When most people think about successful people, they often see them as people born with many more of them. Either they had wealthy parents, a lot of athletic talent, or they were just way smarter than the average person. No one ever gives people credit for having a growth mindset.
This happens because talent and what you're born with is not something that can be controlled. You get what you get, but having a growth mindset is something we all control. Most people don't want to take responsibility for their life and its sad.
You can adopt a growth mindset today. When you adopt this way of thinking, it will change your belief system and open you too much more success. You will stick to your goals and fight for what you want over a long period of time instead of being so short-sighted.
We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary. – Carol Dweck
The Growth Mindset Wants Challenge Vs Praise
When you have a growth mindset, you believe that you can improve. When you have a fixed mindset, you believe that you get what you get and things can't get any better. The easiest place to see this play out in society is with intelligence.
People with a growth mindset will rely on effort, and they tend to lean into challenges because they believe they can figure it out if they try hard enough. They are more willing to learn and do whatever it takes to rise to a challenge and get it done.
When people have a fixed mindset, challenges make them shrink. They believe that if they don't know or can't figure it out on the first try, they can do nothing. Someone else must help them.
Having a fixed mindset leads to learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is where you have learned not to try or put in any effort. The second you get stuck or see any challenge, you look for someone else to dig you out of it.
The growth mindset is unstoppable because people with it see challenges as an opportunity to improve. If they can't get a math problem, it bothers them, and they don't stop trying until they get it. They become obsessed with it and figure out different ways to accomplish their mission. They never think the answer is just to quit.
How Beliefs Hold You Back From a Growth Mindset
One of the best examples of a fixed mindset that extends from a belief system is kids in school who say, "I'm not good at math." They believe that they are bad at it and therefore are setting up excuses for not putting in any effort. Why put any effort into something you're already convinced that you're not good at?
People will also say:
- I don't lose weight easily
- I'm not great with money
- I always push things off to the last minute
- I love to eat
- I hate working out
This language becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You believe that you can't lose weight, so you don't learn anything about how you can do it easier. You also never put an honest effort in if you try because you already believe it's not possible for you.
Contrast this with someone who says, "I can eat anything and never gain weight." They have a belief system that tells pushes them in a positive direction with their weight. If they do decide they do need to lose weight, they will put the effort in because they believe it is not only something they can do, but it can also be done easily.
You have to change the way you speak. When you change how you speak, it will change how you think and alter your deep beliefs. When your beliefs begin to change, your action will also start to change.
To Have a Growth Mindset You Must Change How You Think and Act
If you think you are the type of person that can't lose weight, you must do everything in your power to change that. Prove to yourself that these narratives that you have bought into are wrong.
The best way to fight these narratives and change your identity is to change your habits. Make small changes in your daily actions. Repeat these changes so often that they change how you see yourself and also change the results you see in your life.
Here is an Example:
I grew up with the notion that I was a poor writer. I told myself this same story over and over again. Then in 2008, in my last year of high school, I took a creative writing class, and the teacher told me that I had a gift for it, but it just needed to be cultivated.
For the first time, I had a different belief system that came into my brain to give me some hope. Her words did not change everything, but they inspired me to take action.
In 2008, blogging took off, so the next year, I started a blog with my brother. I began to write. At first, it was sporadic, but eventually, I got to the point where I could publish one new article a day.
I had started small and slowly worked my way up to the point where I could write more and more. Then in 2013, I wrote my first book titled Endure. Then in 2019, I dropped my second book, Allergic to Peanuts.
I now have multiple sites with content, and I consider myself to be a writer. Not because I was born with talent and not even because I worked hard. I am a writer because I developed the habit of writing every day.
Make Small Habit Changes Over Fast Success
When you have a fixed mindset, you begin to expect success to come quickly. You feel like the stars you see on TV are people who had the talent, and one day they were discovered, and they "blew up." That narrative is very damaging and also far from the truth.
To be successful, it often takes years of having a growth mindset towards a specific craft. But you have to keep chipping away at that old way of thinking with new habits.
The person who says they hate working out will no longer feel that way after working out for 120 days in a row. Each time they step up and get it done, their belief system will change a bit.
If you keep thinking that success comes fast and overnight, you will never accomplish anything worthwhile in your life. You will spend all of your time chasing after quick success when its not a real thing. Your efforts are much better to focus on building habits that are sure to move you in the right direction.
How to Get Started
- Choose an area of focus to move from having a fixed mindset to a growth mindset
- Change your language
- Decide what habits you can adapt to change your identity
- Use Habit Stacker to track your habits
- Follow through with your habits until action changes your beliefs