How To Cultivate a Growth Mindset, Chat With Richa Maheshwari

Yasi: Richa, welcome to the show.

Richa Maheshwari: Well, thank you, Yasi. Thank you for having me on your show. It’s a privilege and an honor, and thanks for the kind introduction.

Yasi: Yesterday, we had a Fast Track money YouTube live session, and we talked about how to increase salaries.

And one of the key points is really about step out of your comfort zone, you know, do more, explore new tasks, and then grow as a person. And as a result, maybe you get a salary increase, but I think going beyond the conflict zone applies to everything in life to grow as a person. So to start with that, my first question is Start from you, like, how did you discover your passion in this topic and helping people to have a growth mindset?

Is there any like personal experience that impacts you? Or why did you choose to do that?

Richa Maheshwari: Yes, it does have a personal story behind it, and I’d like to, you know, talk about that. So, I belong to, you know, Ranchi, which is in Jharkhand, India. And when we were growing up, we used to have a lot of financial difficulties.

You know, my father, he was into gambling. He was an alcoholic. We always were living in a very stressed out condition financially. And one day when I was, I think around 10, 10 and a half years old, when I was coming back from school to my home, I saw that my father had opened my piggy bank and he removed all the money in there, and he used it to pay off his gambling debts, et cetera.

I was very, very hurt, disappointed because as a ten-year-old, that’s not what you want to see your father do, right? You don’t want to come back from school and see your father open up piggyback and move all the money. For me, it started at the young age of 10. And I really thought to myself that why is, you know, why is my father doing something like that? Do you know what I mean? What’s motivating him to do something like that to remove all the money of a little child.

I started thinking more and more about why do people do things that they do, you know, what governs the actions? And then I started reading up a lot on it, and for me personally, I’ve been a very big, big, big-time introvert.

So for me, there was a lot of fear, a lot of fear of public speaking, a lot of fear of, you know, how do I challenge myself to speak out in front of people. Throughout my school days and throughout my college days, I was always a shy kind of person; I never used to talk to anybody. And that kind of thing really spoke to me that, you know, why can I not change myself?

Why does my father, you know, behave the way he behaves. And then it’s studied a lot about it. I realized that mindset is the most powerful thing because the way you think is the way you behave is the way you act. So it’s all related to each other. So that’s where I limited myself, and that’s the kind of environment I grew in. So that’s the power of the mind.

Yasi: And then at what age did you start it to actively changing your own mind, and what did you do to do this transformation?

Richa Maheshwari: So, I think right after that episode, which I witnessed at home, I started, I think about five or six months after that I was so hurt. I was so frustrated with the kind of environment which was there at home. I started to read up from around that time; I started to make small, small changes in my behavior and my actions. And I think when I was in college, that is a time it’s actually, it’s a work on myself of this introvert nature, which I had. And the thing that you keep telling yourself is, I’m not good at this, I’m not good at math, I’m not good at public speaking, I’m a lazy person.

These are the beliefs that we tell ourselves; these are the stories we tell ourselves. And that kind of started, you know, I said that that’s not the way I want to live because your actions have to be your behavior has to be intuitional. And if you can’t do that if you have a limited mindset. During college is when I actually started to work on myself and on my mindset.

Yasi: Interesting. And what are the differences you have seen that happened within yourself after you started to, you know, work on yourself?

Richa Maheshwari: So working on self is something which is very, very challenging. I’m sure all of us would agree over that, you know, it’s the most difficult thing to work on yourself.

It’s easy to give excuses. It’s easy to give blame to others and not take responsibility and accountability for our lives. So, when I started going on this self-transformational journey for my own self, I realized the smallest of actions have to be really, you know, you have to be motivated about doing that.

So do not see the end result, but enjoy the process. So take, for example, if I wanted to get over the fear of public speaking and one of the beliefs that you are a bad speaker or you are bad, or, you know, you’re not good enough, you’re an introvert, you are not good in speaking in front of the public. So that thing had to change step-by-step, and you can’t expect miracles to happen overnight.

So I started taking small, small steps, which will help me to remove this fear, which was there in my mind of public speaking. So, you know, attending Toastmasters, I started taking any opportunity which will help me to speak in front of people, be it friends, family members, or any small gathering. I would take that challenge and start speaking in front of people.

