Ever felt like you’re moving through life yet seem to go nowhere? Well, it could just be something in your head holding you back.
How we think about things can be powerful in determining the progress we make towards set goals and how we handle challenges.
According to Carol Dweck, a Psychologist, this growth mindset helps people succeed and do more in their personal and professional lives.¹
We’ll discuss how a growth mindset and high-performance coaching can fast-track you to achieving your goals.
What Does Growth Mindset Mean?
We often hear this term in the personal growth industry: a growth mindset. It’s all about believing your talents and skills are not set in stone.
People with a growth mindset see challenges as opportunities. They also know that hard work improves our skills. The opposite is people with a fixed mindset; they believe you have to be born with the skills and easily give up.
This would mean that with the growth mindset, a person could say, ‘I failed this math exam, but with a bit more practice, I’m sure I will pass,’ while someone with a fixed mindset would say, ‘I’ll never understand math, I am not a number’s person.’
Only 40% of people have a growth mindset, which statistically means the other 60% are less likely to succeed just because of how they think.²
Why Mindset Is Key To Success
Neuroplasticity supports a growth mindset. Every time you take on a challenge, your brain makes new neural pathways, making you more resilient for the next obstacle-increasing confidence.
Findings from Harvard Business Review show that growth mindset firms tend to have happier employees and a more innovative risk-taking culture.³
Why a Fixed Mindset Holds You Back
People with a fixed mindset often hold themselves back from opportunities because they assume they are going to fail, this is because they believe that their abilities are innate. If they aren’t good at something, that’s how it always will be.
This kind of fixed mindset is an endless circle, known as the self-fulfilling prophecy, you think you can’t do something, and therefore, you don’t try, so you never improve or develop.
Shifting From a Fixed Mindset To a Growth Mindset
This is a long process; your whole life, you have made decisions and worked from a fixed mindset; these subconscious beliefs about your abilities might have come from trauma or early childhood influence.
Now, to develop a more open or growth mindset, here is what a mindset coach will be helping you to do.
- Recognizing the limiting thoughts – Where does this fixed mindset come from? Is it you telling yourself, ‘I can’t do that, I’ll fail’?
- View challenges as opportunities—Through your high-performance coaching, you encourage yourself to take on challenges that will stretch your skills.
- Reframe failures – Failure is a learning experience. Your mindset coach can help you to see it as an opportunity to rise higher and not retreat.
- Celebrate – Focus on how far you’ve come to keep yourself motivated.
Reaching Your Goals Faster With a Growth Mindset
Growth mindsets are adopted by successful people since they fast-track you to meet your goals, and that is because the idea of growth is that you keep moving forward no matter the obstacle.
- People operating with a growth mindset embrace learning and improvement.
- They act on this and continue to move ahead even in the event of failure.
- They listen to feedback and make amends.
- They go searching for challenges and adapt accordingly.
Developing a Growth Mindset With High-Performance Coaching
Arguably, one of the most underutilized secret weapons in developing a growth mindset is the help of a high-performance coach or mindset coach. This is because they give you strategies, accountability, and homework to help make your new open mindset stick.
If you have been struggling to reach your goals, learning a growth mindset may be the key to unlocking your true potential and success.
Naturally, working with a coach will bring improvement into your life and encourage confidence, motivation, and resilience, all traits of a growth mindset.
Learn more about our high-performance coaching program here.
