“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar
Nature versus nurture… it’s an age-old debate. Are we born with innate skills, talents and capabilities, with our potential predetermined by our genetic make-up? Or do we have the power to transform ourselves through learning, effort and dedication? That’s the difference between a ‘fixed’ and a ‘growth’ mindset, between self-imposed limits and a whole world of possibilities.
Back in 2006, Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the revolutionary idea of the ‘growth mindset’ – a belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through hard work, dedication and continuous learning, rather than being predestined. It’s since become a bit of a cult concept, widely accepted around the world as a critical driver of success.
A growth mindset isn’t simply about being open-minded or having a positive outlook (although they’re wonderful attributes). It’s about grit and resilience, proactively overcoming negative thought patterns, embracing challenges and feedback, seeing failure as an opportunity to learn – truly believing you’re the master of your own future. It’s the ultimate motivator, and it’s the key to realising your potential.
One of the greatest quotes to capture the distinction between mindsets was articulated by Muhammad Ali – “Impossible is just a word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
If you want to smash through those fixed, self-limiting beliefs and uncover your ‘impossible’ potential, here’s what you need to do…
1. Turn the negatives around
“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” – Henry Ford
Emma Murray, renowned high performance mindset coach with a client list including AFL Premiership clubs and Olympic stars, believes that negative thoughts are one of the biggest roadblocks to fulfilling your potential. She says that “we have between 50,000 and 90,000 thoughts every day and mostly they revolve around the same 7-9 unhelpful themes, and they stop us doing fun stuff, taking risks, stretching ourselves and performing at our best.”
The kicker is, our thoughts aren’t necessarily real. Emma says, “They’re just stories that our over-protective minds tell us as a way of keeping us safe.” She believes that by questioning the stories we tell ourselves and recognising the thoughts that are holding us back, we can begin to achieve our potential.
High-performance coach Stephanie Bown also believes that you need to “catch yourself in the doom loop of your own making.” She suggests asking yourself whether the negative thought is helpful or unhelpful, questioning where it comes from and whether it’s just a habit you’re caught in. According to Stephanie, the way we talk to ourselves, our relationship with ourselves, can be “the difference between living in a prison of self-imposed limitations, or a sanctuary of freedom and purpose.”
Another way to turn around ‘negative’ thoughts is by reframing them. Burns survivor and humanitarian Turia Pitt suggests that next time you’re not looking forward to something, let’s say a training session, try reframing it as something you get to do, not something you have to do. It’s a simple growth mindset switch that completely changes your outlook.
In Carol Dweck’s TEDx talk, she tells a story about a high school in Chicago that, instead of giving kids a ‘fail’ for courses they don’t pass, grades them as ‘not yet’. Those two simple words, so critical to a growth mindset, instil a belief in those kids that with work and perseverance, they will eventually succeed. It’s a beautiful way to turn a ‘negative’ around.
As Carol says, “Mindsets are an important part of your personality, but you can change them. Just by knowing about the two mindsets, you can start thinking and reacting in new ways.”
2. Learn something new
A large part of a growth mindset is realising that there are weaknesses and strengths you haven’t developed yet, opportunities you haven’t explored and so many things to learn. And that means breaking out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself to try new things.
Whether it’s learning a new language, speaking in front of a crowd, mastering a musical instrument or cooking a fancy new dish, trying new things doesn’t just make you a better linguist… or public speaker… or musician… or cook… it actually makes you smarter. True, it’s called neuroplasticity.
According to the brainiacs at CCSU Business & Development, practicing a new skill increases the density of myelin – the white matter in your brain that improves performance. It also stimulates brain neurons, creating fresh pathways and connections that become stronger the more you use them.
Stephanie Bown calls this the ‘potential zone’ – the place where learning and growth happen. Where latent talent hasn’t yet been realised, where those fresh connections in your brain haven’t yet been created. Stephanie says that “Realising potential means putting your natural strengths and capabilities to work in new ways and strengthening brain interconnectivity.”
You brain learns what you teach it. It’s literally wired to adapt to the challenges and conditions you present it with. So, if you want to cultivate a growth mindset, go ahead and put it to the test!
Fun fact: To optimise the brain’s circuits, pathways and connections you rarely use simply fade away (it’s called synaptic pruning) – it’s why you probably can’t remember any of the Latin you learned in Year 7. Use it or lose it!
3. Make friends with failure
Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player of all time, once said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I’ve lost almost 3,000 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Many people fail, some spectacularly, before they achieve great success. J.K. Rowlings manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by 12 publishing houses before it was picked up. Steven Spielberg was rejected twice by the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Jerry Seinfeld was booed off stage during his first stand-up comedy gig. History is littered with famous ‘failures’ who have gone on to achieve enormous success.
But just imagine if failure had stopped them in their tracks.
Ben Crowe, professional mentor and mindset coach to stars including Ash Barty, Stephanie Gilmore and the Australian cricket team, believes wholeheartedly that “the greatest threat to success is avoiding failure.”
According to Ben, 90% of performances are sabotaged by the fear of failure or focusing on the result. He believes that if we treated failure like a scientist would – a negative result is simply a data point that helps prove or disprove a hypothesis, rather than a reflection of the scientist’s capability – then failure wouldn’t be an issue.
When we choose to reframe failure as learning, failure ceases to exist.
Adventurous entrepreneur Richard Branson is also one that embraces failure as a learning tool, vocal in his opinion that “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” Dusting yourself off and getting up again is the essence of a growth mindset.
In the end, the power to write your own story and realise your full potential lies within the choices you make. As concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl reminds us, “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Your mindset is absolutely a choice. So why not choose growth?
We have some of Australia’s leading mindset coaches and high performance experts, including Stephanie Bown, Emma Murray, Ben Crowe and Turia Pitt, ready to provide your team with life-changing practical tools to help them harness the power of a growth mindset. If you’d like us to introduce you, simply get in touch with us for a chat!