YOU GET to know yourself. Give yourself this gift! Think deeply about your interests, skills, personality, and other related things.
• You can take control over yourself. You’re not a victim of life. You are the creator. Everyone has been a "victim" of some tragedy. What we do with it determines our destinies. Post traumatic growth begins to happen when you move from "Why is this happening to me?" to "What am I going to do with this?"
• Not deciding is deciding. Try deciding what to focus on day by day and moment by moment based on your purpose rather than mood or situation. Take the things that are easy not to do and make them easy to do. The right small steps, taken over and over compound into a life well-lived.
• event->outcome-> response. Remember this formula. When you start to notice negative thoughts or patterns creep in, remember that you are in charge of them. In the "event" of a trigger, put the outcome you want before your response, or your response will likely create an outcome you don't want.
• Fail forward. Don't be afraid of mistakes. Look at every failure as growth and opportunity.
• Focus Forward for the next year. Decide what you want to achieve in key areas of your life over the next year and plan your days and moments on purpose. To find out more about the Focus Forward 365 Strategy Sessions, click here!

If you think you can get your mind(set) around these, you may be ready for more depth. A positive mindset is crucial to achieving your goals and dreams in life. This kind of mindset can be cultivated, but you have to be willing to tend the garden of your mind.

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♥ Michele Jennae