So that mindset started doing changing from CEO to a lot more

Yasi: Getting comfortable. Yeah. Like you, you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, and the later the uncomfortable situation becomes a comfortable situation.

Richa Maheshwari: Yes.

Yasi: Yeah, I liked that story. And by the way, I’m also in the Toastmaster club. I’m the VP for PR.

Richa Maheshwari: Wow! That’s nice to know.

Yasi: I can really relate to your story. I think in Toastmaster club, you have to do an icebreaker speech, and in an icebreaker speech, I was just talking. I try to remember my script. And then, later on, I feel more comfortable just, you know, if I stand up in front of a group of people, I just speak, you know, there’s no forgetting lines.

It all starts with small things.

Richa Maheshwari: Yes. And also, believe in yourself. I think that’s the most most important thing. You can learn so many skills, but if you don’t have the mindset to learn, you will never learn it. So first of all, start believing in yourself and start talking. You know, your setup has to be positive, not negative.

Yasi: There’s one sentence I read somewhere, the mind leads to actions, and the action leads to results. So it all starts with the mind. So let’s talk about a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. And what is the difference? Can you give us very simple examples?

Richa Maheshwari: Sure.

So there are broadly two types of mindset: growth mindset and fixed mindset. A growth mindset is when you believe that you have the intelligence and the talent to achieve whatever you want in your life. A fixed mindset is a belief that if you don’t have certain intelligence and talent, you will never be able to get that.

Okay. So that’s broadly the difference between growth and the fixed mindset. People who are of a growth mindset always enjoy challenges that are coming their way. They’re always, you know, they delve into problems, and they seek an opportunity that they don’t see a problem as a problem.

But somebody who has a fixed mindset is of the belief that this is how it is and this is how it will always be in life. They’re not very adaptable and flexible towards change, but as a person who has a growth mindset, they love to challenge themselves, and they love to put in the extra effort to achieve a particular skill.

So, for example, if I say, you know, a simple sentence, like I’m not good at math, who has a fixed mindset will look at excuses and will not even get into situations that involve mathematics because their belief is so strong that I’m not good in math. Whereas a person who has a growth mindset is of the belief that even if I am not good in math, even if I’ve had previous failures in math, that’s absolutely okay. I can still do it. I will still try, you know, to be good at that particular subject. So, the basic thing about growth and fixed mindset is that the people who have a growth mindset really, really believe in themselves. And they look for situations and opportunities which will help them to, you know, improve themselves. For them, life is continuous learning, and they don’t give up on themselves, but people who have a fixed mindset give up easily. If you give them any kind of feedback, they will take it in a negative manner. And also Yasi, a very, very bottom point for growth and fixed mindset is somebody who has a growth mindset, they always see, you know, the joy of the process of doing something. For example, if I want to lose 20 kg, okay, so a person who has a fixed mindset will always look at the end results that, okay, I have to, you know, I’m losing pretty kg, but somebody who has a growth mindset is a person who will enjoy the process and make small, small changes in themselves, you know, those small commitments to reduce those 20 kgs. So they will probably start with small habits, like eating healthy, going for a jog, going for any kind of workout. They just start small, but they will build momentum, and they will lose 20 kg, but a person with a fixed mindset they are only focused on the end result.

I mean, that’s how I would explain.

Yeah, you explained it very well. I encounter certain situations that, you know, there’s an issue or problem on hand, and then when I look at it, I feel like, okay, how can I deal with it, you know, how can I do it? I think, okay, ask people who have already done it, who go ahead, learn the methods, read the books and then do it.

Yasi: And then I will find myself in a situation, for example, also with my family members. And then my family member will say, yeah, but I don’t know how to do it; I mean, the immediate reaction is different when someone says, I don’t know how to do it, like a full stop. And for me, it’s I don’t know how, but my mind was functioning the way it is, like how I can find out a way to do it.

Maybe it’s a very quick check.

Richa Maheshwari: Yes. That surely shows that you have a growth mindset, so you are on the right track. And you’re definitely on the right method of doing things because that’s how we all, I mean, that’s how the people who are successful are, you know, they are people who have a growth mindset.

