Imagine being able to embody all of the good qualities you see in others that makes them valuable, such as confidence, income skills, productivity skills, physical fitness, etc.
How would that impact your life? In a much positive way, I’m sure.
But in order to achieve something that significant, you certainly don’t have to gather an army to move mountains or find a genie who’ll offer you 3 wishes.
It is very much doable on your own!
The first (and arguably the most important) step being the establishment of a Growth Mindset.
What is a Growth Mindset and why is it important?
Growth mindset: It is the belief that with time and effort, even the basic skills and abilities we all have can be evolved to benefit our goals.
Regardless of the level of skill and ability that a person may possess, there is always room for improvement. And to attain that “life-changing” improvement, having a growth mindset is kind of a necessity.
Having a growth mindset not just encourages you to do what is necessary, it also rebuilds your habits. About 40% of the things we do every day & our thought patterns are born out of habits.
So if we somehow modify our daily habits to fit our goals and dreams, it might be easier to achieve them in a much less time frame.
Fixed vs Growth Mindset: Where do you fall?
If you’re under the impression that, people are born with certain qualities that remain static throughout their lives and people just need to accept it, then you fall on the “Fixed” end of the mindset spectrum.
Having a fixed mindset can cause career and life stagnation (with the feeling to being stuck).
On the other hand, a growth mindset revolves around the idea that individuals’ abilities and qualities and be cultivated and improved to the point that it changes your whole life for the better.
Given below are the 10 practical ways you can develop a Growth Mindset:
1. Realize Your Current Reality
Before anything else, the first thing you’ll have to do is to reflect on the situation you’re currently in.
Are you aware of what your current reality is? Do you know where you currently stand in life?
See, I raised that question because despite what you think or believe, a lot of people don’t even realize that they are not growing. People will stick their heads into the sand, pretending everything’s going fine, rather than facing reality.
- “I know I’m broke. In my defense, all of my friends are broke too.” (Normalizing no-growth mentality)
- “I was always lazy, can’t do anything about it now.” (Unwillingness to change)
- “I have no time or interest to learn a new skill”. (The classic “No time” excuse)
These are a few things I’ve heard from people…
Notice any problems with the above statements? There is no desire to change the current status quo. Rather acknowledging the problem, they are digging excuses that make zero sense.
Blame the fixed mindset or the environment where they became comfortable and got used to, but to not be able to identify the “Fixed-ness” is an issue.
But since you’re here, reading posts about “Growth mindset”, it really shows that you’re willing to do something about it, that’s a rather important trait to have for developing a growth mindset.
2. Establish the “Why”
German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche once said,
They who have a clear Why, can endure any How.
Loosely translated, you’ll do everything in your power to achieve something if it holds great meaning to you.
And this is why, you have to establish your “Why”, that’ll help you endure any resistance you might face during the journey. Something that holds meaning, something that’ll inspire you to give your 100%.
It might take you some time to find your “why” and it may change over time, but that’s totally okay if that’s what you really want.
Also, even if you think having a small and ordinary goal isn’t going to fuel the fire for a long time, you may be mistaken. A goal is a goal, it doesn’t always need to be as huge as building a billion-dollar empire.
It just needs to be significant enough to push you a little further every day!
3. Accept All Your Shortcomings
Embracing your shortcoming might sound like giving up on overcoming them, but you have to acknowledge the difference between “concealing” and “making peace” with your weaknesses.
When you are constantly busy concealing your shortcomings, you spend a whole lot of time, energy, and effort trying to convince yourself (and others) something that you’re not and thus this hinders you from moving past this.
And thus you don’t grow from your weaknesses.
On the contrary, when you accept and make peace with your weaknesses, it gives you room to move past it.
It gives you the freedom to let go all your insecurities and helps you focus on moving forward with confidence.
Moreover, embracing your weaknesses can help you build deeper connections with people. People appreciate real and authentic personalities.
If you’re willing to open up about your weaknesses, willing to show that you’re vulnerable, chances are, they too might open up about their vulnerabilities.
4. Cultivate a Sense of Purpose
It’s easy being stuck in a meaningless day-to-day task lifestyle, drifting in the motions of life, rarely stopping to introspect how current situations can be improved for a better tomorrow.
And that is the sole reason why you remain perpetually stuck.
Having a clear and positive sense of purpose gives you the proper motivation to do something that is hard and time-consuming to achieve that end goal.
For example:
Currently, struggling with money? Financial abundance becomes your “why”, and the freedom that comes with it becomes your “purpose”, something you really look forward to.
How would financial freedom affect your life once it becomes your reality? Will you travel to the places you always dreamt about? buy a house along the beach?
Having a purpose gives life meaning and (as I mentioned earlier) Something to look forward to.
Until that end goal means something to you and you think about it every day, you will not put the required effort to make that a reality.
Say the next statement out loud:
I don’t care if I don’t know how to achieve something that big, but from now on, I plan to put as much effort as I can, as often as I can, to make (my purpose) a reality.
5. Do Not Seek Approval From Anyone
Why not?
