In management theory and various other theories, a growth mindset is simply a collection of attitudes, techniques, or ideas held by one or a small group of individuals or groups. Essentially, it is a way of looking at the world around you and coming to a personal and unique level of understanding. It is also a way of looking at yourself and your own limitations. In fact, it might be argued that a growth mindset is the key to unlock the secret of success. However, what is important in building a strong and successful business or organization is having a strong sense of self worth. If you lack self worth then you won’t be able to build up much confidence and won’t be able to rise to any meaningful level within an organization.
The first principle of having a growth mindset is that you shouldn’t be so hung up on the past. Sure, it is good to look back from time to time and chastise yourself for the mistakes you have made. But the real focus should be on what you can do now and doing it now will make a difference in the present and in the future. So the old adage of not making any friends will hold true. You must not only build up self-esteem, but you must develop friendships with those who are not like you in every way.
In many ways, you will be surprised to discover that people who possess a growth mindset tend to thrive and flourish better than those who don’t. This has interesting consequences for how we handle failure and setbacks. For example, you may notice that those who approach life with a defeatist attitude often suffer from low self-esteem and have a history of failing in business and in life. They tend to avoid facing challenges and setbacks. Instead, they try to get over the entire thing quickly and get right back to business as soon as possible. Those who possess a growth mindset use failure and setbacks as learning opportunities.
It doesn’t matter whether you are dealing with school, business, personal challenges or even family issues. When you have a growth mindset, you look at challenges and setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow. When something difficult happens–whether it is a challenge with your boss, family conflict or a family crisis–you respond by saying something like, “I will look at this in a positive manner and I will come up with an answer.” You don’t complain about the situation or try to diminish the difficulty; you look at it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Self-esteem starts with having a growth mindset. If you are shy and don’t like talking to large groups of people, you will be challenged in college, work and in other settings. So how can you effectively overcome these challenges? You must first be willing to talk to anyone, regardless of age, gender and race. By having a growth-mindset, you will have the courage to tackle challenges and learn from them, because you know that you can become a better person.
When you have a growth mindset, you also have a certain amount of intelligence. We were all born with some amount of intelligence, but this intelligence cannot be measured in money, height and brain size alone. Some people have a high degree of intelligence and others have a low degree of intelligence. It all has to do with the mindset you are operating with when you are growing up. It is possible for some people to have extremely high intelligence, while others have average intelligence or just normal intelligence.
A growth mindset also means that you are motivated by positive outcomes and praise. If you praise someone on their hard work, their intelligence or their artistic ability, they will be more likely to continue working to achieve their goals. When you praise someone for their efforts, even if they don’t get the results you want, you help kids feel proud about themselves and this will also encourage them to work harder.
Finally, a growth mindset also means that you don’t let setbacks hold you back from your goals. One of the most common reasons why some people fail at what they want to do is because they focus so much on the setbacks. This is bad because setbacks should only be used as a stepping stone to success and not the basis for a failure. So, instead of focusing on the setbacks, you should focus on what the setback taught you and use it to move on to your next goal.