You may have heard of the term – growth mindset. It is more of a buzz term nowadays. Nowadays, no matter what your work or business is, you must have a growth mindset. You must do it. A growth mindset is a way of thinking where one believes one’s skills and abilities can thrive and improve despite challenges one may encounter. With this kind of mindset, one is unfazed when challenges arise but rather uses them as pedestals to attain success. Today let us unpack what it means to have a growth mindset.
Making The Most Out Of ‘Failure’
When you have a growth mindset, you do not stress when failure comes. Rather you have a certain attitude towards failure. You always take failure as a learning curve. In other words, failure is an opportunity to learn something wholesome. Failure does suck, which is why you must get to draw the lessons seriously. In fact, you should even take a radical stance of not labelling it as a failure when things do not go according to plan. Remove ‘failure’ from your vocabulary. More importantly, never place the label of ‘I am a failure’ on yourself. I usually use the late Kobe Bryant as an example. He was once asked, “What does losing feel like to you?” His answer was, “It’s exciting!” His rationale was that it means you have different ways to get better. You get to figure out certain weaknesses that you can work on. That is what a growth mindset is – you are unfazed by ‘failure’.
Major On Solutions Always
This is somehow tied to your attitude towards ‘failure’. That is why it is important to get that in order. You can easily become solutions-oriented when you develop the right attitude towards failure. Remember, what you focus on grows. This means you have to major in what you want to see. Obviously, when problems arise, it is unsettling. You quickly want a solution so that the distress wanes off. That is where you must deliberate on your focus or major. Major on solutions! Majoring in solutions opens up your creative and innovative faculties. You begin to see possibilities. What you think most about manifests; think solutions only, no matter the circumstances. That is the growth mindset.
Do Not Take Things Personally
One of the things in life that limits our growth is taking things personally. Trust me, we all often get tempted to take things personally. To be honest, it can be hard not to take things personally. However, taking things personally blocks or compromises our ability to grow. When you are presented with something you could take personally, pause for moments. Ask yourself, are there merits in what is being said or done to me? If so, what positive insights can I take from that and use to improve my life? If not, ignore it and move on. It sounds that simple, but building that into your mindset requires diligence and emotional intelligence. The good thing is that you can do it. Learn not to take things personally but seek to internalise what helps you grow.
Helps Others Grow
The world we live in is gruesome at times. One of the biggest aspects of the world today is selfishness. There has never been a time in the history of mankind where selfishness has been this rife. People are now mostly concerned with winning alone. They mostly want to grow alone. That may seem great, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not. You benefit more when others grow with you as well. You often hear it being said that your network is your net worth. How can you benefit from a network that is stagnant or retrogressing? You can only benefit more from a network of people that is constantly growing. That is why contributing to the growth of others benefits you more in the long run. You do not even need much to help others grow. Something as simple as sharing valuable information with someone is helping them grow. A growth mindset is obsessed with personal growth and the growth of others as well.
I like what Roger Crawford once said: ‘Being challenged in life is inevitable; being defeated is optional’. Life is not always a walk in the park; hurdles sometimes come. That is why it is particularly important to have a growth mindset. It will help you navigate your way the right way. Despite whatever may come your way, always see growth. Sidney A Friedman once said, ‘You can achieve anything you want in life if you dare to dream it, the intelligence to make a realistic plan, and the will to see that plan through to the end’. It takes a growth mindset to do that.
