Note: This article is from blogger Danrecio and presents 3 benefits of a growth mindset.
I know, however, that some people may not agree with this because they believe that we are born with certain talents. People with this conviction are often fixed-minded. This means that if you are a bad public speaker or a mediocre pianist, no amount of development and training will help you get better.
The opposite of a fixed mindset is a growth mindset. People who have this mentality believe in the ability to develop oneself through exerting relentless effort in self-development and learning. Although you may not be the best beginner, you have the ability to develop yourself. I strongly advocate the growth mindset because it motivates us to take responsibility for our lives based on our belief in our ability to control our behavior.
How A Growth Mindset Can Help You Achieve Your Desired Life?
1. Encourage Learning
The term fixed mindset and growth mindset were popularized by psychologist Carol Dweck in her article The Science of the Brain.
In this article, she presents an experiment she conducted on two groups of children. The first group received praise for their efforts and willingness to take on challenges, while the children of the second group only received praise for their intelligence. Then, they were later asked to solve a set of easy and complex problems. The data showed that the group that was praised for its efforts was more willing and enthusiastic to deal with the complex problems, while the group that was praised for its intelligence chose to deal with the easy problems.
What causes this? It is believed that the children of the second group wanted to maintain the impression of others that they were smart. Since they were appreciated because of a certain trait, they wanted to maintain these expectations, instead of learning and developing their selves with the possibility of failure. In other words, they chose to play it safe.
Self-development can mean feeling uncomfortable at times, and this feeling may result from difficulty in dealing with a subject, or from an abject failure.
However, people with a growth mindset appreciate difficulties because they see every failure as an opportunity to learn, and instead of giving up after a few failures, people with a growth mindset study the situation searching for any improvements before trying again.
2. Enhance Your Resilience
Keep trying after failure takes great resilience. One cornerstone of a growth mindset is embracing the process despite the inevitable hardships.
Let's be realistic. Life is difficult and full of challenges that test our courage, patience, and resilience. However, the most difficult thing is that we don’t succeed in every challenge that life imposes on us. This fact is an example that urges you to be humble because it forces you to take your weaknesses into account.
Yet, that doesn’t mean you should be defeated by your weaknesses. Rather, the growth mindset helps you remember that even if you fail, you will have many other opportunities to try until you finally achieve your desired goals. Additionally, it reminds you that you have two options during difficulties, either to try again or to surrender to failure.
3. Take Control
A growth mindset means that you are in control of your life. This means that you should take your life decisions, and it also means that you should bear the responsibility for achieving your future goal even if they were huge.
Sometimes, it can be easy for a person to make an excuse for their failure. You may blame your childhood, a toxic relationship, or just the unfairness of life. If you have a fixed mindset, you may think that you never succeeded in the first place.
This seems much easier than taking responsibility for your life. The problem with this way of thinking is that it makes us victims of our circumstances. However, one shouldn’t fall for this because you can certainly make a change. "I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions," says Stephen R. Covey. I totally agree with what Stephen Covey said. Much of our attitude toward life depends on our reaction to circumstances.
People with a fixed mindset may automatically give in to circumstances, as they feel comfortable when they slack off, and they just accept whatever life gives them. On the contrary, people with a growth mindset take charge and try to make their dreams come true.
In Conclusion
In fact, making a firm decision to work toward achieving your goals requires having a growth mindset because this type of goal force you to get out of your comfort zone, so you can learn and develop yourself as an individual. Therefore, have the courage to strive, and even have the courage to fail because this plays a huge role in achieving great results.
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