Turn Your Fixed Mindset Into Unstoppable Growth | Dr. Katy Milkman

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0:24Dr. Katy Milkman:This is according to Oculus Beat Test Intelligence. Date a second half of 2025. All rates reserved for T-Mobile. Impact guarantee within 30 days of cancellation. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes, and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:41Can you share more just about identity in general, on how it hurts us or helps us? It's a fantastic question, and I'm going to give you a somewhat... First, I'm going to give you a somewhat frustrating answer. It frustrates me. I don't feel like academic research has wrapped its arms around identity the way I would like it to. Because I think it is unquestionably so important, right? The labels we put on ourselves obviously matter. But I feel like we don't know nearly as much as we should. It's one of the things I'm most interested to study. It's your next book. Maybe. Maybe. We know a little.

1:15One of the things I think is most relevant to the way I think about identity is mindset, which is it's different than identity. But a mindset can come with or can be triggered by an identity. And one of the barriers we haven't talked about yet to change that I think is really important is whether you believe you can change. And identity and mindset are a big part of that. So we know a lot about mindset from work, for instance, by Carol Dweck at Stanford, who's done this incredible mindset versus fixed mindset. Exactly. And that's sort of an identity, right? You identify with being someone who can grow or you identify as someone who is X, right?

1:53Like, you know, I'm only this smart. I'm only this capable. So in a sense, there's an identity that comes with believing you can grow or an identity that comes with believing you can't. There's also wonderful research on the placebo effects and how that extends beyond just medicine. We know about it in medicine that if you believe a sugar pill is going to make you healthier, you actually experience physiological benefits. But there's some really interesting research showing it's beyond, you know, we think of it in this medical context. And that's where it was first studied. Actually, I learned from a children's book, like Ben Franklin studied this.

2:28And I don't know if you know, mesmerizing. Interesting. That term comes from Dr. Mesmer, who was the original sort of charlatan in France, who was giving people fake medicine. Interesting. Anyway, and Ben Franklin figured it all out. Sounds like a freaking Amish show. It does. And it's also a wonderful children's book. So I wish I'd known that before I wrote my book. It would have been in there. Anyway, there's a lot more, though, than just the medical component to placebo effects, right? When we believe that we will achieve something that also can improve our achievement, right? when we believe we're going to get an outcome.

3:01One of my favorite studies that I describe in the book that I think is sort of related to mindset and identity is work by Allie Crum, who's a psychologist at Stanford. She did this really interesting work with Ellen Langer of Harvard, where they randomly assigned housekeepers to one of two groups. And those housekeepers were either told, every day when you go and do your job in a hotel, you are getting exercise at the level that's recommended by the CDC. So you're getting a great workout when you do your job. You're burning 1 ,000 calories or you're getting whatever, like you're... Right. I don't know if 1 ,000 calories is the definition.

3:35You're getting a great workout. Oh, good workout. Yeah, maybe it's more like 300. Okay, okay. Just not to get too overboard. And then another group just wasn't told that information. And the question actually was, are there differences in the outcomes those two groups experience a month later in terms of health? So does a group that believes they're, you know, doing a job that comes with health benefits actually end up losing more weight, having more controlled blood pressure? And the answer was yes.

4:02Dr. Katy Milkman:Really? Which is, you know, on the one hand, you're like, is that magic? Like, what's going on? On the other hand, you can start to see how it actually would play out and how this would be applicable in other settings. So they believed their job could give them a workout. and all of a sudden maybe they're choosing to take the stairs from floor to floor to get those extra calories or like lean in a little bit more when they're, you know, using the vacuum. I live in a townhouse in Philadelphia and someone pointed out to me like, it's so great that you live in a townhouse. All that passive exercise when you run up and down the stairs.

4:34And now I am the one volunteering to like, you know, go grab the ketchup that we forgot if we're going to have dinner on a roof deck. That's exciting. I can get extra exercise. So there's like different choices that you make once you start to have a different set of beliefs about what you're achieving. So anyway, I think of this as related to identity because now you're starting to have the identity as I am someone doing a career that's physically active. And now you lean into that and then you experience the benefits. So I think the work on mindset is the best work I have seen that's really rigorous and that relates to identity.

5:13I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you wanna make it easier, you wanna make it flow, you wanna feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is gonna help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of The Daily Motivation Show.

5:54Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

6:44Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

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