“Must have a growth mindset…”, “Your attitude determines your direction!” “Tighten your ponytail and try again…”

We’ve all seen it posted as a desirable qualification on HR job boards and motivational posters. Squeaky clean straight-A students tend to preen under the label and that all-star jock everyone liked in high school had it in spades.

But what does it mean to have a ‘growth mindset’ and why does it matter?

Being growth-oriented or having a growth mindset simply means that you have a way of viewing challenges and setbacks as blips in time versus being set in stone. It means that even when everything may look like it’s hopelessly going left, you keep pushing hard to the right because you believe that your skills and circumstances can improve over time. You are always willing to do more, try harder, aim higher, and continually seek to get to the next level in one or more areas of life. If that sounds absolutely exhausting or even pointless to you, your mindset is fixed instead of growth-oriented and that must seriously suck for you personally as well as professionally.

Allow me to explain 5 ways having a growth or fixed mindset can help or hinder you:

1. Being growth-oriented is key to possessing resilience, a skill we all need to bounce back quickly from difficulties and setbacks that arise in our lives and our careers.

People lacking in resilience are unable to cope with challenges or reversals of fortune such as being passed over (and over) for a promotion, going thru a divorce, or experiencing job loss. A small gust of wind would blow them over and they wouldn’t be able to get back up. They’d simply lay there and die because the thought of life after their tragic event simply never crosses their minds. At some point, they decide that they can’t move forward, it’s too hard, or they simply weren’t good enough to achieve or obtain what they desired. Conversely, a growth mindset emphasizes effort versus innate ability or intelligence. Difficulties are handled with healthy coping skills, strong problem-solving skills, and self-compassion.

2. Having a fixed mindset is stressful af!

We hold ourselves back when we think we aren’t good enough and having a fixed mindset can even blow productivity. We won’t take on new challenges and we will be afraid to take risks. We won’t be true to ourselves and we will always feel like we are under pressure to be perfect or ‘right’. Being growth-oriented, on the other hand, means realizing that although there will be setbacks along the way, it’s important to not only be ourselves but to work through and learn from our mistakes. In his Oprah masterclass interview rapper and hip-hop mogul, Jay-Z said that he learned more from his failures than he ever did from his success. He’s a self-made billionaire with a trailblazing career and a smoking-hot wife who is successful in her own right. Seems reasonable to assert that he’s right on this one. And to add: You will never know if something works unless you put forth the effort to try different things for yourself. Failing is part of the journey and it makes us stronger individuals.

3. There is power in ‘yet’ and those who have a fixed mindset never believe in the possibilities.

Everyone is on an individual learning curve and can improve and achieve new skills in the future. Having a growth mindset means that you understand that learning is an ongoing process, and what you may not be good at now (yet) doesn’t mean you won’t be good at it a few months from now thru dedicated effort. Optimism, determination, and perseverance are the difference between stagnation and reaching the next level.

“When you stop growing you start dying.” ~ William S. Burroughs

4. Having a fixed, i.e. a fatalistic mentality, is when you view life as just something that happens to you. You can’t see any way out or up from your present circumstances, and all you do is look down….worrying about what can go wrong and unwilling to take chances.

Yet in life, there truly isn’t a status quo. You are either moving forward or losing ground. There is no in between.

5. Negative thinking can actually harm your health.

The results of choosing a path with no holistic growth can allow the mind and body to deteriorate, making one seem older than their years. This can lead to significant health concerns and a lower quality of life overall. In more ways than one, it is far better to bite the bullet and push thru your comfort zone than lay down and give up on new things without even trying.

So there you have it: Being positive, action-oriented, and growth-oriented will always serve you well but being negative, set in your ways, or simply lacking belief in your own potential, never will. A growth mindset is a critical key to successfully achieving personal goals and living a proactive, satisfying lifestyle.

Grow forward and live.

Until next time,

Yve

Note: I previously published this post as an article on Medium.com on September 30, 2022, before I realized that it was far better to have all of my unpaid content on my website versus being creative fodder for unscrupulous, money-hungry writers on a pay-per-click subscription engine. I’ve since deleted the article from Medium.com and I’m now sharing it here. Maybe in my next blog post, I will discuss the challenges of being an uncompetitive creative in an insecure world… Lauryn Hill was right when she said, “The real you is better than the fake someone else.” All creatives MUST know that and live it, as do I.