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Last Updated on November 18, 2023 by theosteomum
The benefits of a Growth Mindset have truly changed my life.
Not a word of a lie.
But having a Growth Mindset is not something that came naturally to me.
In fact, in the beginning, it went against many of the ways that I have “talked to myself” throughout my whole life.
Over the past few years, however, I’ve made some conscious changes to my mindset.
The effects of these have been huge, and continue to amaze me each day.
I notice these changes in my work, my parenting, and my ability to prioritise what’s truly important to me.
In this post, we’ll discuss:
- What is a Growth Mindset?
- The opposite of the Growth Mindset- the Fixed Mindset
- Why do we think the way we do?
- Where does the term “Growth Mindset” come from?
- 4 personal life-changing benefits of a Growth Mindset
- How you can start to use a Growth Mindset
What is a Growth Mindset?
The Growth Mindset is based on the belief that:
“Your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others”
– Dr Carol S. Dweck
Basically, this means that while people start out with an initial level of intellect, talent, ability or temperament, this can be changed with learning and experience.
This mindset allows us to believe that a person’s true potential is unknown. We truly cannot see how much a person can accomplish with a dedication to learning, growth and effort.
Adopting this mindset has completely changed the way I think, which has in turn lead to dramatic changes in the way that I live and work. I now honestly believe that anything is possible for me, and I’m not afraid to reach for my dreams. Mostly because I’m no longer afraid of failure.
I’ll tell you about just a handful of my real life benefits of a Growth Mindset a little later.
The opposite of a Growth Mindset- the Fixed Mindset.
The Fixed Mindset states that your qualities are carved in stone.
It means that you only have:
- A certain amount of intelligence, or
- That your personality only works in a particular way, or
- That you’ve got one set of morals or beliefs that cannot be changed.
This sounds pretty absurd at first glance. However, when you stop to think about it, it’s actually how many of us think.
How many times have you said things like:
- “A leopard doesn’t change its spots”, or
- “I’m a naturally shy person”, or
- “People in my family don’t do X”, or
- “I could never do that”?
For many people, this leads to them repeating the same behaviours over and over again, as they believe that this is all they are capable of.
Shy people don’t allow themselves to be more outgoing. Naturally introverted people resist opportunities to grow their networks to allow themselves to expand.
It truly affects every aspect of our lives.
Why do we think the way we do?
Often this stems way back to our childhoods.
Maybe we were told we were “not smart enough” or vividly recall getting a bad grades throughout school. Because of this, we carry the mental image of ourselves as “stupid” or “dumb”, and never push ourselves to study or develop our intellect.
On the flip side, maybe we were told we were “clever”, or always got good marks at school. So, we continue to see ourselves as the “smart one”- and live in eternal fear of failure lest we slip from this place of grace.
I’ve come to realise that the second scenario was me.
I always excelled at school, and despite the fact that my Mum in particular often told me that I could do anything in life, I felt like an underachiever who had dropped the ball somewhere along the way. This led to a general dissatisfaction in many areas of life.
Since learning about and consciously cultivating a Growth Mindset, I’m proud to say I’ve turned this around. This is a continual process- I often realise though that I’m still a work in progress. I often catch myself thinking or saying “fixed mindset” statements out of habit. However, I’m aware of what they are now and quickly turn them around.
Where does the term “Growth Mindset” come from?
The term “Growth Mindset” was coined by Dr Carol Dweck, a U.S. based psychologist.
Dr Dweck developed this theory after studying how different children approached completing increasingly difficult puzzles. She investigated the reasons why some children would get frustrated and give up, whilst others would be intrigued and truly enjoy the challenge.
Eventually, Dr Dweck concluded that the children who rose to the challenge weren’t discouraged by fear of failure. They were fixated enough on learning and growing that the fear of getting it wrong didn’t stop them. She was able to demonstrate that the two mindsets physically produced different brainwaves, i.e. that these two groups of people literally thought differently.
Reading Dr Dweck’s book, simply title “Mindset”, has changed my life. You can grab your copy of Mindset here.
I read mine on my Kindle, which I love!
As an avid reader, a Kindle has dramatically reduced the amount of book clutter I have in my home. You can get a hold of one here.
4 personal life-changing benefits of a Growth Mindset:
As I touched on earlier, my life has changed significantly over the past few years.
The benefits of a Growth Mindset on my life just cannot be understated.
I’ll outline a few of the more significant changes, but there really are an immeasurable number of impacts that changing my thinking has had on my life.
1. Opening our own business.
My husband and I opened our own Osteopathic clinic here in our home town in 2018. This is something that Jason had been wanting to do since I graduated back in 2005! Back then though, I was full of my own excuses as to why this just wasn’t viable. I didn’t think I was a good enough Practitioner, and worried about the impact that running our own business would have on our relationship.
These thoughts probably stem way back to my own childhood, when I watched my parent’s business fall apart, taking their relationship along with it. They never financially recovered, and ultimately their physical health suffered greatly too.
As a child I think it must’ve been “safer” to stick to the sure bets- you might not fail but at least you know where your next dollar is coming from.
When the reality of finally opening our own business began to reveal itself, I invested a tonne of energy into uncovering my limiting beliefs, and slowly working my way through them. This is a fascinating process, and well worth taking the time to do. Using a Growth Mindset and realising all the things I’d already accomplished put me in a great position to achieve success.
Fastforward 4 years, and our business continues to go from strength to strength. I honestly wish we had’ve done it all those years ago!
