If you want to master a new skill or achieve any long-term goals, you will need to learn how to develop a Growth Mindset.
In her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck writes about the qualities of having a Fixed Mindset or a Growth Mindset. This subtle difference in how you approach difficult tasks can greatly affect how well you perform at school, work, and in life.
This article will explore the differences between these two mindsets, and cover nine practical steps you can take to develop a growth mindset – a great predictor of success.
Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
In Mindset, Carol Dweck explains that the way you view hard work and approach challenges is an indicator of your beliefs about your ability. Either you think you can figure out how to accomplish the task, or you won’t even try because you think that it’s too difficult for you.
What is a Fixed Mindset?
If you have a Fixed Mindset, you believe that your skills and intelligence are firmly established, and can not be changed significantly. This may lead you to value looking smart or being talented.
You tend to avoid any new challenge that could display your lack of knowledge or ability. When faced with obstacles, you may become frustrated quickly and give up easily. You believe putting effort into learning something that you don’t already know how to do is pointless. If you receive criticism, you see it as a negative commentary about yourself. You view the achievements of others as something that makes you feel threatened or diminished in some way.
All of these characteristics may lead you to achieve a certain degree of early success, but then you could stay at that level and never expand to your full potential.
What is a Growth Mindset?
If you have a Growth Mindset, you believe that your skills and intelligence can be improved. This belief fuels your interest in learning and expanding your abilities.
Your Growth Mindset helps you to embrace challenges and not give up when you face setbacks. You believe that putting effort into learning something you don’t already know how to do is the best path to mastery. If you receive negative feedback, you don’t take it as a personal criticism. Instead, you see it as an opportunity to learn. You are inspired by the accomplishments of others. You look for ways to learn from their experiences that can help you in your pursuits.
These traits help you achieve higher and higher levels of excellence. You are always learning and growing.
Now that we’ve covered the differences between a Growth Mindset and a Fixed Mindset, let’s discuss exactly how to develop a Growth Mindset.
How to Develop a Growth Mindset
Of these two different ways of thinking, having a Growth Mindset would be most beneficial to helping you achieve your goals. Here are nine things you can do to foster a Growth Mindset.
1. Focus on Learning and Growth
Make a conscious decision that you want to become smarter by putting in the necessary effort and hard work. When setting your goals, you should have a vision of the final result you want to achieve. However, don’t focus solely on your performance (ie: running a marathon). Give the majority of your attention to Mastery Goals. Focus on what you’d need to learn, or the skills you’d need to improve, to reach that target (i.e.: increase my speed or build up my stamina).
Embrace the fact that learning and growth need to be as much a part of your picture of success as the actual achievement of your goal. Expect to put in a great deal of effort to achieve anything worthwhile. Don’t shy away from hard work and don’t expect it to be easy.
2. Welcome New Challenges and Take Risks
Look for opportunities to challenge yourself often. Be willing to take reasonable risks. Intentionally take on projects that move you outside of your comfort zone. Pursue goals that will stretch you beyond your current level of ability. Try new and difficult things even when your success is not guaranteed.
3. Seek Advice and Ask Questions
Rather than focusing on how others may perceive you, look for ways that you can add to your knowledge by learning from other people. Don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know how to do something. By asking questions and seeking advice, you increase your opportunities to learn and grow. You also have a better chance of avoiding some common mistakes because you learned from the wisdom and experience of other high-achievers.
4. Adopt a Deliberate Practice
Is there a creative skill, sport, or hobby you’d like to master? The only way to continuously improve your skill level is through practicing. Don’t just rely on repetition. Instead, implement a “Deliberate Practice.” This is when you go beyond repetition. You intentionally focus on your weaknesses and try to improve them.
In his book, Guitar Zero: The Science of Becoming Musical at Any Age, author Gary Marcus writes, “Studies show that practice aimed at remedying weaknesses is a better predictor of expertise than raw number of hours; playing for fun and repeating what you already know is not necessarily the same as efficiently reaching a new level.”
To learn more about the principles of Deliberate Practice, we recommend the book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool.
5. Learn from Your Mistakes
You’ve heard this advice so many times, but do you actually follow it? It’s normal to make mistakes when you try hard things, and that’s exactly when we learn the most. When you make a mistake, set aside some time to assess what went wrong. Reflect on how you can adjust your plan so that you can continue to grow. Think of a new strategy, and do things differently next time. Change your way of thinking from “I can’t do this right,” to “I can do this if I apply the right strategy.”
6. Accept Feedback and Criticism
Practice listening to feedback without becoming defensive or getting upset. When you receive negative feedback, try not to take it personally. Instead, ask questions to make sure that you understand the constructive criticism and advice being given. Identify what you can learn from the feedback that will help you to improve.
7. Practice Patience and Perseverance
Expect that you will have to face obstacles. Having a growth mindset means you don’t give up when things get difficult. If you need to take a break, that’s ok – but don’t give up. Understand that learning anything complex takes time. You will need to develop the patience to keep trying. Challenge yourself to persevere when the work gets hard.
8. Reframe Failure
At some point, you’re going to take on a new challenge – and fail. It happens. You can strengthen your Growth Mindset by changing how you view failure. If you think that the reason you’ve failed is that you’re just not talented or smart enough, you’re likely to give up. Instead, tell yourself that you’ve only failed because you didn’t work hard enough – but you can try again, and work harder. Or maybe you failed because you didn’t have enough knowledge or skill. Remind yourself that you can always learn more, practice more, and give it another shot.
9. Change Your Self-Talk
The words we say to ourselves affect our outlook and how we approach our goals. Try making these changes to the way that you talk to yourself. When you think. “This is so hard,” follow that up with, “Yes. So what can I do to improve my skills?” Instead of saying, “I can’t do it, say, “I can’t do it yet, but I can learn.”
A Growth Mindset in Kids
You can take the steps outlined above to build a growth mindset at any stage in life. The earlier the better. You can help children to develop a growth mindset when you celebrate their effort and their progress, and not by focusing on their talent or their abilities. Here are two resources parents and educators can use to help foster a Growth Mindset in young people:
Conclusion: How to Develop a Growth Mindset
To develop a Growth Mindset, you must change the way you approach difficult tasks. Practicing these strategies will help you see challenges – and even setbacks, as opportunities to improve your abilities.
- Focus on Learning and Growth
- Welcome New Challenges and Take Risks
- Seek Advice and Ask Questions
- Adopt a Deliberate Practice
- Learn from Your Mistakes
- Accept Feedback and Criticism
- Practice Patience and Perseverance
- Reframe Failure
- Change Your Self-Talk
To learn more about how to develop a growth mindset, we highly recommend watching Carol Dweck’s TED Talk, “The Power of Believing That You Can Improve.”
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