What is a mindset of growth?
A growth mindset isn’t about getting everything right the first time. What it’s about is the praising of you trying to accomplish something. It works more on a system of self encouragement and allowing for mistakes to be made and to not give up when you encounter adversity. An example of this is just because you haven’t done it doesn’t mean you can’t, it means that you are willing to and have endless opportunities for growth and improvement.
What is the comparison between a Fixed mindset and a growth mindset?
A fixed mindset is characterized by the ideology that everyone is born with gifts and talents as well as a level of intelligence. This mindset is that of limitations and fear of the unknown as well as failure. Those who have fixed mindsets are more likely to not try new things or have new experiences. These people stay in their comfort zones and refuse to leave. A fixed mindset dictates that if you have done something before (e.g. a new project or skill) that you must not be good at it. Why would you even try.
Growth mindset on the other hand has an opposite effect on someone’s decisions. This is the mindset of freedom and endless possibilities. The ideology behind this mindset is that everyone has the ability to learn and grow talents and that intelligence is gained from experiences and the willingness to learn and broaden your horizons. Overall, these people tend to be more open to change and willingly go outside their comfort zone.
Realistically speaking, these two mindsets are on a spectrum. We all fall along the line, some individuals may swing to either side more than others but overall most people have a combination of both.
What are the benefits of this?
One of the best benefits of the growth mindset is success. These too tend to go hand in hand. Successful people and business have taken risks that ended up paying off. A growth mindset allows those to take the risk and jump. You must be willing to learn from your mistakes and then make the proper changes in order to succeed in whatever goal is being put forward. It becomes clear that a mistake is just a learning experience, it only becomes a mistake when you have a negative continuation on it. You will stop seeking approval from others to validate your work, in turn you validate yourself. Criticism turns from a negative to a positive and in turn helps you improve. Of course make sure to take criticism from others with a grain of salt. Reward the action not the person. You will learn that you can not beat yourself up instead you learn to love the process and enjoy changing with the new information you obtain. One of the most important things you benefit from a growth mindset is ability to pivot with grace.
How can this be implemented?
The first thing is setting realistic goals and expectations for yourself. When being involved in something remember effort equals success not talent. Allow yourself to make mistakes in front of others, all humans are imperfect, there’s no shame in messing up sometimes. Where there are mistakes there is growth and learning. Use the word “yet” (e.g. im not good at that yet.) Room for improvement doesn’t mean failure, look at it as the step you need to take to achieve your next goal. Praise yourself and others for their growth and accomplishment, there isn’t any room for jealousy and spite in a growth mindset. Most importantly be kind to yourself and others. Those who learn from their mistakes end up growing and evolving the fastest. Compassion for yourself and others will open up so many doors for success and growth!
When will one see the results of this?
The first thing to know is you need to give yourself time and space to make mistakes. Progress is usually not a static line of success, there will be setbacks. The whole part of incorporating the growth mindset into your life is that you allow for the ability to fail, but to get back up and try again. You will have the strength to not beat yourself up if you do end up making a mistake. Instead you in turn praise what you did accomplish. In some cases you should begin praising yourself for even putting yourself out there and doing it. Once you have that down, you are then able to notice the change. That in itself shows that you did indeed change to a growth mindset! Congratulations on reading this and taking the first step!
Written and researched by Zachary Ericksen
https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means
https://careersinpsychology.org/fixed-vs-growth-mindset-success/
