How to have a growth mindset
Don’t you think that the word growth mindset has anything to do with growth, progress, and success? This post is for you if you’re willing to accomplish success. I mean if you want to know how to have success you must know how to have a growth mindset. It’s a psychological change that changes the speed of progress.
Carol Dweck, a lead researcher on the topic, states that as humans, we operate in both a fixed and growth mindset. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area, in her book Mindset.
As success is a journey of a consistent growth mindset, you cannot sustain success if you try to hold it. Success demands growth if you fail to provide what it demands then losing it is inevitable.
1. You never learn enough.
No matter how much you know, knowing more is a way to be a better you. Feed your brain, yet improve its appetite. The more you know, the more you’ll feel willing to know. An increase in knowledge supports a growth mindset by consolidating the realization that what we know is way lesser than what we don’t.
We have that greed in our psychology, whatever it may be, we just demand more. Scientists with a growth mindset risk their lives to attain what they hoped existed or was possible. Had it not been that way, we would still be in the stone age.
With all due respect to all those who have done the slightest bit of contribution to science whom we owe for the quality of life, we enjoy today. None of them would claim science is the ultimate, undeniable source of knowledge. I mean it’s never a source, is it? It’s more of an interpretation of the natural sources available around us.
2. Take risks for growth mindset, they’re worth it
Precious things are not very easy to achieve. I won’t be mistaken if I say that the more precious it is, the more is the difficulty level to achieve that thing. After all, that’s what determines its preciousness.
There are always risks of failure or maybe other things also get at stake based on the difficulty level of the task. But then, what’s the point in not taking the risk and not gaining anything, success is earned, it’s built, things don’t fall in order for you on their own. All the successful people you admire, have a past, a hard one perhaps. The win-win situation in risk-taking is that you earn or you learn.
3. Mistakes are not for shame, they’re for growth
Every mistake is an experience that tells you how not to do it. Had the most successful people have been afraid of the factors which earned them the success they have, they wouldn’t have what they are now.
Every mistake is a life lesson in disguise if you could recognize it. Now there are personality traits that affect the way people think, the shy ones and the not-so-shy ones. Why don’t you try to overcome that personality trait of yours if you’re shy? Make this determination of yours a determinant of personality for you.
It’s human psychology, we want to avoid mistakes, so we avoid all the strategies which lead to it. And this we learn by committing those mistakes. We commit mistakes by mistakes, and it’s ok unless you repeat it.
4. Every difficult situation is an opportunity
Have you played games? You know that every higher level is of higher difficulty than the previous one. What if I revealed that life is a game, well, sort of. And like when you get accustomed to the difficulty it’s no more a difficulty for you. Higher levels are a toast for pros, right?
You may find yourself reluctant to approach a stranger, it’s normal. But if you chose not to then you are losing an opportunity. On the contrary, if you do proceed, then you’ve gained an opportunity to upgrade your communication skills.
Those with a growth mindset embrace difficult situations, they see them as an opportunity. An opportunity to master it. And once you master that, it’s no more difficult, and you’re no longer a novice, you’re a pro. Then you aspire for the next difficulty level because that’s how to have a growth mindset.
5. Challenges are to be celebrated
Another way how to have a growth mindset is by celebrating challenges. For the simple reason that you know that this challenge when fulfilled will upgrade your personality and boost your self-confidence and self-esteem. I’ve seen ducks displaying their level of self-confidence by spreading their wings wide apart portraying and conveying dominance.
Human psychology isn’t very different except for the fact that we don’t have wings to showcase our feelings. If you want to know how to have a growth mindset, don’t just embrace challenges with gratitude. Go find them.
6. There’s no fun in easiness.
It’s easy to be easy if you know what I mean. Easy is boring if you want to have a growth mindset of course. Growth isn’t effortless as we might think. In fact, success and ease are two diametrically opposite aspects that are very profoundly against each other.
Easiness is so mundane and hence lifeless, isn’t it? It is, that’s how you get a growth mindset.
7. Normal is boring
This might sound as relevant to the previous point of discussion as it is. But what makes it distinct is the fact that I’m not just speaking of ease here. I’m speaking about everything. Routine is boring, it’s so bluntly prosaic.
Now don’t misinterpret my quotation. I don’t by any means am opposing daily routine and timetable. I am very much of the opinion that you should have a daily schedule, you must have this very practice mandatory for you if you want success. So let’s not mix up that with this.
What I intend to say is that those with a growth mindset strive for change. A change that will take them ahead. You need to do something extraordinary to be extraordinary. Something not so normal.
8. There’s always a better version of everything
The most beautiful thing about being imperfect is that it always can accommodate improvement. As the claim of perfection in itself is so imperfect.
And how to have a growth mindset if you ask, then don’t settle for what you have become our achieved. Get yourself motivated, know the determinants of personality and try to tweak them in your favor.
9. Value your efforts more than the outcome
Tell yourself that the intensity of your effort is of extreme importance, rather than the outcome. The biggest achievement is doing what you were expected to do. If you’ve done your part, no matter if you get the results or not, you shouldn’t regret it.
10. You’re not perfect, nobody is.
Keep your expectations with yourself realistic. Know and admit that you are not superhuman and are vulnerable to failure, as are we all. Hence failure isn’t always to mourn though we should learn from mistakes.
An opportunity to learn itself is a reward, isn’t it? You know how expensive education is these days, don’t you?
Research on brain Malleability has proved that our actions and experience trigger the growth of new neuron connections and consolidate the existing ones. We can now explain the link between mindset and achievement. Students who were exposed to the fact that the brain can grow with your effort showed better results in their grades. It was the belief that provided the extra motivation and hence a better outcome.
I’m not done yet, give yourself some time to ask these questions and ponder over the answers. Be honest with yourself.
Did you push yourself today?
Did you learn a life lesson from your experience today?
Did you strive for where you desire to be?
Are you tired and happy?
Name the mistake to celebrate the lesson learned.
How can you make tomorrow a better day?
Are you afraid of making mistakes?
Do you give up before even making an effort?
In her book Mindset, the new psychology of success, Carol writes
“We often see books with titles like The Ten Secrets of the World’s Most Successful People crowding the shelves of bookstores, and these books may give many useful tips. But they’re usually a list of unconnected pointers, like “Take more risks !” or “Believe in yourself!” While you’re left admiring people who can do that, it’s never clear how these things fit together or how you could ever become that way. So you’re inspired for a few days, but basically, the world’s most successful people still have their secrets.”
Finally, maybe today you can’t, but tomorrow you will.
