How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset & Improve your Life
A growth mindset can be the difference between accomplishing our goals or letting them go. To cultivate a growth mindset, you need to understand what it is. You also need to know what it isn’t. So let’s start with the fixed mindset. The polar opposite of the growth mindset.
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What is a Fixed Mindset?
A fixed mindset is the belief that your intelligence, creative abilities, physical abilities and even your personality are “fixed.” It is the belief that people are born with certain talents and proclivities that cannot be learned. At a certain point in life, usually during school, you peak and can not learn anything new.
How Fixed Mindset Impacts You
Someone with a fixed mindset is less likely to try new things. They will not attempt anything that they believe is out of their range of ability. They fear failure because it draws attention to something they believe is lacking within them. Any tasks that pose a challenge will not be attempted.
Often someone with a fixed mindset feels the need to prove themselves. They go out their way to prove how intelligent and successful they are. They do this to validate their sense of self. When you don’t believe that you have the ability to grow and expand, your sense of self is very narrow.
Another difficulty with a fixed mindset is the belief that if you have to work at something it is proof that you are not good at it. Therefore, you don’t work at it, or if you do, you don’t let anyone see you working at it. A fixed mindset often prevents you from reaching your full potential.
What is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset, on the other hand, is a belief that we are always learning and evolving. Talent is not an inherent quality but rather, something that can be learned and perfected. A growth mindset allows a person to evolve and expand their talents and knowledge. Anything is possible.
How a Growth Mindset Impacts You
People with a growth mindset are not afraid of failure, but rather see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. They are willing to try new things and are eager to gain knowledge. Not being good at something is not seen as a bad thing, but a sign that there is an area that can be worked on and improved.
People with this mindset are avid learners. They have a strong sense of self because they know that they are continually advancing themselves. They have limitless potential. Those with this mindset, are in control of their lives. They do not give away their power, instead they embrace it.
A growth mindset is necessary for success. Without it, it would impossible to learn the essential skills needed to succeed. To be successful, one must be willing to learn new things, to work at and cultivate their skills, to be confident and have a strong sense of self. A fixed mindset does not allow for those things.
Why is a Growth Mindset Important?
If it’s not clear already, a growth mindset is important for leading a successful and fulfilling life. Without it, you may feel that you are a victim of your circumstances. That you have no control over the outcome of your life. If you are a victim, you are less likely to go out and create the changes necessary to live the life you want. Instead you will allow life to happen to you. Accepting that this is just how it is for someone like you.
A growth mindset, gives you the power to create whatever you want. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur you will go out and learn what you need to do that. You will surround yourself with successful people and instead of being intimidated by them you will learn from them and emulate them. If you want to be an artist, you will take art lessons. You will practice until you get good enough and then you will practice more. With a growth mindset, nothing is off the table. Anything is possible with perseverance.
Do you have a Growth or Fixed Mindset?
A pure growth mindset does not exist. We all have a combination of growth and fixed mindset in varying degrees. For example; one person may mostly have a growth mindset, believing they are capable of achieving just about anything if they take the time to apply themselves. However, that same person may believe that they could never be an artist. That artistic talent is something you either have or don’t. It just can’t be learned.
Another person may have a mostly fixed mindset, but was able to teach themselves an incredible skill. Unfortunately, their fixed mindset won’t allow them to believe that they can take that skill and become successful. They believe that success is only available to a few and is not something that can be learned.
So do you lean more towards a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Do you believe that you are capable of learning new things? That talent can be developed? Do you think intelligence can grow with studying? What about your personality? Can you better yourself or is this just who you are?
Are We Taught to Have a Fixed Mindset?
If you find that you are leaning more towards a fixed mindset, you are not alone. In fact, most of the western world believes that talent and intelligence are inherent qualities. That some people are just born smarter or more creative than others.
We use testing to determine a persons intelligence. Unfortunately, most of these tests are done once at a certain age and the results stay with us forever. These results, however may be affected by nervousness or not getting enough sleep. If tested, even a few months later, after learning more, our results may be much higher.
Society praises natural talent and gives less attention to learned talent. We talk about child prodigies with awe, but barely notice the person in midlife teaching themself to play an instrument, or paint or sculpt. We are taught that it is less impressive to have to work hard at something, than it is to be born with it.
