A growth mindset unlocks success, happiness, and fulfillment.
At least, that’s what everyone online constantly says.
Influencers claim everyone can have the life they want if they only believe it hard enough. Those with a growth mindset will achieve all their wildest dreams, while those without it are doomed to a life of mediocrity and failure.
Of course, that’s a vast oversimplification of what a growth mindset is and how it works. Nuance gets lost in influencer spheres, but we’re breaking it down to highlight the truth about a growth mindset: what it is, why it works, and how to cultivate it.
What is a Growth Mindset
A mindset describes how people think about and interact with the world. A growth mindset is a way of thinking that believes in growth, opportunity, and possibility. It’s a belief system that promotes trying things, challenging ourselves, failing, learning, growing, and trying again.
People with a growth mindset think anything is possible. They believe their brains are capable of growth and learning, which means they can always develop new skills and improve existing talents.
They believe with their entire being that they can achieve anything they set their mind to.
Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
A fixed mindset is the opposite of a growth mindset.
People with fixed mindsets believe that genetics play a role in what they can accomplish, and they can’t change their outcomes no matter what they do.
They think their talents, knowledge, and abilities have inherent limits they can never push past.
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Origins of Growth and Fixed Mindset
Stanford Psychologist Carol Dweck first discussed the idea of a growth mindset in 1995. . She studied differences in how people approach the world, leading to her work on fixed and growth mindsets.
She expanded on the idea throughout her career.
In her book Mindset, first published in 2006, Dweck explains that mindset is a critical factor to success that’s more important than intelligence or talent.
People who genuinely believe they can overcome obstacles, learn from failure, and triumph through constant effort are more likely to succeed.
Grit
Dweck isn’t the only one who wrote a book on Mindset. Angela Duckworth examined the topic in her bestselling Grit.
Grit examines the traits successful people share. Duckworth discovered that the most significant indicator of success wasn’t innate ability or experience but a quality she calls grit, which can best be described as a combination of hard work, perseverance, persistence, and belief in oneself.
People who truly believe hard work and effort pay off put in that work and achieve success, even when faced with setbacks.
Growth Mindset Examples
Examples of growth mindsets and fixed mindsets abound in our daily lives.
Consider these fictional examples:
- A child studied for an exam but still failed. A child with a fixed mindset may come away thinking they aren’t smart enough to pass and will never be able to learn the material, while a child with a growth mindset may take it as a challenge to do better next time.
- A man interviewed for a job but didn’t get selected. If he has a fixed mindset, he may believe he’s terrible at interviewing or not cut out for the position. However, with a growth mindset, he’d identify how to improve his interview skills and experience so he’s better prepared next time.
- A woman sees everything come easily to her colleague. They get all the best projects and seem to be next in line for promotion. If she has a fixed mindset, she may believe her college is just lucky or better, but if she has a growth mindset, she may ask her colleague for mentorship.
How To Develop a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is essential to success, but it’s not genetic. In 2019, Dweck showed that short classroom interventions can change students’ mindsets about academic achievement.
If students can change their mindsets in an hour, you can change yours. Mindset is malleable.
Neuroscience agrees. Neuroplasticity is our brain’s ability to change how it responds to stimuli. Although it’s typically used to describe healing from things like a stroke, it also implies that we can change our thought patterns by intentionally developing new skills.
Neuroplasticity says our brain is capable of changing. We only need to offer it the tools to do so.
Here’s how you can cultivate a growth mindset.
Determine Your Current Mindset
Before you can change your mindset, you need to be aware of how you currently see the world. Mindsets are fluid. You may have a growth mindset about one area of your life but a fixed mindset about another. Perhaps you embrace growth at work but think you’re unworthy of love.
If you want to change your mindset, you must do the hard work of examining yourself, your thoughts, and your belief systems.
Some of it may be painful. In doing your shadow work, you may uncover truths about yourself that make you uncomfortable. That’s okay – identifying these personal discomforts is critical to growth.
