Here are six ways we can help others foster a growth mindset and pivot away from a fixed mindset in order to become the best version of themselves and live on purpose
1. View Failure as a learning opportunity
Start by shifting your perspective towards failure. Turn your focus to having a growth mindset and a passion for learning rather than a desire to prove your traits and abilities.
Approaching failure with an open mind allows us to ask ourselves helpful questions such as “What mistakes did I make so I don’t make them in the future?” and “What are new solutions I can use to get better results?”
When you start viewing failure as an opportunity to grow and to learn, you will begin to change your mindset towards challenges in a more positive way.
- Reflect
- Analyze
- Prepare
- Plan
- Act
2. Stop Looking For Approval From Others
Accept who you are right now, Excel at becoming better each day
Take a moment to be grateful for who you are and all the amazing things about you. When you start to pour love into yourself and see yourself through a positive perspective, you won’t perceive failure as evidence of not being smart or talented.
Sometimes when we approach challenges, we have a desire for others to praise what we’ve done correctly. We strive for rewards to validate our self-worth and when we don’t get the approval we are looking for, it hurts us more than we expected.
But when we prioritize learning and growth over approval, our potential and success will both increase. Life will open up in different ways than we ever previously imagined.
- Own your greatness
- Focus on who you are, not what you do
- Control what you can control
- Release resentment, learn to be content but not complacent
- Be a duck
3. Process over production
Recognize that you have already failed forward to this correct moment
You graduated school regardless of your teacher’s criticisms, you applied for all of those jobs despite the rejections, you met and fell in love and broke up and fell in love again, and you fell to rock bottom but rose and fell and rose again.
You did this.
For every skill you attempt to learn, take a moment and breathe. Realize this is an opportunity for you to cultivate new skills or to refine the ones you already have.
You will fail but that is okay. It’s part of the process, If you don’t fail, you’re not growing
Every rejection and challenge you face that creates tension is an opportunity to learn and grow. Each time you fail, you are learning and sharpening your traits, qualities, and intelligence. You are becoming a stronger and more resilient individual every moment.
- One door closes, 10 more open strategy
- Dig deeper, what’s the lesson in the rejection
- What’s the opportunity
- What is life giving you that you need in order to become the best version of you
- Growth through pain or growth through insight… Either way, we are always growing
4. Listen to Yourself
Don’t listen to the doubters, listen to yourself. We have been conditioned since primary education to view failure as a setback, but it is actually great feedback.
Getting a bad grade or not receiving the job means you are not smart or talented. So, we are told to give up and focus on something we’re good at.
But failure can be a good thing. It exposes our weaknesses and highlights what we need to work on and improve. Failure is key to helping us reach our potential and success. It gives us a blueprint of what we need to train
If your friends, family, and society question what you are doing then it’s okay. Remind yourself that you are investing in your success, your future, and you are growing into the individual you always envisioned yourself to be.
- Train the guide inside
- Get out of your head, and trust your gut
- Quiet the barking dog in your head
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
We are supposed to fail and to fail often, but as we get older, we start to fear failure. As children, learning to walk takes a great deal of effort amidst constant failure.
Each time a child begins to walk, they fail but they keep trying. Every time you hear an inner doubting voice creep in, we want you to listen to your inner child and keep getting back up. Channel the resilience of your younger self and believe that you can and therefore you will
- Resilience- How did this failure make me better
- What is the gift hidden in the failure
- What is this failure teaching you to prepare you for what’s next
- Be a goldfish
6. Foster a Sense of Purpose
Remind yourself why you’re learning a new skill. Ask yourself “Do you enjoy it”? Or are you completing it to reach a larger goal?
When you focus on a sense of purpose towards a new task or new opportunity, you are more likely to keep the big picture in mind. Those with a growth mindset have a larger sense of purpose and keep going when times get tough.
Remind yourself daily what your purpose is to reach the end.
- 4 Essential questions
- Why do you play?
- It has to be more than the game
- Merge your greatest pain with your greatest passion
Interesting and informative article. Very educational with suggestions worthy of endorsement.
How we think about our intelligence and abilities influences how we feel and what we do, whether we adhere to new habits and whether we move on to learning new skills.
A growth mindset basically means that people believe that their knowledge and skills can be enhanced by hard work and action. On the other hand, people with a fixed mindset assume that no amount of effort can alter individual traits.
A growth mindset also has other benefits: Burnout is reduced, there are fewer psychological concerns, such as depression and anxiety, fewer behavioral problems, it helps to monitor how one thinks, feels and acts. It reduces negative thinking.
From the approaches that allow us to develop a growth mindset, I believe that one of the most direct ways is to understand that our brain is programmed to develop and learn, exposing ourselves to new experiences, leaving our comfort zone.