11 Incredible Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset
You must have heard the illustration of that man holding a half-filled glass of water.
Some saw it as half-empty while others saw it as half full – Perception!
The truth – Having a static mindset could lead to some limitations.
To succeed, you must engage in the process of personal growth. It is very easy to be attached to what you are familiar with and what works for you, I understand.
But imagine what life would look like if we still use stones to create fire as the “stone agers” did.
To develop a growth mindset, you must teach yourself to treat knowledge deficit as knowledge insufficiency and not as a dearth of your ability.
This can be done by changing your view from “I can’t do this” to “I can learn how to do this”.
We are all capable of learning; the only way not to grow is deciding to close your mind to change, learning and development.
Take a look at a few ways to develop a growth mindset.
1. Drive
You must be self-driven to have a growth mindset. It is imperative to have a goal in mind so you know where you are going and how to get there.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there” – Lewis Carroll.
You should also get a sense of purpose, and it must be a bit flexible to allow changes.
2. Set your priorities right
“if you fail to plan, you have the plan to fail” – Benjamin Franklin.
If you are not planning to grow, you would not grow. Growth does not happen by accident so you should set your priorities right.
Not all people or things will go with you on your path to success, you have to let go of some. You really need this to be mentally healthy and focused.
Also, take note that procrastination is a thief of time and priorities. What you can do now, don’t postpone till tomorrow. Know how to manage your time effectively. Channel your energy into something positive and rewarding.
I love this slogan “I will take time to do it well, it will surely pay me back.” Learning will give room for mistakes & correction which is the soul of learning.
3. Persistent learning
Do not rank approval over learning, it will sabotage your latency for growth.
Fast growth is not always the best. Things that last usually don’t grow fast; it is a natural phenomenon. When you are learning, your priority should be to learn properly, then if possible learn fast.
If you are tired of your current position, you must learn to grow.
The learning process is not always fun, in fact, it seldom includes fun. If you avoid challenges, you cannot exploit your current skill or develop new ones.
The more you learn, the more you know. The more skills you acquire, the more talent and gifts you sharpen and the more value you add to yourself.
This inclination to learn will place you on a path to success with the reward of touching more lives while having a better standard of living yourself.
To learn persistently means you are continually giving your brain food and fresh fruits for better ideas. Brain plasticity allows you to adapt to your experiences.
Your brain is malleable, why shouldn’t your mind?
This is one of the ways you can add values to your business and career. Business owners all know that new and innovative ideas are what businesses need and that’s what they look for in both old and new employee.
You should also try different learning strategies.
What works for Mr A might not work for Mr B. How you learned a subject may not be the same way you will learn the other. There’s more than one way of learning and growing, try them until you find something that works for you.
Learn from other people’s mistake – you cannot make all the mistakes yourself, some have made them before you so it will be wise of you to learn from them.
4. Change your diction
You don’t necessarily need to use some words. Why? The words you speak have incredible effects on you and how you think.
“Yet” is a powerful word.
“I can’t do this” can take a new perspective when you add the word – yet.
A friend told me this some three years ago, “don’t say you don’t know this or can’t do that”. Instead, say I don’t know how to do it yet, but I am learning it.”
When you adopt the use of this word, you tend to see the opportunity to do new things and develop what you know before.
“Fail” is another word to avoid.
Whenever you did not achieve a goal or accomplish a task, instead of saying you failed, you could just admit you have learned something; and indeed you have learned how not to do it.
“Improvement” – is an awesome word!
Do not think “room for improvement” is the same as failure. Failure is when you stop trying. Improvement is different.
If you do not give room for improvement, you will fail to grow. You should provide opportunities to improve on what you do.
5. Believe in yourself
Even if no one else does, please do. Believing in yourself is the first step to making others believe.
Geniuses are talented people, there is no doubt about that. But have you seen a lazy genius before? I bet your answer is no! Geniuses are always up and doing to refine their talent.
It takes hard work to change anything from its raw state to a refined state. Being a genius is not just talent, it is talent plus hard work. When you celebrate success, make sure you commend the work before the talent.
To be a genius, you need to take advantage of opportunities while being prepared.
An opportunity could be wasted if it doesn’t meet preparation. It is the level of your preparation that will determine the outcome of every opportunity you come across.
A man who expects the rain without a container will have nothing to collect the rain when it eventually falls.
6. Determination and Discipline
Determination, doggedness or steadfastness is that ability you need to have so you don’t quit before you’ve learned what needs to be learned.
Learning new things especially when it is hard can be frustrating. To thrive, you must be tenacious.
