Cultivating a Growth Mindset
Our mindsets exist on a continuum from fixed to growth, and although we would like to always have a growth mindset, the reality is that we can only be on a journey to a growth mindset.
Awareness is 95% of the journey and once we are aware of what needs to change within our mindset, then we can grow. Once we recognise fixed mindset elements in ourselves and then reflect on feedback and strategies for how to improve, then change is possible.
How do we actually help develop a growth mindset?
What are the sorts of behaviours and habits that we need to be encouraging?
So what is mindset?
Wikipedia tells us:
“A mindset is a set of assumptions, methods, or notations held by one or more people or groups of people.”
Generally our mindset is defined by our parents. Most parents tend to impart beliefs and values, which eventually leads their children to live a life with a fixed mindset.
There is power in our beliefs and values, both conscious and unconscious, and changing even the simplest of them can have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves is how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are fixed traits and we can’t change this in any way.
And that success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence. Striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs becomes a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. We are all conditioned to avoiding the fear of not being good enough, the fear of not belonging and not being loved. People then spend their time somewhat accepting their intelligence or talent rather then developing them.
A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. In a growth mindset, people believe that their abilities can be developed through dedication and commitment. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.
A growth mindset creates motivation and productivity. It enhances relationships with ones self and others, and ultimately our capacity for happiness. At the heart of what makes the “growth mindset” so winsome, is that it creates a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval. Its hallmark is the conviction that human qualities like intelligence and creativity, and even relational capacities like love and friendship, can be cultivated through effort and practice.
The developing mind — works, identifying not only the core drivers of those mindsets but also how they can be reprogrammed. As you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another—how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.
So which road will you take?
The road closed ahead, with roadblock signs, or the open road of all possibilities.
Choosing to continuously grow is the roadmap required.
Charlott Kisvarda
Transformational Coaching