Growth mindset: 7 key principles

Each person perceives the surrounding reality in a certain way. This also applies to those cases when it comes to development, achievements, and success. Unfortunately, many are trapped in the so-called fixed mindset. Such people believe that their future is predetermined by the place where they were born, their family, their original abilities and talents. They are afraid of competition and believe that they have knowingly lost, they are embarrassed and afraid to take from the world more than they were promised at birth or other circumstances.

Obviously, the fixed mindset is such an inner boundary that does not allow a person to achieve more than what floats into his hands. And sometimes he ignores the opportunities that, by a happy coincidence, appear, driven by his own fears.

If you want to be successful, the fixed mindset must be eradicated - it must be replaced by the growth mindset. In this article I want to talk about its seven principles, as well as to share the stories of several people who did not accept the given, thanks to which they reached great heights.

Genetics and talent are important, but they do not determine your life

Many blame their failures on the fact that they have no talent for a particular sphere. But the reality is that in many areas, talent can be simply replaced by daily and focused work - I think you've heard the rule of 10 thousand hours devoted to one case. You may not believe specifically in this figure, but the essence remains the same: as a result, the one who constantly learns, trains, develops and looks for opportunities wins.

Of course, we will not exclude areas in which natural abilities cannot be dispensed with (for example, ballet, which is taught professionally from an early age), but there are really few such areas. There are much more of those that scare us with their scale and complexity, but they are comprehensible if you start to master them.

Other people influence you less than you think

In psychology, there are concepts such as external and internal locus of control. External one assumes that you explain everything that happens in your life by other people and circumstances. “I am unhappy because I have a bad husband”, “I cannot work well because my boss is a tyrant”, “I do not have comfortable conditions because the government of my country does not take good care of its citizens” - these are all examples of such a position.

But psychologists are increasingly focusing attention on the fact that a person needs to move to an internal locus of control - that is, to take responsibility for what happens to him, on himself. As a matter of fact, you can always change your husband, job or conditions - you just have to want it. And real growth and real achievements begin when a person takes his life into his own hands. Of course, external circumstances will continue to influence it, but to a much lesser extent.

J.K. Rowling received 12 rejections from various publishers before the Harry Potter story was published and made the author one of the richest women in the world.

People are able to change throughout life

If a person with a fixed mindset thinks that people don't change, this approach is opposite. And it has many advantages:

• A person understands that he can do a lot, because he is able to correct his bad habits, acquire new ones, as well as change the field of activity, social circle and get completely different conditions for life.
• Anyone who relies on such an attitude lives with a feeling of positiveness and the possibility of change even in the most difficult cases - this is what helps to get out of the so-called ‘swamp’.
• This attitude helps not only its owner, but also others. Thinking that people can change, a person is more flexible in communication, it becomes more effective, because he does not give up on other people - even those with whom it was not possible to find a common language earlier.

This rule applies to all the areas of life and works great.

Mistake is not failure, but experience

Data-oriented people are very afraid of making mistakes and of others evaluation. This fear fetters them to such an extent that important decisions and steps are simply postponed. A person, as it were, hides in the shell of his usual life and cannot go out into the world, because it is full of all sorts of mistakes.

But if there is a growth mindset, the attitude towards failure is different. Each mistake is perceived as an experience that always solves some problem: it teaches something or shows that it is necessary to look for an answer elsewhere. A person who does something will still make mistakes – the point is how exactly he will dispose of the information received. If there is a desire to grow, he uses it specifically for growth.

Walt Disney, the founder of the legendary empire The Walt Disney Company, known throughout the world, was fired from a newspaper in Missouri at 22. The employers of the cartoonist considered that he was not creative and talented enough.

Constructive criticism is good

Anyone who relies on growth is not afraid of criticism and does not take it with hostility. If this is a destructive opinion of a person who is not an authority or a specialist, such criticism can always be ignored. And if it comes from a significant person (organization, community), then this is another good basis for learning - in order to reduce the risks of mistakes in the future. Anyone who is interested in growth not only does not avoid criticism - he seeks it, accepts it with gratitude and uses it as efficiently as possible for himself.

Competition moves forward, not slows down

In the fixed mindset, people are often afraid of competition. You can hear from them that “all niches have been occupied for a long time”, “only those from the ‘inner circle’ will be taken there”, “there is no use in even trying to enter this sphere”, “there are millions like me” - and many more similar phrases. All of them come down to the fact that with high competition, you can even forget about development attempts, nothing will work out anyway. But the growth mindset has a completely different principle. A person sees competition, realizes that someone is stronger, and someone is weaker, but people at the top are constantly replacing each other. This means that with the desire and a good investment of effort and time, you can also achieve a lot. Successful competitors are a good example of what a peak can be for a person at the foot of this mountain.

Meryl Streep, starting her career as an actress, more than once heard that she was too ugly to play in a movie, but did not give up. Now this woman is a 3-time Oscar winner and 9-time Golden Globe winner, which is an absolute record in the history of the award.

Other people's success is an example, not a cause for envy or sadness.

Many people cannot calmly react to the fact that someone has achieved a lot, earned more, built a successful career, or created a happy family. They always want to look for a catch in this, to denigrate such stories, to look for inconsistencies in them. They maybe experiences that are not associated with envy, but simply painful perceptions - for example, "I can never do this," "I am not worthy of this." But even in this case, the position is incorrect. I recommend being inspired by other people's examples, to collect them in your ‘piggy bank’ of positive stories and feed on them. If you sincerely rejoice in other people's success and achievements, you yourself will have much more resources.

The growth mindset is a radically different vision of the world in comparison with the fixed mindset. A person who has chosen such a path for himself is happy to take responsibility for his life upon himself, goes to the goal, using all available resources, and is not afraid of failures, because he knows: after the fall there will be a new rise.

And you can start right now: register on our service, set a big Goal and go towards it day after day, changing your life for the better with the help of proven tools! Perhaps this is exactly the step that you have long wanted to take!

Default