Why a growth mindset can set you up for life (and how you can get one)

a 5 minute weekly digest - a +1,-1 approach to fostering a growth mindset is all you want.

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” (Winston Churchill)

Good morning! And Happy Saturday

Welcome to the very first issue of my newsletter that is going to cover all things to do with mindset, gym and nutritional tips, + the really significant area of GROWTH. For without growth you die, it’s really that simple.

Growth is the process of evolving into who you are becoming, rising from failure and adapting to the unknown. Striving to learn without fear and reaching for the best to come.

For  most of us growth is a process, and for some of us it is just a natural path from one age to the next but the most successful in life will always grow with intention. The path of intentional growth is not a smooth one but it really does help how you define yourself and how fast.

One of the most aspiring individuals I can think of right now in is Elon Musk. Elon is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and is Twitters new owner. Musk has always been growing exponentially. He’s founded over the years, Blastar, (albeit when he was 12 years of age), a Nightclub in Pennsylvania in his Uni years, Zip 2 (his first big windfall netting him around $341 million in cash), X.com (a banking start up which soon merged into Paypal – that netted him $165 million) and now SpaceX which is on target to continue this uptrend. He’s currently the worlds 2^nd richest man in the world ….all pretty impressive right?

Elon Musk is  aspiring because he not only grew his fortune with investments that succeeded but he was able to navigate through lifes’ bumpy road to yield and acquire an absolute fortune.

So what does Musk have that others do not in relation to growth?

And why is it that some people seem to have all the luck whilst others don’t?

Well lets tackle the latter first, misfortune and bad luck are often the reasons people site for when they fail at something but the truth is it could be a myriad of reasons why the outcome wasn’t as someone intended. Often the difference between individuals that do well and others that don’t are their habits and I’m a firm believer that the success that you desire is to be found in the course of your daily routine which is why I believe a +1, -1 approach can really be the difference in developing a set of highly formed habits that will lead to your eventual success, more on this later.

Could it be that the difference is the fixed mind vs the growth mind thinking?

Let’s tackle what a fixed mindset might look like?

These are people that believe attributes, such as talent and intelligence are fixed, they believe they’re born with it and theres' not a lot you can do about it. A fixed mindset individual usually wants to avoid challenges in life, gives up easily and becomes intimidated and threatened. This is, in part because a fixed mindset doesn’t see intelligence and talent is something you develop, it’s something you ‘ are’. Fixed mindsets are about negative thinking and often they fail at something and believe they are not smart enough to do it.

A fixed mindset is the epitome of limited thinking, it’s the belief that success is just an affirmation of our inherent traits. These people tend to see others as their competition, rather than find them a source of inspiration. A fixed mindset causes people to have a hard time being happy about other peoples success.

The opposite is true of a growth mindset.

Elon Musk clearly demonstrated that he has a sharpened mindset that he has honed to ensure his experiences help him to reinforce success and his own growth thinking,  he has what we call a growth mindset. A growth mindset is all about limitless thinking, it’s the ability to see opportunities, instead of obstacles, it’s the ability to believe that you can learn anything and that feedback is just simply a way to take things on board, reflect, keep the same course or chart a different direction.

Growth mindset people embrace life long learning, believe intelligence can be improved, they put in more effort to learn and believe this can lead to mastery.

Here’s the how…

1.       Embrace who you are – all of you. None of us are perfect, embrace all your imperfections including what makes you who you are. This is the period of story telling, embrace your set backs, your challenges and recognise that without these you would not be the person you are today.  Your story makes you unique and your power is in realising how your story has shaped you to be ‘you’. Always remember to be your most authentic self and you will succeed.

2.       Self improvement is where it is at – recognise that in order to foster a growth mindset, our brains are here to build and grow. By challenging yourself with new experiences, you can form or strengthen neural connections to rewire your brain which in turn makes you a smarter person.

3.       Remove the inner voice critic – Most people have this and its important to remove the inner critic. Instead of saying “I cant do this” – rephrase, pause and take a breath – rephrase to  “I can do this if I keep practicing”.

4.       Begin to see challenge as an opportunity to grow – Start by experimenting with doing something that is outside of your comfort zone, analyse what you did wrong, what you could do better and become a master at whatever it is you are doing over time. Challenges are the ultimate opportunity to grow.

5.       If you are going to do things the way you always done them – nothing will change. Change has to be a force for good. Swap up your routine, introduce something new.

6.       Reward the process – Rather than reviewing results and judging these, what would your life look like if you rewarded effort?  Reward effort over results and begin to see that every step you take is a step forward, make your efforts count and see these as victories.

7.       Accept failure is part of the process – When giving something new a go, failures, setbacks and initial confusion are all part of the learning process. These are here to help you grow, develop and become a better person.

8.       Engage with feedback – Take feedback on board and utilise this to decide how you navigate your direction whatever that maybe.

The Wrap

The premise of my entire substack is all about the +1,-1 approach. The +1 approach is about adding one good habit a day and the -1 approach is about taking away something that you know truly is not such a great habit to have. It’s about taking small steps because the small steps eventually get you the big picture.

In fostering a growth mindset – take a look at the list above and really ask yourself – which of the points above do I already have in the bag?. Mark yourself out of 10 for these, with 10 being the most honed habit. Then take each of them and work on them individually over time.  Take one good habit and minus one habit over a week, continually build on what works and replace those bad habits that are not for your greater good.

Finally remember that the growth mindset is the belief that intelligence and ability can be nurtured through learning and effort. Setbacks are just a necessary part of that process and you bounce back from ‘failure’ by increasing effort. With a growth mindset, anyone can help themselves go for the life they actually want with reflection, feedback, learning, intention and action.

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional” (Roger Crawford)

In acknowledgment of the brilliant strive4higher community + my amazing father, Indran who once told me “anything’s possible with consistent effort.”