Tips for Achieving a Growth Mindset for Personal Growth

When you meet a person who believes that they can develop essential qualities through dedication and hard work, they have a growth mindset rather than assuming that qualities are permanent. They think that anyone can improve their important qualities through commitment and hard work—not just people who are already intelligent or talented. This contradicts a fixed mindset, in which people believe their essential qualities, like their intelligence, are fixed traits. Those with a growth mindset strive to improve themselves over time—they enjoy learning new things, personal growth, and solving problems.

We all tend to think in either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. This reflects the beliefs we hold about learning and intelligence. According to Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, "someone who believes that their knowledge and intelligence are static has a fixed mindset. They believe that their abilities are carved in stone. If you are smart, you are smart. If you're not good at something, you'll never be good at it."

People's beliefs about their abilities and talents significantly impact how they approach tasks and challenges in life. Someone with a growth mindset believes their learning and intelligence can grow with time and experience. This person tends to achieve more personal growth than those with a more fixed mindset.

Can You Develop a Growth Mindset?

Those with a growth mindset believe that developing their talents through effort and hard work is just a common ground. This perception creates a love of learning and resilience essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.

In contrast, those with a fixed mindset believe that talent alone creates success and that talent is an innate gift. This view creates a desire to look smart or talented at all times, even if it means giving up when things get tough.

Research shows that having a growth mindset leads to tremendous success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor. 

How Can You Create a Growth Mindset?

If you tend to have more of a fixed mindset you may benefit from learning to think from more of a growth perspective. Here are a few strategies for developing a growth mindset:

Change Your Attitude

Changing your attitude is one way to create a growth mindset. You may be hesitant to do so because of the risk involved, but you'll get valuable feedback and learn more in the process even if you fail. By giving yourself this opportunity to grow and succeed, you'll also be able to discover new ways to improve and advance in your life and career.

Embrace All Your Flaws

Although we may have made mistakes or have failed in the past, we don't have to give up on ourselves. On the contrary, we can use our flaws to learn and improve our performance in the future. We all have weaknesses, and we must embrace them and use them as opportunities for growth rather than letting them hold us back from achieving our goals. We need to see these weaknesses as opportunities for improvement instead of viewing them negatively.

Perceiving Challenges as Opportunities

When faced with difficulties, practice perceiving them as personal growth and learning opportunities rather than as obstacles and problems. 

With a growth mindset, you focus on what you can do with your existing talents and focus on developing them further. You strive to learn new things and stretch yourself in different directions.

Take Time to Reflect

Taking time for self-reflection will equip you with the right tools to create a growth mindset. This includes asking yourself, "What did I learn?" and "How can I improve my performance?"

Monitor Your Progress

Set growth goals for yourself and monitor them as you move forward. A balance between short- and long-term goals will help you identify ways you can grow. Make sure you're able to measure your progress and don't be too hard on yourself if you don't meet all of your goals right away. 

Engage a Coach

Coaches are highly skilled at helping you develop a growth mindset. A coach will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and develop strategies to achieve those goals.

Aspyn Coaching offers myriad sessions on setting goals, understanding why goals are important and more. If you want to develop a growth mindset, check out our sessions today.