Do you have a mindset problem or a technical problem?

If you want this tree, you can plant a seed that will grow one like it. But if you want to leave nothing to chance, propagate a new tree from a cutting. (Image by Karl Egger)

When I finally clear the decks to begin work on a creative project I’ve been dreaming of doing, I quickly discover why the project hasn’t made it past the dream stage.

Faced with a blank page or blinking cursor or whatever, I have no idea what to do or where to start.

The time that I had so lovingly set aside ticks by with zero visible progress. It’s like I’m wandering around in a desert with no recognizable landmarks.

That’s when I realize that I no longer have a mindset problem. Here I am, doing the work, willing to face the unknown! But now I have a technical problem. I don’t know what I’m doing, and I need support.

I have most often faced this challenge when it comes to project management and planning, a developing skillset for me. For others, it might show up in sales, marketing, people management, task management, time management, design, or any number of other places.

It’s completely understandable that we would not be in possession of skills that we’ve never learned or practiced. However, this practical reality is sometimes obscured by the emphasis, in so much self-development material out there, on mindset.

Instead of recognizing that we need to learn how to do a thing or hire someone to do it for us, we might believe that we need to simply try harder or believe in ourselves more.

For example, an aspiring consultant might be frustrated that she’s not getting enough work. She’s posting on LinkedIn every day, guesting on colleague’s podcasts, and even, in a moment of desperation, signed up for TikTok. But the calls aren’t coming too often, and even when they do, nobody is buying.

This consultant turns back to the mindset work that has gotten her this far: her conviction and belief in herself and her capability, her attitude toward money, and her positive affirmations.

But what she actually needs is sales training. She needs to learn how to identify and nurture qualified leads, how to structure a sales call, how to make an offer, and how to close the deal. These are all practical, tactical skills that can be learned — they aren’t magically absorbed by cultivating a belief in a benevolent, abundant universe.

Sometimes, of course, we have the opposite problem: We are grinding hard on the day-to-day activities that we’ve been told will yield success while also feeling like crap about ourselves and strongly doubting that we can ever reach our goals. But so often, our frustration and negative mindset comes from the fact that what we are doing isn’t effective. We’re reasonably demoralized. We need better ideas and fresh information. Once we’ve received and made the most of these new resources, an improved mindset will emerge from our improved results.

When I was fifteen, I sat down at the piano and tried to figure out how to play “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones. I could hear every detail of Nicky Hopkins’ busy, heavily syncopated piano part, but it was utterly beyond reach. How on earth did it sound so effortless? How was I going to figure out so many notes? My friends could do this, and I was bewildered by why I couldn’t.

About a year later, thanks to a music theory class taught by Lisa Lemay at Summer Youth Music School at the University of New Hampshire, I learned about the concept of chords and how to they worked. The notes were in groups, and these groups of notes functioned together in a predictable way. It was one of the most powerful learning moments of my life. Suddenly, a whole world was unlocked. Before long, the four chords of “Sympathy for the Devil” were right under my fingers.

I had tried and tried, but trying wasn’t enough until I had the information that I needed. No mindset work would have ever matched the impact of learning the pattern of whole steps and half steps of the major scale and how to the diatonic chords follow from that pattern.

It may well be that you need to address your mindset and self-belief. That work is never-ending and ongoing. But it may also be true that the gap you are experiencing between your current reality and the results you are looking for cannot be closed by mindset alone. Whatever the technical knowledge or skill that you need, it’s out there. Do you believe in your ability to find it and master it?