21 Aug Unlocking Potential: Cultivating a Growth Mindset
Most of us, if we’re honest, are uncomfortable to expose our vulnerabilities and we’d probably prefer to operate in a zone where we know most things and aren’t challenged too often, for fear of getting things wrong. But there is a whole separate school of thought that embraces challenges as learning opportunities and gets excited about tackling something new, outside of our comfort zones, despite the risk of getting it wrong.
Growth mindset
This is growth mindset – the belief that we don’t and can’t know how to do it all and that skills can be improved over time, through effort and perseverance. People with a growth mindset don’t say “I can’t do this.” They say, “I can’t do this yet.” They focus more on the process of learning to do something, and the effort put in to improve that skill, than the actual outcome.
The mother of growth mindset, psychologist Carol Dweck, says “In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So, rather than thinking, oh, I’m going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here is a chance to grow.” What does this mean for us and our approach to making mistakes, trying new things and developing new skills? It means that instead of allowing our fears of failure, of letting others down or of being perceived as not experienced enough, we approach life with the view that everyone has the ability to learn and improve, without shame or judgment, including ourselves.
Cultivating a growth mindset
Cultivating a growth mindset starts with our thoughts. Our minds are so much more powerful than we give them credit for! Our thoughts influence how we feel, and our feelings influence our actions and behaviours. So really, our thoughts influence how we show up in our lives and how we respond to stresses and challenges. Here are five things that have helped me to cultivate a growth mindset, which allows me to think, feel and behave differently to what goes on around me:
- Focus on progress
So much of the time, we have an all or nothing approach to starting new things, learning new ways or even doing things we do often in our jobs or our homes. It’s all or nothing, black or white, with no in between, which is not a sustainable way to approach life. We need to start placing more importance on the effort, the daily shifts in the right direction, and celebrating the small wins. Acknowledging these things will fuel positive thinking, which as we now know, influences positive feelings and positive behaviours. Those positive behaviours often look like doing more of that new thing and trying again. This is when we feel the energy and enthusiasm to keep the momentum.
- Be kind to yourself
We have such high expectations of ourselves. We expect ourselves (and often others too!) to ‘just get it’. We expect ourselves to be running before we can even crawl. It’s often so unrealistic and pressured. We need to consider the expectations we have of ourselves and ask ourselves if we’d expect that of others too. We also need to consider how we speak to ourselves when we don’t meet the expectations we have. We label ourselves as ‘failure’ or ‘bad’ or ‘unsuccessful’, and then those thoughts start compounding and reinforcing the behaviour. If you wouldn’t say those things to your best friend, why are you saying them to yourself?
- Embrace imperfect
There’s a big difference between excellence and perfection. Perfectionism holds us back – we don’t even get out of the starting blocks because we’re so focussed on getting things 100% right – creating unnecessary stress and preventing us from making any progress at all. Excellence means we give of our best – our effort, our focus, our energy. It means we show up as our best selves. Best doesn’t mean perfect, it means authentic, honest and work in progress – knowing that we might not get to spot on all the time, but applying our best effort anyway and learning from the process.
- Make it easy
How do you run a marathon? One kilometre at a time. How do you run a kilometre? One hundred meters at a time. How do you run one hundred meters? One step at time. Break down large, stressful or overwhelming tasks into manageable steps. Realistic, actionable steps helps us move through the process rather than avoiding it or procrastinating even getting started. Achievement of these smaller steps gives us an energy boost which keeps us going and maintains the momentum.
- Reflection and review
Reflection is such a critical part of personal learning, development and growth, but it’s often missed because we just motor through our days and weeks on autopilot, with no space to think about what we did well, what we learnt and what we could do differently. Only when we create space in our routines to reflect, are we able to review how we can do things better tomorrow or the next time. Without that, we’ll keep repeating the same patterns or behaviours, even if they aren’t serving us or helping us progress.
Developing a growth mindset doesn’t happen overnight, but it can be cultivated by applying these five things in our lives. Each time we intentionally focus on progress or embrace imperfect or achieve the wins of small steps, we communicate to our brains that it should build new connections that focus on the good rather than the negative. These new connections then form new maps that our thought processes follow, which over time become our reframed way of thinking which means we also feel more positive and behave more positively.
Benefits of a growth mindset
Cultivating a growth mindset goes beyond these shifts in thinking — it’s a lifelong journey to learning, perseverance, and self-improvement. By recognising that your abilities can be developed through dedication and effort, you open the door to endless potential. Challenges become opportunities, failures turn into valuable lessons, and your potential for growth becomes limitless. So, whether you’re facing obstacles, seeking feedback, or simply encouraging yourself to learn something new, remember that each step forward is progress and progress is a win.
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