Growth VS Fixed Mindset, which do you have?
Mindset is a critical component of success. We can either have a growth or fixed mindset. The way we think about our intellect and talent can affect how we feel, our potential, and what we achieve...
Happy New Week,
Mindset is a critical component of success. We can either have a growth or fixed mindset. A growth mindset means that you believe your intelligence and abilities can be developed over time. A fixed mindset means that you believe your intelligence and abilities are fixed, so if you’re not good at something, you believe you’ll never be good at it. The way we think about our intellect and talent can affect how we feel, our potential, and what we achieve.
People with a growth mindset believe their intelligence and talents can be improved through continuous practice. A growth mindset also recognises that setbacks and obstacles are a necessary part of the learning process. Having a growth mindset is crucial for learning because you’ll view learning as a lifelong process as you understand that we never stop learning, evolving, and improving. A growth mindset is also crucial for resilience, motivation, and performance.
Those with a growth mindset are more likely to:
Put in more effort to learn
View failure as a chance to learn
View feedback as an opportunity to improve
View others’ success as a source of inspiration
Embrace challenges and view them as opportunities to solve problems
Have a positive outlook on life
People with a fixed mindset believe that their level of intelligence and natural abilities are innate and unchangeable. This means that they give up easily, avoid challenges in life, and don't make any effort to improve as they believe it is worthless. Having a fixed mindset leads to negative thinking and self-doubt. For example, a person with a fixed mindset might fail at something and believe it’s because they’re not smart or good enough, whilst someone with a growth mindset will understand that with more practice they will eventually get better.
Those with a fixed mindset are more likely to:
View feedback as a personal attack
Choose easier tasks and put in minimal effort
Avoid challenges to avoid failure
Give up easily
View putting in effort as pointless
Just like we are able to grow and develop our intellect, we are also able to change our thinking patterns. Therefore it is possible to go from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
Five ways to develop a growth mindset:
Have a compelling belief in yourself, your own skills, and abilities. Understand that your abilities and intelligence can be developed over time.
Change how you view failure. View failure as an opportunity to learn from your experiences and apply what you have learned next time around.
Cultivate your self-awareness: work on becoming more aware of your talents, strengths, and weaknesses; get feedback from those who know you best and put it together for a comprehensive view of yourself.
Commit to lifelong learning and develop a curious mind. Keep wanting to know more, look for new challenges, ideas, experiences and understand that you can change.
Tell yourself a different story. Avoid saying things that imply a fixed mindset about your abilities. Change from saying things such as “I’m not smart enough to do this.” to “I’m not smart enough to do this yet.”
To conclude, the view you adopt for yourself affects how you live your life. Having a fixed mindset will rob you of being your very best self. Having a growth mindset will give you the confidence that you are capable of achieving what you want with the right strategy and practice and persistence.
Have a great week!
Subomi