This is a flawed logic. Those who have to work hard at something are always striving to improve and therefore they do improve. Often surpassing those with natural talent, simply because they have had to try harder. Greatness, whether learned or inherent is still greatness.
How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset
If you don’t have a growth mindset, don’t fret. Like everything else, it can be learned. Here are some steps to take towards cultivating a growth mindset.
- Stop looking at failure as a bad thing. Failure is simply an opportunity to learn how to do something better. Ask anyone who is successful and they will tell you that they had multiple failures before the succeeded.
- Embrace “Yet.” When ever you catch yourself saying “I can’t …” “I don’t know how…” or “I’m no good at…” add “yet” to the end. “I don’t know how to speak Yiddish, yet.” “I can’t say the alphabet backwards while standing on my head, yet.” “I’m no good at competitive eating, yet.”
- Stop worrying about other peoples opinion of you. You will never be able to please everyone, so stop trying. Instead focus on making yourself happy.
- Stop judging yourself! So often we are our own worse critics, but self judgement only sets us back. It causes us to seek out the familiar for better or worse. That will not help you develop a growth mindset.
- Celebrate the process, not just the result. It is important to appreciate the effort you put in to advancing yourself. The journey is just as important as the destination.
- Question your fixed mindset. When you catch yourself in a fixed mindset, question why you believe that. Can you believe something else? Can you find proof that your fixed mindset is not accurate?
- Use affirmations. Use positive affirmations to help develop a growth mindset. A good one to try is “everyday I am getting better and better at…” If you want to learn more about affirmations you can read my post https://metaphysicalmama.com/how-to-make-positive-affirmations-work-for-you/
Final Thoughts on Growth Mindset
With a fixed mindset, you will always hit your perceived limits and stop reaching. No matter how good you are at something naturally, if you don’t believe you can grow, you will eventually reach your ceiling and not be able to go any further. Real success, happiness and fulfillment all require us to expand and reach further than we normally do. We can’t live the life of our dreams by remaining in our comfort zone. By cultivating a growth mindset our entire world opens up. Suddenly anything is possible.
If you liked this post, check out my post on Limiting Beliefs.
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At times, it is hard to have a growth mindset, but it’s so important to do so!! I love your steps on how to cultivate a growth mindset. The first one is so important for me. Failure is a good thing! In fact, I don’t think there is failure.. I seriously have tried to remove “failure” from my vocabulary. Instead, everything is just a learning experience 🙂 Thanks for the post!
You’re very welcome! I’m so happy it resonated with you. I have been trying to remove failure from my vocabulary too. Not an easy task, but definitely a worthwhile one. Good Luck to us both! 😊
I totally agree that growth mindset is SUPER important!! Love the actionable steps you give to develop it! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I’m so glad you liked the actionable steps.
Growth mindset is very key. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Thank you so much for this article. I believe anything can be learned when given the right amount of attention. You are so right about the need to adopt a growth mindset
Thank you! I agree, anything can be learned if you want it badly enough.
I love the growth mindset! I write about it a ton on my blog as well. Everyone can benefit by working towards a growth mindset.
Absolutely!!
Nice post. I like how you wrote about both fixed and growth mindsets and the importance and impact. I think it’s really important to have a positive growth mindset.
I think it’s important to not only know where you’re going, but also where you have been. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment!
Yes. It’s really important to know where you are, where you are coming from and where you are going to.
This is a really helpful post. Thank you for sharing this. Some great tips and advice.
Thank you for reading! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
I’m open to new things in some areas but not all, as I imagine most people are
Almost everyone has some combination of a growth and fixed mindset. The goal is to weigh in a little heavier on the growth side and to not let a fixed mindset keep you from your dreams. 😊
I have been taking steps from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and love gaining more tips!
That’s fantastic! Taking steps towards a growth mindset means you already have a growth mindset. Now it’s all about taking action to accomplish your goals. 😊
This is a fantastic post, I really had no idea about fixed and growth mindsets. Really inspiring actually!
Thank you so much! That is so amazing to hear. 😊
Really interesting read. Thank you for sharing your insight, also think its important you have said that we are never going to have the perfect growth mindset but that we can aim to have areas of growth. Thank you! Emma
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Having a complete growth mindset is very rare. I believe it is more important to focus on areas of growth that are important to you.
