Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.
–Steve Maraboli
Do you believe your intelligence and potential are inborn and fixed or unlimited in nature?
Believe it or not but your mindset towards your capabilities and potential affect your life in a significant manner.
There are two types of mindsets that shape who we are as individuals, Fixed mindset and Growth mindset.
As the name suggests Fixed mindset believes that our potential, capabilities and intelligence is fixed and can’t be improved. So if you’re not good at something, you’ll never be good at it.
“It iz what it is” would be the go-to of an individual with a fixed mindset.
While on the other hand, a Growth mindset believes in constant improvement, and see failure as a part of the journey to get better at a skill or to achieve success. They crave for challenges and learnings.
Our minds are powerful and impact who we are as individuals and what we can achieve.
In Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The new psychology of success she explains how our conscious or unconscious thoughts, affect our lives and success.
In her powerful book she explains:
When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world—the world of fixed traits—success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other—the world of changing qualities—it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself. In one world, failure is about having a setback. Getting a bad grade. Losing a tournament. Getting fired. Getting rejected. It means you’re not smart or talented. In the other world, failure is about not growing. Not reaching for the things you value. It means you’re not fulfilling your potential. In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented. You have a choice. Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.
Fixed VS Growth mindset: The difference.
Fixed mindset:
An individual with a fixed mindset believes that talent and intelligence are gifted to us from birth and cannot get better with time and effort.
They are constrained and limited with their beliefs and thoughts. They believe that putting in effort and time into something shows that they lack it in the first place and failures prove that they aren’t good at ‘XYZ’.
A person with a fixed mindset doesn’t believe in growth and considers their achievements as their identity. They fear failure and avoid appearing dumb.
How a fixed mindset thinks:
- They believe that the talent and potential we are born with is all we have and can’t be developed over time.
- They avoid challenges and failures.
- They have a strong desire to appear intelligent and they avoid any form of mistake.
- Get threatened by the success of others.
- Avoid negative feedback thinking it to be irreverent even though it could be constructive.
- Always looking for validation to boost their self-esteem.
- Gives up easily.
- They are content with their intelligence and life.
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset believes that one has unlimited potential and that the mind is like a muscle that gets stronger when we challenge it more.
A person with a growth mindset finds freedom and flexibility in the way they think. They are open to challenges and aren’t afraid of failure as they see it as an opportunity to learn.
They get inspired seeing others grow and see it in a way to grow with them. They enjoy learning new things and expanding their knowledge.
A growth mindset acknowledges individuals with higher intelligence, but they don’t see it as something that they can’t acquire through time and effort.
How a growth mindset thinks:
- Embraces challenges and discomfort.
- Sees failures as opportunities to learn and progress.
- Believes that talents, intelligence and abilities can be developed with time and effort.
- Always around people who help them grow and inspires them.
- Inspired by others success.
- Embraces learning and is open-minded and curious.
- Accepts criticism and feedback.
- They are hardly content and always look for better opportunities and areas of growth.
How to shift from a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset:
Is it really possible to change your mindset? Heck yeah! There’s a reason why humans are the most evolved species on the planet, it’s because we literally EVOLVE! We don’t have any limitations as our body adapts to new environments.
Our brains are malleable and can re-wire themselves to learn new information and change our old habits, so changing your mindset is definitely not impossible.
Yes, it might take time but with these simple methods, you can definitely turn your mindset around!
1. Challenge yourself:
Challenging yourself can be the first step to progressively change the way you think. And I don’t mean challenges like: ‘climbing the Everest!’ It can start with simple and small steps like going on a hike nearby.
It could be something you wanted to learn but were limited by your beliefs, like learning excel or starting to paint!
When you get thoughts like:
- It’s impossible
- I can’t do it
- It’s difficult
- I’m not smart enough
- XYZ is better than me I can’t compete
Replace it with
- With enough time and effort, nothing is impossible!
- I can do it, I’m persistent.
- Nothing is difficult if I keep trying.
- I might not be smart now, but I’ll keep learning until I’m smart enough.
- This is MY journey and I won’t compare it to anyone else’s.
2. Be open to learning new things every day.
Be open-minded and learn new things every day, it may be something you observed or read on the internet or even something a random stranger taught you.
Even in your profession, be open to the possibility of learning something you never knew. When you’re consciously trying to learn new things, you get more curious, hardworking and persistent. This paves the path to success.
Embracing knowledge is the starting point to shifting your mindset.
3. Embrace Failures
Be comfortable with failures as it’s inevitable. Once you accept the inevitability of failure and embrace it as a part of life you become more open to going beyond your comfort zone.
Failures teach us what success can’t, therefore we shouldn’t see success as a ‘bad’ thing but as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes.
4. Remember that our brains are malleable
Our brain is the most powerful and adaptable organ. It learns new information every day. Science has proven that till we die our brains keep growing and changing.
This is why the myth that our ‘Knowledge and intelligence is fixed after a certain age’ is completely false and science has proven that.
So don’t stop yourself from learning something new or challenging your intelligence.
Okay so, this is something I’ve experienced and thought to share: I always had been dumb at math, like DUMB DUMB! I didn’t even know how to subtract when I was in the 10th grade! Failing at math was very common to me until I decided to change that.
I definitely didn’t excel at math in a day, I worked my ass off, starting from learning the basics, absolute scratch. And by the end of the year, I ended up getting an A!
That was a turning point for me personally as I always thought I could never be good at math until I consciously changed that and saw the results myself.
So imagine a completely below mediocre student like me could change something my teachers thought could never happen, imagine what could you do!
5. Focus on the process rather than the end result.
People with a growth mindset believe that learning and growing is a continuous process.
Focusing on the end result won’t allow you to enjoy your present. It’s important to cherish the present learnings and failures as well.
Conclusion:
To conclude, it’s crucial to develop a growth mindset to see continuous success and learning. It’s definitely not easy to change the way you think immediately. It may take months or even years.
But it’s definitely not impossible. A growth mindset expands your horizon. Your perception becomes very broad towards the world and yourself.
A fixed mindset limits you and prevents you from getting out of your comfort zone, therefore preventing you from future opportunities and success.
It’s imperative to develop a growth mindset as it does wonders to your life. I’ve experienced it myself and I would love to see that change in others.
Keep persisting and in a matter of time, you would notice the difference.
