Define Growth Mindset: The belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed in perpetuity through effort and perseverance, leading to a love for learning and resilience in the face of challenges.

Entering into a Growth Mindset is a shift in your perspective of self to view challenges, setbacks, and failures as opportunities for learning rather than obstacles to be avoided. It is a fundamental understanding that your potential is not limited but in abundance. The more effort you put into yourself as an ever-growing and changing being, the greater rewards you will be able to reap.

Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset

Define Fixed Mindset: The belief that your abilities and intelligence are innate and cannot be significantly changed, leading to a resistance to challenges, a fear of failure, and a reluctance to learn and grow.

If you have not entered into a Growth Mindset, you are likely stuck in a Fixed Mindset. This self-limitation encourages one to give up or lower their dreams to what feels easy. Sitting in the ‘achievable’ may seem safe and comfortable, but it can easily stand in the way of reaching your true potential.

Those in the Growth Mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, persist in the face of adversity, and seek out opportunities for self-improvement. This mindset fosters resilience, a love for learning, and a willingness to take risks, ultimately leading to greater achievement and success in various areas of life.

A simple comparison is to a goldfish. In a small tank, a goldfish will stay the same size and happily swim around in never-ending, never-changing circles. In a larger tank, that same goldfish will grow larger, learn to adventure, and find new ways to entertain itself.

Which would you rather be?

Growth Mindset Examples

A Growth Mindset will always be an exercise in self-love. It requires a trust in your own abilities to succeed, often before you have the evidence to prove it. In the workplace, someone in a Fixed Mindset might stay in the same position for several years, happy to receive a yearly raise and expect nothing else. In Growth Mindset, that same employee might ask to be put forward for promotions, or even apply for different jobs despite limited experience or knowledge in that specific area. They might have an innate belief in their ability to learn this new position and thrive because they welcome challenges and want to actively push their abilities to the limit.

For me as a Creative Coach, I often help clients ease into their Growth Mindset through the uncomfortable, after all the saying goes, ‘growth cannot happen when you’re comfortable’. By working with an external professional, I can give clients new goals and shorter deadlines than they might choose for themself, proving they are further in their personal development than they previously believed. Choosing to work with a Coach is a great example of Growth Mindset through a financial and time investment in yourself with the belief in your ability to make longterm strides towards success.

10 Steps to Enter Your Growth Mindset

1. Understand the Concept: Educate yourself about the growth mindset versus fixed mindset theory. Recognize that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and most importantly self-belief.
2. Self-Reflection: Explore how you really feel about yourself and your future potential. Be honest about areas of your life stuck in a Fixed Mindset and where those limiting beliefs could stem from.
3. Embrace Failure: You must accept that failures are opportunities to learn and grow, not setbacks to be avoided. List five recent failures and write down what they’ve taught you moving forward.
4. Set Growth-Oriented Goals: Reflect on your current goals and how they might change if you removed your limiting beliefs about yourself such as a lack of education or missing skillsets. Try to find new goals focused on personal development that than specific outcomes or achievements.
5. Make a Vision Board: Dedicate time to creating a visual representation of the person you want to become. Find power words and inspirational images and include them on your board, then display it somewhere you will see every single day.
6. Welcome Challenges: Look for immediate opportunities to practice being outside of your comfort zone. These might be taking on a new project at work, starting a course in a new skill, or creating a personal challenge like my 30 Day Blogging Challenge
7. Learn from Criticism: Embrace constructive feedback as a valuable source of information that can help you identify areas for improvement and refine your skills. Don’t just wait for criticism to come to you and instead actively request feedback from colleagues, clients, and friends.
8. Celebrate Effort and Progress: Make intentional time to reflect on the steps you’ve taken. Record any wins or achievements and share them with loved one. Your progress deserves to celebrated.
9. Cultivate Curiosity: Push yourself to stay openminded about new ideas, perspectives, and experiences, and actively seek out opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills. Choose an activity or skill you’ve been wanting to try and make a financial and time investment into learning it.
10. Practice Self-Love: Be kind to yourself, especially during times of struggle or difficulty. Treat yourself with the same compassion and understanding that you would offer to a friend facing similar challenges and remember that feeling challenged will always be better than feeling stuck.

Ultimately, a breaking free of a Fixed Mindset and adopting a Growth Mindset can often be the difference in existing and truly living. You deserve to take an active role in all elements of your life including career, fitness, and relationships. You do not have to limit yourself to the expected as you’ll never really know what you are capable of until you try.

You also do not have to undertake this journey alone. Use my website to learn more about What is a Writing Coach to decide if working with one might be the right path for you. Asking someone else to act as your accountability partner and progress-tracker can allow you to focus on completing the tasks themselves. To ask more questions, Get in Touch.