How to Develop Dr Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset
How to Develop Dr Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset.
Dr Carol Dweck - Growth mindset:
- Recognise the powerful influence that beliefs have on final results.
- Improvement is always possible.
- Eliminate chronic self-doubt.
- Become more "Goal focused".
- Life requires evolutionary growth.
- Evolution is growth by degree.
- Contained within every defeat are seeds of an equivalent benefit.
- Mind your language.
- Thoughts are things.
- Be guided by your Visions of a better future.
What is a growth mindset?
A "mindset" is a set of beliefs that motivate people to act in certain ways, which influences their results. For instance, people with a fearful mindset behave differently to those who have a courageous mindset and thus would experience different results.
A "Growth mindset" is a specific set of beliefs that inspire personal, intellectual, social and economic growth.
What are the benefits of a growth mindset?
The benefits of developing a growth mindset are enormous, including:
- Intellectually: A growth mindset encourages lifelong learning.
- Personal health: A growth mindset contributes to good mental health and it inspires people to improve their physical strength and endurance conditioning.
- Socially: People with a growth mindset have a magnetic attraction to those people who lack confidence and faith in the future.
- Economically: Organisations rely on having people in their team possessing a growth mindset. If NOBODY in the organisation had a growth mindset, then the organisation would soon collapse.
How to develop a growth mindset?
1. Recognise the powerful influence that beliefs have on final results.
Every human action is controlled by a human thought.
And since our actions influence our results, how we think (our mindset), has a measurable effect on the results we are likely to obtain.
For instance, in medicine, "The Placebo Effect" demonstrates the power of the mind to affect medical trials. Whenever patients believe that the inert fake-medicines they are taking contain a powerful new painkiller, they report therapeutic effects from a pill that contains only sugar.
The sugar pill had no therapeutic effect but the person's belief (mindset), did affect their medical condition.
In a similar way, our mindset exerts a tremendous influence on our whole lives because our actions are determined by our thoughts, and our results are determined by our actions.
Therefore: Thoughts affect results. Discover how your mental attitude can affect your actions here.
2. Adopt the belief: Improvement is always possible.
Whatever is the current situation, it can be improved upon.
It is this belief that underpins the "Growth mindset".
The growth mindset rejects stagnation, self-denunciation or self-satisfaction.
The growth mindset is restless and wants to explore. It wants to know; what is on the other side of the horizon? It is this mindset that took humans around the planet, to the Moon and to Mars.
If you look around you at the world today, you will probably agree that improvement on the current situation is certainly possible.
3. Eliminate self-doubt.
Growth mindset does not submit to chronic self-doubts. Growth mindset admits that none of us are perfect, and that all of us can (and should) improve ourselves, so that we are better equipped to improve the situation. Growth mindset is honest about personal strengths and weaknesses. People with growth mindsets play TO their strengths and work ON their weaknesses.
4. Become more "Goal focused".
The human mind can be either in-focus or out of focus.
The mind works best only when it is "in focus". An out of focus mind is drifting, hazy and inefficient. A mind that is in focus is clear, purposeful and effective.
The growth mindset does not drift.
The growth mind-set has a goal achievement focus: The goal is to grow stronger, better and faster.
5. Life requires evolutionary growth.
Life on earth is governed by the principle of evolution. The growth mindset works on the same principle: Progressive evolution by means of adaptive change.
Note these key concepts, all of which are consistent with the growth mindset: Progressive. Evolutionary. Adaptive. Change.
6. Evolution is growth by degree.
Success is not an event; it is a process. Success is based upon a never-ending commitment to setting goals, building plans, taking action, observing the feedback results, then adapting, changing and improving the plan in order to continue growing stronger. The growth mindset achieves success by taking innumerable small evolutionary changes, over time: A progressive adaptation to changing circumstances.
7. Contained within every defeat are seeds of an equivalent benefit.
All plans are imperfect. Therefore, our actions are imperfect. things don't usually turn out as well as we would like. Temporary defeat is part of the process of success. When people suffer defeat, there are two responses one might take: Give up or Learn from the defeat.
Many people give up too soon. People with a growth mindset never give up.
Instead, they analyse their defeat, and discover its causes, they learn the lessons from the defeat and then use that information to build better plans.
The motto of the growth mindset is: "Contained within every defeat are the seeds of an equivalent or greater benefit."
8. Mind your language.
We all have speech habits. Speech habits are those words and phrases that we use every day, which condition our thoughts and actions. Some people habitually speak in pessimistic ways, which conditions their thoughts, feelings and actions accordingly.
People with a growth mindset have a different set of habitual sayings and speech habits. They are careful to talk in optimistic terms; to see the potential opportunity embedded in any situation. The speech patterns of the growth mindset positively affect thoughts, feelings and actions and therefore, changes the results obtained.
It is possible to develop a growth mindset by deciding to adopt certain speech habits that are consistent with it.
9. Thoughts are things.
Every effect has causes. The effects we experience in our daily lives. are often caused by our habitual thoughts.
A growth mindset is a causal factor in a successful life, because everything we do and say, is governed by the thoughts that dominate the mind.
Most people do not think about their thinking. They take their thinking for granted, like a fish takes the water in which it swims for granted. A thinking fish would analyse the water to discover whether it is healthy or not.
A thinking person should analyse their own mindset to see if it is healthy or not. If it is not a growth mindset, then the necessary changes should be made.
Your thoughts are causal agents in your life. It is important to get your thinking right.
10. Be guided by your visions of a better future.
The most important aspect of the growth mindset is a vision for a better future.
Everyone wants the future to be better than the present. And we won't act to make the future better, unless we believe we can make it so.
Therefore, the first step to developing a growth mindset is to visualise a better future, then use that image to write specific goals, and your intellect to build detailed plans, and your energy to implement them.
Everything starts with a vision.
If you'd like to work on being the very best version of yourself and develop a growth mindset, view our personal development training or contact our team of experts today!
About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years’ experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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