Prof Carol Dweck in her ground breaking research has discovered what is inside the mind which allows some people to succeed and some to fail.
Why do some people, with just one failure, end up quitting?
Why do some people with a series of failures still keep persisting?
Does the answer simply lie in what mindset is driving them – Fixed or Growth?
Let me highlight some key points from her research.
Growth Mindset –
– The individuals who believe their talents can be developed through hard work, adopting good strategies, focus approach carries a growth mindset
– People with a growth mindset tends to achieve more than in comparison to fixed mindset people
– The reason simply being they are less worried about the results or what others think of them, but they focus their efforts on improving and becoming better
– Companies that adopt growth mindset, the employees feel more empowered, committed and achieve better results
Fixed mindset –
– These individuals believe they have limited talent and every success or failure is a judgment about who they are
– Their focus primarily is on results, efforts to improve doesn’t matter
– One or two failures tends to make them quit or reduce the effort they put in
– Some employees with a fixed mindset tend to cheat and deceive their colleagues to gain an advantage over others.
So, do you see how these mindsets can shape our entire lives? It all depends on which mindset we are embracing more.
As per Dr Dweck, we all have both these mindsets. No one is definitely with any one specific mindset. It depends on which mindset we are mostly using in different life scenarios.
Now, let’s jump in to understand how can we develop a growth mindset.
3 Key strategies to develop a growth mindset
1. Power of YET
Incorporate this powerful word into your normal vocabulary.
Instead of saying, “I don’t know how to do it, Say, “I don’t know how to do it yet”
Instead of saying, I didn’t succeed, say “I am yet to succeed”
This simple change starts shifting your mindset.
2. Convert failure into learning.
Every failure simply means you are yet to improve on certain aspects. But if you allow yourself to feel sadness, dejected, and stop trying, you will never improve.
Every time you fail, consciously ask yourself the below question
“What am i yet to learn which can help me succeed ?”
3. Celebrate effort more than results
Efforts are the cause – results are the effect.
A lot of us are obsessed with the results, we always want to win. So much of the reward chemical (dopamine) in the brain is linked to results.
In this process, the effort sometimes becomes a tedious task. Sometimes we don’t get the results, and we stop putting in the effort.
What will happen if you start enjoying the effort itself? What if your effort becomes a greater reward than the results?
If mentally you link a lot of pleasure with effort, a trait of a growth mindset, your probability of achieving results is super high.
These are simple yet extremely powerful strategies. Should you choose to put it to practice, you will see some tremendous results over a period of time.
I hope you enjoy reading this.
Do share your comments, I read them all by myself.
Till the next one, be iconic and develop a growth mindset.
Avinash Anand Singh
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