Mindset For Growth

How many times in your life have you heard the saying: It’s all in your head? I’m going to guess pretty many times. And as glichee as it sounds, there’s a truth in it. Our minds are a wonderful thing. They can be the source of our happiness but they can also bring us endless amounts of suffering and misery.

All the scientists agree that an average human mind has a vast potential for growth and that we’re using only a fraction of what it’s really capable of. Yet, I believe that for many people, it’s the mind that limits us and sets us boundaries.

It all runs down to what we believe when it comes to a person’s skills, abilities, and potential – the mindset. Many people believe they have been dealt a certain set of cards when it comes to their talents, abilities, and overall intelligence. This mindset can develop already in childhood, usually with some influence from the outside. Being told you will never be able to do something, referred to as the not the most sharpest pencil in the box, being gently guided to settle for an easier career choice instead of challenging yourself to do what you maybe dream of deep in your heart.

While some people form defiance as a counterreaction, a desire to prove everyone they are wrong, for others these experiences will fix their mindset and start limiting their beliefs. They accept that this is what they are and try to get through life with those dealt cards more or less gracefully.

Others, however, don’t believe that anything mentioned above is carved in stone and can be developed further through practice, guidance, consistency, and lots of hard work and they’re not afraid of any of it. And quite often they are not thrown back by any failures and obstacles that are thrown at them on their road.

When you hear the saying: “It’s the fear of failure that is holding people back from daring to dream big”, what emotions does it evoke in you? Do you feel a little stab because you can relate to it? Or do you feel like protesting because you think failure is nothing more than a chance to revise your strategy and an important part of the way to success?

Those with a fixed mindset tend to see failure as proof that those limitations they have built in their mind are indeed true. Those with a mindset for growth.. well for them a failure is an opportunity to grow and learn

People with a fixed mindset tend to avoid both challenges and failures in life and prefer to stay in their comfort zone. If things get tough and require too much effort, they tend to give up easily. Feedback is often seen as something scary because it may point out their flaws. Exposing their flaws makes them vulnerable and sets them up for judgment by others.

Those with a mindset of growth are quite the opposite – always eager to learn, not afraid of the time, effort, and patience that true mastery requires. They see feedback, as painful as it may be, as something necessary to improve and develop further. They are inspired by others’ success and learn from it, instead of being threatened by it.

Do you know already which mindset you embrace? Are you feeling doomed there because you recognized yourself to have some traits that indicate you have a fixed mindset? Even though the fixed mindset sounds like it’s something concrete and solid one has practiced maybe ever since their childhood, it can be switched at any time to the growth mindset.

Sometimes, all it takes to snap out is to become aware of the fact that a fixed mindset isn’t all there is. For others, it takes a little proof that putting in effort does work. Maybe you have even experienced that in your life. A moment where you have said to yourself: „Wow! I never would have thought I could do that!“. Every time you say „I can’t do this“ catch that thought and think instead: „I can get better at doing this and one day I can do this“.