5 Steps to Cultivating a Growth Mindset

By: Jasmine Rice

Imagine you are leaving work after just finding out you didn’t get the promotion you had been hoping for.  On your way home your mind is wandering which causes you to get pulled over for speeding. When you call a friend for sympathy about your day, they end the call quickly and you feel brushed off.

Imagine that one or all of these events has just occurred in your life? How do you react?

Are you the type of person who now feels like a failure at work, unimportant to your friend, and now tempted to just take the bus instead of driving?

Or are you the person who vows to work harder for the next promotion, accept that you were speeding and pay the ticket, and recognize that your friend might just be having a bad day themselves?

How you answer the questions above can help determine which of the two types of mindsets that we will discuss in today’s blog: a fixed mindset (static) and a growth mindset` (dynamic).

People with a fixed mindset tend to see their life as unchangeable, their challenges overtake them. They believe life is what it is, they are what they are. Things aren’t going to change for the better. It’s a bit of a negative outlook on life, but one that is easy to settle into when life is challenging.

People with a growth mindset think that their abilities, minds, and hearts can be improved upon and refined through hard work, determination, and perseverance.

A fixed mindset might say, “I am this”, whereas a growth mindset would say, “I can be that!”

Growth Mindset is a buzzword that we often hear in education and business, but what about adapting that growth mindset to our personal lives when life becoming challenging?

Life challenges that lead you to face unexpected transitions can be devastating. Especially when you have projected how your life would look by a certain age and life forces you to take a sharp left when you wanted to go right.  Some examples of these challenges include:

– Divorce
– Loss (loved one, job, home, etc.)
– Health diagnosis
– COVID-19 stress
– Fill in the ______ [blank]

How do you get out of the fixed mindset of being a victim and move to the growth mindset of being a victor?

(1)  Effort: You need to be willing to put in the work. It is not easy to have a positive outlook when life throws you curve balls. Grief is real and each of the 5 stages of grief takes time but allowing yourself to get stuck in any of the stages too long can prevent you from moving forward. You need to put in the work, even a little each day to move forward to the acceptance stage.

(2)  Failure is not a bad word: We all make mistakes, it’s how we learn and grow. If you fall, you have a choice to stay down, or you can get up and keep pressing on. Give yourself grace if you need to stay down for a little bit, but don’t stay there too long. Assess what happened, then try again.

(3) Stop comparing yourself: No one, NO ONE knows what you are going through. Yes, you might have family who have gone through a divorce or a friend who has lost their job, but no one knows exactly how you feel and all of the circumstances that make up your situation. If you keep comparing your setbacks, your struggles, or your life in general to other people’s lives, you will forever feel like you aren’t enough. This is YOUR life, no one else’s, focus on your progress even if it takes you longer to get to the finish line.

(4)  Be Authentic: Fake it till you make it…sure, maybe for some things, but not your LIFE! Be who you are. If someone doesn’t like you, you can’t control that. If you are being a kind person, if you are enforcing your healthy boundaries and people struggle with that, then those aren’t your people.

(5)  Be Strong AND Soft: Life is hard, that’s a fact! Being strong does not mean being cold or insensitive. Strength means having resiliency, having determination, and drive. Don’t let your strength harden you. Remember to balance that with softness, not weakness but compassion, kindness, and consideration.

You have choices every day in life. You might not get to choose what happens to you, but you get to choose how you will respond.

Will you keep a fixed mindset when you are facing challenges in life? Or will you put in the work, look at the metaphorical glass as half full, and keep working on that growth mindset of striving to be the best version of you as you transition to your next chapter?

This post is a guest post by Jasmine Rice, who runs a great personal growth/self-care blog called goodthingsaregonnacome.com that we highly recommend you check out.  Thanks for the great guest post Jasmine!