Do You Have A Fixed Or A Growth Mindset?
Carol Dweck in her book “Mindset” talks about people being one of two mindsets. Some people have a fixed mindset. They think the world is the way it is, they are the way they are, and they fundamentally don't believe they can change themselves or anything in the world. If you have a fixed mindset, anything that happens to you is fate or good or bad luck. A fixed mindset means that you can't create your own destiny. Things just happen to you and you have no control.
The flip side of this is a growth mindset. If you have a growth mindset, you believe that you can change and the world can change. People with a growth mindset see themselves as masters of their own destiny rather than victims of fate or circumstance. They know that they'll have to solve a lot of problems and that problems never end. They see problems as opportunities to grow and learn and know they can ultimately overcome them.
Successful people attribute their success to their mindset. Having a growth mindset is essential for success. I think it might even be the most important factor for success. Here's why…
Success is not a destination: it's a journey. We never really “arrive.” There is always a next level.
Everything looks different at that next level because you're looking at things from a higher perspective. The next level transcends the current level.
If you have a fixed mindset, you're going to refuse to let go of your current-level thinking and you'll be looking through that as a lens to try to understand the next level, which won't work because the next level is a different reality. You're going to try to do current-level things to create success at the next level, and you'll just keep spinning your wheels and never get any closer to your goal.
The next level is a different world. When you're at the current level, you have a paradigm and values particular to this level. But when you go up a level, your paradigm and values change. The meaning of things changes. The world doesn't change, but your view of it does. If you have a growth mindset, you can more easily embrace that the next level is a different world where reality looks different and there are different reasons for doing things, and you can adapt.
Usually, when we have a goal, it's not actually the goal itself that we want. It's what the goal does for us. It's who we become by pursuing the goal. Ultimately, we really want to have a transformation, whether we consciously realise that or not.
If you're going to go through a transformation, you will have to let go of things that no longer serve you. You might have to leave behind certain behaviours, activities, beliefs, values, attitudes, mindsets, physical things, places, and even people. You can't keep holding onto these things and have that transformation and become the person you want to be. It's only by letting go of them that you free yourself up to move forward.
If we have a fixed mindset, we'll resist change and growth; we can't go through that transition and transformation to the next level to become the person who can create that success in our life.
Because there is always a next level, that means success is a process of constant transformation or evolution. You need to be adaptable. It boils down to a really simple choice: Evolve or die.
You can choose to evolve, where you cultivate a growth mindset and embrace the process of transformation that is necessary to become the kind of person who can go to the next level in your life and create the success you want and the life of your dreams.
Or you can hold on to a fixed mindset; you can choose to resist transformation by refusing to let go of values, mindsets, habits, behaviours, and people that hold you back from going to the next level and refuse to learn the mindsets, habits, and skills that will move you forward, so you stagnate or even go backwards as everyone else moves forward and leaves you behind. You die; not physically, but spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. Your hopes and dreams die.
You have a choice: fixed mindset or growth mindset. Evolve or die. Which one will you choose?