How a Growth Mindset Has Been My Saving Grace

Has anyone ever told you, “your attitude determines your outcome”? That phrase has been on my mind a lot lately.

It’s easy to get frustrated and feel stuck at different moments in life—I surely have a number of times. But then my growth mindset kicks in, and I realize everything is a learning experience.

What’s a Growth Mindset?

The simplest summary I can make is that your mindset is how you interpret the world around you. Back in the 1990s, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck took a social-cognitive approach to evaluate motivation and personality, resulting in the two mindset theory (check out a really cool graphic detailing it here).

It boils down to whether you are approaching the situation with a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.

Fixed mindsets stem from a stronger desire to look smart, while growth mindsets have a stronger desire to learn. Thereby the former is more static, and the latter developing.

But no person is cemented securely into one or the other. It's contextual and rewireable. In other words, a growth mindset is something you can cultivate with a bit of effort.

Strategies for Change

Changing a mindset is not an overnight feat, but it can be done with practice.

1. View mistakes as learning opportunities. This is my most favorite and least favorite strategy as it can be so hard to execute. When I don’t hit a goal, it is almost second nature to get a bit down about it. However, I do my best to turn that frustration into curiosity, seeking to find out what went wrong, what can be improved, and what to avoid the next time I try to climb that mountain.
2. Stop seeking approval and accolades. Trophies are nice, but it matters more as to whether you won the award through hard work or inherent skill. As it was put so eloquently in Forbes, “Be aware you’re doing something smart, not just being smart.” Being is fixed, doing is growth.
3. Recognize growth takes work. Learning takes time, feedback, and failure—be welcoming and accepting of all of it, and remember you’re on a lifelong journey, not a quick sprint to the next goal marker.

I not only try to cultivate a growth mindset within myself, but I urge my team to do the same—and it’s a lot easier to do when you have a reliable support system in place. Our office is one where we encourage openness and hard conversations to help everyone (top-down) improve. I’m honest with my crew about my perceived shortcomings, and I hope they feel comfortable discussing their concerns with me. We also focus a lot of attention on career development to further set the team up for success through hard work.