How To Series; Embrace a Growth Mindset
Hi! Welcome back to the MFP How To series...where we’ll talk about a skill or concept and how you can use it in your everyday life.
Today I’ll be talking about how to embrace a growth mindset.
The attitude we experience during our most challenging days provides a good example of our everyday mindset. Carol Dweck (2006), a professor of psychology whose research specializes in motivation, found two mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. People with fixed mindsets believe that their talents, abilities, and qualities are carved in stone. Those with fixed mindsets avoid challenges, give up when obstacles get in their way, ignore criticism, and find the success of others threatening(Dweck, 2006) .
Whereas people with growth mindsets believe that their basic qualities, talents, and intelligence can be cultivated through their efforts (Dweck, 2006). Those with growth mindsets embrace challenges, persist through obstacles, learn from criticism, and are inspired by the success of others.
As humans, we fail. In fact, it can be said that success is 99% failure (Mumford, 2015). If we operate more from a fixed mindset when failure happens, we will likely let it define us and be limited by it. But if we operate from a growth mindset when failure happens, we will likely use it as fuel to improve.
Babies are a great example of those with a growth mindset. Their days are filled with embracing new challenges, exploring via trial and error, and ample failures. I see this in my 9 month old daughter everyday as she learns to navigate the world and learn new skills. She doesn’t worry about these things, she simply does them. While she does get frustrated at times, she’s determined to master each skill no matter what it takes. I heard somewhere that failure is feedback, and as I watch my daughter learn to crawl and walk, this couldn’t be more true. Each unsuccessful attempt gives her feedback on how to improve.
Embracing a growth mindset is often more challenging for adults. In my humble professional opinion, this has a lot to do with our own worry about how we might look, how uncomfortable it might feel, or any number of other negative thoughts getting in the way. The good news is that, with practice and commitment, you can learn to embrace a growth mindset.
Here’s how:
Seek out and embrace new challenges. Some of the best learning comes from trying new things - even if you might not be good at it at first. And even though you might struggle or fail at first, the amount of growth you’ll experience through your willingness to commit to the process and try new things that stretch you in new ways, will be influential on how you approach facing challenges in the future.
Cultivate persistence. Will it be challenging? Probably. Will it be uncomfortable? Maybe. Stick with it! Being uncomfortable is temporary, so push through and remind yourself that growth and improvement is just on the other side.
Embrace failure. Yes, embrace it! Failure, mess ups, and mistakes are incredibly important components of the learning process. When approached with the perspective that failures lead to learning and improvement, they don’t feel so bad after all. Remember Thomas Edison - he didn’t fail 10,000 times when inventing the lightbulb, he found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.
Be proactively curious. Curiosity is a strong desire to learn something - and proactive curiosity is ‘picking a topic you’re genuinely interested in and proactively seeking knowledge related to that topic (Ewers, 2018)’. When we are proactively curious about learning, we’re less focused on if we’ll mess up or not, and more focused on what we’ll learn and how it will help us.
Practice gratitude. Acknowledging what you are grateful for can have a profound influence on your overall outlook. It can help you be more optimistic and view every opportunity as one for growth. You can practice gratitude by writing down a few things you're grateful for each day to remind yourself of all you have!
The key to embracing a growth mindset is to be consistent, and to give yourself grace when things get challenging. Learning takes time and involves failing, but it is also how we improve. Your outlook towards trying new things, messing up, and learning can have a major impact on your experience. By practicing and embracing a growth mindset, you just might find the benefits are endless!
I know it’s not always easy. MFP is here to help - get in touch to learn more and get started on your journey towards a growth mindset!
