About the 30 Day Mindset Challenge
On your road to personal development, your mindset actively defines which path you take. If you choose to have the wrong mindset, this will hold you back from your best potential and from achieving your goals. With this being said, there are two types of mindsets you should be aware of – growth and fixed mindsets. Between both of these, the best thing you can have is a growth mindset to get the best out of your life in reaching success. In this article, we’ll be talking about everything you need to know about having a growth and fixed mindset.
What is a growth mindset?
1. You are okay with not being perfect
If you have a growth mindset, this means you know you’re not perfect, and you’re okay with that. You have confidence that you still have a lot to learn from people who are better or wiser than you, and this doesn’t threaten your competence. In fact, this type of mindset encourages you to seek people who are wiser than you just so you can learn from them and become better yourself. Having a growth mindset doesn’t mean that you’re the best, but is a matter of your maturity in how you handle your set of skills. You know that you have so much to learn in life and that you aren’t perfect, even if you try your best to be. Having a growth mindset means that you’re actively being intentional in expanding your intelligence and knowledge to ensure that you’re not staying in just one place for a prolonged period.
2.You Embrace mistakes and failure
Unlike a fixed mindset, you embrace circumstances where you fail and make mistakes because you know that it’s the only way you’ll learn from them and become better. Instead of running away from failure and trying to be perfect, you accept your mistakes as they are and learn from the lessons they give you. You don’t try to shove the presence of mistakes and failure because if you do, then you know you’ll never become the best possible version of yourself and you won’t have what it takes to achieve your goals. While failures can be scary and painful, you do your best to face them and get back up stronger than you were. A growth mindset allows you to realize that without falling a few times, you won’t learn the necessary lessons, no matter how painful the experience may be.
3.You believe that practice makes you better at something
Individuals with a growth mindset have the belief that when you work on becoming better at a certain skill, you will improve and eventually become exemplary at it. You refuse to be complacent that just because you’re naturally good at something, doesn’t mean you can’t improve further. This means that for both your strengths and weaknesses, you actively find ways to practice improving on your set of skills. Even when you know that it’s better to focus on your strengths and weaknesses, there’s no shame in working on your weaknesses gradually. Compared to a fixed mindset where you believe that talents and skills are something you naturally have or don’t, a growth mindset finds amusement in the process of improvement and development.
4. You feel inspired by the success of others
When you have a mindset focused on growth and learning, you get inspired by the success of others instead of feeling threatened by them. It’s so easy to feel competitive in a negative way when someone is ahead of you or achieves their goals faster than you. However, with a growth mindset, you know that it’s not a race on who gets to succeed first or better than you. Rather, you’re secure enough at your own pace and you use their stories instead to motivate yourself further in achieving your goals. You even use what you can learn from the success stories of others and apply them in your own life. You know that you won’t achieve anything when you feel constantly threatened when others achieve their desired goals faster than you did so you use it as a learning opportunity instead.
5. You are open to all forms of feedback
Whether it’s good or bad feedback, you open yourself to both kinds as you know it will help you prevent more mistakes in the future and it will help you become better. Learning to accept constructive criticism is something you have when you have a growth mindset because you know you can’t be perfect at all things. There will be aspects you can’t see and hearing negative feedback from others will help you improve on what needs improvement. You see feedback and criticism as an opportunity for growth, rather than an opportunity for others to put you down further. You process all forms of feedback deeply and do your best to apply them to what needs correction. As for the positive feedback, you take that as an assurance of what you’re doing right.
What is a fixed mindset?
1. You think you have all the necessary knowledge and skills
A fixed mindset means you’re focused on just one perspective, which often involves complacency and confidence in the wrong aspects. You think that you’re already the best person in the room and you feel threatened by anyone that even comes close to your competition. You don’t feel the need to keep learning and improving because you think you have everything it takes to be the best. Even when there’s an opportunity for improvement, you don’t take it because you think it will make you become less adequate or competent than you already are.
2. You run from mistakes and failure
With a fixed mindset, your worst fear is making a mistake and screwing things up because you already believe yourself to be the best. You don’t believe in mistakes and failure when it comes to achieving your goals and dreams. You have this tendency to be a perfectionist with this kind of mindset, which is an impossible standard you’ll never achieve. As a result, you end up with more stress and frustration than necessary, especially when you make even the slightest mistake. You think that when you make mistakes and failures, this will define your journey to success, which is why you avoid making them at all costs.
