Mindset can be viewed as the lens through which we view, interpret and respond to situations in our lives. If we look through a pair of glasses with green lenses, it will look a little different than looking at the same things with pink lenses. A growth mindset simply means that we believe in our knowledge, skills, talents and other qualities and have the capacity to grow and improve. A growth mindset means that we have a positive attitude and believe that with hard work and persistence, we can improve our mastery of given topic.
People with a growth mindset:
1. Believe talents can be developed
2. Believe effort is a path to growth
3. Believe mistakes are a natural part of the learning process
4. View failure as Opportunity
5. Believe failure is temporary
6. Embrace challenge
7. Welcome Feedback
8. Inspired by successes of others
If you are stuck with a fixed mindset, don't be discouraged, research shows that our brains our flexible and changeable through a process of neuroplasticity.
The fist tool we can use to change from a fixed to a growth mindset, is the visualization process.
Another tool we can use is to embrace our weaknesses. You have probably heard the old saying that there is a silver lining inside of every cloud, well that is the same philosophy we want to apply to our weaknesses, we want to treat them as a natural part of who we are and recognize that each weakness can be improved, and each weakness likely has a useful application if we think about it long enough.
Positive Psychology recognizes that both strengths and weaknesses as important. We cannot improve something we don't admit we have a weakness to improve in the first place. We are only as strong as our weakest link and if we fail to recognize what the weak link is, it is bound to sabotage our efforts.
However, we can determine where our weaknesses are useful, and we can also determine how to apply our strengths to help us master our weaknesses, If we ignore our weaknesses and only focus on our strengths, we can never fully experience our full potential. If we focus only on our weaknesses and neglect our strengths, we cannot consider that living our full potential either. As with everything else in life, its all about balance, we have to keep the good, the bad (and the ugly) in our sites in order to make a complete and accurate assessment of our best next step.
Challenges are opportunities to identify new solutions and ways of being and doing things. Any kind of failure provides us with information that can help us increase our success and abilities the next time around. Sometimes these failures make us stronger, because we build a new way, that includes the new information and prevents us from making the same mistake twice.
With a growth mindset, we tend to focus on the process, rather than the outcome of any situation.
Life is all about the journey and experiences as much as possible. That is how enforce human evolution. We evolve when we learn.
Finally, when we focus on a growth mindset, we celebrate the little wins. Change is hard and it requires an incredible amount of practice and dedication to effectively implement any change. By celebrating the small wins, we recognize that change is hard, and we give ourselves credit for the little stuff we achieve. This helps fuel our confidence and prompts us to continue down the road.
Do you have a growth mindset? What is the hardest part about staying in a growth mindset rather than a fixed one?
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