The 4 Types of Mindsets (w/ Ryan Gottfredson)

The 100th episode is on the horizon, and to celebrate it, we’ll be featuring 3 iconic episodes from the show’s past releases! To start the countdown off, here’s the re-release of episode no. 51 with Ryan Gottfredson.

“We think that the way we think is the right way to think.”

Was there ever a time when you were so sure that the way you did something was the best way to go about it, until someone came along and showed you an even better alternative? To top it off, were you easy to accept and learn this method, or did you stick to your old ways despite the new information that could have helped you speed up the process? Once we delve into the topic of mindsets, we’ll find that the way we view our world shapes how we think about it. There’s another level deeper than the way we think that we can change: The way we see.

For this week’s show, we’ll go back to the time I invited Mindset Coach and author Ryan Gottfredson to talk about the different types of mindsets and explain how the way we perceive life fundamentally controls how we think about or react to it. Ryan explains that these mindsets generally dictate the way a person treats a situation, or new information that comes into their view. Once we are aware of how we see things, we can tweak our viewpoint in order to make it work to our advantage.

A good example mentioned on this throwback episode is the difference between the prevention mindset and the promotion mindset. The prevention mindset focuses more on containing the possibility of risk and making sure that any potential danger is avoided. As long as things go smoothly, everything should be fine. The promotion mindset, on the other hand, aims towards taking chances or risks to be able to push closer to their goals. People with this kind of mindset “play to win” and dislike missing opportunities or staying still even with the promise of security from failure.

If you had the prevention mindset as the captain of a ship, you’d prioritize making sure that it doesn’t sink even if it meant that your journey through the sea would take longer. Meanwhile, a captain who possesses the promotion mindset would take risks sailing into short cuts, even if it meant sailing through rough waters and thunderstorms. Throughout this episode, we discuss these topics and many more helpful mindset-changing tips.

Now a mindset author and mental success coach who successfully published his signature book “Success Mindsets,” Ryan Gottfredson works on helping various organizations significantly improve the mindsets of their leaders, members, and teams. A Ph.D. holder in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from Indiana University with a B.A. from Brigham Young University, Ryan currently prospers as a leadership and management professor at the College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton.

Enjoy the episode everyone!