Now that you’ve worked on your fear, what about your other beliefs that are holding you back? What do you need to believe in order to move towards your goals? Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking about what’s holding you back. We’ve talked about how a lot of you say what’s holding you back is… YOU. Fear is at the heart of a lot of it. Another aspect of what’s holding you back is what you believe - about yourself, your business, and how the world works. This is your mindset, the set of beliefs that form your frame that you look at the world through. Now, before you think, “yeah, yeah, I gotta have the right mindset. But what I really need is 5 steps to grow my Instagram!”...let’s take a minute, just like 10 minutes, to go deeper on this. If your mindset and your beliefs are holding you back, it won’t matter how many tactics and tricks you learn for Instagram or Etsy or craft shows. It won’t matter because YOU will keep holding YOU back. Mindset We’re going to talk about a few different ways your beliefs can hold you back. The first one is your mindset - what you believe you are capable of and how the world works. Over the years you’ve heard me talk about the research in the book Mindset, by Carol Dweck. As a researcher she looked across areas - school, business, sports - and found that people think of themselves and their challenges in one of two ways - with a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset = believing that you are the way you are and you’re not going to change. Growth mindset = believing that you can grow and improve and learn to reach your challenges. You’ve probably heard this before. And you’ve probably decided, I wanna have a growth mindset. But this is actually WAY harder than a one time decision and it comes up again and again. Here’s what I’ve noticed in the last few years of thinking about this and talking with makers about it: You probably have different mindsets in different areas. You might have a very growth mindset when it comes to your relationship (We can figure it out!) but a very fixed mindset when it comes to your finances (we’ll never figure it out!) Time and experiences can change your mindset. I’ve found that the more you become experienced in an area, the easier it is to become fixed in the belief that you’ve learned everything and figured it out. This is when you start to say “That won’t work for me.” “I tried that, it never works.” Those are actually the two phrases that are red alarms when I’m talking to a business owner. I know that they’re coming at it from a fixed mindset and there’s not much I can help them with unless they shift their mindset from “I already know what I know” to “I can learn and keep trying” But I’m guilty of this too! I started out my business with a growth mindset - I knew there was so much I didn’t know and I knew I could learn it. Over time, I learned more, and my mindset became more fixed. I think I know what works, what doesn’t and what is worth my time. My challenge, all the time, is to try new things with the mindset of: I can learn how this works for me. I do this through trying new tools (TikTok!), trying new strategies (webinars) and even trying new business models. So when we’re talking about how you’re in your way - the question is: Do you believe you can grow or change? What areas feel really “fixed” or stuck? What areas do you feel really open to learning? To learn more:  Failure as fuel: https://taraswiger.com/podcast263/ Mindset: The key to success: https://taraswiger.com/podcast49/ Expectation Another aspect of your belief that affects your business is your expectations and flexibility - what do you expect will happen? In what timeline? Or else...what? I am so surprised when people tell me that they’re quitting their business because it didn’t reach a really outsize goal in a short time frame. It makes me wonder: did you really want a business (which is doing the work every day forever) or did you just want that goal (probably money)?