What is a growth mindset and why is it important?

Have you ever heard the story of a hare and a tortoise? One day a hare and a tortoise decided to race. As expected, the hare was much ahead of the tortoise. As he couldn’t see tortoise anywhere near to him, he thought of taking a lunch break followed by a quick nap being overconfident about his speed and misconstruing the competitor’s strength. When he woke up, the sun was setting, and he ran as fast as he could. However, as he reached the crossing line, he saw the tortoise had already finished the race. 

The crux of this story is – the hare had a fixed mindset while the tortoise had a growth mindset. The hare lost the race by overestimating his talent, and the tortoise won by being persistent with the zeal to make his triumph possible.

What is the difference between fixed and growth mindset?

A fixed mindset is when people believe they are born with a certain level of ability, and working on it is impossible. For instance, let’s suppose you are not good at Math, and you keep thinking that your weakness in this subject is ingrained, it means that you are not ready to challenge your brain. However, if you think Math is not your cup of tea because it doesn’t align with your future goals, then it’s a different matter, and it has to be handled differently. 

A growth mindset is when people assert that they can develop ability through hard work and determination rather than having an underlying belief that destiny is controlling them. Indeed! Some circumstances aren’t in our control; nonetheless, we can change our attitude while responding towards them. For instance, rather than thinking that due to illness, you won’t be able to participate in a Badminton competition, you can try to recover from it soon by keeping a growth mindset.

How to develop a growth mindset in school

• Neuroscience says that our brain continues to develop and change even when we become adults. Even an old dog can learn new tricks. All we need to do is keep training it with the right skills. 
• Always believe that your life is in your control. People who tend to think that way always perform better.
• Never let anyone underestimate you. There is nothing that you can’t do. Remember, you may not be the hare, but you can always become a tortoise by your perseverance.
• Be open to constructive criticism given by your teachers or parents and ask them what you can do for improvement.
• Keep yourself open to accept the challenges and resist the temptation to give up. It’s the opportunity to thrive.
• Deal with setbacks positively. They can’t decide your intelligence. If one plan doesn’t work for you, another will do. For instance, if you couldn’t win one game, you can play again with a new strategy.
• Don’t become jealous of other people’s success; instead, learn from their journey and make your own.
• Set your long term and short term goals and try to achieve them with a growth mindset.

How to develop a growth mindset in business

• When you think of starting your business, take feedback from the experienced mentors pertaining to your idea to check if there are any gaps in strategy or innovation, however, never seek approval. It can allow others to play with your mind. Hence, you should make a decision based on your research, knowledge, and gut.
• Even if you have established a company, never think that it’s the endpoint. Keep innovating and adopt the new trends to survive in the market.
• Never afraid of taking risks: To grow your company, you always need to tap the potential resources, and you can’t do it by being risk-averse. For example, a product that is not in the market, but you think that it can be useful for the people. You will have to take the risk to launch that product as it can be either successful or failure.
• Keep saying yourself ‘not yet’: Accept the defeats and mistakes of yourself and your colleagues to keep the development process ongoing to attain success in the long term.
• Focus more on the process of work than speed. The result will define your potential.

Bottom line

There is a typical saying, don’t worry about the fruits, sow the seed, keep watering the plant, keep adding the nutrients and you will get a positive result one day.

A growth mindset is crucial because it allows you to be resilient and keep yourself open for improvement instead of accepting your current situation. For instance, if you are not accomplishing excellent grades today, you have to keep training your mind to put more effort or focus on your weaknesses to improve them, but don’t give up. Your hard work and consistency will always pay off. Also, marks aren’t the metrics to define the genius in you; your growth mindset is. Your ability to learn skills that you don’t have as a trait will make your success story remarkable. Keep growing!