Recently, I’ve been leaning towards a growth mindset. With my blog, I am always willing to try new strategies even if they cost me time and money. I would say that I had more of a fixed mindset when I was a child though. I was afraid of taking risks but that started to fall away as I grew older. Thanks for sharing these tips! I think you differentiated between the two very well and offered excellent advice in this blog post.
Thank you so much! I find most people do the reverse and end up with more of a fixed mindset the older they get. It’s great that you developed more of a growth mindset as you got older. Keep nurturing that mindset! 😊
It’s better to have a growth mindset to be able to expand our abilities beyond our expectations. That’s what I believe! Having a fixed mindset is like a myth to me.
That’s great! Having a growth mindset is definitely better.
Wonderful article and I will share it on webtalk tomorrow with the auto posting to facebook; linkedin, slack and cannot do twitter as they blocked me. More websites will be added after the app launches and then I will do even more one tick auto posting. I am definetly an embracer of growth and change and love seeing results from that. I also love your banner of heal yourself and heal the world, it is so true and I wish more people would realize this and do us all a favour and put in the work to heal themselves. The world would be a much more pleasant place if people did this.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I absolutely loved this post! Thank you for sharing
Thank you for taking the time to read it! 😊
Thank you for sharing this. We’re definitely hoping to help young adults to develop a growth mindset!
That’s wonderful!!
It can be so hard at times to escape a fixed mindset, but this is only true when you are feeling negativity. Bring in the positive vibes and then you can get a growth mindset.
A wonderfully put together post. Growth mindset is very essential if we want to grow, it’s that simple. Loved your suggestion on the use of ‘yet’ to help us cultivate this kind of mindset.
Sharing on Twitter.
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Using “yet” is such a powerful, yet simple mindset shift.
this is such a truthful and practical post.
it is critical to have a growth mindset to achieve and get whatever we want in life.
thanks for sharing this post.
so informative and helpful!
Thank you! I’m so glad you found it helpful.
I love this post. Very inspiration and motivating.
A growth mindset is so important to develop, but it can also be really difficult. This is a great synopsis of how it works.
Thanks! It can be difficult to develop, especially when we have had a fixed mindset for most of our lives, but it is so worth it!
Great info! And so true! Learning and growing is so important! Thanks for the great details!
I agree, learning and growing are so important. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment!
Growth mindset is such an interesting and important concept, I’m still working on the fear of failure and the tendency to give up if I’m not good at something immediately. You’re right that society tends to praise natural talent over working towards something, unfortunately!
Daniela
http://danielanina.com
That’s great that you are working on it. The goal isn’t to be perfect, but to be aware and to grow. Sounds like you are doing both of those things. Yay!!
Definitely agree that a growth mindset is the key to success, adaptability is such a good skill to master too! Lovely post, very inspiring 🙂
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I think I’m about 50/50 at the minute. I know I can improve and learn new things. But I look at scenarios and think maybe that’s possible/ I could do that but also still see the limitations quite quickly sometimes. Forever trying to improve that! x
Sophie
Awareness is half the battle. Whenever a limiting thoughts come up, stop and replace it with a positive affirmation. Let me know how it goes.
Interesting post 🙂 I think I have to work on myself to achieve that growth mindset as I used to be afraid of new things.
Just having the awareness that you need to work on it, is the first step. Good luck!
One of my clients is a confidence coach and her two mantras are: progress not perfection, and to speak to yourself the way you would a friend (ie, don’t be so hard on yourself). I’m trying to live by both but I know I have a way to go. This was a really interesting read, thank you!
Those are fantastic mantras!
I so agree! It’s good to embrace a growth mindset!
Absolutely!!
I sometimes struggle with this but this was a really good reminder. Great post!
I’m glad you found it helpful.
A very interesting and thought-provoking post. Thanks for providing ideas to foster an increase in personal growth.
You are very welcome!
I love this. I think what can be hard with this mindset, is wanting to achieve the best results from the get-go, when actually you need to develop and make mistakes to get the best. Deffo a positive way of thinking, and something I am trying to do more of.
Great post!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Thank you! I agree, mistakes help us to grow, but no one likes to make them. The trick is to not let our mistakes stop us, but use them to help us move forward. 💕
I think our society leans towards encouraging a fixed mindset in all of us. We’re taught to follow a specific plan, going to school, getting a job and just working hard. Instead, those that genuinely succeed are the people who are willing to risk it all – building businesses, entrepreneurship, etc. I started to really learn the difference a few years ago and, as a result, I have gone through a full career change and couldn’t be happier!
