My Top 3 Growth Mindsets for Success

Some people say that success is all about luck, who you know, and/or any number of other things. But I say that success is about mindset. It’s about whether you think you can succeed. It’s about how you frame the challenges that you face on the road to your goals. It’s about how you push yourself to grow, without beating yourself down.

Mindset isn’t something you’re born with. But it is something you can tweak and improve over time, creating a set of mindsets that help you be the most successful you. Over many years, I’ve worked hard to train my brain to think in certain ways, and it’s that inner work that has allowed me to grow my flavored water company, hint, into a multimillion-dollar empire.

Here are a few of the mindsets to which I most attribute my success.

1. Nothing is owed to you.

This mindset can sound harsh or belittling if not approached the correct way, but I promise it’s inspiring. It doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve anything. It means you can’t expect that things will be handed to you.

Throughout my career, my attitude has always been that I deserve things, not because I exist or put in the time, but because I work hard for them. Even early on, I knew just because I had been at a company for six months didn’t mean that I deserved a promotion. I needed to show my employers that I had earned one.

Now, as an entrepreneur, working at a successful company does not automatically imply that I’m owed a huge investment or placement in a major retailer. I still have to do the work every day, and I must continue making a great product and showing people why they should be excited about it.

Hard work and focus get you your wins, not simply setting out on a path and going through the motions. Are you going to wait around for your success to happen to you, or are you going to do the work to make it so?

2. Get up and do your best every day.

When you start setting expectations for yourself, things can quickly start to feel depressing or impossible. You begin to think, “I should be able to do this. I should be at X place in my life by now. Why haven’t I done Y like other people have?” This type of thinking doesn’t motivate you forward; it just brings you down.

Instead, I focus on getting up every day and giving it my all, then going to bed every night feeling confident that I did my best. I attribute this outlook to my days as a young athlete. When I showed up to a training session or competition with unfair expectations, I would end up disappointed, or worse, injured from pushing myself too far. But if I showed up and gave it everything I had, I was proud of my work, regardless of the achievements. (Related: Forget Morning Routines—This Evening Routine Makes Me a Better Leader)

It’s worth noting that being attached to the outcome doesn’t stop you from setting goals. Yes, you can look forward to where you’d like to be and plan the steps to get there, but I would advise doing it without creating unrealistic expectations on where you should be.

3. The good will come.

As an entrepreneur, and human being, you will always face obstacles and setbacks. So it’s crucial to develop a healthy mindset for getting through the hard times without losing your momentum—or your cool.

I’ve found that the best perspective is to trust that everything balances out in the end. The pendulum will inevitably swing the other way, and the best you can do is take any steps possible to resolve the situation, hope that it changes for the better soon, and make sure to take care of yourself in the interim.

If I didn’t trust that the good will come, I could have easily drowned in negative feelings, thereby, making the bad times last even longer. Remember: The tough stuff is only temporary and will probably make you stronger, but that’s a lesson for a different article. Believe that, and it will make getting through the inevitable hard times much easier. (Related: Here's What It Looks Like to Truly Learn From Your Mistakes)

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?Talk to me: Find me on Twitter, and let’s connect! DM me and I'll make sure to reply as soon as possible. Follow me @KaraGoldin.

Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of San Francisco–based hint?, a healthy lifestyle brand that produces the leading unsweetened flavored water and a scented sunscreen spray that’s oxybenzone and paraben-free. Listen to her podcast, Unstoppable, where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and disruptors across various industries and keep up with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.