
A Story About Growing Your Mindset
A while back, I attended a business networking meeting. I was a little nervous as it was the first time I was doing this in the role I was in at that point and I was still trying to find my feet. I had practiced my one minute pitch and felt that I had everything under control. When it came to my turn, I “eloquently”, in my mind, went ahead and regurgitated what I had practiced. I thought it went pretty well.
After the meeting we had a time to mingle and chat one-on-on with other guests. A lady came up to me and pretty bluntly asked “What do you do?” “Really lady, were you not listening to my pitch?” I knew what she did and was a little irritated that this woman had clearly not paid attention while I was speaking.
Driving back to the office, I pondered on what had occurred. And then, like a genie rising out of a magic lamp, (I might well have rubbed my head at that point) my NLP training rose to mind. The number 1 NLP presupposition – There is no failure, only feedback. Immediately, my frame of mind changed. I started asking myself questions. Firstly, how could I do this better next time? How could I reword my message to make it clearer? Perhaps I needed to research more on how to deliver an effective pitch? Maybe I had focused on what I wanted to say and not considered what my audience wanted to hear.
By the time I got back to the office, in my head, I was thanking the lady who asked me what I do. She was no longer my perceived enemy, but rather someone who had taught me a valuable lesson. I immediately got to work learning how to get my message across more effectively. I may not have perfected this art yet but I have come a long way since then and I am eternally grateful for my now favourite NLP, growth mindest presupposition as since then, it has helped me through so many situations that I would have seen as failure before. I would even go so far as to say “Bring it on, the sooner I fail, the sooner I’ll learn”.
The next time I attended the business networking meeting, I eagerly walked up to the lady and greeted her with genuine warmth in my heart. A good few years have passed since then and I have worked with her on a number of occasions and now introduce her as “my friend”. Things could have worked out very differently if it wasn’t for an incredibly small mind shift and a willingness to grow my mindset.
My name is Adele Buys. I am an edupreneur, master life coach, NLP Practitioner and co-owner of Innovation Advance Training & Events. We are passionate about moving people forward and love providing ongoing learning for corporates, educators and individuals.