We love this episode from Maxout where Ed Mylett and neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the growth mindset, one of FlowCode’s 7 mindsets and give such great explanations of what it’s really about.
As Dr. Huberman puts it: growth mindset at its core is about driving dopamine release from the effort and strain process, to put it into other words, contrary to popular belief, dopamine is not released when you get a reward but released when you recognize that you’re on the right path to get a reward.
“Dopamine naturally causes neuroplasticity of whatever brain circuits were active previously. So it says, ‘Hey, whatever I did to get to this point, this milestone, not the finish line, that is something that I might want to repeat reflexively in the future.’” – Dr. Andrew Huberman
Growth Mindset vs Playful mindset
So striving towards our goals alone is what does the trick, as Ed quotes Tiger Woods it’s about trusting the process. And if we connect this to another one of FlowCode’s 7 mindsets, the Playful mindset, it’s about enjoying the process and just playing.
You don’t have to get everything that you want in life to be happy — you just need to PURSUE growth.
Dopamine also instills more energy in you so that you continue working towards your goals and hopefully complete them:
“The great thing about dopamine is [that] it rewards us, and it gives us energy … I mean neural energy. And the reason is effort of all kinds … is generally associated with the neuromodulator adrenaline, also called epinephrine. … Adrenaline in the body is released from the adrenals, and then epinephrine in the brain is released from a couple of places, but there’s one particular place. … It’s called the locus coeruleus. It’s in the brainstem. It wakes us up. It gives us a sense of urgency, and it’s about effort.” – Dr. Andrew Huberman
So now you can see why the growth mindset is so essential for flow. Practice it, nourish it, ritualize it and we are here with you every step of the way. It’s the conscious effort, it’s that intention to the flow that are doing half of the work and another aspect that the speakers mention that is so important to us as well is the internal system of rewards, rather than just the external one.
As Dr. Huberman so nicely summarizes: “We need to think if we’re talking about the nervous system, and we want to make it actionable for high performance … we want to think in terms of processes. … Reward as a verb. Not just as a, ‘Oh, you’re going to just pat yourself on the back.’ Like no, it’s what you internalize. It’s a process. That’s how the neural circuits that underlie reward get stronger. And the beauty of the brain is that you have this thing of neuroplasticity, which is its ability to change itself throughout the whole lifespan. And the more you practice this, the better you get at it … It means … you have the energy to continue to push forward.”
Check full episode HERE
Written by Neza Karba, FlowCode Academy CEO