A mindset is a collection of thoughts and ideas that are a reflection of your personality and beliefs. Mindset is further classified into two types.
- Fixed Mindset
- Growth Mindset
An individual with a fixed mindset is of the belief that there’s very little he can change about himself to improve and grow. For such an individual, either you have a particular talent/trait or you don’t. He believes that you cannot get up everyday, work on developing a particular talent/trait until you finally succeed.
However, someone with a growth mindset believes that the power to improve and change is in their hands. Hard work, efforts, determination and passion are they key traits of the individuals that possess a growth mindset. For them, as long as they set their mind and are determined, they can achieve anything they want.
Read the above two statements carefully to identify the mindset you possess. If you are someone with a growth mindset, Great! But, If you are someone with a fixed mindset, no worries. Following are the tips that can help you develop a growth mindset:
- Self talk: What you feed your mind is what it ultimately starts believing. If you constantly tell yourself that you are not capable enough, you are retarding your own growth process.
- Get out of our comfort zone: Want to grow and improve? Get up and put yourself in uncomfortable situations that are challenging.
“If you are facing a new challenge or being asked to do something that you have never done before don’t be afraid to step out. You have more capability than you think you do but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more”
- Create new habits: Re-think your lifestyle and hobbies and try to integrate activities that challenge your brain and improve your cognitive function
- Ask for help: Experiences where asking for help got you nothing in return can make it hard to ask for help in future. However, you have to get out of your comfort zone and ask the people in your surroundings to evaluate your growth and improvement.
- Fake it till you make it: Force yourself to create an image that isn’t necessarily real until it turns into reality.
“You must be the person you have never had the courage to be. Gradually, you will discover that you are that person, but until you can see this clearly, you must pretend and invent.”― Paulo Coelho
There are no shortcuts to anything, similarly, there’s no shortcut to developing a growth mindset, it may take days, weeks and even months. A growth mindset just may be the key to your success. The more you push yourself, the more you succeed.
Out of the five tips mentioned above, personally, I believe that the most important aspect to developing a mindset has to be getting out of your comfort zone and faking it till you make it. As someone who used to believe on the fact, “It is what it is” what helped the most was putting myself in situations that triggered a sense of uneasiness inside of me and challenged me till the end.
Don’t fret if you are stuck in the loop of a fixed mindset. It’s never too late to change, start right now.