3. You believe you’re either naturally skilled at something or not
Contrary to a growth mindset that believes you can improve your talents and skills through dedication and practice, a fixed mindset believes the exact opposite. You think that you’re either naturally talented at something, which is why you also don’t bother practicing or improving yourself. You think you’re already good enough so you don’t feel the need to practice, which makes you very complacent about your talents and skills. Even when presented with an opportunity to improve yourself, you pass on the chance to work on yourself.
4. You feel threatened by the success of others
When you feel others reach their goals faster than you or prove to be better than you, instead of being inspired by their story, you feel threatened by their accomplishments and success. You don’t use it as motivation, but you use it as a need to be on the same level as them. Since you believe yourself to be the best person in the room, the idea of someone reaching success faster than you is personally unacceptable for you. Instead of celebrating the success of others, threat and resentment are two emotions you feel.
5. You don’t like hearing negative feedback
Individuals with a fixed mindset are only inclined on hearing positive and good feedback about themselves, not negative ones. You feel discouraged and threatened when you hear negative feedback since you already think you have more than enough capabilities. Even when nobody likes hearing negative feedback from anyone, this is even more accurate when you have a fixed mindset. They will do everything in their power to get everything right so when they hear even just one negative feedback, this negatively surprises them.
Ways to develop a growth mindset
1. Accept the challenges
In order to change your mindset towards growth, you need to accept that it’s not going to be easy. Especially when you’ve been used to having a fixed mindset for a long period, it won’t be easy changing what’s been familiar for you. Developing a growth mindset will have setbacks and challenges that you need to expect in order to transform your mindset completely. It’s not a walk in the park to develop a growth mindset because it’s much easier to be contented in having a fixed mindset. Only in accepting the challenges that come can you change your mindset successfully.
2. Don’t run away from failure
The presence of failure and mistakes might be something you’re not used to, but it’s necessary if you want to change your life and live the best outcome possible. You can’t run away from failure no matter how scared you are as failure and mistakes are how you learn and become better. You will never achieve anything when you keep running away from failure with every chance you get but instead, run towards it and even when it’s scary to face, use it as a stepping stone in becoming the best version of yourself. Failure will never define you no matter what, but what will define you is what you choose to do after you mess up. it’s how you rise back up that defines you and what your next steps will be in achieving success.
3. Realize you can always choose to improve
A fixed mindset makes you believe that there’s no room for improvement – it’s either you’re naturally skilled at something or you’re not. However, you need to realize that you can always improve if you truly want to change your mindset. You won’t automatically be the best person in the room and you can always improve your talents and skills with consistent practice and dedication. Even if you have the natural talent for something, it doesn’t automatically mean that you can’t work on it further.
4. Get away from your comfort zone
Life was never meant to be lived within your comfort zone. Even if it’s a place of familiarity and growth, you won’t grow when you stay in that place for a prolonged period. Rather, you need to step away from your comfort zone and do something new. Having a fixed mindset is extremely familiar and easy, but it will never encourage you to become better and learn. You will only ever get that from a growth mindset and in order to get there, you need to accept the idea of change and transformation instead of clinging to comfort and familiarity.
5. Counter the voice of your fixed mindset
When your mind convinces you to do the opposite of growth, learn to question them and do the exact opposite. For each time your mind convinces you that you’re already the best person and you don’t need to learn anything else, ask yourself why you think this is the case and do the opposite. Your thoughts are not a valid source to believe in, which is why you need to learn the habit of questioning them, especially when you’ve been accustomed to having a fixed mindset. Stay grounded in the fact that you will only be the best version of yourself when you choose your own personal development and growth.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article was able to shed insight into everything you needed to know on growth and fixed mindset. At the end of the day, having a growth mindset is the best thing you can do for your personal development. Your mindset can easily define whether you will succeed or not, which is specifically the case for fixed and growth mindsets. A fixed mindset will make you have a stale life, whereas a growth mindset will encourage you to have a successful and extraordinary life.