“I already tried and it didn’t work. So what’s the point?” Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever felt like your efforts are being wasted because you keep failing? This post isn’t going to be a step by step about how to succeed. No. Today, the discussion is about how to reprogram your mindset from a fixed to a growth mindset.
Fixed? Growth? What is all this?
People with a fixed mindset believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talents, are simply fixed traits. Someone who has a fixed mindset believes “if you’ve got it, you’ve got it and if you don’t, you don’t. So essentially, if you’re not good at something, you’ll simply believe you’ll never be good at it.”
A person with a fixed mindset usually avoids any sort of challenges. This is simply because they fear failure. When they are faced with failure, they often feel helpless. They trivialize their successes and focus on their failures. Focusing on their failures prohibits any sort of growth. It holds them back from reaching their full potential and prevents them from developing any skills.
For example, someone may have a goal to go back to school. But, something is stopping them from pursuing this goal. They reason that it’s too late in life for them to go back. They tell themselves that there is no point because they are most likely just going to fail. This is a perfect example of a fixed mindset because instead of viewing this exciting challenge but also a personal goal as a new opportunity, they view it as an obstacle that they could never overcome.
What about a growth mindset?
Someone with a growth mindset believes that challenges mean room for growth. They view things that they are not good at as something that they can improve on. With a growth mindset, instead of being afraid of failure, they view failure as a learning experience. Instead of saying, “I can’t do that”, they say, “I can’t do that…YET.” Someone with a growth mindset view mistakes as something they can learn from.
Let’s use the same example from before about someone having the goal of going back to school. Instead of reasoning that it’s too late for them to go back, they would reason that although there may be some challenges with going back to school, it would be a valuable learning opportunity for them. Instead of saying that there’s no point because they will fail, they would tell themselves that even, worse case scenario, they do fail, they would see it as an opportunity to do better the next time. This is an example of a growth mindset because instead of viewing this challenging goal as an obstacle, they view it as an achievable goal with hard work and determination.
So which one are you? Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? If you’re not sure, which mindset would you want to have? It’s all up to YOU. Remember this: You get to choose. You get to choose which mindset you want to have.
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