Identify What You Want
Once you know how your mind works, it’s time to make it work for you. That’s an impossible task when you aren’t sure what you want.
Take some time to consider your idea of success. Do you want the corner office and corporate title?
Ask yourself why. Consider whether you’re searching for wealth, prestige, knowledge, status, love, connection, etc.
A harsh truth about life is that you probably can’t have everything. We have limited time, energy, and resources, so unless you were born with a silver spoon, you must identify what you value most and dedicate your effort to achieving that.
Once you know what you want, you can focus your growth mindset on attaining that.
Ditch Perfection
They say anything worth doing is worth doing well, and that’s just wrong. The truth is anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.
People often freeze because they think that if they aren’t doing something perfectly, they shouldn’t do it. They spend hours upon hours seeking a perfection that does not exist.
The intense need to ensure things are perfect may stem from a fixed mindset. Fixed mindsets lead to fear of failure, and saying you won’t do something unless it’s perfect prevents failure.
And that’s why the next step is crucial to cultivating a growth mindset.
Lean Into Failure
American society pushes the messed-up idea that we must avoid failure at all costs. That’s not true.
We learn through failure. It allows us to examine what went wrong and where to improve.
Stop dwelling on your mistakes and see them for what they are: opportunities to learn. Learning from failure is essential to developing a growth mindset.
Our failures are often our best learning experiences, so start embracing them. If you need help, check out our resource on how to overcome your fear of failure.
Find Opportunities for Growth
People with a growth mindset seek out opportunities. They see potential in obstacles, failure, and new endeavors.
Try stuff. Take a class, join a club, or volunteer for a unique project at work.
When you start looking, you’ll realize that growth opportunities surround you. Take advantage of them, no matter how small.
You’ll start to see a little growth, which will have a snowball affect once your subconscious mind realizes how much is possible with a little effort.
Be Realistic
Some proponents of a growth mindset approach say anything is possible, which is not entirely true. If you’re five feet two with poor coordination, no amount of practice will help you become an NBA superstar.
Some fields are highly selective, and others are more about who you know than what you know.
A growth mindset does not guarantee achieving your goals, especially when your dreams are incredibly lofty.
It’s not magic; it’s a belief in yourself that you can be better.
Consider Your Approach
According to Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again but expecting different results.
Some mindset proponents embrace the insanity, thinking they will succeed if they keep trying.
A growth mindset isn’t solely about effort. The effort is essential, but where you put your effort is equally vital.
Let’s consider the man who didn’t get the job. He has a growth mindset but focuses on building interview skills. He attends workshops, does mock interviews, and reads everything he can about interviewing for success.
When he gets the opportunity to interview again, he’s passed over – yet again. His interview skills might be top-notch, but maybe other candidates have more desirable skills.
Rather than dedicating all his efforts to interview skills, perhaps he should ask the hiring manager what skills they’re looking for and work to improve on those.
Stay Positive
Some folks interchange a growth mindset with a positive mindset, and although they aren’t the same, embracing positivity can help you develop a growth mindset.
A sour grapes attitude is inherent in people with a fixed mindset. The other person was better; there’s no way they can compete; they aren’t good enough. All these negative thoughts and ideas limit your growth potential.
Instead, shift your thinking to find the positives. The other candidate had skills I don’t have, but I can develop them! I’m good enough; if I do A, B, and C, I can prove it!
Looking on the bright side of things can help you develop a growth mindset.
Celebrate Others
Part of staying positive is celebrating others rather than giving in to jealousy.
Celebrating someone else’s win helps build connections, an essential element of the human condition.
A genuine celebration can also boost your mood and help you think about how that person achieved what they did. Rather than think, “They’re just better than me,” think, “Wow, they’re amazing! How did they do that?”
Take the time to think about how other people achieve success and how you can replicate those actions in your own journey.
Seek Mentorship
Sometimes those winners are the best helpers. Find someone who extols all the values you admire and ask them to mentor you.
