Four Steps to Develop a Growth Mindset- Part One

What is a Mindset?

According to Professor Carol Dweck, a mindset is a belief you have about your abilities.

You can think that your abilities are limited and cannot be changed (fixed mindset), or that you can grow and cultivate your abilities at any point in life (growth mindset).

While a “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which, we can’t change in any meaningful way, a “growth mindset” thrives on challenge and sees failure “not as evidence of unintelligence but as a springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.”

Fixed versus Growth Mindset

A fixed mindset can negatively impact all aspects of your life.

People with fixed mindsets spend their lives proving themselves in their careers, and in their relationships.

Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character.

Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?

“This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.

Although people may differ in every which way in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments, everyone can change and grow through application and experience.”

We are all a mix of a fixed and a growth mindset depending on the situation and the environment.

How to Develop a Growth Mindset

In order to work toward more of a growth mindset, we need to observe ourselves and find our triggers.

Just spend several weeks noticing when you enter a more threatened, defensive state.

Don't judge yourself.

Don't fight it.

Just observe.

Then give your fixed mindset persona a name.

Talk to it, calling it by name, when it shows up.

Over time, try to recruit it to collaborate on your challenging goals instead of letting it undermine you with doubts and fears.

We’ll consider the first two steps for developing a growth mindset in this Tip. We’ll look at the remaining two steps in the next Tip, #1062.

Step 1. Learn to hear your fixed mindset internal “voice.”

In the face of a challenge or a criticism your internal voice might say to you

-?????“Are you sure you can do it? Maybe you don’t have the talent.”

-?????“What if you can’t do it—you’ll be a failure” “People will laugh at you for thinking you had talent.”

-?????“You see, I told you it was a risk. Now you’ve gone and shown the world how limited you are.”

-?????“ It’s not too late to back out, make excuses, and try to regain your dignity.”

-?????“It’s not my fault. It was something or someone else’s fault.”

?Take note of this voice and try to understand what is behind it and where it is coming from.

Step 2. Recognize that you have a choice.

How you interpret challenges, setbacks, and criticism is your choice.

You can interpret them in a fixed mindset as signs that your fixed talents or abilities are lacking.

Or you can interpret them in a growth mindset as signs that you need to ramp up your strategies and effort, stretch yourself, and expand your abilities.

It’s up to you.

So, as you face challenges, setbacks, and criticism, listen to the fixed mindset voice and talk back.

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