Developing a Growth Mindset

When you think about people who are successful, skilful, or intelligent, how do you think they got there? Did they earn those traits? Were they just lucky or gifted? While answers may vary, research shows that one of the most critical steps to take when it comes to developing yourself as a human being is to develop a “growth mindset”.

What is a growth mindset?

Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and accepting feedback from others) have a ‘growth mindset’. They tend to achieve more than those with a ‘fixed mindset’ (those who believe their talents are innate gifts that cannot be developed).

When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compared with others, we can easily fall into insecurity or defensiveness, a response that inhibits growth. Instead of being defensive, people that have the growth mindset accept challenges that come their way as opportunities for learning and growth.

Why have a growth mindset? 

Research of people with the growth mindset shows that these people are:

• More comfortable with taking risks

• Tend to set and achieve higher goals in both personal and professional lives

• Have increased motivation

• Have decreased stress, anxiety, and depression

• Have higher performance levels

Can a person’s mindset change?

Just as someone can grow and develop their intellect, a person is also capable of changing their thinking patterns to slowly develop a growth mindset.

Neuroscience research shows us that our brain can grow new connections, strengthen existing ones, and increase the speed of pulse transmission even as fully-grown adults. The brain is like plastic in that it can be remoulded over time. This has led scientists to identify the tendency of the brain to change through growth and reorganization as ‘neuroplasticity’. 

This finding shows that a person that currently possesses a fixed mindset can develop a growth mindset over time through the steps that I discuss below.

Growth mindset checklist

Take a look at the boxes below and see which ones apply to your personal life, make a note of the boxes that have been left unmarked, these could be areas where you could focus your energy to better develop your growth mindset.

•   I Embrace lifelong learning

• I Believe intelligence can be improved

•   I Believe effort leads to mastery

• I Believe failures are just temporary setbacks

•   I View feedback as a source of valuable information

•   I Willingly embraces challenges

•   I View others’ success as a source of inspiration

•   I View feedback as an opportunity to learn

 

 

Steps to Developing a Growth Mindset

 

Now that we discussed the growth mindset, and reflected on your current mindset, the next step to take is to develop it.  

1) Flip your thinking

Before you start opening yourself to new experiences you need to change the way you think about your mindset. Remove your fixed mindset perception and understand that you CAN improve. 

We often hear each other say things such as “I can't do this” or “What if this doesn’t work”. Next time don't let your inner voice stop you from succeeding. Flip your thoughts to instead say “I can, and I will do this' ' and “What if it DOES work”. While these might sound like simple and small changes, remember it's the small changes that over time lead to big outcomes.

2) Accept failure as part of your growth 

Who said failure is a bad thing? Failing once, twice, or even hundreds of times doesn't mean you've hit the end of the road – it means you've taken another turn, and you're one step closer to success. When trying something new, try to see all failures as an opportunity to learn and grow, an opportunity to do something differently next time and to examine what went wrong that resulted in failure 

Additionally, try to replace the word failing with the word learning. When something doesn't go according to plan, examine why it happened and how you can prevent this mistake in the future.  

3) Challenge yourself with new experiences 

Most people think of taking risks as jumping out of an airplane or swimming with great white sharks, however challenging yourself doesn't have to be that major. Changing your hair cut, rearranging your furniture, or talking to a stranger are all examples of challenging yourself. Stepping out of your comfort zone is critical to growth. Staying in the comfort zone all your life will not allow you to move to bigger and better things. 

By challenging yourself with new experiences, you strengthen neural connections to ‘rewire’ your brain which, in turn, can make you grow. 

4) Accept and encourage feedback

Receiving feedback can be a daunting topic for most of us. It is easy to start questioning ourselves and our qualities or get defensive at the person who is providing feedback. Learning to accept feedback is a long process that starts with understanding that the feedback you receive does not change who you are, but instead it is a recommendation of the things you can improve about actions, behaviours, and skills. 

Try to slowly apply the feedback that you receive into your life and see how you start growing into a ‘bigger and better’ version of yourself.

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Final thoughts

As you step onto your self-development path you will be faced with many challenges. Remember real change takes a long time, time that is filled with persistent work, will power and determination to your cause.

Working on developing a growth mindset is the first and most critical step in your self development journey. 

In the upcoming blog posts, we will explore some of these concepts in detail as well as other topics that will help you succeed.

Vladislav Gavrilov

Vice President Students