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Growth Vs Fixed Mindset: Changing The Way You Think

Growth Mindset Vs Fixed Mindset: How To Succeed

The way you think is key to whether you succeed. This includes how you think about yourself, the people around you, the challenges you face, and the goals you have. In particular, adopting a growth mindset promotes personal development, helps you take a positive attitude.

Adopting a growth mindset pushes you towards being the most successful person you can be.

Meanwhile, being stuck in a fixed mindset encourages stagnation and prevents you from reaching your full potential.

But what exactly is a “growth mindset”, and how can you develop it?

This article will help you understand the nature of a growth mindset.

A growth mindset gives you concrete steps to take in order to change the way you think. Throughout, we'll also compare the growth mindset to the type of fixed mindset that might be holding you back.

Finally, we'll give you a useful list of daily prompts that you can revisit to promote success and personal responsibility.

Growth Vs Fixed Mindset

The terms “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset” originate from game-changing work from Carol Dweck, a world expert on human motivation.

According to her work, the most basic growth mindset definition tells us that it's a state in which we believe we can develop over time.

We recognize that our intelligence is a dynamic, fluid aspect of ourselves, and acknowledge our potential to learn.

When it comes to behavior, growth mindset examples include devoting extra time to studying or developing new skills.

Responding to critical feedback by working on what can be changed is also an example of a Growth Mindset.

In contrast, the fixed mindset definition describes a state of mind that is rigid and limiting.

When you're in a fixed mindset, you think that your intelligence can't be changed and that your talents are static.

Fixed mindsets are also associated with an assumption that talent is more powerful than effort, and often come with a corresponding belief that others are more talented.

Fixed mindset examples include avoid challenges, seeing effort as a waste of time, and not taking critical feedback into account.

The growth mindset is the one that most readily leads to success, well-being, and happiness.

Why Mindset Matters

At this point, you understand the difference between these two major mindsets and you know that a growth mindset is conducive to personal development.

However, you might still be wondering: what are mindsets, and why are mindsets so key to success in life?

Essentially, your mindset is just the attitudes and beliefs you have about something.

Psychological research has shown that if you want to know how to succeed, working on your mindset (in other words, on changing your attitudes and beliefs) is the most powerful thing you can do.

People who have positive mindsets attract more positivity and devote their energy to making the best of themselves.

Limiting Beliefs Hold You Back

Negative beliefs or limiting beliefs are sorts that are linked to a fixed mindset.

Examples of limiting beliefs include “I can't do that”, “Everyone else is better than I am”, and “This is all I'm capable of”.

These beliefs keep you trapped in an outdated version of yourself and your abilities.

Often, they trace back to early messages you received in life when significant people gave you a sense that you were not talented, or that you shouldn't try to reach too high.

In time, limiting beliefs can be overcome – and the more you do so, the closer you are to a growth mindset.

How To Develop A Growth Mindset

Let's now turn to the question of how to develop a growth mindset.

This is an active, continual process that is partly about learning how to sharpen your mind and partly about learning how to shift your attitude.

Once you have a growth mindset, you'll be able to form new beliefs – for example, the belief that you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to, and that there's no limit to how smart, capable, and successful you can be.

We'll work through five techniques that support the growth mindset, explaining how you can tailor them to your specific needs and goals.

Become An Autodidact

The first change you can make to support a growth mindset involves thinking of yourself as an autodidact – essentially, a self-taught person.

There are no limits to what you can teach yourself – empower yourself to further your knowledge on anything and everything that matters to you.

You are in control of what you learn, how much you learn, and when you learn it.

If you're not sure where to start, make a list of the kind of learning that would support your overall goals.

For example, are there skill sets you don't have that seem to get people far in your career track?

Make today the day to start learning those skills.

Embrace Your Flaws

As noted above, being in a growth mindset also involves taking a different attitude to critical feedback.

Start by vowing to embrace your mistakes and flaws – they are part of you, and they can be an invaluable guide to self-improvement.

There is an important sense in which your weaknesses are your strengths – they help you understand who you are, where you came from, and what to work on.

Firstly, for every flaw, you think you have, challenge yourself to think of one good thing it has given you.

Secondly, try to reframe flaws – for example, “I am impatient” can be reframed as “I want the best results” or “I see people's full potential and want them to realize it”.

Meanwhile, notice that as well as boosting your growth mindset, learning how to accept your flaws also improves your ability to help and understand others.

Focus On The Process

When you're working to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, it's also vital to try and focus on process over product.

In other words, instead of obsessively focusing on what you can get from a growth mindset, try to fully immerse yourself in what's happening right now.

When you focus on the process, you learn to live in the moment and to experience gratitude.

For example, instead of thinking “I hope all this growth mindset work makes me rich!”, think about what you're getting from it right now.

