Growth mindset is a concept made popular by Carol Dweck from Stanford University and through her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. This blog article shall include key points from Dweck’s book.

So how are we supposed to develop a growth mindset? Here are eight ways:

1. Think that you can achieve and improve on anything through learning

Thinking this way supersedes the goals of merely 'winning' or 'getting good grades' or 'getting a promotion' or 'collecting achievements'. This thinking prioritises the learning process and how this process can make a person better in certain skills, talents and qualities. Also, according to Dweck, people who undertake this perspective tend to develop higher performance.

Dweck further adds that when an individual focuses on learning instead, it unconsciously pushes a person to deviate from seeking approval. This is because in growth mindset, learning coincides with progress, and not merely achieving certain victories and standards.

Well, learning in itself is a concept that is unending in a human’s life.

2. Know that the key to growth and success is the combination of passion, dedication and effort, not only innate or inborn skills, talents and qualities

Thinking this way opens opportunities for individuals to discover skills and talents. It also allows a person to overcome limitations set by traditional standards saying talent is something a person is born with, and hence cannot be developed.

The perspective that skills and talents can be enhanced through hard work can also develop a person’s persistence towards certain goals and to improve further.

This thinking also enables a person to believe that skills, talents and qualities are potentials that can be cultivated through passion, dedication and effort. Also, this thinking is a way to change individuals view on setbacks. Under growth mindset, passion and hard work are part of 'growth process.' In this context, setbacks are no longer seen as failures, but as learnings that can be used for mastery.

3. Accept and overcome weaknesses

In #2, it was mentioned how with a growth mindset, an individual accepts setbacks as part of the learning process towards improvement. Along this process, an individual discovers certain weaknesses. Normally, a person who has a fixed mindset would consider weaknesses as something that should be eradicated, however, with a growth mindset, weaknesses are acknowledged, assessed and confronted properly in order to turn them into information useful for growth and improvement.

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4. Embrace challenges, instead avoid them

I know it sounds odd, who wants to go through hardships anyway? But these things are inevitable. If you will be able to cultivate your general outlook with the first three things, embracing challenges can become natural. It is true when they say that we become better through the hard experiences we undergo.

But how do challenges help us grow and improve? Well, challenges reveal weaknesses and flaws that we need to work on in enhancing our skills, talent and other key qualities that we want to improve in.

5. Do not be offended by criticism, instead embrace them

Most people see criticism as offensive, something that is put out there to attack them. However, this isn’t always true. Criticism should be processed constructively, but do not misconstrue criticism with insult. Criticisms are statements that can be used to improve; however, insults are mere diatribes that are stated in order to hurt another person’s feelings.

The ability to maturely process criticisms requires humility and acknowledgement of one’s imperfection. Another is the individual’s willingness to improve. People with growth mindset see criticisms within the context through which they can learn.

6. Stop comparing yourself and your success or failure with other people

Comparing is one thorn in the growth process. Not only comparing can negatively affect how you see yourself and your journey, but it also derails an individual’s process towards growth. It stands in the way of seeing and assessing yourself and your journey within the necessary factors uniquely applicable to you.

I know most people are tired hearing, 'we have our own pace' or 'believe in your own timing', but these things are true. Individuals are complex unique beings from one another, with also relatively complex situations. There is a wide array of differences to even compare constructively. Hence, making comparisons is only counterproductive and disheartening. Unless one is comparing positively, it does not much help with a person’s growth and improvement.

7. Be critical of yourself and seek guidance from mentors and trusted friends

Growth requires inward and outward perspectives.

An individual must understand him or herself in order to grow. This is crucial in having a growth mindset, we have to be watchful of how we manage ourselves towards improvement. Knowing yourself clearly allows you to recognise the actions and responses that are best applicable for your growth journey.

While self-assessment is good, it alone is not enough. You have to seek guidance and correction from mentors and trusted friends in order to grow in anything you seek to improve on. 

8. Count the process as something that matters more than the end result

This is not to say that the end result is not important at all, but it is valuing the process that makes an individual’s journey towards growth and improvement that matters more than however each struggle ends. This is not to discount success; this is to push people towards that success despite struggles in between.

Cultivating this perspective in mind keeps individuals from seeing failures as the end of their journey towards growth, improvement and success. Instead, this perspective reminds individuals how continuance and perseverance are important. Just like what Winston Churchill said: “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”

Conclusion

We have seen the eight ways on how you can develop a growth mindset. Do not only keep these ways in mind but try to practice them little by little starting from the simplest to the most complicated aspects of your life and growth.

The importance of having a growth mindset is crucial in relieving people the burden of merely winning and thinking that victories are the only determinants of success. This has been a traditional standard society has exposed people with. Under growth mindset, success on the other hand also involves the ability of an individual to never stop growing and improving.