Focus on what is happening in you (impact) i.e. your gain and not on what is happening to you – pain. There’s a common saying “no pain, no gain”.
Discipline is an extension of determination. Discipline ensures you focus on the task at hand, viz. growth. There is no mountain insurmountable if you’re disciplined and determined to climb it. A typical example is the life of Nick Vujicic.
No obstacle should be too high to change your mind from growing.
You could decide to turn obstacles upside down and make it a stepping stone to another phase of your life. This way, you will find other ways to reach your destination.
If you cannot go over the mountain, go through it; if you cannot go through it, go around it. You shouldn’t view a setback as a permanent impediment to growth but as a spring for a giant leap.
Consider this – every mistake makes you know another way not to do something.
Thomas Edison said – “I learned 1000 ways not to make a bulb after finally succeeding at the 1001st”.
7. Embrace test
Just like the previous point, this also goes by many names – examination, test, challenge, trial, task, experiment, etc.
Your attitude toward tests will determine your result. To grow, you must face challenges because that is how you put what you have learned to use.
Tests and examinations are the stepping stone for growth to take place. Each time you have new experiences, you grow and improve.
You must always be ready to welcome challenges. This will reveal something you still need to learn or develop. When you welcome challenges, you will develop an awareness of personal accountability.
Once you are accountable to yourself, you will seldom push the blame to others but take the responsibility for your acts.
Accomplishing a task or overcoming a challenge not only prepares you for a greater task but also lets you know what others are passing through so you will develop a kind and thoughtful heart towards others.
8. Do not be scared to fail
“He who has not failed has not tried a new thing!”
To every success story, there is a background of failure.
Remember I talked about Thomas Edison above – if he had quit on the 500th or 999th attempt, he wouldn’t have made the light bulb. Just imagine life without light bulbs.
A reporter asked Edison how it felt to fail 1,000 times. Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
The same goes for all successful people and business.
Failure is a matter of views. It is impossible to go through life without experiencing failure at some point. Instead of living in the cocoon of safety, go out, take the risk, make mistakes and make success too. See these 20 successful people that failed at some point.
It is said that “the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward”. So, why miss opportunities because of risk. People that don’t take risk often end up poor.” – Robert Kiyosaki (This has proven to be true).
Experience is the best teacher; except that it gives teaches you after giving you the exam! (That’s on the lighter mood, true though).
You may never know something about yourself or your capabilities until you experience failure. Kids fall often before knowing how to walk or ride a bicycle.
Accepting and learning from failures is the key to growing.
9. Imperfection
A close relative to failure. Where failure is absolute, imperfection is a dent in a thing.
Strive to always be perfect but don’t be too hard on yourself due to a little bit of imperfection. Acknowledge the fact that as a human, you cannot be perfect all of the time.
Give room for a little imperfection but do not dwell on it and do not let it hinder you from trying again.
If you are so scared of not getting it one hundred percent, you might not want to try something new, especially things that don’t look too promising.
Don’t stop loving yourself and don’t fail to try again!
10. Welcome feedback
There are so many channels you can get feedback from. It might be from colleagues, friends, boss, employee, clients, etc.
The more you are open to feedback, the more you are likely to grow exponentially. Timely constructive criticism is a critical component that sheds light on your progress.
This helps you to know your strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities you can exploit and threats to avoid.
To improve your performance, you need to get feedback so you know what works and what doesn’t work. A business or person that welcomes feedback and acts on them passes the message that they are open and willing to change, improve and grow.
11. Enjoy yourself
The attitude one has when performing tasks will influence the resulting outcome. If you make your growth process an enjoyable one, not only will you have success, you will also enjoy that growth process.
You must make it an obligation to genuinely enjoy your growth process. It is not all about the end, it’s also about the process, enjoy it!
Another way to enjoy oneself is to celebrate with others too. You know what it takes to get where they are. So, if they paid the price, they are entitled to be happy.
However, if you don’t give others support or show your happiness, you will reduce their happiness. Nobody is truly happy when they are intimidated or envied.
Celebrate the success of others. The way you react when others succeed says a lot about your maturity especially when you are not as successful as the person in question.
No one likes a hater! Hate will dampen the atmosphere of expressing and sharing success stories. Next time someone succeeds at something, make sure you celebrate with them. You will harvest whatever you sow.
More often than not, a person’s happiness and growth rate often rises and falls on whether they choose to be happy for someone else or stare with contempt.
Let me sum it all up with this quote by Dr Mathin Luther King – “Run if you cannot fly, walk if cannot run, crawl if you cannot walk, whatever you do, just keep moving”
So which of these tips are you working on?