Perhaps it helped you take negative feedback on board in a different way today.

Maybe you've enjoyed a new class that you signed up for once you started viewing yourself as an autodidact.

Importantly, developing a growth mindset isn't a process with a fixed end. It's a lifelong journey that requires consistency creating positive thoughts and learning how to enjoy and appreciate every day with positive thinking.

Sense Of Purpose

Next, although we've just encouraged you to focus on process over product, it is nonetheless important to have some sense of purpose.

Ask yourself: what do I want my life to be about?

What is my passion?

If you want to learn how to find your purpose and passion in life, there are a few brainstorming techniques you can try.

For example, make a list of the ten things you value most in life, make a list of the ten things that excite you the most, and look at the lists side by side.

Where do you see meaningful overlaps?

For example, you might notice that your values include compassion and self-reflection.

The list of things that excite you include helping others with their problems.

From this, a potential purpose in a helpful or caring profession might emerge.

It will feel great when you have discovered you're true purpose in life.

Keeping A Journal

There are lots of reasons why it is worthwhile to keep a regular journal.

Keeping a journal helps you stay in touch with your thoughts and feelings.

Keeping a journal also assists you in working through leftover discomfort from the day, and also encourages you to stay in the moment.

However, some people feel intimidated by the prospect and aren't sure where to start, so let's pause for a moment to consider how to journal.

Importantly, journaling promotes growth even if you don't have time or space to write a huge amount.

If you can commit to just a few sentences about the significant things that happened in your day, that still counts as exploring your emotions to a degree.

You'll probably find it more helpful if you can write at least a page, however.

If you can, focus on two key things – what made you feel fulfilled, and what challenges you encountered (as well as thoughts on how to meet them).

High-Performance Mindset

Now that you understand the growth mindset and how to promote it, let's turn to a related concept – the high-performance mindset.

This version of a growth mindset is closely tied to success, and its foundations are what we call “intentional thoughts”.

Intentional thoughts are beliefs and images of what you want to achieve.

How you talk to yourself and think about yourself matters.

By carefully choosing and curating these aspects of your mental life, you support yourself in reaching your full potential.

Examples of begin in the high-performance mindset include believing that you can excel at anything you put your mind to.

Also having the patience to keep trying until you have the skills you need. Having a genuinely positive attitude towards new difficulties, and sending time every day doing something that helps you perform better.

As you can likely already see, adopting the high-performance mindset is extremely useful when practicing the Law of Attraction.

After all, manifestation requires carefully setting intentions and maintaining and developing a positive attitude.

Manifesting is precisely what the high-performance mindset involves.

This means that techniques aimed at cultivating a high-performance mindset also strengthen your ability to attract the future you desire.

Change Your Mentality

There are lots of exercises you can use to learn how to change your mindset or change your mentality.

Whether you’re looking to make small adjustments to the way you perceive your potential or are on a quest to reinvent yourself.

The Law of Attraction can assist in cultivating a high-performance mindset.

Both the high-performance mindset and using the Law of Attraction together are supported and enhanced by exercises like creative visualization.

You can do simple intentional thought visualization exercises by simply closing your eyes and spending 10-15 minutes.

This helps Build up a complex, detailed image of the high performance you want to manifest.

Add in not only sights but also smells, sounds, and sensations. Similarly, reciting affirmations like “There are no limits to my potential” helps you both create a growth mindset and manifest a successful future.

Try saying these affirmations first thing in the morning, you can also use it when giving a presentation or take part in a professional development seminar.

Part of learning how to change your mindset for success also involves the kinds of techniques discussed above.

One part of learning to change your mindset is reframing negatives and turning them into positives.

Write down five things you think are holding you back from success, and challenge yourself to flip these into positives.

For example, “I am a perfectionist, so I never finish projects”. Turn it into “I like doing the best job possible, I can learn that my best is good enough.”

How to Develop A Positive Mindset With Self-Hypnosis

Finally, hypnosis can play an enormously powerful role in changing your mindset – no matter how you want to change it.

Self-hypnosis is especially apt at helping you to develop a positive attitude, so it's conducive to a growth mindset and manifesting goals with the Law of Attraction.

Hypnosis just involves guiding you into a highly relaxed, maximally receptive place.

This is where your subconscious mind is no longer protected by the limiting defense mechanisms of your conscious mind.

Once you're in this state, if you hear suggestions that promote a new positive mindset, you can take them on board and start to incorporate them into your daily thinking.

So, if you want to grow and change, become the best version of yourself.

Why not try self-hypnosis to see how it can change your thinking for the better?

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Table Of Contents

Katherine Hurst
By Katherine Hurst
Katherine Hurst, is a Law of Attraction expert, best-selling author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on psychology, life design, structured thinking and emotional wellbeing.

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