If you’re like me, you’re working hard to reach your goals, but sometimes things don’t go according to your vision or plan. Mistakes, missteps, and failures are inevitable, and so your mindset around failure is crucial. In her best-selling book, Mindset: The new psychology of success, Dr. Carol Dweck describes how we can learn to fulfill our potential by adjusting our mindset.
According to Dweck, “when you enter a mindset, you enter a new world.” Mindsets are “powerful beliefs” that help shape your understanding of self and how you think you can or cannot succeed in the world.
From her research Dweck has identified two types of mindsets: fixed mindset and growth mindset. Individuals with a fixed mindset see their intelligence, their personality, and their talents, and every challenge is an opportunity to test their abilities and traits. If they succeed, they feel great about themselves. If they fail, they feel “like a total failure” and are dejected. Failures are demotivating.
Growth mindset focused individuals on the other hand believe that their intelligence, their personality, and their talents can be developed, nurtured, and strengthened over time. Rather than a test of their innate abilities, every challenge they face is an opportunity to learn and grow. If they succeed, they too feel good. If they fail, however, they seek the lesson to learn and the opportunity to improve. Failures can be motivating moments to improve.
Dweck has found that “believing talents can be developed [and thus adopting a growth mindset] allows people to fulfill their potential.” A growth mindset creates a belief system to love what you’re doing, face obstacles, challenges, and failures as a stepping stone to greater success, and focus on the process of growing and improving rather than just the outcome itself.
I find that the best way to adopt a growth mindset is to frame any “failure” or mistake as an opportunity to learn and improve. Every challenge or misfortune, while not initially welcomed, can provide a hidden gift of learning and growth. Reflecting on the lessons learned, what you’ll do differently next time, and how this failure can be a stepping stone to greater success is at the heart of a growth mindset.
I’ve also learned that as a mom of a 4-year-old daughter, encouraging my daughter to work hard on her reading skills and recognizing and rewarding her for the days she practices her phonics is the way to encourage a growth mindset with reading. Instead of praising her for being so good at phonics (a fixed mindset), I celebrate her effort to sound out words (growth mindset). I also celebrate the times she practices learning Tball skills and dance skills to promote a growth mindset in her outside the classroom.
If you’d like support in creating a growth mindset in yourself or in your kids and understanding how your talents can be strengthened and daily habits can be formed to help you reach your goals, please email me at liz@lizbapasola.com to set up a FREE coaching call. I’m committed to helping you live your best life and make progress in your life. I look forward to hearing from you!