Quick snippets from our morning read on Thursday, 11th February 2021
Today’s morning read addresses the Growth Mindset subject. It is also a combination of two article on the subject. The primary article was written by Jared Goetz.
Whenever the gurus of the world talk about mindsets, they’re talking about your personal beliefs and how they can get in the way of finding success or achieving personal satisfaction.
Before talking about the benefits of cultivating a growth mindset, it helps to start by first defining the opposite situation: a fixed mindset.
A fixed mindset involves a self-imposed limitation — like what Sincero discusses in terms of personal finance. As Carol Dweck wrote in her book MindSet: The New Psychology of Success, “It assumes that our character, intelligence and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way”.
Also according to Dweck, a growth mindset is “the tendency to believe that you can grow.” This is the mindset that I’ve adopted as an ecommerce entrepreneur, one that I firmly believe you can also embody — with the right path forward.
Doing battle with an existing fixed mindset
Before you can embrace a growth mindset, you need to be able to admit to yourself if you’re currently stuck in a fixed mindset.
For those operating with a fixed mindset, the belief is that effort is not required to succeed because intellect cannot be changed. Those with a fixed mindset truly believe that their existing talent, skills and intelligence alone can lead them to success — so long as they stay in their lane.
People with a growth mindset believe that going after challenges provides the ability to see failure as part of learning and growth — instead of it being evidence of unintelligence. This mindset offers permission to experiment, with the understanding that intelligence and skill develop with time and experience. As a result, people operating with a growth mindset give themselves permission to increase their efforts when they believe in something.
To be sure, most people are operating with both mindsets simultaneously — a different mindset for different aspects of their lives. The key to overcoming limiting beliefs is to first recognize them, then to consciously choose to think a different way.
Acknowledge your weakness.
Staying in your comfort zone makes it hard for growth to happen. Consider this example: Recall a time when you were in school and were dealing with a subject that you struggled with. Perhaps you told people, “I’m just not a science person” after dealing with a string of bad test grades.
If you ever want to get better, you must first stop with the excuses — they’ll keep you exactly where you are.
If you were to instead tell yourself, “I’m currently struggling with science but I know that I could be better with more practice,” you’re putting yourself in the right direction to get a good grade on your next test (assuming you follow through with that extra practice).
It helps to give yourself a specific reason to get over your limiting mindsets (e.g. “I want to get a better grade on my science tests”).
Of course, the process to successfully adopt a growth mindset is a bit more complicated than that — so let’s dig in a bit deeper.
Learn to see challenges as opportunities.
For those with a growth mindset, challenges are seen as an opportunity to grow and learn, rather than just being an obstacle. People with growth mindsets aren’t afraid to push themselves outside of their comfort zones — they embrace the opportunity to learn from however the experience eventually shakes out.
When’s the last time you were challenged to do something outside of your comfort zone? Even if it was terrifying to put yourself out there, you’ll likely find that it all turned out for the best in the end — better than if you hadn’t taken a chance. Even if you failed.
More on that, next.
You can read the full article here.
You can also read more about the Growth Mindset.
And as always, if you enjoyed this, check out the rest of our daily snippets, curated daily, right here on The Red Notebook.
