Growth Mindsets Are Essential for Success
By Elizabeth Arenivar-Kennedy | LinkedIn, Medium
Switch your mindset. Change your life.
There are two different mindsets you can cultivate. One embraces the challenges you face in life as opportunities to learn, while others avoid them due to the fear of failure. People who avoid conflict and taking risks to pursue a goal have a fixed mindset. People who see their obstacles as an opportunity to learn have a growth mindset.
In a book written by Carol Dweck called “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” Dweck writes an insightful inquiry into the power of people’s beliefs, the conscious and unconscious. She goes into depth about how changing the simplest form of thought can suddenly impact your everyday life.
In her book, Dweck talks about research she explored in her fascination with how people deal with failure. She would bring children into a session and present them with puzzles that were too difficult to complete, and she looked for similarities and differences in how children handle that defeat.
Dweck learned that, strangely, children loved failure. Many were mesmerized by the difficulty, knowing they were going to be challenged and that they would be able to learn and grow.
From an early age, we adopt behaviors that shape our relationship with success and failure. How does being a child open to learning and embracing a complex puzzle grow up to fear failure?
When do people lose their curiosity and have a fixed mindset?
What is a Fixed Mindset?
A fixed mindset believes things like intelligence, creativity, and personalities are set in stone. Believing certain traits cannot be changed in a meaningful way and success is the confirmation of that inherent intelligence.
A fixed mindset will avoid failure at all costs to maintain a static standard. A fixed mindset is safe; it is predictable and easy to maintain. However, it may leave you longing and wondering, “what if I took a risk?”.
What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset lets you believe you can grow by applying experiences and challenges to overcome failure. The evidence of failure is not invalidating your intelligence but is the spark for growth and learning new skills.
A growth mindset will take risks, but a reasonable risk can change your life in brilliant ways.
Personal development is integral to a growth mindset and plays a massive part in every aspect of your life. Growth allows you to become closer to your true self and reach your full potential.
Ways to Cultivate a Growth Mindset:
Learn to believe you can evolve.
Believing in yourself is the foundation of success. Suppose you feel like you are not getting ahead in your career. A fixed mindset will tell you that “it is the way it is, and it will never change no matter what I do.”
However, if you embrace a growth mindset, you could start telling yourself, “I can create change if I work hard, adapt to feedback, and plan ways for my personal development.”
Begin valuing the process over the end goal. To evolve into the person you are longing to be; you must learn to enjoy the process. It would help if you believe you can achieve your goals with time and patience.
Listen out for your Fixed mindset voice.
What words do you use with yourself? When you hear a critical voice in your head telling you to stop trying, respond with a growth mindset approach and change that voice into ways you can learn.
Begin paying attention to your negative thoughts and replace them with more positive ones to build your growth mindset.
See failure as an opportunity to learn.
Many people who want to begin a new path find themselves unable to succeed because they are afraid to fail. The fear of failure can stop them from even starting.
Do not be afraid to fail. Leap and dare to face the obstacles that stop you from reaching for your goals.
As Jack Canfield said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
Failure is success on hold until the moment is right. Failure can happen when you have to think and work harder. It is all about finding the right solution for the right problem. When you embrace failure as an option, you learn more from your experiences and become better equipped to succeed further the next time.
Be open to feedback.
The purpose of criticism is to apply it to yourself and get better at a particular skill. When you open to feedback, whether it is a mentor or a colleague, it gives you a valuable opportunity to see another perspective of your work.
Critical feedback can propel you forward into your journey of success. It allows you to see another perspective that can give you ideas in the future.
Learning from other people’s feedback is a great way to develop and strengthen your skills.
Search for Challenges to Help you Grow.
Now go for it! Take on a challenge for yourself to get to your goals.
C.S Lewis once said, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
Do not underestimate your ability to overcome challenges in the future.
Do you feel like your life is at a standstill? That it’s time to make a change? If yes, then it is time to push yourself out of your box and out of your fixed mindset. It is time to pursue a growth mindset.
Conclusion
Learning to decipher your fixed mindset from your growth mindset will be essential in pursuing meaningful success in your goals.
Take on a growth mindset! Embrace the challenges, the setbacks, learn to be kind to yourself, and give yourself a chance to grow further.
Acknowledge the process is a journey; it is not just about the destination.
Choosing growth is choosing a more incredible and more authentic version of yourself. It can be attainable if you are willing to grow into your true self.
Thank you!
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