They think broad, they think larger, and they don’t put themselves into a fixed mindset.

Yasi: Yeah. If one of, you know, the audience, if you are here and maybe you work with your teammates at the workplace, you can observe how people react to certain tests on hand. Do people say, I don’t know how to do it?

Or some people react differently. Try to find a way and learn to deal with it. As you said, once people get out of the box, you know, you’re just growing and developing as a person. And then next question is related to personal development. From your personal experience with coaching with training programs, how did you see that having a growth mindset is key to personal development?

Richa Maheshwari: It’s a very, very big factor. In fact, because in my 12 years of training and coaching and being a motivational speaker, I love what I do. I mean, I’m very, very passionate about my, you know, empowering and transforming lives. And one thing which I realized, which was happening during this journey of training, coaching, and being a motivational speaker, is that whenever I’m speaking to people when I speak to them for like four minutes or five minutes, I can understand the blueprint of their life.

I can understand the kind of, you know, thought processes they have and the kind of behaviors and actions that they indulge in just five minutes with a person. Because those, the way they talk, you know, they talk from the belief systems, and that’s what your mindset is all about: Your beliefs, your ideas, your perceptions about attitudes in life.

And while I was doing all this, I realized that you might teach them the best of skills. It can be good at being good at communication or being good at time management of being able to manage your stress of being able to manage conflicts at work workplace, whatever it may be, the skill that they’re trying to learn.

But if that mindset does not change, all the work is of no effort, you know, all that goes down the drain, so their mindset has to be renewed, and the mindset has to change for them to grasp any kind of skill that they want to learn. So I think it all starts with them having the best mindset and the growth mindset.

Yasi: Mindset is something so difficult to crack, right? If someone has a certain mindset, they have it for 10, 20, 30 years. And that’s what they’re used to. They might not even be aware that, okay, it’s not good for them, or they need to change it. How did you help people to start to crack their mindset and then achieve a growth mindset?

Richa Maheshwari: Fantastic question. And again, I’d like to relate this to personal stories. Remember the story I was telling about my father when I was ten years, 11 years, that time. So when I started reading about mindset and when I started really experiencing it for myself personally, I started to do this for my father because I realized he was a complete mess, gambling, smoking, you know, putting our family into heavy debt, et cetera.

I started working on him one-on-one to make him change this mindset, you know, this fixed mindset, to have a growth mindset because he is a very negative person, and he does distribute this to change. You know, he’s like, I am like this, and I will always be like this, but I started walking slowly, slowly with him.

And I think the kind of success I saw when I was working with my father to change his mindset. No doubt. It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of effort that you have to put in, but the end goal should be very, very clear. Your bias should be very, very clear. You need to know why you are doing something because that’s going to propel you; that’s going to really push you and drive you into that, into whatever you’re trying to achieve. So, yes, even in my workshop, even in my motivational sessions, I like to ensure that people are doing small bits to improve themselves, to change their mindset. Because as I mentioned earlier, miracles don’t happen; you have to start putting in your self-work.

So I try to understand from a participant where are they facing the challenge? What are the obstacles that they’re facing? And then I try to, in my coaching sessions also I try to. Put it down for them step by step, you know, this is how you can start, and then habits have to be consistently used.

You can do it one day and then forget about it for the next 30 days. You have to consistently work on yourself. But I think the most important thing is your WHY has to be very, very clear why you’re doing something. If your WHY is clear, your WHAT and HOW will follow.

Yasi: This is so absolutely brilliant sentence. It all starts with WHY, right?

Richa Maheshwari: The golden circle. Simon Sinek.

Yasi: Just for the audience, I think one message that’s I want to bring to you is that you know, maybe in your life, like Richa said, you want to change something, but you don’t know how, but maybe people might give up along the way. But if you really have to dig deeper, like ask yourself why, why, why, why, why you want to get that?

Even if there are obstacles in the way, right? It doesn’t matter. You will overcome it and then, you know, develop yourself and in the end, you know, enjoy the journey and achieve the results. And this is really so important before we start everything. Like you said, helping people to find out the why and then growth mindset is just a, I would say, technique or means help them to get to the why. And my last few questions would be, would you mind sharing some, like stories that you experienced with the professionals that you helped them during workshops, maybe something to inspire our audience?