2. Starting “The Osteo Mum”.
If I’m being truly honest, I had the idea for The Osteo Mum almost 6 years ago, after the birth of my second daughter. I knew I had a lot of knowledge to share, but told myself things like “I don’t have time” or “no one will read my stuff”.
Thankfully, I discovered the Growth Mindset, which has helped me to realise that even if I “fail”, I’m still learning. Launching this blog has taught me so much about myself, how to utilise my time and what’s important to me.
I’m excited to see where The Osteo Mum will take me. I’m prepared to put in the effort and know that blogging can be a long and lonely journey. A few years ago I know I would’ve given up by now. These days, there’s no way that’s going to happen!
3. Raising my children with a Growth Mindset.
I am actively fostering a Growth Mindset in my children.
Both girls appear to naturally demonstrate Fixed Mindset tendencies at times, and I’m doing my best to turn these around.
An example occurred a while ago when our oldest was trying to master the monkey bars at the park.
This was something she’d been dabbling in for a few months, but she hadn’t quite got there- yet. She tried a few times, and could only get to the first 2 or 3 bars. She started to say things about giving up, or that she couldn’t do it. Finally, she even asked me to hold her legs while she did the arm motion.
Whilst it seemed easier and more natural or loving to do this, I resisted. Instead, we talked about different strategies she could use to help her get momentum and better her grip. She practiced these, and within a few minutes was gliding across the bars with ease.
I don’t know who was more proud- her or me!
In the past I know I would’ve just held her legs and waited until she developed better upper body strength. But we’d been doing that for months with little progress. A few little tweaks in both of our approaches made all the difference.
4. Continuing to see celebrity examples of a Growth Mindset.
The celebrity world abounds with examples of Growth Mindset. This provides inspiration every day to continue to change and improve the way I think.
These people have reached the absolute top of their games. In the past, I may have written them off as “just having sheer talent”, or made up a million possible excuses such as “they’re just lucky” to explain away their successes.
One of the benefits of adopting a Growth Mindset has lead me to want to know more about how these people tick, to continue to refine what I think is possible.
Two of the classic examples are:
Michael Jordan’s Growth Mindset
Michael Jordan is widely accepted as being the greatest basketball player of all time.
He rose to fame playing basketball in the 80’s and early 90’s- winning the NBA championship 3 years running. (I can remember proudly wearing a matching Air Jordan parachute tracksuit as a kid, and thinking I was the Bees Knees).
At what seemed to be the peak of his career, he quit basketball to play Minor League baseball.
Why would a man who had reached the pinnacle of sporting success walk away to a sport he hadn’t played since he was a kid, knowing that the whole world would be watching his every move? Wasn’t he scared he’d fail?
The answer is no.
Jordan has famously made statements reflecting his Growth Mindset, such as:
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying”.
-Michael Jordan
The profoundness of Michael’s words continue to inspire me. He realises that many of us are born with a certain ability. It’s those of us who continue to try and then try again that actually reach our goals.
Tiger Woods’ Growth Mindset
For over a decade the early 2000’s, Tiger Woods dominated professional golf. He was the highest-ranked golfer worldwide from 1999-2004, and again from 2005-2010. Then it all seemed to fall apart- quite publicly and spectacularly.
For many of us watching along from the comfort of our sofas, we thought he’d take his fortunes and go sail a yacht somewhere. Why would he bother coming back to golf? he didn’t need the money and he’d won all there was to win!
A Growth Mindset, that’s why.
Tiger Woods made a beautiful comeback to golf, winning the 2019 Masters.
When asked how he kept his focus after this win, he simply stated:
“I still had work to do”
-Tiger Woods
This was a man who had reigned in his chosen relied for more than ten years. But, he knew he still had more to learn. So he didn’t give up!
This ability to fail – in front of the whole world- and then pick up the pieces and move forward, is what sets the Growth Mindset people apart from those with a Fixed Mindset.
How you can start to use a Growth Mindset:
The benefits of using a Growth Mindset really will change your life in a short period of time.
The easiest way to start to implement a Growth Mindset in your life is to pick one area of your life that you’re not happy with, and start there.
When you stop to think about it, there’ll be a reason why that area is the way it is. Often, there’ll be a real reason even deeper the first reason that comes to mind.
For example, you would like to lose some weight. Maybe this is for health reasons, or maybe it’s just to fit into your pre-kids jeans.
The Fixed Mindset will tell you things like:
- “I’m not a good cook”, or
- “I don’t know how to eat healthily”
With a Growth Mindset, you can turn these thoughts around, with statements such as:
- “I can learn to cook a new healthy meal each week”, or
- “Who can I learn from about healthy meal prepping and planning”?
Whilst these may sound obvious when spelled out like this, it’s often not so obvious to see how a Growth Mindset will help your life and it’s day to day struggles. Sometimes we’ve been telling ourselves the same stories for years, and we find it difficult to know what’s actually true anymore.
Benefits of a Growth Mindset- Wrapping Up:
Pay attention to your thoughts. What’s the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of your problem area? Start with this, and make a conscious effort to turn this around. Pick one thing, and go from there. Once this gathers some momentum, pick another. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your life can change!
To see how the Mindset book could change your life, grab your copy here.
If you’d like to read more about ways to make small changes to life as a parent, check out my great post here.
If you think your friends or family may benefit from reading this article (and of course they would!), don’t forget to share it with them!
Finally, I love to hear how my work is helping you to change your life for the better. Leave me a comment below!
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