Build a positive relationship with a mentor. They can help you identify situations where your fixed mindset is on display and offer tips and insights on shifting your thinking toward growth.
Embrace “Yet”
“I can’t do that” is the common rallying cry of a fixed mindset. While it might be true, the keyword you forgot to add is “yet.”
You can’t pass the test…yet. You aren’t an executive…yet.
Start adding the word “yet” to the end of your sentence every time you find yourself stuck in a fixed mindset. After adding “yet,” take a moment to think about how you can develop skills to change the “I can’t” into “I can.”
Be Open To Learning
People with a fixed mindset believe they can’t learn and grow.
Prove that wrong.
Learn everything you can at every opportunity. Ask questions, read books, and try things for yourself. Allow yourself the chance to learn at every turn.
When you’re open to learning new skills, you’ll discover opportunities for growth in the most unexpected places. It will be impossible to maintain a fixed mindset when you see how far you’ve come.
Remember Thoughts Matter
How you think is how you act. To develop a growth mindset, you must be mindful of your thoughts so they don’t become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Examine your thoughts. Catch yourself when you flow into fixed mindset territory and flip the script on limiting beliefs.
Over time, you’ll find that you have fewer and fewer thoughts relating to a fixed mindset. It’s like training your brain to believe in growth!
Use Affirmations
Training your brain works, and not just to prevent negative thoughts. You can use affirmations to train your brain into a growth mindset.
Every morning, take a few minutes to set positive affirmations about your growth mindset.
Say things like “I’m capable” or “I’m worthy of success.” Incorporate daily affirmations into your morning routine to help cultivate a growth mindset.
Meditation
Meditation allows us time to examine our inner thoughts and ideas. Use it to challenge your fixed mindset and develop your growth mindset.
Meditation practice works wonders for many of life’s challenges. It reduces stress and enhances overall wellness, so even if you already have the desired mindset, you should consider setting time aside for meditation to help you maintain it.
Relish in the Challenge
People with a fixed mindset may avoid challenges because they fear failing. Those with growth mindsets have no such limitations. They know that trying is part of the fun.
When presented with a challenge, stop balking and see it for what it is: an opportunity to test your limits, push yourself, learn, and grow.
Take risks. So what if you fail? The challenge itself was the goal, not winning or losing.
Enjoy the Journey
The final way to develop a growth mindset may seem counterintuitive, but it’s true.
Stop focusing on the outcome.
Instead, focus on the overall journey. People with a growth mindset realize that life isn’t about the end point, the final accomplishment, or achieving some lofty goal: it’s about getting there.
People with growth mindsets never stop setting new goals and working to achieve them. The fun is in the work, the effort, the challenge, and what you learn while doing it.
Yes, when you achieve a massive goal, that final moment of glory feels fantastic, but it’s a release of all the tension leading up to it that gives it so much power.
The journey is the best part, so enjoy it with all the ups and downs that come with it.
Fostering a Growth Mindset in Your Kids
A growth mindset is essential to a successful life, yet many parents unintentionally instill a fear of failure and a fixed mindset into their children.
As we learned, anyone can change their mindset, and parents can help their children develop a growth mindset rather than a fixed one, which will set them up for a successful life.
While the education system focuses too much on standardized test scores, we can teach kids that success is more than test performance. Praise their efforts rather than their outcomes, and help them learn how to change their approach when things aren’t working.
Allow kids to make mistakes and to get better on their own. Instill a passion for learning for its own sake rather than as a necessary classroom evil.
Give your kids room to grow and develop on their own, and they will.
Growth Mindset Critical for Success
When you have the right mindset, you can accomplish nearly anything. A growth mindset is essential for a happy, successful life; the best part is that it’s within reach.
Use the tools offered to change your mindset. Realizing that your attitude isn’t set in stone and that you have the power to change it is the first step to improving your self-esteem and building a better life.
What are you waiting for? Shift your mindset and revel in the possibilities that await.