Changing the way you think can change your life tremendously. That’s because the way you view challenges and failure determines the level of success you’ll achieve in life. By developing a growth mindset, you’ll not only shift your perspective to a positive outlook, but you’ll also be able to accomplish more of the things you value.
People with a growth mindset thrive on challenges. They don’t view failure as a dead end but rather as a detour, a springboard from which they can further develop and grow their abilities. They prioritize progress over perfection.
Developing a growth mindset is not always easy, but it’s certainly possible. Here are 5 steps you can take to cultivate this mentality.
1. Get a Mentor
A mentor is a person who can teach, guide, and advise you through a problem, or how best to attain a goal. Ideally, this should be a person who has undergone similar challenges to you, overcame them, and is now looking to pass that knowledge on to others in a similar situation.
Whether you feel stuck in your personal or business life, you can find a mentor to help you overcome your fixed mindset and grow.
2. Take Constructive Criticism with Grace
One major key to developing a growth mindset is receiving constructive feedback with grace, whether it’s from your mentor, coach, friends, or peers. Feedback is an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and build yourself up to be a wiser and better individual.
Constructive criticism helps you learn to deal with negative feedback. It’s a reminder that you will never attain perfection and that you should instead focus on progress.
3. Grit Is Essential in Developing a Growth Mindset
Once you have the right support and information, the next step is to develop persistence when faced with a challenge. Should you fail at a task, push back against your negative internal dialogue with the positive declarations you received. Make it a habit regardless of how you feel and eventually this new voice will dominate the fixed mindset voice that’s blocking your ambition.
Grit will give you that internal push that’ll keep you moving forward to achieving your dreams.
4. Stop Seeking the Approval of Others
Comparison kills inspiration and confidence. It’s one of the greatest hindrances to developing a growth mindset.
In order to grow, you need to stop looking to others as the standard of success. Accept that your life is unique and so are your gifts and ambitions. Start focusing on what you want and the life you want to live, and the mental barriers you face will start to lift.
5. Appreciate the Journey
An essential aspect of building a growth mindset is valuing the journey as much as the destination. While professional coaching can help us realize our limiting beliefs and mindsets, the change we desire seldom happens overnight. Cultivating a growth mindset takes time. As you continually improve yourself, pause to celebrate the small victories. Whether it’s catching a negative thought at its inception or even making a mild attitude change, everything adds up and contributes to your growth in the long run.