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Technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities,

that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”  — Steve Jobs

 

Mindset involves the way we interpret the events we experience in our lives. It is determined partly by how we track our life events and partly by how we feel about what has happened to us. In general terms, people can have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.

 

What are the characteristics of someone with a Growth Mindset?

Having a growth mindset means that you meet any challenge in life with a desire to learn and improve yourself as a result of the experience. You never see your intelligence, talents, skills or innate capabilities (or lack of) as barriers to your growth. Rather, you perceive any failures or obstacles in life as simply requiring more effort to overcome. According to Carol Dweck, renowned Stanford University psychologist and long time researcher into the concept of mindset, an individual with a growth mindset has an approach to problems or shortcomings that involves the word “Yet”.

Someone with a growth mindset simply views the lack of skills or perceived inability as something they have not acquired ‘YET” and thus they set out to work toward learning what they need to learn.

“Rather than thinking you’re not good at something — you’re not a strong presenter, you’re not good at balancing budgets, or you’re not good at tackling new technology — Dweck urges people to add “yet” to the end of the statement. You’re not a strong presenter yet. Or, you’re not good at learning new technology yet. Learning is an ongoing process, and what someone is not good at now may be something they’ll be good at a few months from now.” https://www.bigthinkedge.com/what-does-it-mean-to-have-a-growth-mindset/

 

Dweck identified the following qualities in ‘growth mindset’ individuals:

• Resilience;
• Epic Ambition;
• Optimism;
• Creativity;
• Perseverance;
• Determination and Grit; and
• Collaboration.

She shares that people with growth mindsets are eternally passionate about stretching their personal learning boundaries and are laser focused on learning to better themselves no matter what blocks they might encounter along the way.

 

Nothing is Impossible

The significant perspective that lies at the heart of someone with a growth mindset revolves around the fact that they believe any goal can be achieved through hard work, good strategies and guidance from others. Fixed mindset individuals tend to see challenges as red flags that cannot be overcome and achievement is limited by innate talent only.

Do you fall into the category of a growth-oriented person? How many of the qualities listed above do you possess?

All of these skills and attributes are available to you. What would change in your life if you embraced this as a core belief?

 

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below:

 

For information about Breathwork, contact John Stamoulos at john@johnstamoulos.com