Richa Maheshwari: So there was this lady; I was actually doing a Woman’s day workshop. So a small story over there. This was about one and a half years back.

I was doing a small breakthrough workshop for a group of ladies. And there was this one lady who was, you know, we were doing a firewalk activity and a glass walk activity. And I was telling them to walk on that, you know, there was a, about five feet glass that we had cracked and they have to walk on those glasses.

It’s just to basically get over the mind sphere of walking on glass or, you know, walking on fire. And this one lady refused to walk on the glass because she said, no, I will not do it, whatever be the case, I am not going to walk on that glass. And it took me so much time and effort to actually change her mindset.

And I sat down with her, and I spoke to her for an hour time that what exactly is stopping you? So, while I was talking to her, the beliefs that came out were astonishing because as a small kid, she had hurt herself, and she never gave up that picture in her mind because that story kept coming back to her.

And she was hurt very badly with the glass. I encouraged her, inspired her, made her believe in herself, and journey pep that up and motivated. And after one and a half hours of groups and talking, and you know, really, really talking to her personally, after one and a half hours, she actually got the courage to walk on that glass, and she still remembers it.

And we have to one and a half years, she called me up and tells me, you know, that at one episode really has her to change her mind. And the belief that she had. So the mindset is all about your belief system. You may have grown up in an environment that may be negative or an environment, which is not very, you know, friendly, or it could have been an abusive environment, whatever be the case.

Don’t let these beliefs stick to your mind, believe that you have the power to change these beliefs. And once you have that mindset, trust me, the journey is going to be fantastic. It’s going to be a cakewalk. You just have to believe in yourself.

Yasi: The sky will be the limit once you open up your mind. And this is such a brilliant story, because at the end of the day, you see, people behave in certain ways. And they think certain ways because of their belief system, and the belief system was established from the era when they were a child, like in the families, in the societies, the culture, the religion. But they, as a child, you never think about, oh, why my parents believe that smoking is bad?

Why, why I have to go to study? Why can I not be an artist? Just stupid examples that once you, you really start to think, oh, this is the belief system that prevents me from doing something else in life, but maybe I need to change my belief system, you know, to re-look at it, I think this is so powerful.

This is a brilliant story.

Richa Maheshwari: It is definitely. And as you rightly mentioned, you know, the moment you start telling your mind that you have to change the belief system, that realization, when that comes, I think that’s the first step you have to do really. Get your insight and your intuition that you should really start making those changes in yourself.

So the realization and awareness are very important.

Yasi: Yeah. And then too, once you start with the first switch, then you start to question yourself, oh, is this belief system that I should change it as well, or is it that one that is because it’s, you know, I have to change. It’s so interesting.

I really encourage all the audience; if you would want to explore more, if you have a growth mindset or not, or if you want to further develop your growth mindset, please, you know, have a call with Richa. I think you have contact information, right? I’ll put it in the description below. I think it’s so interesting.

I want to tell you that the story you mentioned it’s related to a book I’m reading right now, it’s called Breaking the Habits of Being Yourself and in the book is written that we ourselves today, the present self consists of our memories from the past and experiences from the past.

And if you want to change yourself, be a different person, have a different future, you have to change that. You need to think about the future self, which is the growth mindset. If you keep thinking about the old self, and if you keep thinking using the same memories and experiences you have from your old self, your future self is still the same as the old self.

Richa Maheshwari: Absolutely, very well said.

Yes, absolutely. If you want to make some changes in your life, you have to start making them because that’s the way followed.

Yasi: And would you mind just tell our audience in this podcast what is your website? What’s your contact information? How can they reach out to you?.

Richa Maheshwari: Yeah, so to reach out to me, you can log onto my website.

It’s www.RichaMaheshwari.in, and you can also contact me on my cell phone, which is 919619900754. And my email ID is richa@RichaMaheshwari.in

I will look forward to hearing from you.

Yasi: If you haven’t noted down all the information, please check the show notes of this episode. Thank you so much.

Richa Maheshwari: Thanks a lot, Yasi.