From the course: Creating Success from Failures

Maintaining a growth mindset

From the course: Creating Success from Failures

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Maintaining a growth mindset

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- Carol Dweck, a pioneer and researcher in the field of motivation, identified two motivation mindsets: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset is believing your qualities are carved in stone, while a growth mindset is the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. To be resilient, it is imperative to have a growth mindset. Now for this lesson, I want to help you adopt a growth mindset. So in its most basic form, a growth mindset is our beliefs about the future mixed with our tenacity and self-confidence. In other words, a growth mindset helps you stay determined and intentional. The best way to get into a growth mindset is to know and believe that failure is a part of success. It is an opportunity to learn, strategize and move forward with intention. Next, by understanding the importance and giving credit to your past, you are one step closer to adopting a growth mindset. When you realize how your actions led to your failures, you can use those reflections to teach your present and future self. Now, this doesn't mean you should dwell and wallow about your actions from the past, but honor how your past has actually brought you closer to being an overcomer and achieving your dreams. Finally, a growth mindset is understanding that you must choose a positive attitude. The key words are you must choose. This means choosing not to be a prisoner of your own mind. A great way I practice this is whenever I get those not-so-positive thoughts in the face of defeat, I immediately ask myself, what did I learn and how can I turn this lesson into victory? By choosing to reframe the failure into a teaching lesson, you've adopted a positive attitude and a growth mindset. Over the next couple of weeks, I would like for you to take inventory of your behavior and attitude when you don't get your way, when you're faced with adversity or dealing with defeat. Once you take inventory, write ways you can move away from a fixed mindset and toward a healthier growth mindset.

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