When things go wrong, do you tend to see it as a failure or an opportunity to learn and grow from the experience? With the former, it’s usually a sign that your mindset is of the fixed variety and it can hold you back in life. With a positive growth mindset, it’s all about believing that you can grow and develop. Your mindset generally stems from your beliefs but these can change, albeit not overnight. Adopting a mindset that is both strong and positive can take a bit of time and effort but it’s a super important part of self-improvement. Here are some tips for helping yourself to develop a mindset for positive growth.

Positive growth mindset versus fixed mindset

Before we dive into how to get a positive growth mindset, it’s helpful to understand how it differs from a fixed growth mindset.

People with a positive growth mindset believe that they can do almost anything they set their mind to (within reason, of course!), which makes them more open to new opportunities and challenges.

If you have a positive growth mindset, you are usually less concerned by other people’s opinions and see things as a learning curve. This means that you’re not that bothered if you fail at a new challenge and any setbacks can be solved by looking at things in a different light.

In a nutshell, a positive growth mindset believes that you can build on your talents with hard work and confidence and that your chances of success don’t start and end with natural ability or aptitude.

People with a fixed mindset are more likely to believe that there are limitations based on their talents and skills and that this can’t be improved on. Unsurprisingly, this makes them far less willing to take on new opportunities for fear that you won’t be successful. If you have a fixed mindset, you also tend to be overly concerned with what other people may think of you and constantly aware of the threat of failure. You’re more likely to look within yourself when things go wrong and put blame on yourself, rather than looking for an outside solution.

As you can see, a fixed mindset can be super self-limiting!

Tips for achieving a positive mindset

Ready to start working towards adopting a positive mindset? These tips can help!

Embrace your weaknesses

We all have things that we’re not so good at it and it’s super easy to gloss over them, rather than acknowledge them. When you do this, you’re likely to struggle with developing a positive growth mindset as it saves you from having to work on self-improvement. Accepting your non strengths is a big first step to switching up your mindset.

Be nice to yourself

A fixed mindset often goes hand in hand with negative self-talk. This can be a difficult one to break away from if you’ve been stuck in a cycle of negative self-talk for a while. If you have a tendency to doubt yourself and tell yourself that certain things aren’t going to be possible, it can easily keep you rooted in a fixed mindset.

Positive self-talk is super important for turning this on its head. Whenever you catch yourself engaging in negative self-talk, take its power away by reversing your thought processes. People with a positive growth mindset believe that there’s a great chance of being successful with their goals, even if this doesn’t play out in reality.

Embrace challenges

People with a positive growth mindset have one thing in common in that they tend to embrace challenges and don’t shy away from them. Think of it this way: challenges are just another opportunity to grow and have success in meeting your goals.

Focus on experiences, not just the results

Do you shy away from trying out new things because you’re scared it won’t turn out right? Switch up your thinking so that you’re focusing on what you’ll learn from experiences and work out what kind of positive action you can take from it for the future. That way, you’re not just thinking about the end result and are using it as a springboard for growth, regardless of how things turn out. Along the way, be sure to celebrate your wins – no matter how small they may be.

And if things don’t turn out the way you’d hoped? Reframe your thinking so that you view mistakes and setbacks as learning curves and not failures. This makes it a lot easier to mentally pick yourself up again and carry on.

It’s not a race

Developing a positive growth mindset isn’t an overnight process and it’s super important not to feel discouraged about this. Just make a commitment to working towards a positive growth mindset and trust that it will happen, even if you encounter a few setbacks on the way.

~Coach Jess