If you are growth-minded, you know that failure leads to success. You learn from mistakes and view failures as feedback that provides you with the information you need to learn, grow, and succeed.
A growth-minded person has growth-mindset1 (not a fixed mindset) and lives an intentional lifestyle that motivates him/her to continuously learn and pursue growth. One of the most significant truths we affirm as growth-minded people is that failure leads to success if we learn from it, grow, and don’t quit. Failure is success delayed, not denied.
If we “fail fast” (not prolong or delay our failure), learn from it, grow, get up and fight again over and over again, success cannot be delayed for too long. Thomas Edison is reported to have tried one thousand iterations before inventing the light bulb. If he had delayed his failures, he would never have lived long enough to invent the light bulb. He “failed fast”, and so overcame tremendous difficulty or failure in a relatively short time to come up with an invention that has changed the world.
A very important thing to note about growth and fixed mindsets is that there are not permanent. Because of our upbringing and experiences, each of us has fixed and growth mindsets. We experience times of fixed-mindset and times of growth-mindset. No one can ever become purely a growth mindset person nor live perpetually at that state. Instead, what we can do is create environments in our lives and our organizations that encourage and foster a growth mindset. Carol Dweck said, “Everyone is actually a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, and that mixture continually evolves with experience. A ‘pure’ growth mindset doesn’t exist, which we have to acknowledge in order to attain the benefits we seek.”
I think the words of Paul of Tarsus to his brothers and sisters in Philippi are a great reminder of the attitude we who teach about the growth mindset should have when we think of growth and fixed mindsets. He wrote, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
In the world we live in, a growth mindset isn’t easy to attain and sustain. One reason why, says Carol Dweck, is that “we all have our own fixed-mindset triggers. When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compared with others, we can easily fall into insecurity or defensiveness, a response that inhibits growth. Our work environments, too, can be full of fixed-mindset triggers. A company that plays the talent game makes it harder for people to practice growth-mindset thinking and behavior, such as sharing information, collaborating, innovating, seeking feedback, or admitting errors.”2 To remain growth-minded, we need to identify our fixed-mindset triggers, learn to deal with them, and come up with ways to turn our minds back to a growth mindset. Many people who are successful at sustaining their growth mindset have learned how to identify when their fixed-mindset persona creeps in on them and is taking charge of their lives. They’ve also learned how to speak to it, take that thought pattern captive, and make it obedient to the truth they want to live by and turn things over to a growth mindset.
Sustaining a growth mindset is hard work. But it’s worth every effort. Fighting for a growth mindset is fighting the good fight. It’s fighting to live our best selves and achieve our greatest potentials.
References/Sources.
1See Carol Dweck’s work. View this video.
2https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means
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