You may have heard about growth mindset for kids, but really this perspective can be developed at any stage of life! Having a growth mindset can help you feel happier, achieve more at work, or improve your success as an entrepreneur.
We’ll look at what it means to have a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset as an entrepreneur, as well as, provide tools like affirmations and books to help you develop this important shift in your thoughts!
What is having a growth mindset?
In a growth mindset, you believe that you can develop talents, abilities, and skills through hard work, strategies, and dedication. People that see the world in this way have a love of learning. They also have more emotional fortitude than those with a fixed mindset.
What are the characteristics of a growth mindset?
One of the underlying beliefs of a growth mindset is that you can learn, grow, and improve at any point through life. This doesn’t mean someone won’t fail at something, but it means that you are willing to try new things and take on risks.
Growth Mindset Examples
People who have a growth mindset:
- embrace new challenges
- are persistent and don’t give up
- practice self-care
- focus on the journey, as well as, the destination
- are inspired by others
- encourage others
- love learning
- focus on getting better
- take constructive criticism and apply it to their work
- view mistakes as a learning opportunity
- aren’t afraid to take risks
- seek to improve themselves daily
Our habit tracker can help you track your progress and reflect each day!
Why is it important?
Having a growth mindset empowers you because you know you’re in control of your abilities, skills, and overall success. It focuses on hard work and encourages positive self-talk which can help you mentally and emotionally through challenges.
All of these characteristics are helpful whether you are in a school, a work or a entrepreneurial setting! This one skill has helped us grow our online business the most!
What’s a fixed mindset?
In contrast, people with a fixed mindset often avoid challenges and feel like they’re unable to do anything to succeed or improve themselves.
These people can be found to even lie or cheat in their relationships and at work to “get ahead”.
How to Create a Growth Mindset
Now that you know the importance of having a growth mindset, let us look at some of the tools and resources you can use to develop those characteristics in your life.
Ways to Improve Your Growth Mindset
- Be mindful of your thoughts
- Ask questions to learn and understand
- Try a new challenge often
- View mistakes as a learning opportunity
- Ask for feedback from those you trust and learn from it
- Set goals with a specific, actionable game plan
- Add “Yet” to your can’ts. “I can’t do this…yet.”
- Focus on your effort versus the end result
- Surround yourself with encouraging people
- Share your mindset work with them
- Accept your imperfections
- Believe change and improvement are possible
- Avoid comparing yourself to others
- Stop judging and criticizing others
- Practice positive self-talk
Quotes, affirmations, and books are a great place to start with positive self-talk as well!
Positive Self-Talk
Positive self-talk is one of the foundations for improving your mindset.
Think about it:
If you tell yourself, “I’m not good at this,” you’ll likely quit.
You’ll likely try again if you say, “How can I improve at this?” though.
The same can be said for comparison. If you say, “She’s so smart; I’ll never be that smart,” you’ll slack off.
By changing this to, “I’m going to figure out how she does it so I can try it!” will encourage you to take action and improve to be your best self.
One way to make this mindset shift automatic is to surround yourself with positive affirmations every day.
Growth Mindset Quotes & Affirmations
- Mistakes help me learn.
- Learning requires effort.
- If she can, I can too.
- I will learn how to do this.
- Challenges make me stronger.
- I am not a quitter.
- Failure is an awesome teacher.
- I can succeed with determination and effort.
- I embrace challenges.
If you’re like me, you’re feeling like this is corny.
BUT – I beg of you to fight through this feeling.
In order to break through your mental walls, take some advice from successful people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.
It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with it longer. – Albert Einstein
I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work. – Thomas Edison
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right. – Henry Ford
All things are difficult before they are easy. – Thomas Fuller
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. – Joseph Chilton Pierce
Ralph Waldo Emerson summed up his growth mindset by saying, “always do what you are afraid of doing.”
Grab our other favorite affirmations here!
Growth Mindset Books
Keep in mind, it’s not easy to stay in this high level of thinking. If it were, everyone would do it! It’s worth fighting to attain though.
Even as someone with a growth mindset, I still can struggle with insecurity, defensiveness, and fear. All 3 of these things can lead me to feeling burned out or less-than.
The cool thing is, I recognize that and what triggers my negative emotions now, and you can do the same thing! By noticing what brings me down into a fixed mindset, I can talk myself out of it and get back on track pretty quickly!
This helps me have confidence in who I am, what I believe, and how I want to run my business!
Are you currently in a growth or fixed mindset?
What are you doing to improve?
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