Because for one, you’ll not find any and two, even if you do find, you’ll end up craving more over time.
Seeking approval is one of the socials behavior we have that has the power to limit our potentials. It all starts with a simple pat on the back, the sign that someone approves something that belongs to us.
And honestly, it feels good, it feels good to be appreciated and accepted.
But it’s a slippery slope, once you’re dependent upon others’ approval to make decisions of your own life, you’ll be stuck in your own limiting beliefs.
When others’ acceptance of you impacts how you make decisions about how to spend your time, you lose perception of what’s more important to you and what makes you happy.
You might also feel stuck doing tasks you don’t particularly enjoy and continue doing stuff that is mentally exhausting.
And ultimately, you lose control over your own life.
Which is why it is so important to stop seeking approval from anyone at all. Your well-being is your hands, and no one should be allowed to mess with that.
This is why I always follow this one rule: Listen to everyone, but always do what feels right to you.
Taking permissions from yourself makes you feel authoritative about your own life, it’ll give you the steering wheel of your own life where you’re the only one who’s in control.
So do what you need to do and don’t seek approval from anyone but yourself. Period!
6. Be Authentic and Genuine
Most of us can tell when a person is being genuine when we interact with them and our gut can tell if something is off about a person. So trying to be someone you’re not isn’t going to help you in the long run.
People will eventually know at some point. So why pursue something that is already doomed.
At some point in life, you will get tired of pretending to be someone you’re not even if you’re enjoying it at this moment.
When you’re completely genuine, you don’t have to think before you act around people, you don’t have to evaluate whether you like something or not based on what others might think of you.
Whatever feels right to you, you just do it.
And in my opinion, this just might save you a whole lot of time and energy to focus on things that actually matters.
Being real, non-pretentious and on one’s own path is where you really fit into the big picture
7. Take Criticism Like a Badass
While in the presence of others, pursuing something of your own may attract quite a few opinions that might not be as pleasing as you want them it be. Criticism, suggestions, hate comments, conflicting opinions, etc are all part of the process.
But feedback is necessary! It helps you grow the righteous way.
But in the mix of different reactions and opinions, how can one handpick certain suggestions that might help you grow?
This is where it becomes crucial for you to filter out what is constructive feedback and is just useless criticism.
In order to filter out all those hate from the mix, all you have to do is ask the people for examples.
So, if someone says, “You weren’t paying attention during the meeting today!”.
In such scenarios, don’t get all defensive and say something like, “I was paying attention, I don’t know what you’re talking about“.
Instead, just say, “What was I doing that made it seem that I was not paying attention? Can you give an example?“.
When you force people to give examples, you’re actually separating out the good, useful feedback from the useless criticism.
8. Build Consistency
If you ever ask me what is the single, most important part of developing oneself is?
I’ll say, Consistency.
You might have heard the statement: If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.
You might start something out of sheer motivation, but its the consistency that’ll make sure you finish it.
Being consistent helps you develop habits and builds momentum which ultimately becomes second nature. Just like after waking up, you reach for the phone, it becomes habitual.
Wouldn’t it be nice if every time you’re about to start working on yourself, you don’t have to find that motivation to continue, instead you do it, just like you pick your phone without even thinking about it?
That is the result of consistency, folks!
9. Take action on every step of the way
Famous entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk once said, “Ideas are sh*t without execution“, which is a pretty straightforward way to say that you have to take action, in every single step.
Simply thinking and deliberating over potential million-dollar ideas won’t get you there.
Ideas itself are trash, until proper action taking is involved.
Nothing in this world is built purely out of ideas. Every successful person, every business, every thriving economy, every great invention, every before and after picture on Instagram is the result of Idea Plus Action.
Every single idea and opportunity brings out two options in front of you: Either take action or don’t.
Want to start a business? Take action!
Want to get fit? Take action!
Want to better your life? You guessed it, Take action!
It’s that simple.
Take action in every aspect of life that needs some change.
This way you’ll rewire your brain to choose the “take action” option every time you’re presented with an idea or opportunity and soon enough it’ll become a habit.
10. Positive Thoughts, All the Way
I am a firm believer that where-ever you put your thoughts and energy, it grows. And it certainly applies to literally everything you know. Heard of the Law of Attraction?
And in that last few years, I’ve first hand witnessed the power of positivity thinking and the LOA.
For one, I really wanted to start an online business (a blog) before I graduate from college so that I don’t have to apply for any job (not a fan of corporate lifestyle).
While I was putting my efforts to make it work, there were several occasions throughout the day where I would intentionally get happy and excited by thinking that everything that I have been working on has become true (even though it hasn’t yet).
By doing this, you are making sure that your thoughts are aligned with your goals, and it also tells the universe what you want, a happy one, or something else. You get what you as for!
So, instead of wasting your energy in contemplating what can go wrong and having a constant “I think I might fail” mentality, use your precious energy and thoughts to be positive.
Your dreams and aspirations need throughout positive energy input to be a reality, so give it to it, as often as you can.