Growth mindset: Your key to building a peaceful and healthy life
In my years working as a health coach, I’ve noticed one single trait that divides my clients into those who reach success, and those who are likely to fail. This trait is why successful people are resilient. It allows them to get back up, keep moving forward, and persevere through setbacks. It’s truly the key to unlocking the future you want. This key is called a growth mindset.
What is a growth mindset?
A growth mindset means you believe you’re able to change or improve any part of who you are. If you aren’t good at math, you believe you can improve. If you’re not able to draw, you’re sure that with a little time, you could learn. Most importantly, you believe that setbacks are opportunities for growth.
On the other hand, a fixed mindset is when you don’t believe you’re capable of this growth. You might say things like “I was born this way,” or “This is just who I am.” With a fixed mindset, you see failures as confirmation that you’ll never be able to do something.
Why is a growth mindset important?
Here are some benefits of a growth mindset:
1. Increased motivation
As I mentioned above, having a growth mindset means you’re more likely to see life’s difficulties as a challenge and not a sign of failure. When you’re not discouraged, you’re more likely to want to continue.
2. Greater resilience
With a growth mindset, you’re better able to cope with difficult situations. You take these moments as an opportunity to learn. This helps you be more prepared to handle hardship in the future.
3. More creativity and learning
When you see challenges as a problem to be solved, you’re more likely to think outside the box. You’ll take risks for the sake of learning something new. You’ll get creative in your attempts to explore new ideas and possibilities.
4. Better relationships
Having a growth mindset means you’re more open to constructive feedback. You see this information as valuable and use it to do better in the future. You’re a collaborator who works well on a team.
In summary, having a growth mindset just makes you a better human. You’re more creative, motivated, resilient, and collaborative.
How do I know if I have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset?
To give you an idea of which category you fall into, let’s go through some questions. Choose either A or B, depending on which statement you feel most aligned with.
1a. Do you believe that your skills and intelligence are traits you were born with?
1b. Do you believe that you can develop them with hard work and practice?
2a. Do you avoid trying new things because you’re afraid you’ll fail?
2b. Do you see change as an opportunity to learn and develop your skills?
3a. Do you tend to give up easily when things get hard because you don’t believe you can do better?
3b. Do you persevere because you know that eventually, you’ll succeed?
4a. Do you embrace opportunities for feedback and constructive criticism?
4b. Do you avoid feedback because it threatens your self-esteem?
5a. When you reach a goal, do you attribute it to your innate talent or ability (like your intelligence)?
5b. Do you attribute your success to hard work and practice?
6a. Do you believe your skills are pre-determined by your genetics and upbringing?
6b. Do you believe your personal efforts play a part in shaping who you are?
7a. Do you feel threatened by the success of others?
7b. Do you view others’ success as a source of inspiration and motivation?
If you answered mostly B, you probably have a growth mindset.
If you answered mostly A, you might have a fixed mindset.
It’s possible to have a fixed mindset for some areas of your life, and a growth mindset for others. In fact, most people live this way. So, you can also use this questionnaire to identify which parts of your life show a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset. At this point, you may be thinking:
But Rachael - I was born with some skills, and certain things have always been hard for me. Does that mean I have a fixed mindset?
Sure, there are things that you may be naturally good at. And, there may be things that are hard for you. You may feel those hard things are impossible for you to overcome. I definitely struggled with this for quite some time. Reading and writing always came naturally to me. At the same time, I’ve been abysmal at math since grade school. For years, I believed I was just not meant for math.
I’m now aware that I had constantly worked on my skill with language. As a kid, I read and wrote constantly! I hated math and only did it when I had to (never, reader). I had so much practice with language and hardly any with math. Of course I was bad at it!
As an adult, I still hate math. And, I still think I’m pretty bad at it. However, I no longer believe this is out of my control. I choose to be bad at math, thank you very much. Why would I learn something that calculators can do? You know what calculators can’t do? Watercolor. You know who can? Me. Because I make it a priority and took the time to learn, even though I wasn’t very good at first. What’s more - I still have lots to learn.
Art is still something we can do better than robots (looking at you, AI-generated hands).
This leads me to my next point:
A growth mindset doesn’t mean you’re good at everything. It means you get to decide what you’re not good at.
You, like me, can choose that you don’t want to prioritize a skill. Let that sink in for a minute. Developing a growth mindset can be quite freeing - all of the things you previously saw as personal failures are now simply skills that you have chosen not to prioritize. I’ll say that again:
All of your personal failures can simply be skills that you have chosen not to prioritize.
When something doesn’t go your way, you can ask yourself: “Is this worth the time and effort I’m applying?”
If the answer is no: Let it go.
The art of letting go can be just as powerful as choosing a skill to learn.
On the other hand, you may really want to make those former failures a priority. If that’s the case for you, you may want to work on developing a growth mindset.
My next post will cover some steps on how to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. When it’s done, I’ll link it here. However, it’s important to sit with the possibility of change before we get into the change itself. For now, your homework is to find three areas of your life where you have a fixed mindset. You might have to ask yourself some questions to dig them up:
What experiences in my past have I designated as failures?
What are some things I believe I cannot improve?
What skills do I believe I was born with?
Once you have your three areas, save them to use for my next blog post. I’ll see you next month.