That’s wonderful! Congratulations! I wish you all the best in your new career. 😊
I love how you stress the importance of having a growth mindset., and great recommendations on how to cultivate one. Such a good read!
Thank you so much! I appreciate you taking the time to read it.
This is such a great topic! So helpful to know and be aware of the differences. I love that tip about adding “yet” to the end of sentences. That small change makes a huge difference.
Thank you! It’s amazing what a difference one small word can make. It completely shifts your mindset.
Wow these are excellent tips and a thoughtful article, thanks for sharing wonderful blog post🙂🙂
Thank you! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! 😊
I always love and appreciate reading about growth mindset! It’s so important to have a growth mindset, in order to overcome obstacles in life and achieve our goals and dreams. There will always be obstacles, just as there will always be solutions, so image overcoming and resolving your problems – that will help get you there! Wonderful post!
Thanks! It sounds like you already have a pretty strong growth mindset.
It is so important that we are open-minded when it comes to change. We are not perfect and we can always improve ourselves! Thanks for sharing about the growth mindset!!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
Thanks for taking the time to read it!
I love the tip about embracing yet, great way to motivate yourself to keep growing. Fab post!
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Great article! You explained it really well. I have been teaching and learning about growth mindset as teacher, and once you start understanding the idea, it really does change your perception of yourself and what you can do.
I agree. Once you learn about these mindsets it really does change how you perceive and approach everything you do. Thanks for the comment!
Thank you so much for this wonderful post! I sometimes struggle with keeping a good mindset so this has really helped! ❤️
Demi| http://www.demilehuray.com xoxo
Thank you so much for the wonderful comment! I’m glad that you found this post helpful. We all struggle with keeping a positive mindset sometimes. The trick is to just keep working on it. 💕
It is such a lovely and positive post to read in the morning. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing this, it was a really helpful and insightful post
Thanks for reading! I’m so happy you found it helpful.
Wow, this was so lovely to read. I have to admit that I had a fixed mindset for the longest of time. Now, I’m working hard on learning, growing, and improving myself daily.
Thank you! It’s great to hear that you have shifted to a growth mindset! Working on yourself is so important. Good luck on your journey! 😊
Having a growth mindset is so important especially as a freelancer. Having a fixed mindset and you reach the ceiling quick.
Absolutely! 😊
I really enjoyed this read. You explained and expanded on both types of mindset in a way I had to analyse myself and my thoughts on talents and learning. Thanks for the catalyst for reflection… Helen 🙂
Helen, I’m so glad to have been a catalyst for your reflection. I hope it leads to more growth for you.
Thanks you for the thoughtful comment!
What a great post! So important to have a grateful mindset like this. Thanks so much for sharing
Thank you so much!
As always, I absolutely adore your posts! The information is so valuable to succeeding in life. Having a growth mindset is everything during this time and I feel incredibly blessed that I have been opening myself to this and pushing myself and pushing to the universe that I am amazing and will be successful soon! xo
Thank you so much Lynn! I really appreciate that. I’m so happy to hear that you are embracing growth in your life. I wish all the success and happiness. Thanks for reading!
This is a really interesting topic. You have included so much valuable advice. I definitely need to take these tips on board.
Thanks! I’m glad you found it useful.
This is such a helpful post, thank you so much for sharing lovely! I think this is really interesting topic and the advice you’ve given is amazing. Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
Thanks so much Elle! I’m glad you found it helpful!
I really like how you mentioned that society often conditions growth mindsets. A lot of us are not given opportunities to bounce back from failures from society so then it becomes our job to accept these failures, which can be tough.
It can be incredible tough, but it is always up to us to choose how we will move through life. We can choose to blame others or we can choose to take control of our lives. Thankfully there is always support to help us along the way. 😊
I like the idea of a growth mindset and I think I am getting there with mine.
That’s awesome! The most important part is being open to the idea of having a growth mindset and it sounds like you’re already there!
This is a hugely important concept! Every parent, teacher, and coach should learn it and teach it to their children
Wouldn’t that be amazing?!
Great article! I like to think I have a Growth Mindset (even tried driving Doordash this week 🤯), but there are also times, I seem set in my ways. For me, it’s a work in progress. Thank you for sharing. ✌
I think we are all a work in progress. Having that awareness however, puts you way ahead of the game!