How a Growth Mindset Will Lead You to Success
How a Growth Mindset Will Lead You to Success
Part 3: Mindset Strategies to Overcome Challenges
When operating from a Fixed Mindset, we limit ourselves to what feels comfortable and where we can guarantee success. The downside is that our full potential always lives outside what feels comfortable and safe.
To really live up to what we’re capable of requires actively stepping into a Growth Mindset and stretching ourselves into the learning zone, over and over again. Mastering the shift from a fixed to a growth mindset is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving the highest levels of success.
The Brief
Not enough time to dive deep? You can get the cliff notes version via “The Brief” at the start of every post.
Psychologist Carol Dweck conceptualized and studied the difference between a Fixed vs a Growth Mindset.
A Fixed Mindset is characterized by believing your abilities, talents, intelligence and capability is “fixed”. Basically, that you’re either born with it or not.
A Growth Mindset is characterized by believing you can develop your abilities, talents, and capabilities. It’s about embodying the belief that through hard work and a desire to improve, that you will in fact get better.
A Growth Mindset leads to resilience, grit, and helps frame setbacks or failures as merely learning opportunities on the way to our ultimate growth.
When looking through the lens of a Growth Mindset, hitting a roadblock doesn’t mean you’re not going to meet your ultimate goal, it merely means you haven’t got there yet. And that can inspire the ongoing dedication to keep going until you master it.
Thankfully, this concept is part of most Elementary School curriculums and our kids are being taught how to keep going in the face of challenges, and how to embrace “not yet” as an alternative view to failure.
How Maintaining a Growth Mindset Feeds Success
Maintaining a Growth Mindset impacts how you approach challenges and how open you are to learning from setbacks.
Here are three ways a Growth Mindset creates a perspective that facilitates future success:
Embracing Challenges: Having a Growth Mindset means seeing challenges as chances to grow, not as a potential threat. This pushes you to take action and move towards potential gains. On the flip side, viewing a situation as a threat makes you focus on protecting yourself, leaving you stuck and unable to act. You’re more likely to find the resolve to dig deep and rise to the occasion when you view a situation as an opportunity.
Setting Stretch Goals: When you know you can do hard things, and even if you fail you’ll be okay, you’re more likely to stretch yourself and try things outside of your comfort zone. You’re more likely to intentionally look for things that challenge and push you, ultimately leading to a bias towards continuous improvement that feeds ongoing success.
Builds Effort: Those who embrace a growth mindset understand that the effort you put in is a crucial factor in determining what you ultimately achieve. It’s knowing that hard work ultimately pays off. Having this approach helps build persistence and grit over time, which feeds into the attainment of goals.
To Illustrate . . .
But how does this actually show up in the real world? Let me illustrate.
I wish I could say I have always had a Growth Mindset, but I was shocked to find myself reading Carol Dweck’s landmark book - Mindset - and seeing plenty of evidence that I was firmly locked into a Fixed outlook.
Looking back, I can recognize that I was praised for my ability, not my effort when I was young. I was frequently told how capable I was, and I got away with not doing too much outside of school hours throughout my high school years.
This “natural ability” mindset was reinforced by being selected for a creative thinking extension program in middle school and ultimately traveling internationally to compete in the World Finals (a big deal when I was all of 13!). It wasn’t something I studied to be good at, which further reinforced the belief in me that when it came to new things, I either had the talent and aptitude for it immediately or I didn’t have it at all.
Like all, I have had times where I have leaned more into a Growth orientation, but my default was, and arguably still is, a Fixed Mindset. While I have enjoyed many successes, I can look back now and see all the times this stopped me from stepping out of my comfort zone, and really embracing my potential. Some examples include:
Not trying out for a hockey team when I went to University because I didn’t know if I would make the best team like I had at high school. “Better to not try than to try and fail” I reasoned to myself.
Giving up in the face of challenges at University because I didn’t know how to really put in the effort to achieve goals. Studying and learning (i.e., putting in effort) weren’t skills I had learned or embraced earlier on, as I had always assumed talent would get me through. I didn’t know how to dust myself off after a setback and get back on the horse.
Lacking in persistence with marketing, business, and writing goals because I didn’t see immediate results. I have tended to give up way too early, and way too easily. This leads to me overestimating the power of external success factors, and consistently underestimating the power of consistent effort, dedication, and ongoing commitment to an objective. Consistency matters more than almost any other factor.
Lesson to Learn: Don’t be like Kate ;). In all truth, I have to be constantly aware of choosing to look at things through a Growth Mindset. It doesn’t come naturally to me. But when I face a challenge, simply being able to remind myself that “I’m not there yet” makes all the difference in helping me to channel ongoing resilience, motivation, and energy. It doesn’t mean my goal isn’t achievable; it means I haven't achieved it yet.
An insight gained through lived experience, I now frequently remind myself that I’m more likely to regret not trying at all, than trying and not instantly being successful.
It’s a reminder of the quote most often attributed to hockey player Wayne Gretzky.
"You miss a 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky
Regardless of whether you succeed, there is a great sense of pride that can be taken from having the courage, resilience, and dedication to go after something that is outside your comfort zone, and requires you to stretch yourself. And even if you don’t succeed, you’ll surely learn.
Image from Louis De Lauro via The Tattooed Buddha
Tool: Moving from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset
Mining for the Lessons Learned
How we view previous setbacks and failures impacts how confident we feel about taking on future challenges. This simple approach can help you appreciate what you learned and how you have grown from the hard things you’ve previously faced.
Think back to a time when things didn’t work out as you hoped. It could be a failed educational experience, business venture, or personal partnership.
Make a list of eight positives that came out of that experience. What did you learn? How did you grow through that experience? (This may be hard. Keep persisting until you get a list of 8 things. That’s what forces you to really look for the learning lessons).
Summarize in a short paragraph how those positive, even if not the intended outcomes, have helped shape who you are today.
Additional Resources
Here you’ll find additional resources to learn that much more about a Growth Mindset, and how you can parent, lead, and live through this frame of reference.
Individual Focus:
Book - Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dr Carol Dweck
TED Talk - The Power of Believing You Can Improve by Carol Dweck
Assessment - Carol Dweck’s Growth vs. Fixed Mindset Assessment
Book - Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
Workplace Focus:
Course - Coursea: The Growth Mindset from UCDavis (professional skills for the workplace)
Parenting:
Worksheets - MindsetWorks Resources for Parents
Kate Snowise trained as an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist in New Zealand, before moving to the US ten years ago, where she has since established herself as a prominent Executive Coach, Speaker, and Facilitator. She is dedicated to guiding leaders to deepen their self-awareness, grow into their potential, and have a positive impact on those around them. Recognized as a top Executive Coach by the Coach Federation and Culture Amp, she has also been listed among the Top 15 Coaches in St Paul, MN by Influence Digest. Kate’s thoughts and insights have graced prestigious platforms including FastCompany, Forbes, MindBodyGreen, and Huffington Post.
To learn more about Kate, connect with her on LinkedIn or reach out www.thrive.how.