How to Develop a Growth Mindset

Hi and welcome to this page about How to develop a Growth mindset. I am going to go through what a Growth Mindset is, the benefits and how to develop one. If you care about your progress in your personal and professional life you need to have a Growth Mindset.

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What is a Growth Mindset

To begin with, what exactly is a Growth Mindset? I am sure you have heard about it and are curious as to exactly what it is and if it is useful for you to develop a Growth Mindset.

The term Growth Mindset (as well as the opposite fixed mindset) was made popular by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck from her studies of the behaviour of thousands of students.

A Growth Mindset was used to describe the core beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. When students believe they can get smarter, they understand that their hard work and effort can improve their abilities.

While a Fixed Mindset believes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are things we can’t change in any meaningful way, you are either born with it or not and hence no need in trying to improve.

Why you need one

Our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, are very powerful. And changing even the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves can have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives.

If you value your growth you need to believe that you can improve. That through your hard work and effort you can change your situation for the better.

If you have a fixed mindset about your abilities and you don’t believe you can improve yourself. Then why would you even try anything new or challenging, you will be defeated before you even begin.

You must develop a Growth Mindset to be able to progress and not be stuck in your comfort zone. Remember, the expert in anything was once a beginner.

The fact is that we all have a mix of Growth and Fixed Mindsets in different areas of our lives.

You may believe that you can improve your fitness by consistently exercising. But not that you will be able to be a manager at work because you are not a people person or have the skills.

Or perhaps that you can buy your dream house because you know how to save and budget. But that you can’t learn a new language because you are too old.

How you can develop a Growth Mindset

It is great to know about what a Growth Mindset is and why you need it. But it is more important to apply it in different areas of your life.

The best inspiration to help you develop a Growth Mindset, is from your own story.

Think about a time when you could not do something that you find easy to do today. Where you overcame something you thought was difficult.

Where you were nervous but still put in your effort and achieved your goal. For example, swimming, riding a bike, writing, reading, walking.

None of these are things you were born able to do but yet here you are today able to do most of them. Use examples where you overcame something you thought was difficult.

Where you were nervous but still put in your effort and achieved your goal.

Or you can use an example of someone you know, famous or not, that has an inspiring rags to riches story.

Whether you were inspired by others or driven by your own desire to learn. You managed to accomplish your goal, you believed you could do it, that you could improve and get better.

To develop a Growth Mindset you need to have that same belief now; in whatever area you want to improve.

Below are some of the benefits of developing a Growth Mindset in various areas of your life.

Develop a Growth Mindset in your Relationship

In relationships there are a lot of compromises, we come in as individuals but need to be willing to put the effort in if we want our relationship to grow and flourish.

This means not expecting to have a perfect relationship from the beginning. We are not perfect and should not expect only our partner to change and mould to our standards.

You need to develop a Growth Mindset and know that it will take time and effort to be able to get the best out of your relationship. If you feel like you cannot get better and your relationship cannot improve and are not willing to try.

Then you will jump from relationship to relationship with no success, as you will expect a perfect relationship without putting effort in.

You need to believe that you and your partner can improve and hence your relationship as well. There is no point in one person believing in the relationship.

Both of you need to have a Growth Mindset and be willing to put in the effort to improve your relationship.

Whether that is going on more dates, spending more quality time together, talking and being honest which each other’s feelings, being willing to listen and respect your partner’s opinions.

Develop a Growth Mindset in your Financial life

Applying a Growth Mindset to your financial life means believing that where you are now financially is not where you will always be. That you can improve your financial situation, through your hard work and effort.

Whether that means gaining new skills to open doors to new opportunities, working extra hours or getting another part-time job, working on your spending habits and learning about budgeting, investing, saving.

You need to accept that this is something within your control as no one can stop you from learning the skills you need.

Having a Growth Mindset will enable you to positively think about your financial growth and what you can do to improve it.

Develop a Growth Mindset in your Career

A big part of our life is spent at work. So having a Growth Mindset, believing that you can improve professionally is important to your success. Because being stagnant will get boring and make you unhappy and unfulfilled.

If you want to progress in your career you need to believe that you can advance, learn new skills and handle more responsibility.

You need to know that even though you may be comfortable in your current position you should not be afraid of change, whether it is a new job or from being promoted.

You must believe you are capable of growing and learning new skills to fit into your role, just like you did with the one you are in now.

Be willing to put in the effort and learn what you need to progress your career. Otherwise you will be stuck in your position and will not advance because of your limiting fixed mindset.

Develop a Growth Mindset in your Health & Fitness

You may not be where you want to be regarding your physical or mental health but you must know that it is possible to improve from your hard work and effort.

If you want to get physically fitter and you have just started running and after 2 mins of a light jog you are out of breath.

Then you should know that as long as you do not give up and stop your running routine you will be able to run for longer eventually.

We all need to start from somewhere, but it is the belief that you will not always be a beginner, that you will make progress as long as you don’t give up.

If you don’t believe that you will eventually be able to run for 5, 10 even 30 mins well what would be the point of trying?

You must adopt a Growth Mindset and know that you can improve however small, slow progress is still progress.

Develop a Growth Mindset in your Personal Developmen

You were not born with the ability to read or write but now you can, because you did not give up.

This is the same for learning anything new, like a language or playing the piano to developing your self-discipline and willpower.

Developing a Growth Mindset in your personal development means knowing and believing that there is not much you can’t learn, they say it takes 10,000 hours to master almost anything.

If you are not good at cooking you can improve, if you are not able to play the piano you can practice, if you cannot swim you can learn.

There may be some physical limitations like being able to dunk if you are not tall enough, but that should not stop you from being a really good basketball player.

You can have many excuses about why it is easier for other people, however, that does not help you improve it just gives you an excuse not to try and achieve something.

If you don’t believe me then research the most successful people whether in sport, business, film. And find out how they got to where they are, were they born like that, was it luck, natural talent or did they work hard for it?

Remember, The expert in anything was once a beginner.

If you would like to learn more about the science behind the Growth Mindset, I recommend reading MINDSET by Carol Dweck and GRIT Angela Duckworth.

 5 tips to develop a Growth Mindset

Acknowledge and embrace imperfections – Accept that you are not perfect, you do not know everything and that you have a lot you can learn and improve.

Change how you see failure – Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back, look at failure as feedback. See it as something you can use to improve, the same with any personal feedback, take it as constructive criticism.

Effort over Talent – Focus on your effort and putting the time in, not on being naturally talented or being disheartened by people who seem more talented than you.

The Power of yet – Just because you do not know something or cannot do it now, does not mean you never will, you just cannot YET.

Stop seeking approval – When you prioritise approval over learning, you sacrifice your growth potential. Value Growth and improvement over pleasing others.

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