Last Updated on September 6, 2019 by Shane Corbitt
Growing up, many of us have been taught to believe that failure is a bad thing and success only happens to the smart, skilled people who don’t fail. That having what we want out of life is only a dream enjoyed by those who are successful. That these dreams are unobtainable and we should just settle for mediocrity.
What if this thought process is completely wrong and holding us back from making our dreams a reality?
What if these dreams or skills could be developed through hard work and persistence?
What if we go even deeper and divide these beliefs into two different thought processes, “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset”. This is exactly what psychologist Carol Dweck set out to prove.
Dweck determined that a “growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities”.
“A fixed mindset assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled.”
There are 5 parts to having a “growth mindset”
1. Embrace challenges
All of us have our ups and downs in life. While some have it worse than others, we all face challenges throughout our lives.
Facing challenges shouldn’t be an excuse to give up. Instead, what if we viewed them as a positive? What I mean is, seeing these challenges as just a wall, or obstacle, that we need to climb to continue on our path toward success.
So many of us give up at this point in the journey only to go back to a “fixed mindset” way of thinking. This is where staying positive and persistent will get you past the obstacle that you’re facing.
2. Persist in the face of setbacks
Persistence is a major key in finding your way to success. Setbacks are another aspect of the journey that is viewed in a negative way.
Setbacks are inevitable and need to be used as a learning tool. We can always take a failure and learn something from it. Whether it’s improving a process or changing the process completely, there is always a valuable takeaway.
Staying persistent and not giving up is an important part to becoming successful.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gaveup.” -Thomas Edison
3. See effort as the path to mastery
I should clarify that it’s not just effort but focused effort and being intentional that leads to mastery.
Setting 6 month or 1 year goals than focusing all of your efforts on the actions that will lead to the achievement of those goals is crucial. It can be a skill you want to learn or improve. A goal of being financially or location independent.
No matter what the goal is, giving consistent and persistent effort will always lead to a win. You should always strive to be better today than what you were yesterday.
4. Learn from criticism
Learning from criticism has multiple possibilities. Some criticism can be taken as constructive and in turn used to improve your efforts toward success.
Other forms of criticism needs to just be ignored all together. This type of criticism comes from the negative naysayers that are always cutting down ideas and goals of others.
There are many successful people out there, past and present, if they would have caved in to the critics and given up on their ideas. We wouldn’t have most of the luxuries that we enjoy today.
We need to push through the negativity barrier and continue moving on towards our goals.
5. Find lessons and inspiration in the success of others
This is where we can gain inspiration and learn from the success of others who have ignored the negative criticism. Embraced the challenges and setbacks, persistently moving forward with a focused effort to reach their goals.
Many of us never truly realize how obtainable our dreams and goals really are. Instead we search for an easy way or we give it a try to only give up when the odds become stacked against us.
While these methods won’t guarantee your success it can greatly increase your chances of becoming successful.
Surround yourself with positive, successful people along with materials such as books, mentors or even a mastermind group. This will help hold you accountable and help guide you on your path to success.
The main takeaway here is how important it is to develop a “growth mindset” and how beneficial it is to have this mindset. For a more in depth look into the process of a “growth mindset” read Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
