What is a Growth Mindset: and What's the Big Deal Anyway?

"Whether you think you can or think you can't — you're right." Henry Ford

One of the most significant contributors to a successful career is your mindset. In fact, it could be the determining factor on whether you win or lose in life.

Your mindset influences everything you do. It is part of your core—the filter that affects how you approach setbacks, forks in the road, happy times, and sad times. Your mindset even influences your behavior and your thinking.

While truths, themes, and even pithy quotes about how “mindset matters" have been around for a long time, groundbreaking work and research have been done on the concept of having a "growth mindset" in the last twenty years.

Understanding what it means to have a growth mindset, why it's so formative, and why having a fixed mindset is so destructive is pivotal to career success.

The Difference Between Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset believes that anything — skill, weakness, or situation — can improve with hard work, learning, and perseverance. It believes nothing in life is truly static. There is always room for growth and new knowledge, and there is no end in sight for what can be accomplished. A growth mindset allows for a "big picture" perspective of success, developed over a life of learning and growing. People with growth mindsets:

• Embrace challenges.
• Are unafraid of failure.
• Are more resilient.
• Experience more purpose in life.
• View themselves as learners rather than experts.
• Are unthreatened by the success of others.
• Don't take natural gifts and talents for granted, but seek to improve them.

Fixed Mindset

However, a fixed mindset believes the opposite. Instead, it says that talents and abilities are static. That gifts, talents, and abilities are innate; there is a limit to what you can accomplish. This results in a narrow view of success. Instead of success being a lifelong journey, it is only accomplished at specific milestone moments. A fixed mindset can lead to personal and professional stagnation. People with fixed mindsets:

• Shy away from challenges.
• Are frustrated and stunted by failure.
• Become defensive around feedback.
• Define themselves with limiting labels.
• Feel threatened by the accomplishments of others.
• Spend more time proving rather than improving their natural strengths and abilities.

Tips for Developing a Growth Mindset

Cultivate a Love of Learning

A commitment to learning is a cornerstone of the growth mindset. View everything — every experience and relationship — as an opportunity to learn something new. Be curious! Exchange entertainment with growth-oriented reading and listening — countless books, podcasts, and workshops are at your fingertips.

Change the Focus of Your Goals

Setting goals is prudent, but we often set our goals in performance-centric ways. While achieved goals are benchmarks, you should be able to measure and orientate them around learning and growth. (New skill sets, increased knowledge of different topics, habits, etc.)

Be Willing to Fail

With or without a growth mindset, failure isn't fun. But it can be a springboard for growth and new ideas. When experiencing failure, be mindful of negative self-talk; replace it with growth-oriented affirmations. ("I haven't figured this out yet, but now I know how to do it better next time.") Recognize failure doesn't define you. 

Celebrate Hard Work

We're programmed to celebrate only when we've achieved something we wanted to win or earn. However, what if you started celebrating your hard work and what you learned along the way, regardless of whether you "succeeded" or "failed?" With a growth mindset, it's not just about the result but the process and the personal development along the way.

Don't Run Away from Imperfection

Staying in your comfort zone and relying on natural strengths and abilities alone is tempting. However, running from your weaknesses or things that intimidate you only feeds a fixed mindset. Push yourself past what scares you, frustrates you, or challenges you!

Develop Grit

Grit is nothing more than hard-core determination, resilience, and perseverance. It is integral to a growth mindset. Remember, your brain is a muscle. The more you exercise and develop it, the stronger it will become.

Surround Yourself with Growth-Minded People

You will become like the people with whom you spend the most time. So, choose to surround yourself with people who are on the same growth mindset journey.

Are you looking for your next career step? Perhaps temp work is the next right thing for you! At Career Concepts, we've been helping the right people find the right job for over 50 years. Contact us today, and let's get started!