Developing a Growth Mindset: Embracing Challenges

 

A growth mindset is a belief that was made famous by Carol Dweck, a psychologist that holds that intelligence, talents, skills, and abilities can be enhanced through learning and effort. 

Fixed is the opposite of growth mindset; the fixed mindset in talent asserts that these qualities are unalterable. 

This adds to the existing literature concerning the importance of adopting challenges as a growth mindset element because it enables people to perceive difficulties as learning opportunities.

Strategies in Developing A Growth Mindset:

#1 Embrace Challenges:

Be sure to see the challenges that lie ahead as advantages rather than as threats to be circumvented. 

Every test is an opportunity to gain something new, to master something new, or to hone over ones weakness.

Discourage quitting on a task, instead encourage the person before you and yourself to rephrase the situation as a learning experience rather than a failure.

#2 Value Effort:

Accept the fact that work is required before getting the results. 

A growth mindset is having the opinion that putting effort towards developing some skills will culminate in greatness.

Make the effort instead of celebrating the outcome to an extent. 

Have patients and a willingness to accept small”wins” with gratitude and appreciation is key in the process to gain more resilience and to maintain perseverance.

#3 Learn from Criticism:

Criticism is good and bad about any part of life, similarly feedback is constructive for the growth of any individual. 

Rather than measuring the capability of the recipients or the quality of the message based on how it was received, interprets it as opportunities for growth.

Take feedback and first consider it as constructive criticism that could help to improve yourself.

#4 Learn from Others' Success:

The third belief of people with a growth mindset does not make them disturbed by success of other people. 

But for them, it is a source of inspiration and incentive for their own personal development, which is much better.

Identify as many skill acquisition techniques you can from successful personalities and try to incorporate these into your studying process.

#5 Resilience in the Face of Setbacks:

Fixed mindset and growth mindset are important and foundational concepts to grasp in this perspective. 

In a growth mindset, a person can persist through failures or setbacks. 

Instead of doing a doomsday when things fail, issues should be used as a stepping stone to the next level.

Build endurance through a positive outlook and true progress.

#6 Set Learning Goals, Not Just Performance Goals:

Mastery goals, as reflected by having an A on an exam, are more or less fixed in nature, while learning goals are more oriented towards development.

One should always prioritize the learning goals that will help him acquire new knowledge and skills that will lead to the development of a long lasting result.

A growth mindset has many exclusive advantages:

#1 Increased Motivation: 

If people think they can develop capabilities necessary for the job, they won’t lose interest easily even when the going gets tough.

#2 Better Problem-Solving: 

Thinking is usually expressed as individuals having a higher capacity for challenging problems and thus come up with better solutions.

#3 Improved Self-Esteem:

A growth mindset is healthier than a perfectionist one in that it encourages achievement based on incremental growth rather than an illusion of invincibility.

#4 Greater Achievement:

A growth mindset is associated with a greater level of performance because people are more committed to the endeavors that are needed to secure good results.

Growth mindset entails a process of transforming your attitudes towards the challenges, effort and learning. 

If one wants to develop a growth mindset and become better in his or her work or studies, he or she needs to learn to welcome difficulties and appreciate efforts invested.

Changing current mindset will not only enhance your capacity to overcome different obstacles but also enhance the process of learning and developping.